After she’d driven her Palomino Welsh ponies—Toby and Taz—to a cones round with one ball down, Miranda Cadwell of the United States took her ponies back to the barn and waited. She sat in silver-medal position in the pair pony division at the FEI World Combined Pony Driving Championships, and didn’t want to watch the leader, Lars Dau of Denmark, carefully make his way through the cones course.
Dau took his time with his pair of Haflingers, since he had a substantial lead going into the cones phase. As the clock kept ticking, the crowd of Danes rooting for their hometown favorite began to make some noise urging him to go faster.
The U.S. fans in the stands watched the clock closely. Dau had a ball down, and he was driving too slowly. Cadwell could win.
As Dau came across the finish line at a gallop, the scoreboard flashed 12.83 time penalties, added to his 3 faults for a ball down. He dropped to third, and Cadwell earned the individual gold medal in the pairs division of the World Pony Championships, held at Dorthealyst in Morkov, Denmark, on July18-22.
Cadwell moved into third place overall after winning the marathon phase with a lightning-fast round. She had a well thought-out plan for this World Championships.
She and her sister Keady traveled to England earlier this year in order to compete in Europe through the summer leading up to the World Championships.
Cadwell’s event schedule included a stop at a competition in May at Dorthealyst, where the World Championships took place. She credited this experience with helping her to win the marathon phase. “We knew how the conditions are. And I actually think the course designer was nicer to us today than in May,” she said.
“I have really good ponies, and they love what they do. So I am happy, very happy.”
Cadwell comes from a family of drivers. Her sister drives a pair of horses and was named to the U.S. pairs team to compete in Poland at the World Pair Driving Championship later this summer. Cadwell will pay her sister back for her help by grooming for her there. Their parents, Mason and Jennifer Cadwell of Southern Pines,N.C., traveled to Denmark to cheer on their daughter.
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The 2007 World Pony Championships were graciously hosted by the Danish Driving Federation and the Danish Driving Society. Dorthealyst Farm plays host to an international driving event each spring and hosted the Scandinavian championships in 2005.
The event put on a gala show after the second day of dressage. All of the dressage medalists were paraded around in antique carriages and awarded their medals. The gala show included an impressive demonstration of the national horse guard, a quadrille of Shetland ponies, the golden coach from the royal stables and a spectacular display of Icelandic horses at full speed.
Sending The Best
A strong U.S. contingent traveled to Denmark for the championships. Returning 2005 gold medalist Suzy Stafford drove Sybil and Wayne Humphries’ Welsh Cob pony CEFN Oak Park Bouncer to ninth in the single pony championship, just ahead of Rochelle Temple in 10th driving LR Ami B-Line.
In pairs, Tracey Morgan joined Cadwell with her Dartmoor ponies and was placed second after dressage, but was eliminated on the marathon. The four-in-hands were represented by Laurie Astegiano, a U.S. citizen residing in France, with her chestnut Welsh ponies and Allison Stroud of West Grove, Pa. Stroud finished in fourth, while Astegiano took seventh.
The strong all-around performance from the U.S. drivers netted them the team bronze medal—the first team medal for the United States at the pony world championship. This was a very strong and well-balanced team in all three phases of the event. Each driver made a contribution to bring the bronze medal home. The coaching staff was well balanced as well, with Lisa Singer’s vast experience with pairs and singles combined with the four-in-hand expertise of Boyd Excell and Chester Weber.
Temple, of Powhatan Va., and her Morgan pony LR Ami B-Line, or “Cooper,” set the tone on the first day with a dressage score of 38.72 in the singles division behind local favorite Peter Koux from Denmark.
“I am very happy with my pony,” she said. “Warm-up was very difficult—the ground was like asphalt, and drivers only had a few minutes in the flat warm-up ring to prepare.”
Morgan, of Beallsville, Md., also had a great performance in dressage with her Dartmoor ponies with a 43.20, taking second place in the pairs division. Stroud earned a 48.64 with her four-in-hand of Connemara ponies and was sitting in fourth place going into the marathon.
The U.S. team stood first after the dressage phase. But the marathon course was described as physically demanding, and many drivers expressed concern about the footing in several hazards. Hazards 2, 3 and 4 were grouped closely together with no break in between for the horses and drivers. The course was not a technical course in general, since many of the hazards offered open and flowing routes.
Early in the day the U.S. team suffered a few setbacks. Second to go on the course for the United States was Stafford. In Hazard 1—on the loose wood chip footing—her carriage slammed into a post and knocked her navigator Claudia Delorme off, incurring a 10-point penalty. They made it through the rest of the course safely, but Delorme later had to be taken to the hospital with a few cracked ribs.
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The first hazard was also cruel to Morgan and her navigator Kenny Cox—they missed a gate and were eliminated. Temple and her husband and navigator Fran Doto had a solid performance on the marathon and stood in sixth place at the end of the day.
Cadwell surprised the Europeans, who typically dominate in the marathon, beating out Ewoud Boom from the Netherlands by just half a point to win the phase. She had the fastest times in two of the hazards, moving from seventh to third place overall.
Stroud and Astegiano—the U.S. four-in-hand drivers—both turned in solid performances, with Stroud in fifth place going into cones and Astegiano in seventh.
Finishing Strong
The weather had cooperated all week long with sun and moderate temperatures. That all ended on cones day with pouring rain that didn’t let up. The cones course was challenging, with three zig-zags, one 15-meter circle and one “Z.” The last obstacle on the cones course was a wooden bridge set up right before the finish line. The rain made the wood very shiny, and many horses spooked and refused the bridge.
Stafford led off the U.S. cones effort in the singles division with a clean course with 1.48 time penalties to finish ninth overall. Temple had two balls down and 4.06 time penalties for 10th place.
The last two singles drivers to go were Peter Koux from Denmark and Ann-Christine Arvidsson from Sweden, with just 2 penalties separating them. Koux put the pressure on by driving a beautiful, double-clear round. Arvidsson couldn’t answer the challenge and knocked down a ball, opening the door for Denmark to take the gold in the singles division.
Koux believed the win was well deserved for his Welsh Cob Taffy. “I have been waiting for this for two years,” he said. “In Catton Hall [England, at the 2005 World Championships], we were very close with second, but today we made it home. My pony has been very steady during the last seasons so I expected to end in the top.”
The rain continued to pour and the footing worsened for the pairs. The four-in-hands went last, in the worst conditions, but had the most double-clear rounds of the day. Astegiano went first for the United States, and drove a clean and steady round but had 7.2 time penalties.
The drive of the day for the United States in cones went to Stroud with her gray Connemara ponies. She was fast and clean on the sloppy course, and as she galloped across the finish line she clinched the bronze medal for the United States team and finished the event in fourth place individually.
The Dutch drivers dominated the four-in-hand division, with Jan De Boer just beating out teammate Aart Van de Kamp Jr. It was a very close race right up until the last gate in the cones. Both Van De Kamp Jr. and Thomas Köppen had double clear rounds in the pouring rain, which placed all of the pressure on De Boer before entering the arena.
De Boer stayed cool and drove a spectacular double-clear round to the cheers of the spectators. “It is fantastic to sit here as World Champion. Aart is a very good cones driver so I knew it would be difficult today, but we did it,” said De Boer.
Meredith Fetters
