Horses and carriages from as far away as Massachusetts, Montana and Canada will converge on the Horse Park at Woodside this weekend, September 22-24, for the first Woodside combined driving event.
This will mark the first time the Horse Park has offered advanced-level classes, the highest level of combined driving competition, according to Gerald Fisher, organizer of the event.
Thirty-six drivers will compete with their horses and ponies pulling carriages singly, in pairs, or in teams over the course of the three-day event.
The dressage phase begins at 8 a.m. Friday; the marathon, or cross-country, at 9 a.m. Saturday; and the cones, or obstacles phase at 9 a.m. Sunday. The event is open to the public and admission is free.
Mr. Fisher, who is facilities director at Woodside Horse Park, says that with the Horse Park’s challenging course designed by Margie Margentino, this event will serve as “excellent preparation” for the 2006 U.S. pairs championship competition at Shady Oaks Farm in Lodi, California, in October.
Combined driving uses a three-phase test. The first is dressage and the second is a marathon; in the third, drivers negotiate a series of narrowly spaced pairs of traffic-type cones in an arena. Atop each cone sits a ball that the driver must avoid dislodging.
Penalty points are incurred in each phase. The competitor with the fewest points is the winner in his division.
The Horse Park is located on Sand Hill Road, just west of Interstate 280.
