Where the Iron Horse meets the Carriage Horse


Horses
 

This is what Combined Driving is all about - the thrill of competition in the marathon. 

The Old Pueblo Combined Driving Event, Tucson, AZ in December 2005. 

Photo by Tonya Holland

Lots of young girls want a horse and Mary Jane was one of the lucky ones who had them while in grammar and high school. That was not too unusual, as growing up in Douglas meant that you were in a part of Arizona where ranching and horses were still a part of daily life for many people.

But, like many hobbies, college, marriage and young children put an end to horse ownership for many years. It was not until returning to Arizona and moving to a Central Phoenix neighborhood where horseback riding and neighborhood stables were still active, did she regain that spark of interest in owning a horse. A friend gave her a lead on an Arabian, Izzy, that was for sale and soon Peter had converted a part of the back yard to a small horse stall. Horseback riding in Central Phoenix was not easy, so many times Mary Jane and Debbie would trailer to the Phoenix Mountain Preserves for riding. And like all hobbies, you can’t have just one, and a six month old filly, Ferra, soon arrived at the Atonna household.

About that time Peter and Mary Jane began to think about their future in Phoenix and decided that it might be wise to invest in some land more on the outskirts of town where she might be able to have land for horses and riding. That led to the purchase of a parcel of land on the side of South Mountain, just outside the city’s largest mountain park. With son Pat entering his last year of high school, they decided that it was time to build a house.

Shortly after moving in, Mary Jane discovered a group of folks driving down their road with horses and carriages, and friend Debbie was among them. It turns out there was a local driving club being formed and Mary Jane wanted to become a part of carriage driving. That quickly led to acquisition of a used Amish made carriage and harness so that the horses could learn the new skills required of carriage driving.

Competitive Carriage Driving

The local driving club was getting involved in competitive carriage driving, a new sport at that time. Based on three day eventing for ridden horses, it consists of three “competitions”, usually held over a three day time period. The sport was being popularized by Prince Philip of England and had already taken hold in Europe.,

Carriage competitions include a dressage test, similar to school figures where a horse and driver must follow a set pattern as defined in each test. The score is based on the overall form and movements of the horse, accuracy of the patterns and the appearance and bearing of the driver and vehicle.  In addition to the dressage test itself, in lower levels of competition, the day begins with presentation, where the judge evaluates the competitor and horse and carriage on the proper equipment and fit of the harness, appearance of  the horse, carriage and whip.

 

The second test is a marathon consisting of three to five timed sections to be done at specified gaits. On the last section, hazards are placed which require precise movements through a set of gates, usually set into a very tight area.  Every second you are in the hazard counts against you, so drivers roar through them as fast as possible.  As you might guess, the marathon is not only the spectator's favorite part of a CDE, but often the driver's also.

                                                                             

Finally, the last competition consists of an obstacle course, consisting of pairs of highway type cones with balls placed on top. The cones are numbered and the driver must go through them in order and within a specified time. They are set a specified distance wider than the track of each carriage, depending on the level of the competition.

Scores are based on penalty points, the person in a class with the least points wins. In dressage, each movement is judged against the desired "standard" and points given for each one. They are totaled and subtracted from a “perfect” score. In the marathon, time penalties are given for coming in late on each of the sections and for every second spent in each hazard. Finally, each ball dropped in the cones competition counts as penalties, while not making the prescribed time adds them also.

Competitions are in four levels, Training, Preliminary, Intermediate and Advanced. All national and international level competitions are at the Advanced level. People can compete with single horses, pairs horses and four in hand horses. Classes are also available for miniature horses, ponies and horses.

The Arizona Driving and Carriage Society became very active in sponsoring a Combined Driving Event, or CDE.  Our original CDE has been located at a club member’s farm in Coolidge, AZ for many years now. This event has become one of the longest running CDE’s in the country and is one of the few in the west to offer the Advanced level. Mary Jane and Peter have both been very active in organizing this event while Mary Jane has competed every year except one during which she was the on site manager and Peter was the scorer.

The club has also begun sponsoring a second full three day event in Tucson which has been open to the three lower levels of competition.

One Day Events

In addition to the formal three day CDE’s, the driving club has offered training clinics and pleasure driving competitions. But the hottest activity currently is what is called an Arena Driving Trial, or ADT. Because of the time and expense of holding a formal CDE, many members had not been able to participate in carriage competitions. Recently a one day format of carriage competitions was developed which allows the dressage, cones and hazards portion of a three day event to be held on a single day. Rules for dress are relaxed as are some of the numbers of hazards or even the size of the dressage arena in order to accommodate more locations.

Peter and Mary Jane hosted the first ADT in Arizona in 2001 and the club took to it enthusiastically. Now there are five to six events a year held throughout Arizona and year end awards given for high points in each class.

Mary Jane’s horses

Over time, many horses have called the Atonna’s barns home. Shortly after beginning to learn the basics of competitive carriage driving, Mary Jane was told about a young Morgan horse from Flagstaff, Orion. He was purchased and turned out to be one of those gifted horses, born to pull a carriage. Completely forward and with a lilting gate, he taught Mary Jane as much as she was able to teach him. At the same time, Ferra had grown up and Mary Jane wanted to try pair driving so paired Ferra with Orion. Although not the best pairing, they were good enough to win the California championship in their division one year.

But, she wanted to try to see if breeding the Morgan with an Arab would combine the best of both. So Ferra was bred with one of the West’s finest Morgan stallions, Sheffield, and she threw Sterling and Silver, two gray Morabs.

Sterling with mother, Ferra                        Sterling, after being hitched, is on his first road trip

 

Both seemed to have the size for carriage driving so were trained in harness from a young age.

Silver never seemed to have the temperament for driving, but Sterling did much better. Unfortunately, at the age of 10 years, Orion’s feet went bad, and he was put to pasture, so Sterling was Mary Jane’s main driving horse for several years.

Still looking for that “perfect” driving prospect, Mary Jane was told about another young Morgan mare, Melodie, again in Flagstaff.  By coincidence, she was a half sister to Silver and Sterling. Her full brother was being driven by a friend and was placing high in many national level competitions. Although a filly, Mary Jane estimated that Melodie would grow to a good size for competition at the horse divisions.

So Melodie came home and has grown to not only be bigger than her brother, but seems to have the same potential to go as far in competition as her training and Mary Jane’s skills can take her. With Melodie, Mary Jane has moved up to competing at the Intermediate level and even tried the Advanced level for the first time at the 2004 Coolidge CDE and has recently returned from Parker, CO CDE where she finished fourth in the National Single Horse Championship.

 

Mary Jane’s carriages

Competition carriages evolved from workaday carts used until the advent of the automobile. Both two and four wheeled vehicles are used, although not those are not based on sporting vehicles rather than work wagons or personnel hauling vehicles. It was soon found, however, that the rigors of competitions were hard if not destructive on antique vehicles. So new carriages began to be made, designed for the sport. Many newcomers still begin with a two wheeled vehicle, modeled after a classic road cart or Meadowbrook style. Because of the maneuverability of  four wheeled vehicles, most people graduate to this type as they advance in competitions. Often people will compete in two vehicles, a more classically styled one, either two or four wheeled, for the dressage and cones competitions, and a four wheeled one for the marathon. Marathon vehicles now are typically all metal, sport disc brakes, two and even three types of springing and adjustments to allow driving in all types of conditions.

     The original Buckeye road cart                                Jerry Ingerham all metal cart

After going through an Amish road cart and an all-metal two wheeled cart, we discovered a new Amish made four wheel vehicle, designed for competitions. Light weight, it was a vast improvement over the two wheeled cart. Then a friend and South Mountain neighbor, Gar Dutton, who had been assembling carriage kits as part of his horse and carriage business, decided he could improve on the “Flyer’s” design. Going through a series of evolutions and improvements to the light weight single horse vehicle, Gar eventually produced a large carriage designed for pair horses. The Atonna’s ended up with three of the Dutton carriages, from light weight to the heavy pair vehicle. They served Mary Jane well for many years, and even survived a couple of crashes.

 The original Amish made Bird in Hand Flyer                  Gar Dutton's carriage works

The first of the Dutton "Flyers"              We also had a beautiful Amish made, oak Beach Wagon

           

Two more Dutton carriages.  On the left is a medium weight carriage, which can be used for both

a single horse or modified with a pole for pair horse driving.  On the right is the heaviest of the

Dutton vehicles, designed for pair driving.

 

Mary Jane even had her "Mini" period, so needed a vehicle sized for the little horses. 

On the right is a lightweight two wheel vehicle used for training purposes as well as an inexpensive first vehicle for competitions.  Often they come with bicycle type wheels such as in the miniature cart in the photo on the left.  However, those wheels cannot be used in competitions at higher than the Training level.  On our training cart, the bicycle wheels had been replaced with standard wooden wheels.

              

                  

Recently, Mary Jane decided that with the possibilities of  Melodie carrying her to higher levels of competition, we purchased a Polish made vehicle, a Glinkowski, used in by many of the nation’s and Europe's top competitors. With even more technical and design refinements, this carriage can be used at the highest levels of competition.

 

More about carriage driving

We have prepared a series of photo albums to show you a little more of our horses as well as photos of the many combined driving events held in Arizona and around the country in which the Atonna's have either visited or competed.  To view them, just click on the tabs in the left column.

 

In the links below are some friends and other carriage driving web sites that may be of  interest to you. 

   

LINKS

American Driving Society   United States Equestrian Federation   Horse Motels International

Bob and Linda Smith  Linda Sterling  Carriage Driving World Magazine

Arizona Driving and Carriage Society

 

 
   
   

 

 

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Peter & Mary Jane Atonna
Paulden, Arizona