LIVE OAK CDE cont. from home page
Having this many in our division was great as the level of the competition increases with more entries. Competing at Live Oak tells us where we fit with the more experienced competitors.

Linda's work on improving her skills showed up in the her dressage test. While she ending up in fourth place there was less than a three point difference between first and fourth. This was one of her better dressage performances.

The Live Oak marathon course is fairly easy with some small rolling hills. With a cold front coming through the evening before the marathon the temperatures were in the low 70's with low humidity, perfect weather for the marathon. While there is some deep sand on Section A, the toughest part for us is Section D, the walk. We always have trouble making our walk times here and with Giorgio being pulling in at the last minute he was not fully prepared for the walk. We ended up with 6.4 time penalties on the walk which hurt our overall Marathon score. The obstacles here at Live Oak are gated more challenging than most of the events we go to. There was one new obstacle that was as tight as the one it replaced but it was nice to have something new to drive. Linda drove well but Paul Martin drove faster. We would have finished in second but with the time penalties added in we ended up third in the Marathon and moved into third place overall less than one point behind second place.

This was one competition where the saying "it's never over until it's over" applied. The order of go in the cones course starts with the last place and ends with the first place. There were no real changes until Linda went. She had four balls down which dropped her to fourth. The second place competitor, Clair Reid had three balls down but also had time penalties so she dropped to fourth which moved Linda back up to third. Paul Martin had a commanding 15 point lead going into the cones competition but ended up eliminating because he missed one of the elements. Needless to say, Paul was not very happy with himself. With Paul eliminating everyone else move up one slot so Linda ended up finishing second overall behind Mary Clark Lind. The Dartmoor Pony entries finished 1st, 2nd and 4th

While we did not get the best conditioned award this year we were happy that another intermediate pony pair won the best condition overall.

We went to the Sunrise Ridge DT in Paradise, TX (NW of Fort Worth) the 28th of March and our next competition is also in Texas at Plum Creek in Lockhart, TX the end of April. We are looking for another competition in the upper Midwest as Iron Horse in Caledonia, IL was cancelled this year. We ordered a video of our performance and hope to be able to share this with everyone.

Best to all,  

Keith & Linda

NO APRIL FOOLS! cont. from home page
...to make our visit safe, enjoyable, and educational.  The trails were well prepared, and lookouts were strategically placed to ensure no one could get lost or experience any difficulty without notice and assistance.  The scenery varied from woods to open fields to an area reminiscent of the Louisiana bayou -- complete with alligator sighting!  Stewart Jr. gave a fun and informative tour of their carriage collection.  Did you know they have a carriage that was used in the film, "Gone with the Wind"?  And did you know that Stewart once "taxied" Reba McIntyre around the Houston Rodeo arena? 
Of course, what HACA event would be complete without great food and time to socialize?  The barbecue catered by Hinze's -- complete with a variety of their famous pies -- was quite tasty for the dining participants as they swapped stories of the day's drive as well as those of days gone by.  I must say, I was reminded of the barbecue scene from "Gone with the Wind" --  a modern day setting, of course -- but one of friends gathered to share life and -- in our case -- the enjoyment of the grand sport of carriage driving. 
On behalf of all who participated and those who wished they could have, I want to offer a huge Texas "Thank-You" to Stewart and his family for a memorable day at the Morris Ranch! Check out the photos.
--Catherine "CAT" Cook