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The small but mighty warriors;

Haflingers won big at the

 Grass Ridge CDE November 16, 2007

Written by Doris Leacy and Julie Mitchell

We may be small but we are mighty warriors, not one of the pony winners was over 13.2 hands.  So how often has the Haflinger breed taken over a Combined Driving Event in all three pony levels?  What better time to have Kim Spann of Wingspann Farms (Breeds Haflingers in AZ) and Diane Ross of Horse Threads (Designs combined driving shirts) to sponsor a Haflinger award.  Doris Leacy ordered neck ribbons and the messenger bags with a Haflinger embroidered on them by Horse Threads for Best Overall Haflinger for Training Level, Preliminary Level and Intermediate Level.  Not only did the Haflingers win for best in their breed but they were overall winners of each division.  Punkin, owned by Pam Brume/Peggy Foley and driven by Julie Mitchell had their very first win at their first CDE. Taffy owned and driven by Helen Atwill won their Preliminary division.  And Melody's Moment owned and driven by Doris Leacy won at their very first time competing at Intermediate level and receiving a "9" in the collective marks for driver from Judge Larry Poulin.  Haflingers are just great overall horses/ponies, they are so versatile in anything that they do and give their all to please their owners. 

Now let me tell you about the Grass Ridge CDE.  This is Grass Ridge's 3^rd year of doing the combined driving event.  For the last twenty something years they have held three day eventing at this site which they still do.  The owner of the property Nina Masek has now changed over to driving and is doing great with her Haflinger Carmel competing at preliminary level.   Our Course designer Jamie O'Rourke did a fantastic job on a great marathon and cones course.  The cones course had its challenging moments.  The weather was perfect and we had beautiful rolling hills and majestic mountain ranges that made for a gorgeous backdrop to the course.  Larry Poulin judged and did a sell out clinic on Monday after the event.  This is a great Combined Driving Event and all of the top drivers on the West and East coast should consider giving this event a chance.  We did have a few people from California like the Dancers and Hinders that made it down and they had a great time.   We would like to give Denise Hinder our deepest sympathy for the loss of Boomer.   Denise and her husband traveled on to Texas after the event and Boomer took ill and passed away.   He will truly be missed at the combined driving events.  Grass Ridge had just installed a 100 meter by 40 meter dressage arena that we used for the first time and the footing was perfect.  They have two spectacular water hazards and 5 other challenging hazards on the marathon course to challenge you and your horse.  They also go to GREAT lengths to put on extravagant competitors parties that are well worth going to, even if you are not competing.  If you have any questions go to Grassridge.com for details and photos of this event. 

Doris Leacy and Julie Mitchell are best friends and business partners.  We started a business of selling tack and equipment that was needed for our passion and hobby of riding and driving horses.  Doris owns 2 Haflingers and Julie owns 3.  With having difficult to fit horses we became dealers of Duett saddles which we added to our small business of selling carts and harnesses.  MomentInTimeHorseAccessories.com was started to support our hobby and has grown into a nice business that has helped us meet interesting horse people all over the country.   We would also like to thank our friend and photographer Peggy Johnson of Cactus Creek Design for taking such great photos.