Blinding rain, cracked ribs fail to stay U.S. in World Ponies

A dark and stormy day proved to be a huge advantage to American driver Randy Cadwell of Southern Pines, N.C., as she drove her way through sheeting rain to the individual Gold Medal in Pairs at the World Pony Championships of Combined Driving in July at Dorthealyst, Denmark.

Six pony drivers, two from each division, represented the U.S. at Dorthealyst: Suzy Stafford of Bear, Del., who won the individual Gold in 2005 with Bouncer and Shelly Temple of Powahaton, Va., single; Tracey Morgan of Beallsville, Va., and her Dartmoors and Cadwell, pairs; and Lisa Stroud of West Grove, Pa., and Laurie Astegiano, and American citizen who resides in France who was chosen to compete for her native country, in the four-in-hands.

And, the end of four days of competition, the American team came home with the Bronze.

Cadwell has been training in

England

for months with Boyd Exell and, until her cones round at the Worlds, had a jaded view of excessively wet weather.

“Boyd told me that all that training in England in the rain had been working up to just this point,” said Cadwell. “I wasn’t so sure.”

At the end of each phase, the top score from each class counted toward the team medals.

Two of Cadwell’s ponies are 17 year-old palomino, Section B Welsh, Toby and Topaz, that she’s had for two years.

Her spare, Rambo, is a German riding pony that she purchased only eight weeks before the Worlds.

Cadwell, who candidly admits that the phase is a necessary evil on the way to the marathon and cones, felt that her score, 51 points, might have been better had she not been scheduled second in the order of go.

“We’d have probably had a 49 or less if we’d gone later in the day,” she said.

Cadwell’s score put her in seventh place after dressage fully 21 points behind the leader, Lars Dau of Denmark who finished with a 40.64.

“I wasn’t unhappy with the score,” she said. “I just want to get dressage over with so I could go on to the marathon and cones.”

Although Cadwell’s score for that phase was dropped, the American team took a commanding, 12 point lead after dressage.

Cadwell is arguably one of the best hazard drivers in the world and more than an equal to the Europeans who traditionally claim superiority on the marathon.

On marathon day Cadwell and the ponies either won or were within one point of Europe’s best drivers and, at the end of the day, won that phase.

Stafford’s navigator, Claudia DeLorme, got knocked off in the first hazard and was injured and later examinations showed cracked ribs.

Despite her pain, DeLorme got back on and Stafford finisher but had to take a 10-point penalty.

Morgan missed a gate in the first and was eliminated. Cadwell is equally confident in the cones and, standing in third before that phase, only needed to stay focused to keep her bronze medal position.

“I drive pretty good cones so I thought I’d just go in and keep my head about me,” said Cadwell.

Driving third to last in the order of go, Cadwell’s score going in to cones was 126.42, very close to second place Steffen Abicht of Germany who had 125.30 but significantly behind the leader, Lars Dau who had 119.18.

Toby and the new pony, Rambo, were put to for cones and despite having a ball down, Cadwell kept her composure.

“I’ve knocked but one ball down in the last year so I thought I just needed to keep going,” she said. “We did make the time so that was good.”

The bronze medal assured, Cadwell was pleased and certainly did not expect more.

But when Albicht not only had a ball but time penalties, she was suddenly in silver medal position.

“That was pretty darn good and I was happy with that,” said Cadwell/

Cadwell had competed at the same show grounds against Dau in the spring and he had a double clear on that day.

“I started to walk my ponies back to the lorry,” she said. “We heard over the loud speaker, 15 penalties.”

Not sure she’d heard it correctly, it wasn’t until Exell and Cadwell’s sister, Keady came running up to them to tell her she’s just won Gold.

“It was pretty cool,” said Cadwell. “My sister and my parents were there to see it and the rest of the team was so supportive.”

Stroud, who also trains with Exell, finished in fourth place overall and, after a clean and clear cones, won the Silver medal in that phase counting it as a personal best.

“That was the right time to pull that off,” said Stroud.

Temple and Morgan also won Silver in dressage.

Cadwell is remaining in Europe to accompany Keady to Poland where she is representing the U.S. at the World Pairs Championship in late August.

From the Horse of Delaware Valley

September, 2007 Issue.