The Connecticut Valley Driving Club

Invites you to the

American Scurry Challenge

At Mitchell Farm, 300 East Haddam Rd (Rt. 82), Salem, Connecticut

Saturday September 24, 2016 ~ Starting at 10:00 am

We invite you to CVDC’s third annual American Scurry Challenge Fun Day, to be held at Mitchell Farm on Rt. 82 in Salem, CT. Lots of instructions and encouragement! Scurries are first and foremost “FUN”. They are about getting your horses and ponies out for a nice day of driving and cheering on your friends & fellow drivers.

Our Scurry is informal, everybody will be timed and placed but there will be no prizes or ribbons. Driving aprons are not required. Hard hats are. Bring your own lunch. There is an ice cream stand in walking distance, restaurants and fuel within 8 minutes by car. Water is available on site but may have to be carried some distance.

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE A CLUB MEMBER TO PARTICIPATE (but if you are not, we hope this will encourage you to join!)

CLICK HERE TO SEE COURSE MAPS AND  FORMS FROM 2014 FOR EXAMPLE ONLY! (TO BE UPDATED SHORTLY.) (pdf)

ENTRY FEE:

• $15.00 per entry is suggested as donation to Mitchell Farm Equine Retirement
• Cash or make check payable to: Mitchell Farm Equine Retirement (it is probably tax deductible)
• You may bring paperwork incl. Coggins on day of event.
• Questions: call Peter von Halem, (860) 889-6467
• Directions – click here or visit www.mitchell, farm.org

The CT Valley Driving Club will be holding a DRIVING DERBY on Saturday, October 15, 2016 at Mitchell Farm located at 300 East Haddam Road (Rte 82) in Salem, CT. The gate opens at 8am; Drivers meeting at 9am; Course walk at 10am; First Entrant at 11am. Our Judge and Advisor is Jeff Morse. We will be using ADS Rules as a guide for this first Derby. The Entry Fee is $50 with a portion going to Mitchell Farm as a donation.

Some history: Since we decided to suspend the Horse Driving Trials that we had held in June for the last 10 years or so, we have been looking for other ways of engaging our members and other drivers in new and educational activities. One of the things that we did was to start holding a Scurry in the fall. This has been well attended. Recently several of our members took part in a Driving Derby. Like the Scurry, a Driving Derby is less formal than an HDT or CDE. Unlike the Scurry, there are two obstacles to negotiate as well as several cones. See the ADS rulebook for more information (click here, search for "derby").

What is a Driving Derby: Briefly a Derby is a timed competition through cones and obstacles. The course generally starts with a few cones to navigate; then an obstacle; a few more cones, another obstacle, and ending with several more cones. It can be done indoors or outdoors. One of our members described it as a Horse Driving Trial without the Dressage section. It is also different from an HDT in that there is not a marathon section. Also, as an educational piece, competitors can run the course more than once. This gives the competitor a chance to learn from the first run and apply this new knowledge to the second run.

We expect this to be a fun new event and look forward to seeing you there. Please contact Marguerite Hayber at marguerite@hayber.us with any questions and to enter.

Click here to view pictures taken by Sandy of Baskwood Photos, who happened to come along to the July Fun Day/Scurry with one of our members, and returned for our club drive at Lord Creek in October.

Plus: take a peek at just some of the lovely photos taken by Lisa Cenis of Shoot That Horse during our annual Horse Driving Trial.

Have a look at how much fun we had, and please support our photographer friends by purchasing some pictures to share.