02 Feb How did I get into Carriage Driving PART 2! With Doddy Goile
Our driving ambassador Doddy Goile has been sharing her story with us, on how she got into carriage driving.
After a riding accident, Doddy made the transition to carriage driving, learning from friends and using their ponies. But she had her daughter’s Off the Track Thoroughbred, and despite people warning her against it, Doddy wanted to give him a shot…
That Thoroughbred ‘Kings Tower ‘ aka “Elvis” came from South Australia owned by a syndicate and was born for a racing career…but there was not much of a success story there!
But we were looking for my daughter Niki to get an eventing horse. At the time he was being used as a show hack but the lady’s thinking was that he would be better in a different discipline.
He had lots of mental issues but with down time and a restart on a new diet and partnership he became a total pleasure to be with, Niki had some fabulous times eventing with him, but then she discovered boys…
So we were left with Elvis, and you remember that pony Poppy in the carriage? Well we stared taking Elvis with us and leading him off the back and the side of the carriage and never had a problem.
And as time went by, we borrowed mixed matched harness gear, carriages and did lots of long reining. Long reining is a big fat must-have as a driving aid to develop the trust with your equine and voice control.
We don’t have legs or seat to guide them, so now it was time to put that funky trolley behind him.
Arthur Pike that was into carriage driving and works with trotters, his Buckskin stallion ‘Cash’ was waiting for Elvis.
‘Cash’ was in the carriage and Elvis got connected with him at his side in all his gear and a quick release just in case s**t hit the fan. After a couple times , Elvis ended up in the shaft on his own and it went with out any trouble.
My husband Jorgen and I were the only ones that drove Elvis, that was one of the quirks he had. With anyone else he would stop, ears flat, helicopter tail, put his hoofs like 2 left ones, and if all else failed throw yourself on the ground.
We had so much fun, surprised so many people, learned so much, and fell more in love with this sport, and grown a lot of respect for our horse and ponies.
We ended up going to South Australia to compete in the national CDE championships, Elvis got driven by my husband as I was a bit busy with a new project ‘’Mack’’.
Elvis retired at the age of 16 living a nice life for some years, but it went pear shaped, so we took him back, it took us 7 months to get him back to good health and at an age of 24 he left over the rainbow, after many happy years for this boy being loved by us. We owe him that big time!
Doddy
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