19 Jan How did I get into Carriage Driving? With Doddy Goile
Doddy Goile is our Carriage Driving ambassador, known for her can do attitude and contribution to her community and the sport. But the story of how Doddy got into Carriage Driving is worth a read, and can be inspiration for others who love horses and want to give the sport a go!
How did I start this driving sport? Simple fact I had a BIG oopsie-daisy with show jumping and that was they end!
But I could not give up those horses, so one day a work friend was helping out at a show driving event just around the corner from were we lived at the time.
“Let’s go and see and say hello”. The first person we meet reminded me of the fat controller from Thomas the Tank engine, driving a little black Shetland. I asked him about how you could start this sport?
Well, he asked me if I had lots of money and my answer was nope!
Then he asked me what pony I got and told him I had a Thoroughbred called Elvis…and his answer was, ‘you could not do anything like this with one of them’.
So this man got 2 strikes inside my head. But it made me more determent to show him wrong. Talking to more people I left my phone number behind and sometime later a lady called Heather called me.
We meet up that same week and she had a Cremello 11 HH pony ready to go, so off we went chatting away with lots of question on both sides.
She asked me what I would like to do, and I had no an idea what you could do but I knew that show driving was not really my thing (a bit boring).
She found 3 barrels all set up at Darling Downs and she told me to hang on and that little pony called Poppy flew around those barrels! Tell you what a had a big fat smile on my face, that was so much fun.
I went back on a regular basic to her place learning on how things work and putting that harness on, it took me some time to get the hang of.
I did slip into our chats about me having Elvis (the Thoroughbred) and wanting to put him to carriage. She did not say no, but strongly recommended me to rethink using him.
So a couple of months went by, learning all aspect with Poppy – renamed the purple people eater. She was a horror! She would bite/kick/squash you into the fence but oh my my she was so much fun to drive.
She could double barrel and not even lose a stride and flew around corners.
My first official event was yep…show driving! And yes all dressed up looking fabulous pony scrubbed form head to hoof.
My second event was a Dressage competition and my first time ever totally on my own in the carriage. Just before I had to go into the arena, and then “ring ring” the Big E. Eliminated.
How is that possible? Well I got in too late, but I told the judge I was the last one of the day so let’s restart, and she let me.
Third event was the CDE, which is like an ODE but then with one of those funky trollies behind your equine.
So my motto, never let anyone kill your dream before you start, make it in to a positive and believe in yourself, and there are more people out there to help guide and teach you along the way.
Sometimes you have to take a couple of steps back to go forwards again to get to that dream and that is ok!
Doddy
Heather Pow
Posted at 12:02h, 19 JanuaryTopsy Lodge Popcorn is 22 on January 31st. I still need to tell eople to stay away from her but she is still earning her keep as an obedient voice trained lesson pony here in Hamilton, Victoria.
Ally Doumany
Posted at 03:25h, 20 JanuaryWow Heather, what a legend she is! Give her a happy birthday hug from us all.