On the way to obstacle 1
Lots of help for Sterling Graburn at the rest halt.
Tiki obstacle
Happy competitors at the end of the marathon.
Posted in Uncategorized
Caitlin Yancho in cones
Robert Long, Preliminary Pair Pony warms up for dressage
The weather held, a few clouds cooled the temperature slightly in the afternoon. See http://www.drivingnews.us for the complete dressage and cones results.
The competitors party was well attended, and included the musical stylings of Dennis Yancho and his daughter Caitlin. Dennis did keyboard while Caitlin sang during the cocktail hour. Then Mari Yancho played her guitar during dinner, providing beautiful background – lovely to listen to but soft enough so people could talk to one another while they ate their barbecue pork dinner.
B-57 was the main entertainment! Arriving in a 1957 Belaire, an elderly couple sat on a park bench. Remember Laugh-In couple when Ruth Buzzy hit the old man Artie Johnson with her purse when he made lewd comments? Then the old couple transformed into James Bond and one of his women and took to the stage and lip-synched and danced to “Love Shack” before finally exiting the arena via zip-line and then drove off in a 1957 Corvette. They brought the house down. And the couple who provided this unique competitor party entertainment? Debbie and Dana Banfield!
The evening also celebrated 25 years of Gayla driving competition. Half of the table decorations mentioned the 25 years, the other half held little water pistols following the James Bond theme, and the evening ended with a shoot out between competitors!
The marathon has started off in fog, and because of the extra humidity, I heard they have extended the rest halt 5 minutes. Scores will be coming in soon. I hope I can get out for a little while to take some photos, but expect that I will spend most of the day in the office helping Richard with the scoring.
Posted in Uncategorized
We left Southern Pines yesterday (Friday) enroute to Michigan, stopping off at the Gayla Driving Center to take part in the Gayla Bluegrass CDE. Richard is scoring, I’m helping and promoting Driving Digest to those who have yet to subscribe! What a great place to layover! First of all, the Gayla Driving Center is beautiful, secondly, Debbie and Dana Banfield are two of the best organizers in the business.
The event is just two days, and it seems strange that today is Saturday and the event will be over tomorrow. At the same time, it is a very refreshing change from the 3-5 day events plus 2 travel days.
Kathleen Plock, Training Single Pony
Rain has plagued driving activities in the past, but this year, (so far at least) the worst was on Thursday while people were moving in. This morning, a light mist and fog hung over the warm-up dressage ring, (just made the photos better, in my opinion.)
I had a nice chat with Kathy Courtemanche who was manning the dressage warm-up ring. She said that the Gayla has more pairs this year than in the past.
Charlie Friebert warms up for dressage.
I’m set up in the indoor arena, where tables are set up for the party tonight, and from the looks of it, microphones, lights and a raised platform indicate that a band or other such entertainment will be part of the evening’s festivities.
Barbara Chapman
Posted in Uncategorized
 | Hardy Zantke on Surviving Southern Pines |
 | Margaret Fairfield on Happy 2015 |
 | ashemont on Happy 2015 |
 | Mike Keatley on Dressage at Gayla Bluegra… |
 | Holly on Dressage at Gayla Bluegra… |
Driving Digest 