Snapshot: The Walnut Grove Driving Competition, part II

Last week Megan Kaiser introduced us to the grand traditions of the largest annual pleasure driving show in the world. Today she’s back with a report from the 2012 event.

The event took place Aug. 8-12 in Pittsford, NY.

From Megan:

All the horses and vendors have gone home, the tents are coming down, and I finally downloaded my pictures. Despite some not-so-good weather forecasts that really turned into only isolated downpours, things went well at Walnut Hill, the largest pleasure driving competition in the world.

I walked up to the show with my two kids and non-horsy husband (who likes this show – I think it’s the beer and food that is available, or maybe he just goes to keep my shopping in check…), we went through the stabling area because it is just as interesting to me. Before we get even halfway up there a lady in a gator stops and asks if the kids have gotten to pet a pony yet. We said no and she told us to follow her and she brought us to a stall and let the kids in while answering all their questions. My three-year-old son was way more into the gator (and this would continue throughout the afternoon) but they both got to pet Jester who was as kind as his person.

We watched several classes including a very competitive fault-and-out class and the Old Guard Class (drivers have to be at least 60 – it’s fun to see different types of carriages and numbers of horses pulling them all in the same class). My mom, who met us there with her dog, enjoyed being a corgi celebrity – Chaps sat so very nicely to be pet by tens and tens of people. We saw many old friends, did some shopping, and ate a lovely lunch under the tent.

Sunday morning we headed to the park to join a large group of friends. There we watched the carriages go by while eating a lovely breakfast. It was funny to hear someone from the show in a golf cart (many are interspersed among the carriages just for an extra set of hands if needed) explaining to a man on a bike what was up with all the carriages in the park that morning. Just a lovely morning.