By Vel Hutcheson What can you do with a small pony and a mini when you love to drive CDE's? Well, in this case, we put together a mouth-drooping Tandem.

Sam and Charlie have competed (and won) at two CDE's in Florida this year, and they were adored by almost everyone who watched them.

Sammy Gamgee of Hobittown is a Mini, he's 36" tall, and with his bushy mane and wonderful personality, he is easy to love, irresistible... Charles Dickens is a section A Welsh, he's 45" tall, and like his mother, he's a fabulous pony with spunk, talent, and character.

Charlie was born to our Welsh pony mare shortly after Sam came to live with us. When Charlie was weaned, he and Sam lived together, they were like best buddies. Charlie started his ground training as a yearling, he was a feisty colt with fire. He could climb a 4 foot fence and escape from any pasture.  At the age of two, he began learning to drive a carriage. Charlie had a bit of a time leaning to pull the easy entry cart we use to teach our horses to drive. As an experiment, we drug up enough odds and ends to make a tandem hitch. Sam, faithful as always, didn't mind pulling Charlie around the small pen. Charlie didn't seem to take one step by himself...Sam just hauled him and the carriage.

After Charlie began to drive, as a three year old my parents took him and their horse, The Kid, to a pleasure show in Tennessee, The Cannon Carriage Classic, hosted by Jim and Jean Keathley. My parents got the wrong dates and ended up at the show site a week early. Because of the long drive up and long drive home, they stayed over and drove around the grounds before returning home.

They went again to Tennessee the following weekend, and had a blast at the show. Charlie did well in his classes, even though he was very young and inexperienced.

The pleasure show was fun, but my mother preferred the CDE's. In the fall of 1998, my mother and I began to piece a tandem rig together for Sammy and Charlie. This included buying Sam a new harness, and making a breast collar, and reins. When all the pieces finally made up the tack we needed, we hitched them up and took off.

Tandems are trickey! Like a 4 in hand, the leader of a tandem doesn't really pull, they lead.  But, unlike a 4 in hand, the leader of a tandem can decide (all by himself) to turn around and come face to face with the driver in a heartbeat.  So, the leader of a tandem must be bold, and true, and forward, but they only go into draft occasionally to help out the wheeler.  You can't bend a tandem to maneuver through, turns, cones and hazards if the leader is in draft. 

Sam, with his experience and bold heart was our leader, but he was not accustomed to "not pulling" and hauling when tacked and hitched.  He decided that he would pull from his mouth if he couldn't pull from his chest. It was tiring to hold Sam in when we first started out driving  the team, but between my mother and I, we finally convinced hard working little Sam that he didn't need to pull everything - all by himself.

Sam and Charlie's first outing was a little Whips fun drive at a local park. Sam and Charlie proved their will power on the long and hot 7 mile drive. They spent most of the drive leading a flighty green horse who spooked at every shadow and had a favor for rearing.  They showed how amazing they are. I took Sam and Charlie to get baths after the drive and everyone was grinning ear to ear as they asked questions about them.

When Sam and Charlie competed at the Treasure Coast CDE in January, they drew large crowds and everyone took pictures. It was an odd experience, I'd get stopped by people wanting to know about Sam: If he was tough enough to tackle the marathon. Lots of folks asked if he was a "baby" horse, which though it seems an odd question, is understandable. Sam was the shortest horse on the grounds, he could have crawled out under his stall door, and he was constantly peeking under it. Sam was stabled right next to a pair of huge Friesians, and Sam was a flea in comparison.

Everywhere they went those three days, they were followed by children and adults alike, whether they grinned and snapped cameras, or their children just wrapped their arms around Sam's neck and hugged him, everyone loved him. Charlie was a star too, but Sam has is own special way with people. Treasure Coast was a blast, it was fun and much enjoyed by all.

My mother and I completed the entire Training marathon course, (12+kilometers)  a feat some horses fail to accomplish. It was a long course for the little guys.  We had planned and trained to limit the load on the ponies in the marathon.  My mother ran beside the carriage to reduce the weight in sections A and E of the marathon.    Sam and Charlie had to canter most of section A to make the times set for the large ponies. During section B, we had to keep them walking, by letting Sam pull the load and encouraging Charlie to keep up, we made the large pony walk time.

Section E was the hardest, it was impossible to keep within the time frame due to the trot only rule. Their little legs just can't go that fast in the trot.  We were cheered on by grinning spectators at each of the hazards. They were very game and cantered almost everything.  Sam jumped over the small water ditch completely, carrying Charlie and the carriage with him.

Sam and Charlie came in with high heart rates at the final vet check. The strain of trotting as fast as possible for 7 kilometers took its toll. But, Sam and Charlie were well conditioned and had great recovery rates.  They were allowed 20 minutes to recover, but we cleared recovery in less than 10 minutes.

As we walked them back to the trailer, people came up and made comment about how wonderful they were in the hazards and asked lots of questions.  They took lots of pictures and pretty much just wanted to be near the adorable team.

At the Valhalla CDE in February, they were the only small team to compete.  Joyce and Bob Quigley got a waiver from ADS after the ban on small ponies and we did dressage, cones and for the marathon, we only did section E with 3 hazards.  We finished second in dressage out of all the training level entries - both ponies and horses.  The boys had lots of energy for section E and really burned up the hazards.   It was over too fast, but my navigator did not have to get out and run at all.   The boys did it all by themselves. 

We had a wonderful time!

Editors note: Vel Hutcheson is 16 years old, and a very accomplished driver and rider.  Besides the normal hunter, jumper, and dressage activities, she and her hunter pony "Rembrandt" won the 1997 Valhalla CDE Training Level overall champion Pony Division and The Grand Champion Dressage (over all Training horses and ponies.)  They won the Training Level Division (Driving) at the 1997 Florida Sunshine State Games.  Vel was grand champion in English and Western Equitation and Reserve Grand Champion in Driving at the Florida All Pony Show in 1998.  Last year she her Arab gelding, The Leewit, were second in the (SEDRA) South East Region Endurance Riders   - Junior Division. She and The Leewit are currently in first place and likely to in the 1999 SEDRA Grand Champion Junior Rider Award.