The competitive edge

The drive to compete, yeah, it runs deep in a lot of us. I didn't remember to listen for my time on the course at the Darby when they announced it at the driving club Christmas party. All I remember really, was taking accolades for being one of the few who messed up somewhere and was eliminated.  I have kept checking the website for my time and the results page to be posted for all the world to see.  It was actually posted in the January newsletter which I have sent to my email inbox every month.  

DARBY RESULTS

Remember, in a Darby, the winner has the fewest seconds from time on course added to penalty seconds:

Competitor                  Total Seconds           Place

Training - Mini

Jessica Zamboni                     237                      1

Laura Pfeiffer                         304                      2

Shirlee Callahan                     204E                   3

Expert - Mini

Patti Huling                             181                      1

Tim Callahan                          201                      2

Craig Zamboni                       215                       3

Training - Pony

Loralee Wuertz                       279                      1

Sheri Kalfas-Jaggers              293                      2
Linda Hirsch                           273E                    3

Expert - Pony

Bruce Huling                           219E                   1

Expert - Horse

Kim Dean                                252E                   1

There it was in the Training Pony division.  Considering we smacked into a pole, coming to a complete stop after gate #1, stopping in front of cone #14 before plowing it over, stopping again in gate #18 before hitting another pole then circling around cone #20... I think we did pretty darn well.

First place was 279 seconds on course and second was 293 seconds. Our time was 273.  Had we not gone through cone #9 the wrong way- we would have not only had our first clean round in a competition- we would have been first for our division (even with all of our mishaps).  If we had not run into things, had the narrow mishaps and skipped the added circling, our time would have been even quicker.  Remember in all of this though, this Darby was for FUN! No entry fees, no prizes, just do your best and have a blast at it.  Which we certainly did have a blast and made note of where improvements are in order...

For anyone who may be wondering, the Expert division is where you can allow your horse to canter or gallop through the course at will. The Darby's only offer the two divisions- Training or Expert.  For the regular Darby's, half of the competitors do the scoring while the other half compete, then there is a quick change and the other half compete while the first half does the scoring. 

When you see people blasting through the course at full speed- it is inspiring and may bring on an adrenaline rush just watching.  We may get there eventually, but for now I pass along a video sent to me from another blogger who used to post as
"the farmer's wife" from our days back on Fugly.  Hopefully I will get to meet her in person soon.  That promises to be fun!



*Edited to add this- Watch the team at 2:08 as they come up out of the water and make a left turn. The front outside horse is literally bouncing straight up and down.  Cracks me up because some of the horses really do enjoy their job.

Also the appy makes a very brief debut coming down the hill on the marathon at 1:25, then you see them again going through the cones at 2:33. This is a sport that is definitely open to ALL breeds!*