Best fun you can have sitting down

Grey Wave leads Picasso in tandem through the slalom with driver Alison Cooper of Otaki and groom urging him on.

One of the better-kept secrets in Tararua is the Hawke's Bay Carriage Driving Combined Drive held annually at Makotuku. The event occurred again this year only slightly curbed by Covid protocols in the hospitality front, but with just 80 people competing in the open air, the event could still go ahead despite others around the country being cancelled.

Once again it took place on March 5-6 centred on the Makotuku Domain but taking in the flats and hills about the town. The event is run by the Hawke's Bay Carriage Driving Association and the Makutoku Domain has been the favourite location for many years as it combines good facilities, great prizes and excellent terrain to test the best combinations.

The event attracted over 30 entries – the most ever this year – from Northland south. It is an exciting two days as teams compete with the judging focus on appearance, time and accuracy of driving.

Helene Godfrey of Rautahi driving Miss Stockholm with groom providing weight on the turn.

On Saturday, in stunning weather, competitions started with dressage in the morning

and this was followed after lunch with cone driving in adjacent fields where the combinations race a slalom course like show jumping only the horse and cart must negotiate 20 sets of cones (road markers without a top, on which a tennis ball sits) without dislodging a tennis ball.

One experienced driver said the Marathon finale on Sunday was one of the toughest on the calendar. Each combination travels the local roads and farm terrain, a distance of 12 kilometres entering five venues with sets of obstacles. It started early – 8.30am.

For all the teams the marathon was the highlight set in gorgeous weather with not a breath of wind but plenty from the horses and drivers. A team of 20 judges and helpers were scattered around the venues a former local Heather Taylor coming from her home in Otorohanga to participate.

Over the weekend most of the 30 combinations consisted of one horse, driver and groom but there was a two-horse team from Otaki, several tiny ponies and even two donkeys competing.

Alison Cooper from Otaki, who drove the tandem team of Percheron Thoroughbred X horses called Grey Wave and Picasso, said she loved coming to Makotuku for this event and comes back in the winter for training camps. It was she who coined the phrase about carriage driving "The best fun you can have sitting down."

Local enthusiast Colleen Constable was delighted with this year's event. This year both she and her horse Bart (After Bart Cummings) were fit and she had "a real adrenalin rush" competing.

She reckons this year at Makotuku was great – the entries were really good, the generosity of the 20 local businesses which provided prizes was amazing, the seven landowners over which the event was held could not do enough to help, the participants obeyed the Covid protocols "to a T" and the weather was awesome.