Dibden Tikideeboo

"Tiki" is a New Forest pony. She spent a portion of her early years on the open range in the New Forest of England. The New Forest is a large area where ponies roam free. There are three towns in the New Forest and it is not unusual to see a few ponies walking the shopping areas and even walking into outdoor seating areas at pubs. There are grates on the roads when you enter the New Forest to contain the ponies.

We bought her from Liz Thomas at the age of 2 years. Liz had the pony for only a short time and Tiki was probably bought at aution, which they hold from time to time to thin out the herd.
She flew to New York and was quarantined for two weeks.

Larry Poulin broke Tiki to carriage driving in Florida at Black Prong and at his farm in Petersham, Massachusetts. Tiki was a good pony to break, but could occaisionally jump 15 feet in the air to the right or left without notice with the two wheel training carriage on her back. This resulted in some off road experiences thru brush and in trees. Larry bent an axle on a carriage.

As time went on Tiki started to really enjoy carriage driving and has done well at training level. She won Black Prong CDE 2007 training level. My wife, Jody broke Tiki to saddle. She was very easy to break to saddle, but wanted to be talked to because of her prior training to drive. When Jody gave her a leg aid, early in her saddle training, she would turn around and try to bite at her boot. I could imagine her saying to herself " Don't push on me like that... just say trot."

This year we are going up a level to preliminary. We are working on a better frame and the lengthened trot to become competitive at Dressage. Tiki has always done well at the other phases of the CDE e.g. Cones and Marathon.

This year we will be at Lord Sterling CDE, Garden State CDE and Elk Creek CDE. Tiki will also go to Waldingfield and CT Driving Trial

More pics and stories will follow.


Monday, October 6, 2008

Gladstone CDE 2008




Maybe the last CDE here for a while. This beautiful venue was almost cancelled this year due to a low number of entries. They will hold a pleasure show next year. Looks like we may have to go to Lexington CDE next year....much longer drive for us.




Tiki did very well here in Preliminary pony with very good competitors. We won dressage but only because a friend of mine went off course for 5 penalty points. We were in the middle of the pack on a long and difficult marathon course with beautiful views of the Gladstone area in section A.


A special thanks to the private property owners that allowed us to use their beautiful properties as part of the course.




Cones...oh well...Tiki picked up a young person trying to reset the cones on the course in her blinders. Not usually a problem....but this young lady was holding the measuring stick like a weapon held high in the air. Tiki looked so hard at it that I expected to see a run away outside the arena.... by the time I got her settled we blasted the first cone set of an offset series. No doubt about that ball going down.




We dropped to third after holding second place after marathon. Not a bad showing for us....My daughter again navigated for me and Tiki did very well in the water hazards, where we had some issues in past events.




I had a blast and the weather was picturebook




Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Waldingfield Driving Trial 2008

Ok We won Waldingfield Driving Trial 2008 (Preliminary Pony)





Tiki was first in dressage and due to driver error was only tenths of a second over the time for cones but clean (I missed a cone set and had to go around).



We really made some progress in the marathon...went from bottom of the pack in previous CDE's to about middle of the pack. My daughter Ari, was the navigator and did a great job....including keeping me on course.



Here's a video of hazard 2 in the marathon course.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Lord Stirling CDE

Well ???!!!! We know what we need to work on.

Tiki did a good dressage test with some very good moments. Need to work on rein back a little more. The lengthened trot was good, but I was very conservative in the forward aids for the lengthening to prevent a break to canter. She was very forward in the dressage arena.

Had one knock down in cones and made the time. Tiki was very good in transitions to canter and back to trot.

THE MARATHON

We made very good time on section A and section D with time to spare on both. Tiki has a great walk and did section D with ease

Oh Well The first hazard on the marathon was a very nice water hazard.

Tiki has water issues since we bought her. I have worked on this and she will trot into and canter into water at home. This was the first show where she encountered a water hazard. It was very slow going and Tiki was very apprehensive. We made it thru the water hazard, but not in a competitive amount of time.

When we got to the 4th hazard. This was a great hazard with corn cribs perched on large corrugated pipes. The turns were very tight. It walked well but it drove tight with no room for error. Tiki did an unexpected turn as we entered this hazard. I lost the right rein and that's the direction we needed to turn toward. When I got the rein back and turned her we were right up against the first corn crib with our wheel too close to the corrugated support. Jody, my navigator, did a great job of trying to free the carriage. We made it out but in the excitement of it all, I went thru the B gate in the wrong direction !!!!! The BIG E! E L I M I N A T I O N We fininshed sec E like we were on a Sunday drive

Gotta work on increasing speed in the hazards and increasing Tiki's confidence.

Lots of homework to do before Garden State CDE


Friday, April 25, 2008

Lesson with Chris

Wednesday , Chris came up from Maryland and I had a lesson with Tiki. Bob videoed it but somehow it got erased when I dropped the camera. So here is what I need to work on:
1. Keep fingers CLOSED on the reins.
2. Sharper to the leg, work on trans. to canter with more sharpness.
3. Lengthening , vary from 2 to a long side, back and forth to going forward for the whole line.
4. Keep legs long
5. Lengthen, to LY along wall to soften.