AIAT Great Britain : Elveden

3-4 June 2023

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CIAT ELVEDEN

LOCATION

The Elveden Estate

Summerpit Farm,

Elveden

Thetford

Norfolk

IP24 3TD

What3words location:

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CONTACT

Liz Harcombe

Event Organiser

Tel: 07516 958787

Email: Lizzie.h@btinternet.com

2023 SCHEDULE

Download here

DESIGNATED CHARITY

World Horse Welfare

Horse Rescue

Everweb

19-22 May 2023

3-4 June 2023

14-15 July 2023

2-3 September 2023

15-17 September 2023

EVENT REPORT

CIAT Elveden 2022

- Liz Harcombe -

The UK CIAT season kicked off at Elveden Estate in Norfolk with the added bonus of the celebrating the Queen’s Jubilee weekend. Amidst the bunting and patriotism, competitors enjoyed the most stunning routier around The Earl of Iveagh’s wooded parkland. Paul Mills designed a course all off road through grassy woodland tracks and mown lawns. The difficulties were mostly situated under the spreading cedars near the Hall and around the church. Residents turned out to watch the genteel vista as if looking back through time at the skill of carriage drivers back in the day.Twenty four carriages came forward to be scrutinised by the three experienced judges, Elizabeth Cartwright-Hignett, Lester Dagge and Richard Lanni. Known as the presentation phase, this close inspection is what drivers and their teams spend many hours preparing for. The smell of Mr Sheen, boot polish and elbow grease is tangible right across the showfield and it could be said that this must be some kind of addiction for these lovers of the vintage. Every detail is attended to with last minute checks for spare holes, straps in keepers and ties and stocks all tidy. As with all carriage driving camps there is much lending of gear and pairs of hands for the last minute ‘can you just’ moments.

Interesting details abound and are always of great interest to fellow competitors. The Dalmation dog, the hat feathers, contrasting aprons, deerstalker hats and jubilee socks all raising smiles. At the party in the tent later, where the grand auction and raffle raised much needed funds to run the event, lucky bidders took away an amazing coaching experience kindly donated by James Jefferey, a Scottish holiday cottage gifted by Paddock Hall Luxury Holiday Cottages and driving experiences with Sonny Hillier and Liz Harcombe. The half way prize giving is always a breath holding moment. Whilst attelage is a friendly kind of sport, the best presentation award is keenly contested and Ruth Martin took the Mike Cooper Memorial trophy kindly donated by the Cooper family. Ruth achieved an incredible score of only 2.33 penalties for her immaculate Lawton Gig drawn by Storm, her beautiful bay pony who often doubles up as a driving trials and dressage pony. The Tabe Annema Best harness trophy went to James Jeffery for his beautiful and very clean set of brown pairs harness and the popular steward’s favourite went to Brian and Anna Hunter with the lovely piebald cob Oakley pulling the Pickering Float. Their turnout would have been just the thing seen delivering goods round and about the area back in the day and raised many smiles as they passed by.

The whole weekend continued in similar traditional style with everyone sharing stories and swapping ideas for future reference. Although the presentation could be said to be a subjective phase, the penalties for the routier and cones evens out the mix and the overall championship for lowest overall score was won by Kate Cooper and her grey Welsh pony Trindod Wildcat. A great achievement against some seasoned campaigners. Best newcomer bursaries were awarded to Gail Palmer and Theresa McCarron.

Supreme Champion: Kate Cooper with Trindod Wildcat (Welsh Mountain Pony Secion A) - 3 points

Reserve Champion: Kymberly Titmus - 9 points

The Mike Cooper Memorial Trophy for Best Presentation: Ruth Martin: 2.33 points

Tabe Annema Memorial Trophy for Best Harness: James Jeffrey

Best Groom: Jacqui Capper

Stewards Favourite Turnout: Brian Hunter- Pickering Milk Float

Single Horse

1st - Kymberly Titmus - 9 points (2nd overall)

2nd - Royston Munt - 18.67 points (6th overall)

3rd - Andrew Bircher - 18.83 points (7th overall)

4th Gail Palmer - 36 points (15th overall)

5th Stephanie Westwood - 56.43 points (19th overall)

Horse & Pony Pairs

1st - James Jeffrey - 9.83 points (3rd overall)

2nd - Rosemary Neale - 25.67 points (12th overall)

3rd - Colin Varle - 30.40 points (13th overall)

4th - Chris Smith - 41.67 points (16th overall)

5th - Joe Bowen - 47.33 points (17th overall)

6th - Roger Page -72.43 points (20th overall)

7th - Russell Hand - 78 points (21st overall)

Single Pony

1st - Ruth Martin - 20.73 points (9th overall)

2nd - Margaret Thomas - 50.60 points (18th overall)

3rd - Brian Hunter - 84.57 points (22nd overall)

4th Allan Prescott -180.97 points (23rd overall)

5th - Jana Carney - 185.07 points (24th overall)

Single Small Pony

1st - Kate Cooper -3 points (1st overall)

2nd -Leah Marshall -17.63 points (4th overall)

3rd - Modris Kesans -18.5 points (5th overall)

4th - Amy Last - 19.17 points (8th overall)

5th - Gilly Chippendale - 21.20 points (10th overall)

6th - Theresa McKerron -22.77 points (11th overall)

7th - Pat Aisthorpe - 32.37 points (14th overall)

EVENT PHOTOGRAPHERS

You can find a link to their galleries here: (remember to make a purchase and honour their hard work capturing the day!)

Paul Orchard - Eveleyn Radnai

2022 Results:

2022 Event Pictures:

2021 Event :

CIAT Elveden 2021

Report by Rosemary Neale - Competitor

See what I did there? 2021 – and hopefully 2022, 2023…….. First and most importantly our thanks must go to the Earl of Iveagh, the Elveden Estate, and Becky Power without whom none of this fabulous weekend would have happened – they pulled out all the stops to allow us to drive through the wonderful estate and although an organiser's job is never easy, the organising team for CIAT Elveden reported that it couldn;t have been achieved without the marvellous support of the Estate.

We arrived on the Friday afternoon to find everything shipshape – stables labelled, straw readily available, water laid on, and paperwork ready. Once we'd settled the ponies in and organised our lorry we were invited to a marvellous hogroast and Pimms reception courtesy of Gordon Marks. It was sheer delight to be able to see all our attelage friends again and welcome some newcomers to the delights of Attelage de Tradition. Talk was of how we had weathered Covid 19, sadly friends we had lost (not many thankfully but tragic that there were some), any new turnouts, different carriages, different horses, whether we would ever be able to go to France or anywhere else in Europe again and so on – so much to say and so little time!

Saturday morning started with the usual competitors briefing but this time the organisers were trying a new format. It wasn't possible to have the usual convoy of vehicles driving round the Routier to inspect the PCs (Passages Controllees) for a number of reasons not least the requirement to adhere to Covid regulations so organiser Liz Harcombe (who deserves a medal along with all the rest of the organising team!) had made a video of the Routier and the PCS which had been sent to all competitors and was also available on a laptop in the Secretary's tent. This proved to be a great innovation as we could watch it as many times as we liked, rather than trying to remember everything after going round just once!

Another innovation was to reorganise the schedule so that the Routier was driven immediately after the Presentation which again proved a huge success. Our thanks must go to the three inestimable judges, Elizabeth Cartright-Hignett, Andrew Counsel and Richard Lanni who did a sterling job and were encouraging to everyone and especially so to the 'newcomers'. The Routier was 11 kms for all turnouts with a slower speed for smaller turnouts. The drive was fantastic through the gorgeous Elveden Estate taking in the old Victorian stables, a Victorian watertower and beautiful estate cottages. 5 'difficulties' tested the skill and accuracy of the whips – a right-handed one handed circle, a carpet, the salute, a stop on a hill (made more difficult positioned next to a field of nosey horses and donkeys!) and of course the ubiquitous champagne! The new format meant that the Routier was finished by 2 o'clock which meant that much more socialising could be indulged in! and preparations made for the evening's entertainment in the marquee. Here we were treated to a fabulous barbecue, and Sally Walrond playing her piano accordion. Presentations were made for the Best Presentation – Sharon Wootton with her new turnout achieving the most amazing score of 2.12! Antonia Gallop was delighted and not a little tearful to receive the Tabe Annema Trophy for the Best Harness and, another innovation, Jimmy Jeffries was presented with a Martin Wilkinson Saddlers rug as his prize for being the Steward's Choice! All stewards were asked to vote on their favourite turnout and Jimmy was the overwhelming winner! The evening continued with a raffle and an auction raising funds for World Horse Welfare and also for AIAT GB to help fund events for 2022. Thanks were given to the organisers, the sponsors, the stewards, the estate but the most important toast of the evening however was to our horses and ponies who give us so much joy and entertainment.

Fortunately the rain held off for the cones on Sunday. As there were no very large turnouts, cones designer Paul Mills could indulge himself in designing a tricky course which caught a few out – myself included! The overnight rest before the cones was, I am sure, appreciated by our equine friends and all seemed to be full of beans to tackle the course. It was tight in places but where's the fun in making it too easy?! Then it was back to the lorry for lunch before the afternoon presentation of prizes. And what a spectacle it was to see all 24 magnificent turnouts in the arena (Antonia Gallop having wisely decided that her horse would not cope with the crowd!) a full list of scores and prize winners can be found at www.attelagedetradition.co.uk but suffice it to say that the Queen of Attelage, Sharon Wootton, did it again and was awarded Supreme Champion, with Jimmy Jeffries a very respectable Reserve.

This was an event full of innovations and one other which again proved a huge success was the Attelage de Tradition Teach-in conducted by Richard James. For a small fee, participants were able to spend the weekend with Richard at the event to learn about the event, what is involved and also to learn about the carriages and their history. One participant was heard to say that it was the best 'horsey' weekend she had ever had – and of course most participants were only too delighted to talk about their turnouts, their carriages, what made them special and how they came to be doing Attelage de Tradition. The hope is that this will encourage more people to take part in what is a most enjoyable activity!

CIAT Elveden 2021

Report by Liz Harcombe, Event Organiser

What a wonderful weekend of camaraderie, what Concours d’Attelage de Tradition is all about.

Earlier in August, twenty five beautiful turnouts came forward to compete over two days in the very beautiful Elveden Estate in Norfolk.

Gordon Marks, Event Director worked tirelessly with his team of Paul Mills, Liz Harcombe and Wally and Eunice Binder to produce the inaugural CIAT Elveden.

Thanks must go to The Earl of Iveagh for allowing us to use Elveden and to his staff who were very accommodating, patient and lent willing help aplenty.

We are hugely grateful to all our very generous sponsors and volunteers who allowed us to put on a lovely weekend of competition.

After a lovely get together on Friday night, the competitors were presented on Saturday morning in front of our judges Andrew Counsell, Elizabeth Cartwright-Hignett and Richard Lanni whose experience and encouraging remarks lent panache and experience. There were some excellent scores and surely a record for regular winner, Sharon Wotton of 2.17 with her Welsh Pony and beautiful 1909 Dog Cart. A beautiful turnout and beautifully driven.

Unusually, the competitors left the presentation and headed straight out on the routier. This format was positively received despite the viewing being via a YouTube video link rather than seeing the difficulties for real! The estate is very picturesque and the short stretches of public roads brought many smiles to passers-by. The champagne difficulty placed near the lovely church under the cedar trees provided the usual challenge with much concentration and skill to negotiate.

We had a delicious barbecue on the Saturday night and the big tent was abuzz with fun and laughter as people enjoyed being together after so long with restrictions.

The cones course on Sunday morning provided a real challenge with some tight turns if drivers chose the direct route. Some skilful driving was seen of course.

Let’s not forget the focus of the weekend: the carriages. We saw a number of newcomers to CIAT which was very encouraging and delightful to observe different turnouts.

To encourage even more people to ‘have a go’, a Learning weekend was enjoyed by a group of people on foot. Devised and led by Richard James, this idea was very successful and the group had an interesting and informative two days. They could ask questions at any point and analyse the carriages, horses and harness close up. We hope that they will take part next year having been inspired by Richard!

It just remains to say that we’d love to do it all again at Elveden next year. We’ve already been chatting to the the estate representatives to secure the spot.. Watch this space!

CIAT ELVEDEN 2021

Supreme Champion:

Sharon Wooton

Reserve Champion:

James Jeffery

Single Pony

1st - Sharon Wooton - Lodeside Flash Harry - Welsh C - 1909 Bent Sided Dog Cart by the Stella Motor Company

2nd – Ruth Martin - Polmesk Caesar – 1895 Spindleback Gig by Lawton

3rd - Katie Cooper - Trindod Wildcat Welsh A - 1912 Stick Back Gig

4th - Leah Marshall - Stapleford March - Hackney - Dog Cart by Mulliner, Birmingham

5th – Modris Kesans - Dusty - Part bred Fell – 1900 Norfolk Cart

6th - Amy Last -

7th - Julie Barnes - Harford Chloe - Dartmor Hill Pony - 1910 Norfolk Cart by Vincents, Yeovil

8th – Gilly Chippendale – Bunbury Sandringham – 1910 Spindle Back Gig by Blue of Glasgow.

9th - Allan Prescott – The Appleby Taxi – 1910 Ralli Trap

10th – Anna Hunter – Biscuit - Native pony – 1889 Stick Back Gig by Rock & Sons, Hastings

11th - Phylis Lee - Trixies Silver Spirit - Welsh C - 1890 Spindleback Gig by Purvis, Newcastle

Single Horse

1st - Trish Lebus - Daintree Princess - Welsh D - 1880 Sporting Dog Cart by Warren, Loughborough

2nd - Liz Jarman - Bobby - Gelderlander - 1900 Dog Cart

3rd - Kymberley Titmus - The Outlaw - Part Bred Cob - 1880 Ladies Park Phaeton by Vranouren, Paris

4th - Andy Bircher - Tireve Rosetta - Welsh D - 1900 Spindleback Gig by Peters & Son

5th - Roysoton Munt - Storm - Morgan - 1885, The French Carriage Co, Boston (USA)

6th Jessie Boden - Tilly Trotter - KWPN - 1900 Sirdar C Spring Gig by Reid

7th Ben Lawless - Madison Marco - Friesian - Dog Cart by Stevenson

8th Elspeth Ross - Jacob - Friesian - 1927 Norfolk Cart by Smith & Sons, Doncaster

9th - Stephanie Westwood - Llynhelig Tomas -Welsh D - 1858 Station Wagonette by Kadner, Rosswein (Germany)

10th - Helen Annema - W-Harrie - Freisian - 1910 Norfolk Cart

11th- Antonia Gallop - Brickell Black Supreme - Hackney - 1987 Dog Cart by Fairbourne

Pairs

1st - James Jeffery - Luck & Charm - Part Bred Highland/Freisian - 1899 Dog Cart by Jacksons of Edinburgh

2nd– Rosemary Neale – Tycwm Sebastian & Hillgarth Brenin Bach - Welsh C - 1886 Crescent Phaeton by McMullen of Hertford

3rd Claire Bourne - Bubbles & Domino - British Miniature Spotted - 1905 Dog Cart

AIAT GB

Traditional Carriage Driving Ltd,

Fern Cottage,

East Martin

Fordingbridge Hants SP6 3LJ

AIAT GB is the UK affiliate of AIAT

Association Internationale d'Attelage de Tradition,

95, Avenue Victor Hugo,

F-75116 Paris

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