Current News

The latest results, news, and happenings from the VSE world. This is your column! Please contribute pieces of interest to news@cde4vse.com.

1/01/07: The new VSE rulebook proposals have been published at last! You can read them here in the January 2007 issue of the Wheelhorse. If you have questions or ideas regarding the VSE proposals, please email Merridy Hance at merridyhance@forevermail.com or drop the ADS a line directly.

12/10/06: To my great joy the new discussion forum is up unexpectedly soon. Please head on over to http://cde4vse.com/smf/index.php and register to participate. There also turns out to be a wonderful calendar included in the program that we can all use to post our VSE events so I ask that you use that instead of the Yahoo group calendar as it is easier to read.

11/29/06: CDE4VSE.com has been unveiled to the public! Voting is open for what discussion format to use and submissions are being accepted in all categories. Response has been very positive so far. Thanks everyone!

11/21/06: Bellcrown comes to the U.S.! These lovely British carts are now being made in America and sold by Driving Essentials for a very reasonable price.

11/01/06: This is an exciting time for VSE’s. More and more competitions are opening their doors to us and the ADS is beginning to realize that miniature horses can be serious competitors. In the last few months the first Intermediate level VSE’s have seen competitive action and proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that when properly trained, the minis are every bit as capable of the upper levels as their larger counterparts. Breanna Sheahan won the Best Conditioned Intermediate Horse award at the Henry Boyd CDE in California her first time out as Intermediate and Jaye Ventresca, Beth Rieselman and Martha Duchnowski have also competed Intermediate on the East Coast and received excellent scores. I hear rumors of another upcoming whip in California and I have personally had the pleasure of watching Merridy Hance's inaugural Intermediate run here in Washington state. Keep it up, guys!

August 2006: Jimmy Duchnowski and "Lovebug" are featured on the cover of this month's "The Horse of Delaware Valley" magazine! http://www.minihorsecde.com/SilkPurse/cover.jpg

October 2004:  Horsemen's Yankee Pedlar, Driving News by Catherine Luce

"Fair Hill, Dave McWethy and the Miniature Four in-Hand
A different type of four in-hand was seen with Dave McWethy of Camptown Harness fame, when he found himself up to his ankles in Miniature Horses at the recent Fair Hill weekend. Dave has been wanting to put together a Mini four in-hand for a while now and finally, he found a couple of Mini pairs drivers who were willing to give it a try. Linda Willis, Jaye Ventresca and Lori Horner all donated Minis to the cause. According to Dave the horses behaved stoically while being harnessed together for the first time and then drove off as though they had been pulling as a four forever. With willing horses and an avid audience the four in-hand performed remarkably well, even when the wheelers and leaders were shuffled around into a new configuration. All the Mini drivers wanted a chance to drive and found themselves surprisingly up to the challenge of four reins. That was definitely a different avenue for Dave to explore and one, no doubt, which we will see him driving down again!"

http://www.pedlar.com/stories/100104/dri_10010409.shtml

UPDATE October 2006: Dave was spotted creating another mini four-in-hand at the 2006 Happ's Intro to Driving Multiples clinic last spring in WA. Pictures forthcoming!