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work ethic, and if they do get spooked
by something they tend not to escalate.
They see it and say, ‘OK, that’s not
going to hurt me,’ and they go back to
being level, but at the same time they’re
not dull and plodding like people kind
of expect them to be. They are forward
and can be athletic. I think that’s what
surprised people when we went to the
New Brunswick drill competition. We
were the first draft team to go there, and
I think people were shocked by how well
they moved.”
The team has riders rotate in and out,
and Grandy and Jones are the lead riders.
Both women are experienced drill
riders and had previously been members
of light horse drill teams. Grandy does
choreography for the shows, which she
said features standard moves for drill
teams, and she tries to come up with
new patterns to keep things interesting
for the horses and riders.
“We don’t usually walk unless it’s
part of a certain maneuver, and last year
we did all trot because the horses were
very green,” said Grandy. “This year we
added some canter, but it’s still a lot of
sitting trot, and we are asking for some
lengthening and collection because in
drill you have to adjust their pace. This
year they’re also carrying flags, so that
was a challenge, because they’re pretty
green to steer off the leg so that you could
carry a flag, and so we had to get them
adjusted to carrying a flag, too.”
The team has shown in various communities
in New Brunswick over the
past two years. Last year they performed
on Canada Day in the village of Tracy,
at the drill competition in Sussex, and at
the New Brunswick Exhibition. This year
they competed at the drill competition in
Sussex, and for the second year in a row
took home both first and second place in
the quadrille division. The team performed
at the Fredericton Junction Come Home
Week celebrations this year, and finished
the season at the New Brunswick Exhibition.
They hope to perform with the
Musical Ride next year; when they had
a light team they opened for them twice.
Grandy said that from their very first
show the Clydesdales have proven that
they have the right stuff to be safe and
reliable both as hitch horses and drill
team members.
“They're such a great breed of horses,”
Grandy said. “They're easy to work with
– they tend to not be as high-strung as
regular horses – and they don't react quite
as strongly to distractions and noise. All
these horses have been – or are – show
harness horses for driving, not riding.
Normally, if this was a team of normal
riding horses, and we put them in these
kinds of situations, they might not be so
well behaved. These guys are generally
very well behaved and do exactly what
you want them to do.”
A horse!
Emma Stewart, 11,
Charlottetown, P.E.I.
ATLANTIC HORSE & PONY | November 2014-January 2015 | Page 23