Sarah writes – In recent years I’ve enjoyed seeing Geraldine Pearson’s little cob Davey Crockett while judging at AIAT events.  He is a super type, always seems willing and obviously enjoys his driving.  I was especially impressed with him at the CIAT Ashfields in June 2026 and asked Geraldine to tell us a bit more about her special pony.  Learning about his start in life and the second chance that he’s been given by Geraldine is truly heart warming, and is the essence of what we can achieve in driving alongside the wonderful horses and ponies that we take into our lives.

Geraldine writes – In 2013 the RSPCA was overloaded with abandoned ponies.  They launched an appeal for somebody to take and foster three foals called the Three Amigos – Charlee, Nate and Davey.

At that time, I had capacity to take three foals and they came to me in early 2014.  All three were orphans and rescued from various places, and I adopted all three at one year old.

Davey had been tied to a dead foal in a ditch.  He was the smallest and seemed to be the youngest of the three – we estimated three to four months – so they were all winter foals.

They were all in one stable and ate foal creep and hay, and they all curled up together. Davey was the hairy one with a long beard, double mane and thick tail, and was very head shy.

My neighbours came and helped me walk them with headcollars and handle them, and they also played in the fields.  They were fairly compliant, but like all youngsters, could be boisterous and we had them gelded at six months old.

Charlee, Nate and Davey went off to be trained to harness when they were about three and a half, they were also broken to ride.  Charlee moved on, and is very successful in Nottinghamshire with his new owner.

I started driving Davey locally and did a couple of BDS Area Shows with him then went onto Bedfordshire Indoor Driving Trials which Davey loves.  He enjoys competing, particularly the cones phase.  At that time there were opportunities to do outdoor competitions locally in the summer, and Nate and Davey started there.  Davey has also been very successful in indoor driving trials and consistently won the veteran classes over several years competing at the National Indoor Finals twice.

In 2021 Davey was awarded the Rescue Horse of the Year by Carriage Driving Awards which made us very proud.  In 2025 following a camp with BDS Area 24, Davey qualified for the National TREC Championships.  We then won the National Championship in a good class of twelve finalists and we were thrilled with him.

In 2023, we bought a Mills of Paddington Ladies Phaeton dating from 1910 and had it restored, plus black Laurie of Paisley carriage from 1886.  We went to Glamis Castle Attelage in 2024 and for the first time put Davey in leather harness with a collar, which was new and Ken and I too.  We enjoyed it so much we went on to do the Ashfields and New Forest AIAT events that year.

Medical issues got in the way in 2025, but we still managed to do CIAT Ashfields and more TREC. This June, we drove Davey again at CIAT Ashfields and he did his best, coming second in his class and fourth overall.

He always tries his best at all competitions and looks forward to coming home to his partner in crime, Nate.