What an indoor finals! Julie Wedgbury powered to victory in the team class to become the Indoor Driving Champion for an incredible 15^th time. Shetland ponies are Julie’s pride and joy, and she has 16 of her own at home. She is well known as someone who has a way with Shetlands and certainly knows how to get these little ponies to enjoy their driving and excel.

This year saw a big change to Julie’s team.  For years, the very successful ‘Flying Hamsters’ have been a team of Mini Shetland ponies with only necessary changes made as older members have retired. Last year Julie found was in flux, and ended up mixing standard wheelers with her mini leaders. This year, her team is a new set up with two full up Shetland wheelers and a different carriage – and the combination has proved to be impressive. The two bigger wheelers have provided ‘a turbo boost’ making the whole team far more powerful. The four chestnuts are all registered and the leaders are Boggart’s Crumpet (19) and Liaddan Xara (9), and the wheelers Barns Finale (Teddy) and Yarpha Chestnut Ripple (23).

Like all keen drivers, Julie is always looking to improve, even when at the top of her game, and made the huge decision to power up and make major changes to take her team driving forward. Julie is inspired by Boyd and follows his progress and teachings keenly. She was especially determined to improve her dressage and was absolutely thrilled with her score at the finals. Her winning dressage of 21.25 put her 10 points ahead of Luis Mira who was in second place with his team of Fell ponies.

‘I was bowled over to come 6^th overall in Saturday’s Precision & Paces as Shetland ponies traditionally can’t show the range of trot paces that other breeds can. I like to get my dressage right and with the Shetlands I must get top marks in precision, and get into the corners and keep against the boards. It’s important to have the ponies calm and serene and bending correctly,’ Julie said.

The judges certainly approved as Julie had an incredible 5.5 total score for precision, which was only beaten by one mark out of all the championship contenders. There were a pleasing number of 10s and 9s in her marks and the paces were also good and achieved 15.75 which was the best in the team class. She says that one of her new wheelers is excellent at rein-back which also helps.  This time the cones also went well, and she put another 16 points between herself and Luis.

‘I was elated! We had a cracking cones round with just six time penalties and only had the last ball down …we just breathed on it. I aimed to keep it neat and tidy with a bit of speed in places to get round. It was great that we had established a commanding lead going into obstacles.’

The Indoor Champs have an electric atmosphere with so many competitors and so Julie uses ear mufflers on some of the ponies to dull impact on them of the shouting and clanking of other carriages. In the warmup, where bigger turnouts pass by quite close, it can be intimidating, especially for the smaller ponies. Teddy, Ripple’s partner in the wheel, is all brawn and Julie jokes he is built like a sumo wrestler, but he is also a sensitive soul. She maintains he has ‘big donkey ears’ that are tuned into everything she asks, but they also magnify every small sound, making him quite nervous. He doesn’t like noises from the windy conditions or other carriages but is reassured by the calmness of the rest of the team.

Julie likes all three phases but admits that it’s the obstacles which are the favourite phase. ‘I like the speed of the obstacles and the adrenalin…when you’ve got a good team and they are turning like butter, there’s nothing like it.’

The team stormed round the obstacles to pull even further ahead and take the win by 51.56 points. What a debut for her new combination in a competitive class of four teams and now Julie feels she has her team for the future.   However, it’s not been an easy journey to get this team together.  People who don’t drive multiples are often amazed by how difficult it is to get a well-matched team.  Julie was busy all winter trying different combinations to create a full up Shetland team. She wryly comments that even someone like Boyd may end up trying 50 or more horses to put a good team together, so it is a challenge.

Julie explains that some ponies are simply not team players. You need leaders that are in your hand just wanting to go, and they need to be incredibly bold and responsive, and ideally also clever enough to dodge obstacle posts. Wheelers need to be powerhouses and basically happy to be ‘bottom followers’. They need to be workmanlike in their collars, not fall in on turns and each pony needs to know their name and the commands so they can respond as individuals while at the same time having the attitude to work willingly as a team member. If a wheeler is getting too close to a post when you say his name he needs to sit back and wait, holding his line.

‘It’s madness that I had four standard Shetlands to choose from last season as wheelers and was swapping and changing around at all my events. I found my Shetland Grand National pony was way too fast doing flying turns. He found it all too exciting and was trying to race everyone else in the team. One intelligent fast mare had to be swapped out altogether as she would know the routes by the second time and was turning too soon. It takes years to get it right.’

A common problem can be the wheelers running onto the leaders on a tight turn and the leaders dropping out of rein contact.

Julie messaged Eileen Macdonald who had a team of standard chestnut ponies, and was offered her lovely wheeler Ripple. Julie watched a video and felt he would be ideal, so Ripple came down from Scotland on a big Eric Gillie lorry. Ripple had driven in a team with Richard Lanni for Eileen, and done lots of showing and AIAT, so it was a priority to get him up to speed and have him cantering in the carriage. In his 20s and fresh from his retirement, Ripple proved to be a quick learner and has cemented Julie’s new combination as a proper competition squad – and her dream team.  The message is to never write off an older horse or pony as they have so much experience and many still truly love their work. Julie is immensely grateful to Eileen, and in turn Eileen is rightly extremely proud of her pony and a keen follower of his exploits.

‘Ripple was absolutely what I needed because the one that I had in the wheel at the finals last year didn’t want to sit back and wait for the turns.  She is the one who pushed me onto an obstacle which was a very costly mistake that dropped me to third. Ripple’s just taken it all in his stride.’

With the more powerful wheelers, Julie realised she needed a heavier carriage and instead of the 130kg Bennington that was perfect for her minis, she now uses a 225kg Revolution pony pair carriage. The extra features like the delayed steering and turntable brake have also proved invaluable and she is thrilled with her present set up.

Julie is excited about future developments with this slightly bigger Shetland team. The new ruling for Very Small Ponies means that in indoor and outdoor trials they only need one backstepper on the carriage, while the second can be a ‘stand-down’ groom. At an outdoor event, an electric bike can be used by the backstepper on the ground so they can keep up as the team moves around the marathon course.  Julie says one day she would love to try outdoor trials with her new combo, but for now, AIAT in the summer is her focus. Before then, the ponies will enjoy a rest and a couple of well-earned months in the field after working hard during the indoor season.

Julie hopes that the Wagonette she uses for showing will be finished by August because it is currently being overhauled by Philip Holder to bring it back to show condition. Private Driving is something else Julie has always enjoyed and she did well with her pair and tandem. ‘My team are now spot on and I just can’t wait. I’m still dreaming of getting to an AIAT in France, if I can find sponsors. Next year I hope to do Glamis and a few UK events.’

On the home front she is busy with her livelihood of breaking in Shetlands to drive for other people. At present she is bringing on four coloured minis as a team for a client, who is looking forward to backstepping while Julie drives. Demand is always high for ride and drive Shetlands.

Julie has set up her own stud, Faintrees (named after her house) with a stallion and three breeding mares. She is busy breeding her next team and her first foal ‘Faintrees Hooray Henry’ is now ready to start training.  Julie hopes he will make a good leader. Some homebred ponies will be sold to support her driving, but she has her goal firmly set of her own homebred team.

Julie hasn’t got an arena at home, and her facilities are limited to a small lunge arena and a horse-walker. She uses farm tracks and fields, and once a week takes the ponies to the Cavalier RDA centre, where she is a coach, to use the big arena there. She also uses competitions to train and is well placed to get to four venues in her area.

Working in the arena gives her the opportunity to practise turns and set movements, and observe how the ponies respond. Julie has had a lot of wonderful input from former successful pony team driver Ursula Hirschberg whose advice and coaching has been invaluable, especially in the dressage.

What other plans has Julie got for next year, apart from all the activities with her standard sized Shetland team? She is thinking of also bringing out a pair using her Shetland Grand National pony that was too fast for the team, paired with his aunt who was the very fast, ‘too-intelligent’ mare. Julie has also had Slades Dewberry since he was two and he has been national and international winner, returning recently from winning in Hong Kong. He also won the London International Horse Show on the night Julie went to watch from the owner’s box, and at Cheltenham. Next up is the Shetland Grand National at Badminton and Julie jokes that she will need to put weights on his young rider’s head to stop her outgrowing him, but the backup plan is to get him driving in a supersonic pairing.

She also has four small Gurnos Section C ponies, two of which are already driving as a pair and are set to enjoy more outdoor events. Team driving can be addictive……. who knows when a Gurnos Welsh pony team might also hit the circuit?

Julie loves driving her Shetlands and all being well, they are set to enjoy many wonderful years ahead, packed with variety including showing, AIAT, indoor and outdoor driving trials. One thing is certain, Julie will have fun and they will be very happy Shetland ponies.