WATERBURY – Rosemary Werner, a Marketing and Communications professor at Post University in Waterbury, enjoys competing her Chevaux Canadian horses at pleasure driving shows and competitive driving events.

Recently she drove her Four-in-Hand of black geldings at the Walnut Hill Driving Competition in Pittsford, New York, to win the cross-country class in the Four-in-Hand division. This is the largest pleasure driving show in North America so it was quite an achievement for Professor Werner in her first year of showing a Four-in-Hand. There are only two women in the USA currently driving a team of four horses in competitions.

This is no mean feat as the competition includes three phases – Dressage and Presentation on the first day, the Marathon with hazards to drive through during the course on the second day, and on the last day, the Cones, which require great accuracy and skill to complete without penalty.

This would be hard enough with one or even two horses, but to get four horses to be obedient enough to do a good dressage test and then negotiate through the various obstacles on the ‘cross country’ course and finally, complete the intricacies of the cones (which are set with just enough room for the carriage to pass through) requires a great deal of skill.

“It was very exciting and the horses were really good,” said Werner.

The horses, all from Canada, are the two leaders Baron (aged 12) and Halifax (aged 6), and the wheelers are Flick (aged 8) and Rebel (aged 10). Baron and Rebel also compete as a pair at the combined driving events and most recently, took second place at the prestigious Gladstone Driving Event in New Jersey. In fact both Halifax and Flick were used in the Post University Equine Program last year for the riding classes.

Professor Werner explained that even after driving horses for many years, “I am really looking forward to showing next year with these four horses – we aim to win more blue ribbons!”