Winona was broke to drive as a coming four year old then put away for the winter. As a four year old I began to concentrate more on her riding. With Eline's help at five and six she was competed in ridden dressage and combined training and never driven until last fall when I decided to retire Olympia aka Mira who had been my partner in Combined driving for so many wonderful years. With only Cat to bring to Florida for the 2008 winter/spring season and wanting to  try and bring along another Fjord mare I hitched Winnie twice at home in Vermont last fall. She seemed fairly comfortable in the shafts after so long not being driven that I decided to try adding  combined driving to her already succesful  ridden career.
We arrived in Florida on January 12 and Winnie began driving two days later. With somewhat blind optimism I entered her at Sunshine State prelim, Black Prong prelim and Live Oak intermediate level. After less than six weeks driving we were off to Sunshine State. I was reasonably certain we wouldn't embarass ourselves in dressage but had no idea how the marathon would go as I had never driven a hazard with her.  On Friday I didn't have much pony for dressage but she was obedient and rock steady we placed second.
Marathon day I was really worried that she wasn't fit enough for a 13+k marathon but decided she would tell me if she wasn't fit enough and I would retire if that moment came. I never pushed her in the hazards but she was so obedient and all the ridden dressage work really helped me in the tighter turns that we ended up winning the marathon even after having a very slow entry into the water from the very scary ramp going in. I had just as much pony in the last hazard as I had in the first. She finished in great shape and seemed happy and eager thanks in no small part to my wonderful pit crew and navigator. We won three hazards were second in two and third in one.
I had a disappointing ball down in cones but easily made the time giving us the winning score in my division.
Black Prong is only a 5k section E so I should have lots of pony on the marathon phase which is good as Winnie needs to run in and out of the hazards faster than her current collected ridden dressage canter. Live Oak will see us competing against some very fancy well seasoned ponies and I'd be happy just to place. For now we are on top and hopefully will only get better as Winnie figures out the "game".