CH Benjamin & Issachar
Benny & Issy have both been each trained to drive as a single, and then combined together to drive as a team in a pair of matched bay geldings. As brothers the same age, and as you will see in the driving videos on this page, they are really well matched and work so well together as a team perfectly in step, and in sharing the load. They are very willing to work hard together to go wherever you ask of them, so with more time and experience they will continue to develop their form ideally for good competitors in CDE driving events, as well as for long distance trail rides and parades.
And they just keep getting better every week as we've been continuing to drive and enjoy them on the roads, in car traffic, through business parking lots with work and machinery going on, and through patures among other loose horses, in the yard around the pond, and through all sorts of obstacles. Then in Feb. 2019, in the annual kick-off for the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, Alexandra and I took turns driving this team 45 miles over 3 days in the VLTRA trail ride into downtown Houston Memorial Park with my wife, kids, and grandkids riding with us in the carriage (taking turns daily). Everyone in the trail ride and all the spectators along the route, rest areas, and campsites all just loved these ponies, as they demanded the attention everywhere we went.
In April, 2019 we took this pair, and another pair of ponies, Ali & Passionate, to the Daffodil Dandy Pony Show for the Carriage Driving Competition. See the link "Carriage Driving Multiple Hitch..." on the right column of this page to see the news and pictures from this spectacular event where Benny & Issy won all the Classic Carriage Driving classes they entered, both against multiple hitch and single hitch in the same classes, so that I even won the High Point Shetland Carriage Driving award, a beautiful crystal bowl.
After viewing the pictures above (click on the 1st picture above to enlarge, then scroll thru them) and then the videos below on this page, then click on the news link on the upper right column to see pictures of them driving in the different classes at the show, then click on each of their barn names at the beginning of this 1st paragraph to go to their own individual pages for more pictures, pedigree, as well as videos of them driving as a single pony and ground manners while being harnessed untied.
We have also now been hitching this pair as the lead team, in front of another pair, Ali and Passionate, and driven them in a 4 up hitch multiple times (see video of the 4 up below). And also have now hitched this 4 together with our original matched pair, Channie and Ellie as the wheel team, and driving them in a new 6 up hitch, with Benny and Issy as the lead team. This team has become a very accomplished team and are ready to attack anything you want to do with them, as you can see their progress along the way in their pictures and videos here.
Video of Benny & Issy at their 1st show, Classic Multi-Hitch Carraige Driving:
Here is an early video of Benny & Issy driving together:
Here is a video of Benny unharnessing to show his ground manners:
Benny & Issy driving as lead team in 4 up with Ali & Passionate as wheel team
6-up team : Benny & Issy as lead team, Ali & Passionate as swing team, and Channie & Ellie as wheel team:
