The 2000 renewal of the Asprey & Garrard International Driving Grand Prix at the Royal Windsor Horse Show was a really thrilling event attracting some of the top drivers in the world. It produced some outstanding performances, especially by the 'Flying Dutchman' Ysbrand Chardon en route to winning the Team of Horses section at this event for the third time with his superb bay warmblood horses.

World Champion Ysebrand Chardon in action

Ysbrand is a true professional. He runs his own carriage driving school in Holland and although he is only 39 he has already been World Champion twice - in fact, he is the reigning champion. Retaining the trophy that he won at Windsor last year, Ysbrand imposed his authority on the competition from the outset thanks to a superb dressage test of 36.8 penalties, establishing a lead which he never looked likely to relinquish. Britain's stalwart of the international scene, George Bowman, and his striking black Cumberland cobs did not fare so well in this section. Although placed second at the end of the first day, George did not think he had produced one of his best dressage performances and it left him over 5 penalty points in arrears. Only .3 of a point put him in front of another former world champion, Felix Brasseur of Belgium, driving his new team of Lippizaners. Felix had been in Belgium's gold medal winning team of 1996, along with another competitor at Windsor, Gert Schrijvers, who was lying behind Frenchman Gerard Sainte-Beuve after the dressage. Fifteen teams took part in this section and at the end of the first day a total of 33 points separated Ysbrand Chardon from the bottom competitor.

Di Hayes takes the water hazard in style (*)

The value of performing a good dressage test was proven by the results - despite the attraction of the marathon on Saturday, it was the dressage phase that had the greatest influence on the results at Windsor in the end. Of the eight sections in total, six were won by the competitors with the lowest penalties in the first phase. The most proficient dressage performance in the entire event was adjudged to be that of Britain's Di Hayes in the Single Horse section, which received a score of 34.7 penalties. Di was driving a bay hackney, Hamewith Culmallie, which made a spectacular exit across the main arena after the final prize giving! Her victory was no walkover. Numerically it was the largest section and, apart from a handful of British entries, she overcame competition from nine other countries. It was a close contest, however, as she only had 3 points in hand at the end. Having only finished sixth in the marathon her good lead had been whittled down to just 2 points ahead of Holland's Yvonne de Ruyter. Di must have been holding her breath as she rattled a few cones on the final day but, luckily for her, Yvonne de Ruyter had 6 penalties which dropped her down to sixth position overall, proving how close a competition this had been.

Continues........

Photographs © Sue Wingate except (*) Helen Revington