Minden-Kutenhausen, Germany – The best combined driving athletes and their ponies have come to the 2017 FEI World Driving Championships for Ponies, August 15-20, in hopes of winning a medal. Under the guidance of Chef d’Equipe Jennifer Matheson and Coach Thorsten Zarembowicz, Miranda Cadwell, Tracey Morgan, and Katie Whaley will compete as individuals for the U.S. The U.S. representatives are seasoned world championship competitors and will draw upon their experience while competing in Minden-Kutenhausen. Cadwell and Morgan will compete in the FEI World Driving Championships for Single Ponies, while Whaley is the sole U.S. competitor in the FEI World Driving Championships for Pair Ponies.

Morgan (Beallsville, Md.) and her own Fuego 88 started their third consecutive world championship together on Wednesday by scoring 53.61 in the dressage phase to sit in sixth place. They have won numerous USEF Single Pony Combined Driving National Championship titles. Morgan and the 2001 German Riding Pony gelding have won the CAI2*-P1 divisions at the Palm Tree Combined Driving Event (CDE) at Little Everglades and Live Oak International earlier this year.

Cadwell (Southern Pines, N.C.) and Cannon’s Majestic Leyla began their world championship appearance on Wednesday with a score of 65.07 in the dressage phase to sit in 36th place. Cadwell last competed in a world championship in 2011. She and the 2003 Welsh Pony-cross mare have been consistent performers since their partnership began in 2013. In 2017, Cadwell and the 2003 Welsh Cross mare finished fourth in the CAI2*-P1 divisions at the Palm Tree CDE at Little Everglades and Live Oak International before winning the Advanced Single Pony division at Southern Pines CDE.

Whaley (Paris, Ky.), who will contest the dressage phase on Thursday, won every CDE she entered in 2016, and was the 2016 and 2017 USEF Pair Pony Combined Driving National Champion with her own Tommy, a 2003 Welsh Pony-cross gelding, and Tanner, a 2006 Welsh Pony-cross gelding, and Barbara Sims’s Night Flyer, a 2000 Welsh Section C gelding. This year, she and her ponies won the CAI2*-P2 divisions at the Palm Tree CDE at Little Everglades and Live Oak International and the Advanced Pair Pony division at Southern Pines CDE in preparation for the world championships.

Competition continues Thursday with the dressage phase of the FEI World Driving Championships for Pair Ponies with Whaley performing her dressage test at 10:05 a.m. EST. The marathon phase for all divisions takes place Saturday, followed by the cones phase on Sunday.

Find out more about the 2017 FEI World Driving Championships for Ponies.

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