Here are highlights overall results of the 2005 Central Ontario Regional D Rally, held August 6 at Woodwind Farm near Hawkestone, presented from the least to most difficult levels.  Details follow the highlights.

"Rally" is the Pony Club term for Eventing, an Olympic discipline in which competitors must ride a formal Dressage test, a Cross Country or endurance phase across open country and over fixed obstacles, and a Stadium Jumping competition. Scoring is done on a penalty points basis, with all errors of course, refusals, rails down and falls counted as penalties. Penalties are also incurred for taking too much time, or too little, to finish the Cross Country phase. The rider with the fewest penalties wins. Placing ribbons are awarded for dressage, cross country and overall, with a "Clear Round" ribbon for all those who make no mistakes in the Stadium phase.

The "D" in D Rally refers to the minimum level riders must have passed in the Pony Club testing system to enter. There are three "D" levels: D, D1 and D2. To get each of them, Pony Club members must pass a written examination in horsemanship, an oral test of stable management, and a riding test. Each level competes in a different division at D-Rally, with Dressage tests, fence heights in both Stadium Jumping and Cross Country phases, and the time allowed for Cross Country, all adjusted to their skill levels.

D Level

At the D level, Rachel Goodman of the Whitchurch Pony Club was the winner riding her pony Ladybug. This year Rachel, 11, and Ladybug have participated in dressage qualifiers and hunter shows.  They placed first in all three classes at the Victoria dressage qualifier earlier this year.  Second place went to Jessica McDonnell of the Ajax Pony Club on Champagne Cocktail, with Sarah Nason of the Maple Pony Club third riding Dillon.  Jessica, 17, has been a member of Ajax for three years, and this was her first D Rally.  She and Champagne Cocktail have participated in show jumping shows this summer.  Sarah, 12, has been a member of the Maple Pony Club for two years.  She began riding Dillon this Spring, and they have participated in some horse trials and jumper shows.  This was also their first D Rally.

D1 Level

Rachel Welsh of the Oshawa Pony Club won the D1 Division on Pippi Longstocking; these were last year's D champions. Rachel, 15, has been a member of Oshawa for three years.  She and Pippi, a ten year old Thoroughbred-Belgian cross, have taken part in dressage, tetrathlon and cross-country jumping.  Rachel says that dressage is her favourite.  Second place went to Emma Goodman of the Whitchurch Pony Club riding Ceulan Caitlin, and Jennifer McKeen of the Oshawa Pony Club took third place on Mya.  Emma, 14, has been a Whitchurch member for two years, and has been riding her Welsh Cob Ceulan Caitlin for a year.  They have enjoyed eventing, dressage and Short Course events this year (placing in all their events so far).  Jennifer, 12, has been a member of Oshawa for five years. She describes her pony Mya as "talented and very fast."  Jennifer and Mya have participated in show jumping and dressage qualifiers this year.

D2 Level

At the D2 level, the highest in this competition, the winner was Hannah Galway of the Maple Pony Club riding Phineas. Hannah, 10, was the youngest competitor at the D2 level.  She has been a member of Maple for three years and has ridden Phineas, a Welsh Cob-Thoroughbred cross, for the same amount of time.  This year, they have competed in tetrathlon and horse trials.  Hannah kept her rythm in the stadium jumping ring by serenading the spectators with a rousing rendition of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" for the entire course.  We understand she also sang her way over the whole cross-country course, but have no data on which music she chose for this phase of the competition.  Lauren Kelly of the Victoria Pony Club was second aboard Skylark, and third place went to Ilona Parenteau of the Toronto & North York Pony Club on Anastasia.  Lauren, 12, has been a member of Pony Club for four or five years.  She and her Welsh pony Skylark have participated in show jumping, tetrathlon and hunting.  Ilona, 15, has been together with her Arabian-Saddlebred mare Anastasia since Anastasia was a yearling.  This year they have competed in Pony Club dressage and jumping shows, plus eventing.

Stable Management

One major difference between Pony Club rallies and "regular" events is that Pony Clubbers compete in horse care/stable management on a Branch team basis, as well as individually in the riding phases. (At nearly every facility we use, the owners/operators tell us they wish regular events would add this as a competitive factor.) This year's Stable Management Award winner was the Whitchurch Pony Club.

Now here are the detailed scores, to tenth place.

D Level

Rider	Horse	Branch	Dr. Faults	Dr. Rank	X-Ctry Faults	X-Ctry Rank	Std. Faults	Tot. Faults	Overall Rank
Rachel Goodman	Ladybug	Whitchurch	37.8	1	3.2	7	0.0	41.0	1
Jessica McDonnell	Champagne Cocktail	Ajax	46.0	2	1.6	5	0.0	47.6	2
Sarah Nason	Dillon	Maple	52.2	7	0.0	3	0.0	52.2	3
Alexandra Reynolds	She's Like The Wind	Kawartha	55.4	12	0.0	2	0.0	55.4	4
Kylie Figueira	Go For Cool	Victoria	46.0	2	6.0	9	4.0	56.0	5
Maddy Lang	Maximus	King	55.4	13	1.0	4	0.0	56.4	6
Maggie Dickie	Bluebell	Victoria	52.8	8	2.8	6	4.0	59.6	7
Alanna Eadie	Monty	Simcoe	60.5	20	0.0	1	0.0	60.5	8
Emma Lemay-Nedjelski	Cadbury	Ajax	60.0	17	4.4	8	0.0	64.4	9
Emma Bradbury	Ms. Cassie	Centaurus	63.1	21	9.2	10	0.0	72.3	10

D1 Level

Rider	Horse	Branch	Dr. Faults	Dr. Rank	X-Ctry Faults	X-Ctry Rank	Std. Faults	Tot. Faults	Overall Rank
Rachel Welsh	Pippi Longstocking	Oshawa	39.3	1	2.0	8	4.0	45.3	1
Emma Goodman	Ceulan Caitlin	Whitchurch	42.8	2	0.4	3	4.0	47.2	2
Jennifer McKeen	Mya	Oshawa	56.0	5	1.6	6	0.0	57.6	3
Emily Lindsay	Tarragon	Simcoe	56.5	6	1.2	4	0.0	57.7	4
Mallory Black	Galileo	King	57.8	8	0.0	1	0.0	57.8	5
Erika Belanger	Rambling Rose	Ajax	58.7	11	3.2	9	0.0	61.9	6
Emily Gilles	Spice of Life	Ajax	60.9	15	1.2	4	0.0	62.1	7
Danielle Kelly	Junior	Whitchurch	57.4	7	5.2	11	0.0	62.6	8
Jennifer Nason	A Wee Bit Tipsy	Maple	66,2	20	0.0	2	0.0	66.2	9
Lindsay Beer	June Bug	Centaurus	63.5	18	4.0	10	0.0	67.5	10

D2 Level

Rider	Horse	Branch	Dr. Faults	Dr. Rank	X-Ctry Faults	X-Ctry Rank	Std. Faults	Tot. Faults	Overall Rank
Hannah Galway	Phineas	Maple	48.3	1	0.0	7	0.0	48.3	1
Lauren Kelly	Skylark	Victoria	49.2	5	1.6	8	0.0	50.8	2
Ilona Parenteau	Anastasia	Toronto & North York	47.8	2	0.0	4	4.0	51.8	3
Johanna McKeen	Milgate Braveheart	Oshawa	48.3	3	0.0	5	4.0	52.3	4
Andrea McGill	Phoenix Rising	Durham	53.9	7	0.0	2	0.0	53.9	5
Sophie Kalpin	Flubber Bunny	Maple	46.4	1	0.0	6	8.0	54.4	6
Jennalyn Webber	My Prince Charming	Uxbridge-Scugog	56.3	8	2.0	9	0.0	58.3	7
Katie Hoppe	Beaverwoods Larkspur	Brooklin	59.5	10	0.0	3	0.0	59.5	8
Sandra Shantz	Pyra	Prince Edward County	57.7	9	2.0	9	4.0	63.7	9
Carolyn Russell-Poliquin	Kaladar	Oshawa	62.8	13	4.0	11	0.0	66.8	10

Stable Management

In stable management, each Branch starts off with 250 points.  Points are deducted for every mistake or problem spotted by the stable management judge during the day.  Judging actually begins before the start of the dressage competition and lasts until after the cross-country phase is wrapped up.  Stable management is entirely the responsibility of the Pony Club members.  Help from parents, coaches or Branch officials will get a team eliminated from this part of the competition - though of course help is available in case of real emergencies.  Whitchurch Pony Club won this year's competition with a perfect score of 250, which happens about as often as pitching a no-hitter or hitting for the cycle in baseball.

For more details e-mail Bob Inglis, Central Ontario Regional Communications Chair, or call him at 416-493-1223 (office) or 416-491-4230 (home).