Bill Long of Southern Pines, N.C., celebrated his 59th birthday with a come from behind victory in the advanced four-in-hand division at the Southern Pines Combined Driving Event, April 16-18 in Southern Pines, N.C.

Although Tucker Johnson of New Jersey was applauded as winner after his cones round, the scorers later determined that Long had edged ahead by 1.01 points with Patsy and Seth Wooten’s team of Dutch geldings.

“A win is a win,” Long said. “I’m so pleased with the team. A couple of the good horses weren’t in [the team] this weekend. In fact, my right wheeler is only a 7-year-old, and yesterday was his first marathon. We went up a tree a little bit at the second hazard, but that was our only tense moment and they came right back.”

Current national champion Chester Weber, of Ocala, Fla., looked like a sure bet with the winning dressage score (40.27), although he wasn’t happy with his test. “They can do 10 points better,” he said.

On marathon day, Weber was up on the clock in every hazard until his leaders hung up on a post in the final gate of the final obstacle. He spent more than a minute trying to back the team off the post before finally putting a groom down, and the resulting penalties knocked him back to third by 10 points.

Johnson, driving with his whip taped to a cast (he broke his right thumb in a training accident two weeks earlier), earned a marathon score .29 points better than Long’s. His lead going into cones was less than 4 points. “There were times when I just couldn’t take a loop,” said Johnson. “I was in a full fiberglass cast until a few days ago.”

A tight and trappy cones course netted only one clear round out of 30 advanced turnouts. “We wanted a course similar in style to what they will face in Europe,” said course designer Richard Pringle. “The horses need to go to the rail, with spectators up close, and the drivers need to turn off the wall.”

Weber had four knockdowns; Long and Johnson each had three, but Long shaved 5 seconds off the clock to claim the victory.

“The courses were difficult,” Long said. “But that’s what we need to compete with the Europeans. It’s not enough to get the leaders through; we have to work with the whip to get the wheelers straight.”

The event was a U.S. Equestrian selection trial for the FEI World Four-in-Hand Driving Championship to be held in Kecsemet, Hungary this August.

Scott Padgett, 26, of Southern Pines, N.C., was evidently tired of placing second every time out with Sherrie and Woody Davis’ homebred Morgan gelding, Collector’s Right Stuff. They were due a win, and not only did they claim the advanced single division but also the overall advanced championship, the Milton Long memorial trophy for best advanced marathon, the best advanced cones trophy, and the Alice Stewart memorial trophy for the best Moore County driver.

“For the most part, it went well for us,” Padgett said in his usual understated style. His third-placed dressage ranking was only one point off Kate Shields’ lead. “I felt we had improved in dressage, thanks to Joe Darby, my ground man. He’s been helping me for the last year.”

Padgett won five out of the seven hazards on the 12.5-kilometer (7.76 mile) marathon course to grab an eight-point lead over 13 other horses.

“He’s strong and healthy this season and really started to step up and handle the work,” Padgett said of the 12-year-old Morgan. “And I depend a lot on my navigator, Ted Horvath.”

Horvath and Padgett are both professional firefighters for the town of Southern Pines. With a 24-hours on, 48-hours off schedule, Padgett just got off a 24-hour shift the morning of dressage. Padgett also manages a Southern Pines landmark, Economy Farm, for his grandmother-in-law, Mary Gray.

But it was Padgett’s cones performance that brought the crowd to their feet. Padgett boldly answered all the questions on the course with his nimble partner, cantering the entire round with balance and precision to clock the only clear advanced trip of the day.

“We just keep going forward and try to stay focused,” Padgett said. “I just point him and go.”

This division also served as a U.S. Equestrian selection trial for the FEI World Single Driving Championship to be held in Flyinge, Sweden this summer.

Katie Whaley drove her Welsh geldings, the leaders from her 2002-03 national championship pony four-in-hand team, to the top of the advanced pony pair class.

“I’ve never shown a pair before. But mom [Kate Whaley Sr.] wanted to show, so I gave her the wheelers, who are rock solid,” Whaley said. “It was a lot of work [for the leaders], who are not as fit, but they were great on the marathon. They surprised me. It was a lot of fun.”

Jennifer Matheson of Aiken, S.C., drove her Germanbred stallion Danyloo to the top of the advanced single pony division. Matheson made up a 10-point dressage deficit (to dressage champion Megan Sibiga, who produced the only sub-40 score of the event with a 39) by risking a fast cones trip that produced only one knockdown.

Boots Wright of Vass, N.C., led the preliminary fours class from the white rectangle to the finish line with her team of spotted medium ponies.

“In dressage, I had a new, 4-year-old wheeler in his first competition,” Wright said. “If I tap on him too much to get him to go to the pole and bend, he’ll canter. So our test could have been better. In marathon and cones, I had a green mare in the right lead, and I just wanted to give her a confidence trip.”

Sue Smithson