BMW Concours at the Ox Ridge Hunt Club

 

By Willy Wiley and jerri Wiley

On Saturday August 20^th the chapter hosted a concours in conjunction with the Ox Ridge Summer Dressage Show in Darien, Connecticut. It was a relaxed event with the winner determined by people’s choice balloting by both those who brought their cars as well as attendees of the horse show. 

We had cars on display for the concours from near and far. Jerry Campagna and his friend Cindie drove all the way from New Jersey in his Z3 to attend the event. Others, like Tom Rudkin in his ’73 3.0CS,  had a short ride from New Canaan. Adrian Pasternak entered his daily driver in the show, a 1984 533i. All totaled we had eight cars entered in the concours.

The Wine Gala dinner was a separate part of the dressage show and we had been invited to attend. Those who stayed enjoyed the hors d’eouvres¢, wine and beer, and buffet. The main entertainment was a demonstration entitled “Dances With Horses.”  A few of the people felt that the interpretive dances, with horses and people interacting in a ring, required a bit more alcohol to understand properly.

The winner of the Peoples Choice trophy however did not need any interpretation. It was an orange 1976 2002 entered by Dan Malloy from another local town, Stamford. Dan and his wife Kim were surprised when we announced the results during the gala dinner.

While we were waiting for the dinner to start, there were three horses with their riders just hanging around the grass area where our cars were parked.  At least we thought they were just hanging around!  Jerri asked them if they’d mind posing for photos with our cars.  They graciously agreed and proceeded to position their horses behind and between three of the cars.  After the photos were taken, jerri asked each of them for the names of both the horse and rider and how they had done during the day’s competitions.  To her surprise, we just “happened” to have the First, Second, and Third placed horses of the Free Style event!  It turned out that they weren’t just hanging around, they were actually waiting to go back into the ring to accept their ribbons.

Third place was Paige Finnegan (on the right in the photo) on Karola 1, a Holsteiner from Germany (how fitting).  Second place was Karin Reid Offield (left in the photo) on Hexegon’s Louisville, a Dutch Warm Blood Stallion, and in First place was Shannon Dueck on Korona, a Dutch Gelding from Florida.

As you can see from the photos of the event, we were parked right in front row position!  It was great to see the horses walking by our cars – as one horse power to many!  Sandy Markosborn on Milestone was great.  She came over and kept her horse near us while we shot lots of photos.  Her horse only cared that he was being allowed to munch on the grass, and was not impressed with all that horse power parked behind him.

All those who attended from our club were in agreement that they had an enjoyable day and that we should try to do something like it again next year. Meanwhile we’ll have to sharpen up our interpretive skills.