4:28pm Wednesday 23rd September 2009
CARRIAGE driver Lynn Winder all but quit the sport after an accident with a runaway pair of ponies, but has put that setback behind her to triumph at the National Carriage driving Championships at Windsor.
Lynn, who lives at Howe Barn,Tebay, has gone unbeaten all season with her Section A pony combination Bill and Misty, culminating in winning the prestigious Open Pairs Pony Championships.
She has been carriage driving since her father introduced to the sport at the age of six.
Her husband Mark, a builder, was a national champion back in 1997.
But 30 months ago on Good Friday, she had a nasty accident with a runaway pair of ponies that threw her out of the cart and left her with a badly-bruised hip.
"I always said I would pack in after my next runaway and I sold off a lot of my equipment and thought that was the end of it."
However, she was tempted back into driving more manageable Section A ponies, which are the smallest of the Welsh breeds.
And although Bill and Misty are "Cinderellas" in breeding terms, they have seen off allcomers.
Success at Windsor made it nine consecuctive wins after finishing unbeaten at five clubs events and three national qualifiying competiitions.
Lynn said: "It was third time lucky - a pair of fell ponies went lame on me just before Windsor one year and then Misty had a fall ten days before last year's competition and cut her knees and we did not go to compete."
The Open Pairs involve three days of competition, comprising the dressage, the marathon-- similar to Three Day Eventing's cross-country and the cones, in which the carriage is given only 20 centimetres of clearance to negotiate a tight sequence.
Lynn, who is a suppport worker with Cumbria County Council, also coaches the national paraplegic carriage driving team, She said: "I've always wanted to do well at the National Championships and be a champion - there's not many of them and my now my name is in the history-books I feel I've achieved something special."
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