Clark, Conan and Ollie are enjoying a vacation at Wendy O'Brien's Trout Walk Farm near Montmorenci, and they deserve a break after turning in one of their best performances ever.
The three handsome Welsh Cob geldings earned their third United States Equestrian Federation Pair Pony Combined Driving Championship in March in Florida.
"They're getting four weeks off, and then the goal through the summer is to keep them in condition and not tax their brains," said O'Brien, who lives in Aiken. "We don't want to wear them out because we are pretty sure they're going to be invited to be on the American team for the FEI (Federation Equestre Internationale) World Driving Championships for Ponies in September (in the Netherlands). With their experience and ability, they don't need a lot of training. They are an amazing group of ponies."
Clark is 17 years old, and his full brother, Conan, is 16. Ollie is 14.
All three are chestnuts, and all have flashy white markings.
"In pairs driving, you have a spare in case something happens." O'Brien said. "Ollie is the spare, but he actually does compete."
Combined driving events have three phases: dressage, marathon and cones.
"Clark, who has been blind in one eye since birth, is the most solid and talented pony, and he does everything," O'Brien said. "Conan does dressage and cones, and Ollie does the marathon."
O'Brien owns Clark, Conan and Ollie. She drove them to their first national championship in 2012 and during an appearance in the World Driving Championships in France in 2013. Amy Cross, who is the horse manager for O'Brien's farm, was the driver when the ponies earned additional national titles last year and in March. "I have shoulder injuries and a hip replacement, so Amy started driving them for me," O'Brien said. "She is a natural. She had been driving the ponies singly and had competed some. She also had been on the back of my carriage for every lesson and had absorbed everything probably better than I did."
In March, Cross and O'Brien's ponies were in a close battle with Kentucky's Katie Whaley and her equine team for the national championship. Less than a point separated them after the dressage and marathon phases.
Aiken County's representatives then made no mistakes while moving quickly through the course during the cones phase while their rivals knocked a ball off one of the obstacles.
"We knew we had to go in there and perform," said Cross after winning with an overall score of 134.40 compared to Whaley's 138.30.
Cross praised Clark, Conan and Ollie for their ability to get along with each other.
"They have totally different personalities, and they have their quirks, but they work very well together," she said. "They know their jobs."
This year will be the ponies' last in high-level combined driving competition for pairs.
"They have no physical issues, but in pairs you ask a lot out of them and it's grueling," O'Brien said. "At their age, I just feel like that enough is enough."
O'Brien plans to use the trio in a four-in-hand team that she is putting together.
"We don't want to push them so hard anymore, and the fours go slower while competing," O'Brien said. "They can't move through a hazard as fast as the pairs because there are more of them."
Dede Biles is a general assignment reporter for the Aiken Standard and has been with the newspaper since January 2013. A native of Concord, N.C., she graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.