Friday 1 June 1984
Clare Wins Top Private Driving National Prize
Mrs. Clare Wigmore of Clover Farm, Whiteparish, near Salisbury, scooped a top national prize in the show horse carriage championships, by winning the British Driving Society Sanders Watney Memorial Championship last month.
Clare, who is 35, won her class in her Spider gig drawn by a six year old pony called Winewood Jet and went on to win the overall championship. Her success was all the more remarkable because of the fact that Winewood Jet, a Welsh Section D cob, was competing in his first year of private driving. Private driving is entirely different from the cross-country version made popular by the Duke of Edinburgh.
Clare was one of 60 qualifiers in the final. She said: “This is my fourth year in private driving and I have won several championships locally this year but this is my first national win. I have been concerned with horses all my life and I have always wanted to do this kind of thing. So I just started four years ago, mainly for pleasure.â€