Participants from across the UK converged on Glamis Castle at the weekend to take part in a continental carriage driving competition.
The Angus landmark was the setting for the first Attelage de Tradition which promotes the use of carriages built more than 70 years ago.
Over two days, a field of 24 entries comprising singles, pairs, tandem and multiple carriages were challenged over areas including performance, turnout, skills and timekeeping.
Speaking at the weekend, Richard Lanni of the British Driving Society said: “Glamis has been an excellent venue and the staff on the estate have been so accommodating.
“We are used to Glamis because we have been going out there for a general drive on an annual basis so we have struck up a good relationship with them over a number of years.
“To have this opportunity to hold the first Attelage de Tradition in such a fantastic venue is just wonderful for us.”
Three key phases of the competition involved presentation, the 12.5 kilometre routier test through the castle’s spectacular grounds and a cones test, requiring inch-perfect carriage handling through 20 gates.
The CIAT (Concours International d’Attelage de Tradition) event is run in 14 countries across Europe to the same strict guidelines and organisers hope the inaugural Angus event will become an annual fixture.
Mr Lanni said: “This is the first Attelage competition that we have carried out in Scotland and there are only three in the UK.
“It is quite a popular sport particularly on the continent in places like France, Italy and the Netherlands.
“We thought it would make sense to bring it across here under the banner of the British Driving Society in the UK.
“I’m a past chairman of the society nationally and from that perspective the more that we can do to continue to encourage the traditions and the heritage of carriage driving the better – because a lot of these sports, particularly rural sports, are being lost.”
Mr Lanni said there was a great deal of skill involved in the events as “many of these horses have a mind of their own”.
He said: “It’s very dissimilar to a car where you switch the engine on and it supposedly does what it is told.
“It’s a great sport where – particularly with the smaller animals – the child in the house outgrows the pony and mum and dad can in fact drive the pony when the child inevitably flies the rest.
“We have drivers including the Duke of Edinburgh who continues to drive for pleasure in his 90s – so it’s a sport where very active riders can change to carriage driving as one gets a bit older.
“It’s great fun and every bit as challenging.”
