The Frilly Filly Gran Prix

By Kendra Chemistry (ponygirl “Aella”), Pony Correspondent

When you visit most any pony play stable in SL, you'll see various courses used by the trainers to teach and test the ponies various skills. Trainers may stage contests on the courses between ponies to show off, earn praise and rewards, or just for fun.

Stables also sponsor organized events to bring together ponies from all over the grid for some friendly competition, win awards and socialize.

One of the common events in pony play is the cart race, which might be run on a track, a marked course on farm trails, or even one that runs through many regions in SL. Cart racers use a racing sulky, a light, 2-wheeled cart built for speed. What follows is a "sports report" of a typical event.

Under a beautiful, cloudless sky one night this past week, ponies (some with their trainers or owners), and a number of spectators gathered with anticipation for a cart race event, the Frilly Filly Farm (FFF) Gran Prix.

Event notices on the Pony Info Group, SL Ponygirl Club, and the farms's own group had gone out for days, as well as being posted on the event calendar at http://slponyplay.com/ . There were ponies of a wide range of experience and skill levels lined up to race.

The course was laid out on about 1.5KM of trails that run the perimeter of the farm. In the minutes leading up to the beginning of the race, at least one ponygirl (Aella) frantically practiced, trying to learn the course, adjust to the region weather (lag), and make up for being more trainer than pony lately.

One of the trainers running the race did her part to try to reduce lag (see photo), and also succeeded in happily distracting this pony reporter.

The trainers started carts about every minute or so. Most ponies took their laps without riders, while others carried a rider sometimes (this pony reporter ran her best time with her trainer along for the ride.)

Sometimes an accident would happen, such as tumbling off the course. Fortunately no ponies, riders or spectators were injured (there is a clinic at this farm, just in case.)

Some of the more experienced ponies jumped out to early leads on the scoreboard, but as the race wore on, some very talented newer ponies gave them a run for their money.

The top times differed in fractions of a second at times, and the drama was building at the end, as the times got very close to each other and were very fast. As usual, a fun time was had by all, and treats and ribbons were awarded.

Results of the Frilly Filly Gran Prix: 1 Solange Redangle (Arun) 117.447 2 Shortcake (lilitha Triellis) 117.621 3 Jelly (Jill Freenote) 118.327 4 Sovka Canning 122.991 5 Pricilla Slade 123.458 6 Caprice (Becky de Pure) 125.882 7 Krystalin Windrunner 126.296 8 Aella (Kendra Chemistry) 126.841 9 Daniella Zenoria 127.538 10 Amberlee Moonshadow 145.998 11 Equuea Eiren 154.209 12 Moonshine (Roxieboo Resident) 158.638 13 Smurfette (jessika1990) 356.445

An upcoming special event: An advanced skill ponies may learn is called Dressage. In a future column we’ll go into it further, but for now I’m happy to announce a dressage show will take place on Saturday November 12th, starting at 7am SL time.

This November show is being hosted by the Frilly Filly Farm, but future shows will be hosted at stables all over SL. Please see the SL Dressage Society web site for details.

The Place: Frilly Filly Farm (FFF)
The SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bulgogi/155/230/78
Owner: Button Wright