Highlights Archives
Villa Louis Carriage Classic a Feast for the Eyes
Magnificently restored carriages, drivers elegantly attired in their Sunday best, and immaculately groomed horses — all set against the backdrop of a grand Victorian mansion — make the annual Villa Louis Carriage Classic pleasure driving event a veritable feast for the eyes. On Saturday and Sunday, September 9 & 10, more than 130 turnouts — including the driver, carriage, animals, and their manner of presentation — will congregate at the Villa Louis in what has become one of the Midwest's biggest and most stylish carriage driving competitions.
The convergence of so many superb horse-drawn vehicles, their nattily dressed drivers, and splendid steeds on the spacious lawns of this Victorian island country estate creates a panoramic vista reminiscent a 19th-century equine festival. Indeed, it hearkens back to the Villa Louis' own history and its brief heyday as the Artesian Stock Farm for breeding and raising Standardbred trotting horses.
 A carriage, pulled by a four-horse hitch, makes its way out of the arena after judging at the Villa Louis Carriage Classic. Drivers will compete in 11 classes, including Cones, Reinsmanship, Cross Country, Gambler's Choice, and Working Pleasure. Drivers, or whips, go head to head in the competition classes in a series of divisions that take into account such distinguishing characteristics as single-horse versus multiple-horse hitches, juniors, novice drivers, and large and small horses and ponies. Judges rank competitors based on such factors as elapsed times, difficulty of obstacles, reinsmanship skill of the driver, and the performance and manner of the horses.
Two crowd-pleasing competition classes include the Picnic Class and the Concours d'Elegance. In the Picnic Class, held at noon Saturday, entrants prepare an elegant picnic lunch, then proceed from the arena to a designated picnic site on the Villa Louis lawn. Judges rate the entries based on the performance of their turnouts; the condition, fit and appropriateness of the harness and vehicle; and the overall impression they make with the presentation of their picnic. The Concours d'Elegance, at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, marks the grand finale of the Carriage Classic as the most crowd-pleasing turnouts parade around the grounds, with judges awarding points to those turnouts that present the most elegant effect with their vehicle, harness, appointments, horses, driver, passengers and groomsmen.
If you make the excursion to Prairie du Chein for the Villa Louis Carriage Classic, you'll want to include time for a tour of the recently restored rooms of the Villa Louis mansion and the Dousman office building. Mansion tours are included in the cost of admission, so treat yourself to a peek inside one of the most authentically furnished Victorian country houses in all of America.
Admission, including tours of Villa Louis, is $8.50 for adults, $4.50 for children (5-12), and $7.50 for senior citizens (65 and above). A family ticket that admits two adults and two or more dependent children 5-17 is available for $23. For more information visit our Visitor Information page or contact Villa Louis at 608-326-2721 by telephone or via e-mail.
:: Posted September 5, 2006
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