Local carriage driver Libby Priest recorded an excellent result at the World Driving Championships for Pairs in Germany recently.

After a successful season and finishing as national champion two weeks before, Team Priest headed to Drebkau in East Germany for a week of competition at the event.

The team consisted of Libby and her partner Michael Sloan as backstepper, Maria Hough, Graham Priest as chief grooms and Fred Pendlebury as horsebox driver.

When the team arrived, training was in full flow before they successfully passed the vet check on the Wednesday morning ahead of the dressage on Friday evening.

The dressage test went nicely in front of a huge crowd and TV screens - the horses didn’t falter, but lacked a little enthusiasm, scoring a respectable 53.84 and to lie in 26th position which was a good start out of 82 competitors.

The next day was the marathon part of the competition and some technical, non-forgiving obstacles again in front of a huge crowd.

This didn’t put the horses or Libby off stride though, as they pushed on to produce some very solid times, finishing 24th in this phase (second female driver) and therefore moving up to 18th overall.

The course for the cones phase was fast and technical, as you would expect at a World Championships, but the phase didn’t disappoint.

Flying around the course, Libby picked up only three penalties for one ball at cone four. Galloping through the finish, the British supporters cheered and it was smiles all round.

Adding only three points to the final score, with there being four other drivers doing the same, this left Team Priest in ninth position in the cones phase.

This meant that they managed to move up four places and finished in 14th position overall in the world and second female driver, a great achievement in a very much male-dominated sport.

Libby would like to thank all her friends and family that have supported her this season and over the years of hard work, bringing these young horses to the level they have achieved.

She would also like to thank her sponsors for the continued support, Emerald Green Feeds, Premier Gateway International Ltd, Gemma Harland Animal Physiotherapy and the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company.