FEI World Pony Driving Championships, Dorthealyst (DEN)

Sunday 15 July afternoon some 100 helpers at the FEI World Pony Driving Championships at Dorthealyst, Denmark, gathered at obstacle One for a small ceremony to celebrate the fence's unique decoration.

Rikke Thomsen is the artist behind the eight magic figures depicting characters from the fairy tales by the world-famous Danish author Hans Christian Andersen.

When preparations for the World Championships began two years ago, one of the residents of Dorthealyst suggested fashioning the obstacles around typical Danish themes. She worked at the Viking Centre in Lejre and came up with the idea to make a Viking obstacle and then she thought that Hans Christian Andersen also should be a theme for one of the others. The result were these eight figures of which Rikke Thomsen has made five, Marianne Seidenfaden has made two and Lis Albrechtsen has made one: Thumbelina on her water-lily leaf. The figures are made of chicken wire and papier-mâché and with three layers of lacquer, they can withstand the wet Danish summer.

Rikke Thomsen is a schoolteacher and has horses in her blood. She has herself driven competitions with a pair of ponies, bred on Dorthealyst. She has also been a frequent helper in most of the competitions held in this part of Denmark.

The pictures in high resolution can be downloaded from the FEI online photo catalogue.