Sunset Mountain Miniatures
© 2004-2017 Sunset Mountain Miniatures
Roman Chariot
We love the Roman Chariot events! For single chariot our horse
is Sunset Mountain Just Our Luck. “Lucky” is a powerful AMHR
B-Division driving gelding. Lucky’s joy in life is to drive at the
full speed gallop. So when we decided to try chariot racing
Lucky was the natural choice as the horse for the job. Lucky has
been an AMHR All Star in Roman Chariot every year since
2014. In 2014 he was Reserve Champion in the Chariot Race.
And in 2017 he was National Champion in the Chariot Race.
Watch Lucky in the chariot events at AMHR shows.
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MoonDust is the lead horse in all team driving, including team
chariot. She and her partner Sunset Mountain Painted Liberty
won the 2016 AMHR National Championship in Team Chariot.
Both of them were also 2016 All Stars in Team Chariot.
Libby is the right hand horse all team events, including Team
Chariot. Both Moon Dust and Libby were 2016 All Stars in
Team Chariot and were the 2016 National Champions.
Our chariot. The chariot was built by Daniel’s brother, Ben
Crider. Ben was a professional carpenter for several years. And
for over 20 years Ben was in charge of all stage and prop
construction for the First Baptist Church of Atlanta annual
Passion Play. He also designed sets and props for the church’s
musical theater productions. Ben built wagons and chariots for
some of these productions.
This chariot is based on a CDE cart that had the seat removed, a
deck added, and the custom wooden chariot shell added.
The artwork on the front of the chariot was done by Jo Eisenrich
of Morgan Mill, TX. Jo is a talented artist and a lover of horses
who has painted a lot of equine art. One of the pieces she has
done for us is a beautiful portrait of Larry jumping over an
imaginary jump. If you would like for Jo to do some art for you
you may reach her at:
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The first run of the chariot was appropriately in Athens --
Athens, TX.
This picture was taken in San Antonio, TX.
You can see a video of of us driving Single Roman Chariot at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9F_Kx0S3zk
One of the parts of the Chariot classes at the National
Championship is the “Chariot Parade”. You get to drive one lap,
preferably with a rider in appropriate costume. Here is Debra
Glosser (Brooke Glosser’s mom) willing to take the risk.
In 2015 it really was more excitement than Debra had planned
on. Daniel had a new harness on Lucky, which came with very
smooth reins. He got some sweat on his hands (Roman Armor
is hot!) and lost his grip on the reins during the parade. Since
the Chariot events include races and since Lucky LOVES to race
he decided to take over. Since Daniel wasn’t giving commands
with the reins, Lucky decided to drive like he wanted. The
Parade is supposed to be a walk. But Lucky jumped up to a
canter and passed several of the other chariots in the parade.
Debra hung on for dear life. Yet she continued to smile at the
crowd like everything was fine. Daniel managed enough grip to
steer for the exit without running over anyone.
Daniel has had other excitement in chariot too. In 2016 he had
a wheel fall off (again, during the parade) due to a faulty weld.
In 2012 Daniel earned the distinction of being the only chariot
driver at the AMHR Nationals to ever wreck during the race.
The chariot flipped over on the final turn of the last lap. Lucky
was not hurt and Daniel only got some scrapes (Roman armor
does protect you!) But you should have seen the look the doctor
at the emergency room gave him when he explained why he was
there to be checked out: “… well doc, I crashed my chariot
during the last lap of the race….”.
Lucky loves the full speed gallop of the Chariot Race. This
picture was from the 2014 race. Lucky was clocked at 34 MPH.
Pretty amazing considering he is pulling over 400 pounds
between the chariot, Daniel, and the actual steel Roman armor
that Daniel is wearing. Lucky was Reserve Champion in that
race. He took second place, by ¼ of a second. If Daniel had not
knocked over a turn cone (which added a 5 second penalty) he
would have won by almost 5 seconds.
In 2017 Lucky was National Champion in the Roman Chariot
Race.
This picture was taken in Glen Rose, Tx. The chariot weighs
about 200 pounds. The driver (Daniel Crider) also weighs,
(oops), about 200 pounds. The armor and costume is actual
reenactor’s (LARP) armor and costume for a Roman Centurion.
Which means the breastplate and helmet are actual steel. And
the weight of all the steel and leather adds another 50 pounds.
Which means when Lucky is galloping at full speed he is pulling
about 450 pounds. It doesn’t seem to slow him down too much.
The armor is an authentic uniform for a 2nd century Roman
Centurion. The breastplate and helmet are 12 gauge steel. The
helmet has a genuine horse hair plume. There is also a red
Roman tunic, a leather and metal battle kilt, leather vambraces
with metal studs, leather sandals, and a centurion’s red cape. The
full set adds about 50 pounds to the weight the chariot horses are
pulling.
