Carriage Driving

• Origins
• Practice

People domesticated the horse at least five thousand years ago and used it as a major source of transport until the early twentieth century, when the internal combustion engine reduced the importance of the horse to its current role in recreation and equestrian sports.

Origins

The development of equestrian sports incorporating vehicles such as carriages lagged far behind those equestrian sports in which the horse is ridden under saddle, such as polo, flat racing, and hunting. The amount of equipment required for carriage sports and the additional personnel required for harnessing and handling restricted their development to the most affluent equestrians. Likewise, the creation of breeds suitable for carriage sports was slower than creation of breeds for flat racing and polo. Cold-blooded draft horse breeds, which are sturdier, heavier, and more powerful, were bred to include lines from the faster, lighter-boned, and more high-strung hot-blooded breeds, such as the Thoroughbred, to produce “warmbloods” suitable for driving. The result was carriage horses with the power of cold bloods and the competitiveness and speed of hot bloods.
Driving clubs, such as the Benson Driving Club (1807–1854), the Whip (founded 1808), and the Richmond Driving Club (1838–1845), first developed in England.The British Driving Society has operated since 1958, and the Coaching Club has operated for more than 125 years.
Organized carriage driving competitions have existed in central Europe and Germany for a hundred years, primarily because of the efforts of Benno von Achenbach (1861–1936) of Germany. He was trained by Edwin Howlett of England, who is considered the father of modern four-in-hand driving (four horses under harness, two in front and two behind).What had been the vocation of coachmen became a pastime of the leisure class.
Four-in-hand driving as a sport declined greatly after WorldWar I. Organized carriage driving competitions did not revive until after World War II, and multinational contests in Europe began during the 1950s. Competitions of the time generally included two phases: dressage and marathon.
A ridden version of three standard military tests for horses (dressage, cross-country, and stadium jumping, known collectively as “three-day eventing” because each phase was tested on a different day) had been an Olympic sport since 1912. Adaptations were dictated by the presence of the carriage and the fact that a driver’s only control over the horses is through the voice, the whip, and the reins that attach to each side of a metal bit through the horses’ mouth.Whereas use of the voice is not allowed in ridden dressage, it is allowed in driven dressage. Jumps used in the cross-country phase of a ridden three-day competition are replaced by a marathon section with hazards—water-filled ditches or narrow gates—and, in place of stadium jumping, a precision driving test known as the “cones phase.”
Dressage is an equestrian discipline based on military training in which a horse must demonstrate obedience, flexibility, and strength as its driver directs it through a routine of movements. Ridden dressage has been a staple of classical equestrian training since the seventeenth century.
Marathon driving, also based on military training, requires the horse to be driven across open country and through water and to negotiate obstacles such as an orchard of narrowly spaced trees or a combination of gates.

Practice

In 1969 Prince Philip of Great Britain was president of the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI, www.horse sport.org), the governing body for show jumping, dressage, three-day eventing, and other international equestrian competitions. At an FEI meeting, Polish delegate Eric Brabec suggested to Prince Philip that the FEI establish standardized rules for carriage driving competitions. Brabec’s suggestion was acted on almost immediately. With the help of Sir Michael Ansell of Great Britain, European drivers convened in Bern, Switzerland, and produced a set of rules based on ridden threeday tests. The first test, dressage, includes two parts: presentation and the driven dressage test. Presentation requires that horses, driver, grooms, and equipment be cleanly turned out and correctly outfitted.
The dressage test takes place in a large arena with at least three judges (five for important international contests) scoring the test from different vantage points. Scores are based on the accuracy of the driven test and the quality of the horses’ performance.The test is driven at two gaits—the walk and trot—with halts and backing included. Movements include circles and serpentines down the length of the arena. Scoring is based on how close a driver and team come to achieving the ideal; penalties are levied for deviation from the ideal, based on a high score of ten points per movement. Thus, the lowest dressage score wins.
The second phase is known as the “marathon,” although the distance covered is usually about 27 kilometers. This phase tests the stamina and fitness of the horses and the ability of the driver to maneuver the horses through obstacles and complete the distances within a prescribed pace. Three to five sections are included, with the obstacles course as the final section. A full, five-sectioned marathon would be driven as follows: section A driven at a trot; section B driven at a walk, at the end of which is a compulsory ten-minute halt when horses are inspected for fitness to continue; section C driven at a fast trot; section D again driven at a walk with a compulsory ten-minute halt; and section E, the obstacles course, driven at a trot. Eight obstacles usually are included in this course. Obstacles might be a series of gates, a sloped, wooded area, or a shallow pool of water.
The greatest spectator appeal of carriage driving occurs during the final phase of the marathon. Drivers, belted onto their carriage seats, must drive with enough speed not to incur penalty points as their grooms—serving as navigators—shout reminders from their posts on the back of the carriages to keep the drivers on course through the maze of gates. Grooms often throw their weight to one side or the other around a turn to shift the carriage on the track, freeing a wheel or avoiding its entrapment on a gatepost or tree. As in dressage, penalties are scored, and the low score wins. Time penalties are scored on each phase and through each obstacle in the final section.
The obstacle phase is usually staged in the same arena as the first day’s events—presentation and dressage. The course consists of gates, which are pairs of plastic cones similar to traffic cones, with a ball atop each.The goal is to drive one’s horses and carriage between each set of cones without dislodging any balls. The cones are spaced just a few inches wider apart than the wheels of the carriage passing between them, and courses are complicated, twisting back and forth across the arena.
The first international competition driven under the new FEI-created rules was held in 1970 in Lucerne, Switzerland. In 2004 Michael Freund of Germany won the FEI World Cup Driving Championship for the third time in a row. At the 2004 International Paralympic Committee’s Carriage Driving World Championships in Edinburgh, Scotland, twenty-nine equestrians from eight nations (Austria, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States) competed in dressage, marathon, and obstacle driving. Karl Bernd Kasgen of Germany won first place in grade 1; Elek Taczman of Hungary won grade 2; Brenda Hodgson of England won the pairs; and Germany won the team event.