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Have You Ever Heard of Combined Driving? |
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by Muffy Seaton |
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Not many people have, actually. But its popularity is increasing yearly and the word is getting out about how much fun it is.
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Combined driving is kind of like three day eventing with a horse and carriage. It was the brainchild of Prince Phillip of England and his driving cronies in the mid 70s who wanted something more fun to do with their carriages than just going down the road. The rules are based on the eventing rules with certain changes made to accommodate the carriage and driver instead of a rider. Almost any breed of horse will drive, but some are historically more suitable than others. Morgans, warmbloods, ponies of all breeds, and many others are typically used.
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There are three phases of the combined driving event.
The first, Competition A is dressage which is similar to ridden dressage in that one must drive a pattern in a dressage ring. The ring is 80X40 meters for the small ring and lower levels and 100X40 meters for the large ring and the more advanced levels.
Dressage is judged on way of going, obedience, accuracy, rhythm, and |
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presentation. It's pretty much the same as ridden dressage except that in driving you won't have the lateral movements as much as you do in ridden dressage. At the advanced level now with singles, we are doing canter movements, which is proving challenging to say the least! Dressage requires you to get dressed up and use your best carriage and harness. It's fun to get the fancy hats out also! |
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The second phase, competition B, is the "marathon" or cross country phase. This is broken down into 3 sections, with an "any pace" section, Sec. A, first, D, a walk section, a mandatory rest/vet check, and then Sec. E, the "obstacle" or "hazard" section. In all sections, you must finish within the time allowed. In Sec E, there are man made "mazes" that you have to drive through as fast as you can at the upper levels. These obstacles can be made of fences, trees, natural hazards such as water or streams, hills, etc. They are gated with pairs of red and white flags lettered A-E depending on the level. You must negotiate the "hazard" by driving the red and white lettered gates in order and the fastest time wins! It can get very exciting seeing horses turning and accelerating in tight turns around solid objects, sometimes coming close to turning over. |
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The third phase is Competition C which is a course driven through traffic cones with balls on top with very little clearance on your wheel width. It is driven within an allowed time, but the time is short, so there is no dawdling on course. Ponies have the same time as horses, so they usually have to gallop most of the course. Competition C is to test the suppleness, soundness and obedience of the horse after the marathon and relates to the Show Jumping phase of eventing.
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Within these competitions, there are other divisions.
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The levels are Training Level, which is entry or beginner level for either the horse or driver. If you have a green horse with an experienced driver or a green driver with a beginner horse, you should start here. The dressage test is simple with only working trot, a 40 meter circle and a long diagonal change of direction.
The marathon has slower speeds allowed on course and the hazards or obstacles are not timed. In the hazards, you only have to do gates A-C
The cones courses have a wider wheel width allowance and slower times, but it is still challenging enough for the entry level horse and driver. Sometimes the track of the marathon is hard enough, not to mention the hazards! |
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Preliminary is the next level and the dressage tests include a lengthened trot, a shorter change of direction, a 30 meter circle, 20 meter half circle and maybe a three loop serpentine. The hazards are timed and you get penalties per second you're within the hazard. You have to do gates A-D at this level and the speeds on the track are faster. The cones width allowance is 5 centimeters less than at training and the speed is faster also. It gets pretty competitive at this level. |
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Intermediate follows Prelim and collected trot is introduced at this level in the dressage. The tests get harder as more is expected of the horse and driver. The marathon times are again a bit faster and the hazards now go through E. The wheel width clearance is now 30 centimeters for pairs and singles and the time is faster. |
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Advanced is the top level and mirrors the international FEI level. Now the horse is expected to do extended trot, collected trot, canter with singles, shoulder in with four in hands. 10 meter circles and a lot of one handed driving is called for and the utmost accuracy is mandatory. This is where the big boys play!
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The hazards are difficult and technical going A-E again, but with hard turns at as much speed as you dare. The cones are set with only 20 centimeters allowance and the time is so tight, most people have to gallop to make it. It's very exciting with nothing over until the last competitor goes.
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Within all these levels, it's again broken down into ponies and horses (any equine under 149 centimeters-just over 14.2 is a pony, no matter what the breed) and VSEs or Very Small Equines, under 11 hands. Singles, pairs and four in hands only compete against their own group. So, if you're driving a pony pair, say, you'd only compete against other pony pairs. As I said before, almost |
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any breed of horse or pony can drive successfully, so there's no reason your daughter's outgrown hunter pony can't have another career as Mom's combined driving pony. That's how I started out! |
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Combined Driving is a very friendly sport. It's a team sport in that you must have a navigator with you on the marathon unless you're driving a single mini. The navigator is there to help you remember the course, make repairs if necessary, help keep the carriage upright if you're going fast and help keep your times within the time windows. She's a major part of your "team" and indispensable. Many families and spouses help one another and the competition is usually very friendly and low key, even at the upper levels.
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The equipment can be expensive at the beginning to outfit a new driver, but should last a lifetime with a bit of care. To start out with at the lower levels, you can get away with a two wheeled cart and a synthetic harness. You can get both for under $2500 usually and a bit less if you find something used, but you have to make sure that everything is in very sound condition because you really don't want to have to worry about something breaking while you're competing.
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By the time you get to the Preliminary level, you will probably want a nice dressage carriage as well as a four wheeled marathon carriage. The two wheeled one isn't going to be very competitive in the hazards anymore, but could very well be used as the dressage and cones carriage. Synthetic harness is still fine, though, and will last for a long time. At some shows, you can still get by using only one carriage for all phases, but |
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usually now it'll be that marathon carriage. The higher up the levels you go, the better you want your equipment to be. Marathon carriages come with specialized features such as delayed steering and disc brakes. |
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They are made to the highest standard and that's what you pay for. There are many carriage and harness makers in the US and abroad and a wide range of equipment to satisfy any driver.
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Don't be alarmed at the price of all this equipment. It's about the same as a nice saddle and bridle and will last a long time. You don't have to go whole hog all at once, either! |
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A great way to get more involved with the sport of Combined Driving is to go and volunteer at one. This way, you'll learn the rules (which can be complicated) and meet some of the people involved. The organizers of these CDEs always need volunteers and it's a very nice day out while learning about the sport. It's pretty impressive to see a four in hand of 17 hand Dutch Warmbloods barreling down to a hazard with three people on the carriage! It's also inspiring to see the training level person coaxing her young horse through a stream for the first time!
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The American Driving Society is the source in the US for information about Combined Driving and the office is always willing to answer any questions. Their website is www.americandrivingsociety.org and I'm sure they'd love to hear from you. On the website is a calendar of combined driving events, so you can find one that's nearby. The rule book is also available to members. |
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There are many trainers who can help you start off also. Combined Driving trainers are very excited to introduce people to their sport. We are a happy bunch and love to share!
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So come out and see what we do in this wonderful horse activity! It's beautiful, elegant, very exciting, nailbiting, even!
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"It ain't no drive in the country"! |
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Muffy Seaton from Williston, SC, is a well-known driver, trainer and breeder of driving ponies. She has been an active CDE and Pleasure Driving competitor, judge and clinician for the past 28 years. In addition Muffy has served on ADS & USEF driving committees and has been the Mid-Atlantic Regional ADS Representative for three years. She is a Registered USEF and ADS judge in Pleasure, Combined Driving and Driving Dressage. She also is one of very few worldwide to hold the prestigious Light Harness Horse Instructors license given out by the British Driving Society. |
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Driving her Dartmoor pair of "Fleas", Muffy has won every major Combined Driving Event in the East and in 1997 was invited to represent the United States at the Royal Windsor Horse Show in England where she placed third overall and was the highest placed American. She has been the USEF National Pony Champion 4 times, first with a four-in-hand and then with her pair. In 2005 she trained and qualified the single pony who won the gold medal at the World Pony Championships in England. She is now training and competing a new large pony, with the Pony World Championship as a goal.
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She and her husband, Doug, run a residential driving program from their farm in South Carolina open to any and all drivers and their horses to come and learn more about driving. |
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As a clinician, Muffy believes a strong bond of confidence has to exist between the driver and the driving horse in order to have a safe and happy turnout. She stresses communication and trust in all her training sessions. She feels that without communication, there can be no trust and therefore no teamwork between driver and horse. |
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Muffy and Drive On Productions have released a book and a video called "Bending the Driving Horse" that outlines her training methods of producing balanced happy driving horses, as well as the videos "Turnout and Presentation" and "Combined Driving 101". Her newest video, Navigating 101, helps with questions from would be navigators. Drive On Productions is now working on a new video addressing the basics of harnessing for those new to the sport of driving.
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Her website is www.muffyseaton.com where you can keep up with clinic schedules, in house training, and current events. |
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Read comments or post your own comments to this article at the bottom of this page. |
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Copyright © 2008 All rights reserved. The above article is the property of the Author and may not be duplicated or redistributed in any way without permission. |
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Reader comments for this article |
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Name: Fiona Powell Time: 2008-07-06 10:07:16
Comment: Thank you to Muffy for an insight into combined driving in the US. Here in the UK we call it horse driving trials and we agree that it's one of the friendliest equestrian activities.
We were privileged to hold our local club event recently over the same weekend as the "national" event at Sandringham, one of the royal estates, and HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, followed us through the finish of the marathon and said a few words of encouragement - we were caked in mud! He even stewarded on one of the obstacles at the national event, doing the timing, and the day before he judged some of my friends' dressage. He does not always come to our events, so don't get the wrong idea! And we are just ordinary folk. (He's seated, wearing the blue jumper in this picture...
http://www.mikewatts.com/hdt2008/Sandringham28Jun08/IMGB_1264.html)
Your American drivers are a great inspiration, my heroine being Randy Cadwell, as I drive a pair of ponies, too. I saw her win at last year's Pony World Championships: great driving!
If you are coming to the UK, contact us and come and visit our events? We'd love to see you. We also have very popular one-day indoor trials during the winter all over the UK. Find a club by visiting www.horsedrivingtrials.co.uk (My club is www.eacdg.co.uk, we're only a couple of hours from London...) Hope we'll see you?
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