A fun way to learn to carriage drive while still being competitive.
Horse Driving Trials is the fastest growing equestrian sport in the world today.
Olympic style competitions are a shorter version of Horse Driving Trials and are a great way to introduce the sport to both horse and driver. It is a combination of cones and obstacles, generally held in an arena, indoors or outdoors.
Cones are the equivalent of showjumping in the equestrian sport of Eventing – you have to pass through a series of numbered “gates” – a pair of cones with tennis balls on top – and if you knock down a ball you incur 4 penalties.
Obstacles are the equivalent of the cross country in Eventing – they are a set of 4 to 6 lettered “gates”, A, B, C, D, E, F, such as pairs of hay bales, which you have to pass through in the correct order and you can’t take any short-cuts through a gate unless you have already “opened” it. Each obstacle is timed separately through a Start/Finish gate.