Driving: Does it affect riding career?

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Solo1

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Hi all,

I have a 14.2hh homebred mare who's one of the family now, I've broken and brought her on and she's honestly a little superstar. Only thing is, I'm off to Uni next September (hopefully!) and mum doesn't want her doing nothing. So, she had the idea of breaking her to drive and doing some light showing. She knows somebody who breaks them to drive so we'd have help and all that.

Mum's really excited by the prospect, she understands Ruby might not take to it but she wants to give it a go and then drive her once a week or so.

What I'd like to know is, how much would this affect her riding career? She does a beautiful test, is very soft mouthed, and the plan is to do some low level eventing next year. Would driving make her harder mouthed? Or build up incorrect muscles? Or just generally affect her?

Thank you :)
 
Yep. I once evented a horse at affiliated level for someone who had been driving her at national level.
There were mild issues to iron out but I found if anything the driving improved her ridden work. She was very accepting of anything, jumped her first x pole in January and first affiliated event in august so no complaints there :)

I know that was the other way around but she carried on driving 2/3 times a week while I was riding her and I never found it affected her ridden work.

I think she liked the variety :)
 
All my driving horses do both my present one works beauifully on the flat and does a full range of ridden jobs.
After a HDT we do work long and low and concentrate on the lateral work for a few days to keep him soft and bending through his ribs.
As long as the horse enjoys the driving job you will I think have no issues.
Mine loves all his different job he adores multitasking .
 
I go with the others - it will make the horse better if anything.

That said, it might turn your head to the thrill & speed, so you might drive more than you ride...be warned ;)
 
I'll be doing the same as you OP- my welsh D is primarily a driving horse, but has shown to county level, and done some driven showing... He also does endurance and the occasional xc schooling, and his ridden work isn't affected at all. Most of the national/international HDT horses are dressage schooled to a very high standard (as Four seasons on here will tell you, she's riding some for an international driving god at the moment :D ) so they should go hand in hand.

As a slight aside, if you get a vehicle, the shorter the shafts, the easier your pony will bend in it, making the transition back to rising that bit easier... My shafts are this short-

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And they are really wide at the bum end, so he can bend within them. That makes this...

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Easier for him.

So it's worth looking for a competition vehicle if you can, even if she's just pleasure driving.

I bet she wont be pleasure driving for long... It's addictive! :D

Good luck x
 
I compete my 2 13.3s national open level HDT and they did england junior team stuff abroad when I was younger, and also UA elem dressage/the odd BD/80cm SJ/showing/WH and did one ODE ;) One has only ever been to one jumping show without a red rossette and wont get a below 65% at prelim even BD while the other is scopier and got to trailblazers nationals at elem but is more of a diva! Cant imagine this has anything to do with being driven :p You wouldn't know either of them drive if you saw them riding and working correctly driven is near enough the exact same muscles as riding, certainly in how the horse carries himself.
Have just had my SJ bred KWPN broken to drive and he's loving it :) Any modern competition carriage will most likely have shafts set up to allow for bend, personally I prefer longer shafts that go past the pad so you don't catch them on the shoulder with the end doing very tight turns and it gives them more to push against in obstacles but as long as they're shaped out after the pad that won't restrict them :)
 
Don't worry about driving a ridden animal or Vice versa. Years ago I bought a 15.1 hh welsh cob that had mainly been used for driving and was very green to ride. I still drove him but also set about turning him into my hunting cob. Needless to say he couldn't jump a stick on the ground BUT once he got the hang of it he was fantastic. I hunted him with several foxhound packs around the country and the New Forest Buckhounds. He kept up with all the big horses and never refused a jump. He was brave, forward going and if he pulled on a bit to much for my strength I found the driving command of 'steady up' very useful indeed.

He was still a fabulous driving horse - the only problem I encountered was that he once jumped some 'sleeping policemen' during a driving trail instead of trotting over them. Admittedly my groom and I left our seats and nearly ended up in mid-air but then he was just a bit confused - as far as he was concerned big bumps in the road meant he was out hunting and they were for jumping over. I never drove him through water after that as he seemed to love leaping wide streams in the New Forest and I didn't want to risk getting wet!
 
The only problem I have encountered with horses that have been driven more than ridden is that they can be difficult to keep in to the side of the road because they are use to leaving room for the cart!
Other than that I can see no problems.
 
I had a lovely little Welsh D a few years ago very like "Katastrophycat"'s - he was gorgeous in every way, but at that time I found him too sharp for me, which was a pity. He was a ride & drive, and had been broken to harness first, then broken to saddle when he was a 9 y.o.

I did find that under saddle he was inclined to go a bit on the forehand, BUT I think this was purely down to the fact that when I got him he'd only been backed for about a year, and this was probably the reason. Also he'd always want to go into the middle of the road rather than the side!
 
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