After an absence of many years, combined driving returns to the Kentucky Horse Park during the Lexington Combined Driving Classic, Oct. 5-7, in Lexington, Ky. The Kentucky Horse Park will also host the world championships in four-in-hand driving during the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.
The three distinct phases of combined driving—driven dressage, the cross-country marathon and obstacle (“cones”) driving—were originally modeled after the ridden sport of three-day eventing.
On Friday, traditional carriages, top hats and formally dressed grooms set the tone while horses and ponies are put through their paces during the event’s dressage phase. On Saturday, spectators witness the speed and daring of the horses and drivers as they navigate the maze of each marathon obstacle. On the final day, precision matters most as each competitor navigates an obstacle course with mere centimeters of clearance between each set of cones.
The Lexington Combined Driving Classic features all six combined driving divisions—single horses, single ponies, pairs of both horses and ponies, and four-in-hand teams of horses and ponies. The competition is divided into three levels: preliminary, intermediate and advanced.
The international panel of officials includes judges and technical delegates from Germany, Great Britain and the United States.