Carriage Driving

[Aristocratic Minis]

Just wondering if any of you saw the Carriage Driving on the HRTV channel. It was an hour long show about Carriage competition in England which included dressage, cones and marathon (although I don't think that is what they called it on the show).

The horses looked magnificent. There was even one mini in competition.

The four in hand horses were splendid. Many times all were moving in cadence and legs in unison. They followed one woman as she drove her 4 in dressage. She had very many voice commands including a long trilling noise she used before she brought her 4 to a halt right dead on the correct spot.

Just wondering if any of you saw that show and can comment on all of the voice commands being used. I've never heard such a variety of sounds and wondered if it is an "English" thing or that is common on this side of the pond.

Comments appreciated. I'm trying to learn because driving is such a wonderful thing.

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

I didn't see the show, too bad because I love watching that kind of thing. I can't really say much about the voice commands but I do know that some drivers use their voice a great deal while others are mostly silent and rely on reins and whip alone. I have always felt using your voice as well was a great way to help your horses respond to your requests and use verbal/sound cues as a pre-cue, a warning of whats coming, before asking with my reins. Of course too much speaking/clucking/whatever is not, from what I have seen, approved of in the breed show arena and most around here seem to frown on it altogether and I have had several people scold me for using my voice to communicate with my horses while driving.

 

[TMR]

The carriage show was about combined driving. It is what some of us here compete in and have quite a few topics in this forum about. The trilling you heard is quite common among the advanced/FEI drivers. It is signaling the horse of a downward transition, much like you would use a half halt in the lower levels, but used in conjunction with the half halt in the higher levels. I am starting to see/hear it in the lower levels as well. I have been lucky enough to navigate for an FEI competitor and it is really something to feel in the cart as the horse is so intune to the driver and responds to every command by voice and rein. At that level every thing said and felt has a meaning to the horse and is done in a specific way every time.

Donna

 

[Aristocratic Minis]

Thanks, Donna, for your reply. Must have been great to be a navigator for the FEI competition. What other commands/noises do they make.

In the television show, the drivers seemed very verbal which would be frowned upon in a breed show. They seemed to be talking and practically yelling a lot of the time. It was very interesting.

In some of the Carriage competitions I have watched which were aired from Europe, the commentators do all the talking and the competitors are not heard at all, so I didn't know how many commands were being given to the horses. It almost seemed excessive, but what do I know!

 

[susanne]

Shelley Temple mentioned (in her ADS webinar, I believe) that since drivers can't use legs and seat as riders do, ADS judges expect whips to use every means of communication available to them, and therefore do not penalize voice commands. This is in dressage, of course -- nobody would care if you yodeled throughout marathon or cones.

Not that we're even remotely competitive at CDE, but I talk with Mingus all the time...and if notice in our photos, he always has one ear turned to me.

 

[sassy1]

A good friend is a Driven Dressage Judge. I usually get the job of pencilling for her at CDE's and often get to be Vet Steward/helper as well. At a recent CDE at the Vet Check at the end of the walk section, I asked the driver of a team the names of his horses (as he had 'borrowed' grooms and they didn't know which was which).

He had to very quietly whisper their names to me as the horses were VERY aware of their names and were finely tuned to respond - and he didn't want them to!

 

[rabbitsfizz]

I was always taught to speak to my horse all the time- keep up a commentary, sing (poor horse) anything at all to allow the animal to know that all was well, that the traction engine ahead would not actually eat him, and that I was happy with him. Into this I was supposed to drop different toned commands and remonstrations, to , again, let the horse know what it was doing right or wrong.

"Always trot, except down hill. Always talk, except when you command"

So verbalisation in the ring and on the course, in the UK at least, is common.