What is endurance carriage driving?

There are plenty of sports that allow riders and horses to develop skills, to flourish and to work on different aspects of their performance. Endurance is one of them. Endurance carriage driving, however, is not a sport like any other. What exactly is endurance carriage driving? Find out everything you need to know in this article.

Endurance carriage driving: the essentials

Endurance in carriage driving is the ability of the horse and its rider to produce and sustain a prolonged effort. Generally speaking, endurance driving competitions take place over clearly defined courses. It may mean covering a waymarked course of 10 to 60 kilometres on your horse in a speed-restricted class. It may also be a course of 90, 130 or even 160 km, or two hundred-kilometre stages to be completed over two days at an unrestricted speed. It is worth noting that riders who take up endurance driving are generally made aware of the issues from the outset and take care to respect their horses.

Endurance, a matter of precision

It has to be understood that in the discipline of endurance driving, performance can only be achieved through a considerable workload. That said, in order to cope with such a workload, horses have to work correctly. In other words, they must work in the right way.

During an endurance ride, the horse that is competing does not adopt the same attitude as it would in a dressage arena. The latter has closed "poll" and "hip" angles. The movement is supple and round, and muscle tone is at its maximum. The former has open angles to allow a horizontal, economical movement, and is very relaxed.

What is more, the dressage rider uses constant aids that do not change a great deal. The endurance rider, on the other hand, must constantly seek balance, establish the pace... From that point on, the aids remain on standby. The rhythm is generally regular, the cadence slow and the movement becomes mechanical.

The rider's work in endurance consists of establishing the cadence, the movement and the transitions in a straight line, all with a horse that is in horizontal balance. The rider makes extensive use of a supple seat, the reins are fairly long and the legs are dropped well down. The feet, however, rest firmly in the stirrups. To find the best equipment for successful endurance driving with your horse, you can try La Sellerie Française, one of the best shops selling 100% Made in France products.

To succeed in driving, the rider must learn to act and yield continuously on long reins. On top of that, they must use their voice. A rider with some experience can even carry out transitions involving imperceptible closing of the angles. They can even change legs on the move with open angles.