Driving can be an alternative career for a riding horse, or a way to introduce a young animal to training and roadwork. However, it can be a dangerous pursuit for horses and humans. Matching the right animal, cart, harness, and driver contributes to safe driving. The Stripes Of Driving Apart from the racetrack and farm, owners drive horses for pleasure or for competition. The pleasure driver usually hitches a single animal to a two-wheeled cart for driving on paths or along roads.
Athletic demands are minimal, as the driver usually stays on flat paths or roads.
In competition, drivers vie for honors in the show ring or in the sport of combined driving. Basic show classes are for pleasure driving, with breeds ranging from the miniature horse and the elegant show horses such as Saddlebreds, Arabians, Morgans, and Hackneys, up to the draft breeds. Combined driving follows three phases, similar to those of the ridden sport of eventing. The sport of driving began as an enterprise endorsed by royalty, credited to HRH the Duke of Edinburgh. Unlike show driving, here speed and agility count.