Horse Driving Trials

Notes for grooms

or

“Better than a sack of potatoes”

Updated 16th March 2007

Mike Watts

Acknowledgements

These notes are put together with ideas borrowed from many people.

Thanks to all these people for their help and support – however, any mistakes in this are all mine. This is a voluntary effort - you use it at your own risk.

Copyright © Mike Watts 2003-7 prepared originally for an East Anglian Carriage Driving Group training session

You’re welcome to copy this for any non-commercial use, provided you include this attribution. For the most up to date copy, see If you have any comments, additions, criticisms, please email me as

Introduction

Role of the groom

Grooms can be anyone from hastily roped in friends, to those of us supporting our partners, right through to paid professionals. A groom is essential – without one a driver is not even allowed to compete. Blind people have made good drivers … with a good groom. A groom can be much more than ballast, “better than a sack of potatoes”.

These notes cover the role of a groom for horse driving trials competitions. It’s specifically about competing, what you have to do, what the rules are and how you are scored. I don’t cover training and other aspects, where of course a groom can also help enormously.

Types of event

One, two, three day

A horse driving trial consists of three parts, officially called “competitions”:

Dressage (“Competition A”)

A test of driving accuracy and horse’s paces, driven from memory and scored by judges’ opinion.

Marathon (“Competition B”)

A test over a number of lengthy sections at different paces ending with “Section E”, a few kilometres of course including timed obstacles. This is scored by time in the obstacles and any excess over the prescribed times for the sections, or below the minimum time where this is set.

Cones (“Competition C”)

A test of accuracy driven round a course between closely spaced cones with knockdowns and with a time limit, scored by knockdowns and any excess over the prescribed time.

One day events: in a one day event, the order is normally Dressage, Cones, Marathon.

Two day events: Manyclub events take place over two days:

Saturday: Dressage then Cones

Sunday: Marathon

Most National events take three days:

Friday: Dressage

Saturday: Marathon

Sunday: Cones

Different classes of events …

Training, Club, Qualifier, National, International ….

The Rules

If you want to compete, you need some knowledge of the rules – it’s no good having a great horse and expert driver if you get eliminated for breaking a rule.

The rules are set by the FEI (Federation Equestre International) and you can get them free online at It’s more useful to use the BHDTA rules…

The rules for UK events are published by the British Horse Driving Trials Association.The most recent version was issued in early 2007 and islabelled “2007”. These consist of the international rules with alterations added in red italics for UK events. The alterations mainly relax the rules somewhat. You can buy these UK rules from the BHDTA In 2007 the BHDTA has also made their rules available for free download on their website

If you use a PC, it’s useful having them on your PC because you can search the rules for a particular word (like “whip” or “width”) if you need to find out about something.

Finally, your club may apply local rules on top of these to suit local conditions.

You will find that different people have different ideas of the rules. This may be because they aren’t very clear to read and because the rules have changed over time. Be sure that you work from an up to date copy. Some judging takes place against unwritten criteria for example, candles in lamps should have been lit – a judge may mark you down for a brand new candle. The logic may be that new candles are supposedly harder to light.

The rules are not written in a way which is easy to understand – for instance the phrase “obstacle” is used to refer to parts of the cones course (“Competition C”), and “obstacle” is also used to mean the obstacles (“hazards”) in the marathon (“Competition B”). Also, organizers of events habitually ignore some of the rules and enforce others. For example, you’re supposed to be able to inspect Section E of the marathon course 42 hours before the start ([950.3.1] – the whole of Section E must be open for inspection from then) but delays happen and club events in particular may not be able to get their obstacles ready that far in advance.

TIP: Before you take time off work to go to an event early, find out when the obstacles will actually be open for inspection.

Another rule says you can’t “have a person at an obstacle for the purpose of encouraging .. by any means whatsoever.” [955.2.1.2]. You might think that your friends can’t clap to encourage you, or even be there to encourage you by solidarity, but they seem to be accepted.

[950.2.3] “Copies of large scale maps of the entire course must be available … The maps must show the different sections, the numbered compulsory turning flags, the sites for the Compulsory Rests and indicate the location of the obstacles.” You will sometimes find no such maps available, or just one posted in the secretary’s tent. The compulsory flags may not be shown. Probably it would make sense if competitors insisted that the organizers adhere to the rules and give them this information, to avoid possible elimination. Failing that, make a sketch copy of whatever information you can get,

TIP: Remember to take the route map with you on the marathon.

[950.2.1] says there must be a briefing for competitors before the course is opened. This doesn’t happen in practice. There is usually a technical briefing the evening before the marathon.

When you walk the obstacles, you may sometimes find that the obstacle differs from the sketch map (gates may be swapped or go in the opposite direction to that shown on the map). In theory the organizers will not change the obstacles once they have been opened for inspection so you should alter your map. However they may change either map or obstacle, in practice. You need to go back and check which happens.

TIP: When the obstacle is actually driven, it must be driven as flagged; if the map differs from the obstacle, ignore the map and drive as flagged.

At any one event, you can groom for as many different drivers as you like in cones and dressage, but you can only go round the marathon once.

Only the driver can use the reins, whip or brakes during the actual competitions [cones, dressage, marathon], except when the vehicle is stationary. Each time you break this rule, even to avoid an accident, you get 20 penalties – or you’re eliminated in cones. However, between competitions the groom is free to drive, brake, whip or whatever – for example, a groom can warm up the horse and turnout if competent to do so.

Outside assistance

You’re not allowed any outside help during a competition phase. The rules say:

Article 925 OUTSIDE ASSISTANCE

1. Definition

Any intervention by a third party, whether solicited or not, with the object of facilitating the task of the Competitor or helping his horses/ponies, is considered to be Outside Assistance.

2. Examples

The following are examples of illegal Outside Assistance:

2. Examples

2.1 The following are some examples of illegal outside assistance:

2.1.1 Any person following, preceding or accompanying a Competitor on the course of Competition B.

2.1.2 To have a person at an obstacle for the purpose of encouraging or assisting a Competitor or horses by any means whatsoever.

2.1.3 To have any person on a vehicle during Competition B who has already been round the course on another vehicle.

2.1.4 For an Obstacle Observer, Ground Observer, Time Keeper or Official to assist a Competitor, while on any part of the course, by giving directions or advice.

2.1.5 For Competitors or Grooms to use any form of electronic communication while competing on course during the Competition.

3. Penalty

The Ground Jury may eliminate any Competitor, who it deems tohave received illegal outside assistance.

4. Legitimate Assistance

4.1 The following are considered to be legal outside assistance:

4.1.1 Assistance during compulsory rests and in neutral

zones between Sections.

4.1.2 Assistance to avoid accidents.

4.1.3 Assistance in righting an overturned vehicle.

4.1.4 Assistance to horses as a result of an accident inside an obstacle, providing the Grooms are dismounted.

4.2 The circumstances of each case must be assessed by the Ground Jury after seeking the opinion of a Ground Observer and/or Obstacle Observer as required.

Outside assistance – definitely not allowed – or how to get your opponents eliminated?

Perhaps the most likely pitfall is to ask a steward the way during the marathon – if they tell you, you should be eliminated in theory. You can now carry a mobile phone for use in emergencies; but you can’t actually use it during the competition.

How old must a groom be?

For HDT, people’s ages are measured much like horses – your age in a calendar year is the age you get to at your birthday that year. So if you’ll be 14 in August [or any month] in 2003, you’re 14 all through 2003.

For international events, a groom can compete from 14 (“the beginning of the calendar year in which they reach 14”). All drivers must be at least 18 for horses, horse teams, horse pairs and horse tandems, 16 for single horse and anything pony.

The National rules are more complicated, with the groom’s minimum age depending on the age of the driver and whether you’re in horse or pony, team or pair etc. In 2007 the National rules are amended so there must always be at least one adult (18+) on any turnout, see below.

National / International

What else is required of a groom?

The groom must be “fit and capable of rendering speedy and efficacious assistance at any time” [910.3.1]. This is a minimum safety requirement – if something goes wrong, the groom must be able to get down quickly and hold the horse(s) effectively.

Before the event

Plan

Figure out what to take, work out a timetable, who does what.

Times

What to take

Prepare

Clean

On arrival

Getting information

Look for a secretary’s tent and noticeboards – you should be able to get

your dressage time
a plan of the course
plans of the obstacles
plan of the cones course
details of where presentation and dressage are to be held
your number to display in your number ’bib’

Look at the noticeboards for any other information, hazards, when the competitors’ briefing is to be. Keep rechecking the noticeboards in case anything changes.

Presentation

This is different for novice and open classes at most events. Typically novices have presentation judged at the halt between half an hour and one hour before their dressage time [943.6.4]. Open classes have presentation judged on the move as part of the dressage score/test.

The rules are brief on the subject of presentation [942.6.1] “Appearance of driver and grooms, cleanliness, fitness, matching and condition of horses/ponies, vehicle and harness”.

Try getting a supermodel to drive for you if you want to score on “appearance of driver” or consider plastic surgery if needed.

The scoring categories for standing presentation are:

Driver, Groom and Passengers* / Position, dress, hat, gloves, holding the whip, handling of horses.
Horses / Condition, turnout, cleanliness, matching, condition of shoeing
Harness / Condition, proper fit, cleanliness
Vehicle / Condition, cleanliness
General Impression / Whole turnout

(*However, “passengers are not permitted” [936.4], I think the table refers to a groom dressed like a passenger.)

The judge will score each category above out of 10 (10 means “Excellent”, 1 means “Very Bad” and 0 means “Not executed”). The scorer adds these up, subtracts them from 50 and divides by 5 (!). This means you’d get 2 penalties for each row in the table above if the judge gave you zero, or a total of 10 penalties if you scored zero for every category in presentation [unheard of, I think].

In practice further rules are applied and scored regardless of the published rule book, so you’d better comply:-

You need to carry a spares kit. Its existence and contents are not laid down but tradition suggests at least:

Spare trace [the right length for your turnout!]

Rein splice

Hole punch

Spare candle for lamp

Matches

Coin for phone

Tape

Traditionally, harness straps are not done up to the last hole (neither nearest the point nor furthest from the point). The theory is to allow adjustment and to allow the strap still to be fastened if it breaks at the hole. Straps are polished on the side away from the horse and cleaned on the side touching the horse.

TIP: A heresy; the absolute maximum number of penalties you can get for poor standing presentation of your turnout would be10. Typically you’ll get between 1 and 4. (out of say 100-200 for the whole competition). So, clean the vehicle and get everything together for the pleasure and enjoyment of seeing it, but don’t fret about it - it’s not going to affect your score much!

In the open dressage tests there is also a score for presentation - 10 penalties max.

Usually your standing presentation (novices) is half an hour before your dressage test. Drive to that looking your best, with a small number on the back of the vehicle, your spares kit stored on the vehicle and groom and driver wearing their smart kit, smart hats and gloves. The groom should be seated. When you get to the presentation area the judge will usually ask the driver to stand the horse. The driver asks the groom to get down, and the groom gets down smartly [nearside of the vehicle] and goes to stand at the horse’s head, only holding it if needed. The judge may ask the groom to pick up a horse’s foot for inspection [so these should be well picked out, perhaps greased underneath]. The judge may ask the groom to display the spares kit, or may delve around for herself. The groom must laugh at the judge’s jokes {if any} and otherwise keep quiet, resisting any urge to chat nervously. The judge may give you helpful advice on the turnout and fit of harness and should certainly draw attention to anything they see which is seriously wrong or unsafe.

When the judge’s inspection is done, the groom gets back on his seat on the vehicle and the driver sets off.

Dressage

If there is a standing presentation, the dressage time should be 30 minutes after this. This gives you a chance to warm up the horse. There should be a designated warm up area. You should be there and let the dressage steward know you’re there 10 minutes before your time.

Introduction

Chapter II COMPETITION A - DRESSAGE

Article 935 PRINCIPLES

1. The Object

The object of the Dressage Test, Competition A, is to judge the freedom, regularity of paces, harmony, impulsion, suppleness, lightness, ease of movement and correct bending of the horses/ponies on the move. Competitors will also be judged on style, accuracy, and general control of their horses/ponies, and also on their dress, condition of their harness and vehicle and the presentation of their whole turnout (refer to Article 936.3.5).

Article 936 COMPETITORS

1. Dress and Equipment

1.1 The Competitor must carry a whip of a suitable style and the lash must be long enough to reach all the horses. The lash may be tied to the stick.

1.2 The dress of Competitors and Grooms must conform to the style of the vehicle and harness used.

1.3 Jackets, driving aprons, hats and gloves are obligatory for Competitors.

1.4. Grooms must wear jackets, hats and gloves.

1.5 The President of the Ground Jury may decide that:

1.5.1 Jackets may be removed in excessively hot and humid weather;

1.5.2 Jackets are not required in special circumstances;

1.5.3 Wet weather clothes be allowed and/or aprons not required in extremely wet weather.

Rules for cones and dressage

You must use the same vehicle for cones and dressage. There is a minimum track width specified and it applies to both dressage and cones competitions [915.1.1], so if they have extending axles you must extend these to cones width before the dressage test. The width is measured at ground level on the rear wheels.

Horse Driving Trials