Combined Driving Team member Chester Weber at the WEG CAI Driving Test Event (Taylor Pence/US Equestrian) Then, there is a transfer section where the horses are allowed to cool, and navigators are able to make last-minute adjustments to the tack, carriage, etc.

Section A is used to help warm-up the horses and is a distance between five and eight kilometers. The marathon itself is comprised of three sections. A navigator has a variety of roles in the marathon phase, including planning a course with the driver, communicating verbally with the driver while on course, helping to counterbalance the carriage as it moves through the obstacles, and giving the driver overall confidence as he or she moves through this phase. The navigator is perhaps the most utilized in the marathon phase of four-in-hand combined driving. The training involved in preparation for the dressage is fundamental for the basics needed for the marathon phase. The driver will have spent many months practicing the dressage test and the movements, seeking accuracy, impulsion, and obedience. There is no feeling quite the same as sitting behind four horses in complete harmony. They ride on the back of the carriage during this phase and are required to be seen, but not heard. In the first phase, dressage, navigators are part of the overall picture, without playing an active role. I was immediately hooked with the sport of combined driving! It is a three-day competition made up of dressage, marathon, and cones very similar to that of the ridden discipline of eventing and just as exciting! The first time I stepped onto the back of a marathon carriage was in 2005.

I have been fortunate to navigate for many different competitors driving everything from a single, pair, and four- in-hand of ponies through to a four-in-hand of horses. I have been navigating on the FEI circuit for the past 13 years. I came to America at 18 to complete an apprenticeship at a farm in Upperville, Virginia. Mill Spring, N.C. - I am originally from Norfolk, England where I worked for a carriage company doing horse drawn weddings.

Driving navigator