The novice that I am does not see the huge difference between what Chew posted and what 49 posted other than the difficulty. What Chew posted seems to cover less ground and be a more entry level course, but in general the same theory as what 49 posted.
As far as hazards Michael Freud had a great recommendation which will enable you to practice any path that you might encounter. Set posts (stout ones like wooden corner posts) in the ground in a line, 6 x 6 with 3 meters between each. If you don’t have enough room to do 6, then 5 will work.
It should look like:
x — x — x — x — x — x
x — x — x — x — x — x
x — x — x — x — x — x
x — x — x — x — x — x
x — x — x — x — x — x
x — x — x — x — x — x
Hope this helps!
We haven’t set this up yet but have an area mapped out for it. I’m currently in the hospital waiting to have a cyst removed from my spine, but once I’m out I’ll be picking up the two young Polish Driving Ponies from the trainer and putting each of them with one of my experienced pair - then it will be hazard training time 
Here is another cone course, from a recent HDT I helped set up. This is not drawn to scale. The course was over 590m in length, and I had some trouble squeezing all the dots onto my page, hehe.
Chewbacca, that is more what I was referring to rather than the scurry patterns from Sergeant Equestrian. Thanks for being able to put that on the list.
you guys are da best!!!
ok, that said I have some fundamental questions :lol:
Going off the map Chewie most recently posted (which I realize may not be to scale but am just going off of face value), can someone please help me appreciate some of the questions being asked in the tests?
For example, gate 2-3, what is the purpose of that line? It seems like an ungraceful bend, a chicane for the heck of it. Is it meant to be a very sharp change of direction to demonstrate handiness?
Gate 7-8, would the driver have the choice of going on the outside of 13/9 vs inside? Either way is not very fluid, is that the point?
And what is a staircase?
Finally, how on earth do you memorize this test? :lol: Are the gates numbered on the course so you can keep count? This last one looks really really fun!! I would have never guessed up a course like this on my own. Its quite tricky in a subtle way.
I don’t mean to be poking holes in it with my questions, I’m SO grateful you took the time to post this. I think its great.
BTW 49’er very impressive test run! Thank you so much for sharing!!
That course was an insane heap of fun. It was definitely more advanced, and covered a bigger area that the other 2 cones courses I put up from previous shows.
I’m not used to “going way out yonder” to pick up the next gate, and this course a couple “cross the country” gates, lol 
Oh, and the training time to complete this in was 2:56.
We thought people were going to get lost on course, but really once you’re in there, it made sense.
Yes, the cones are numbered (red on the right) and white with the numbers are on the left, so all you really have to do is look ahead (that and line up your line so you don’t knock a ball… and sometimes look over your shoulder depending on where the next cone was, lol!)
1-2-3 really was a sharp serpentine. It might not be graceful, but it proved to be challenging to keep the balls up, right off the bat.
The 7-8 was a big of a “cross the world” run. In the area where this was laid out, it was a lloooooong distance between those, as well as 16/17. But yes, the gates are angled and challenging to help test the precision of the driver. I couldn’t imagine doing these turns with pairs, and people did — ran clean too.
A staircase?? I think that’s in cross country eventing, where you ride your horse up (or down) a series of “steps”. Not sure how it applies to driving.
Oh, and I double checked my measurements for training level before this show… the clearance allowed at training level between the cones is 40cm (not 10, lol, like I commented earlier). Which is about 15", so there’s a good amount of room between the gates…
Then again, if you’re me, it’s not enough.
#2 to 3, you could make a circle around 2 to the left to pick up 3 or you could make a big loop to the right out of 2 come around 3 an then go thru it. On paper, I would go thru #5, circle left, go thru #6 keep circling left and pick up #7. I walk my courses a minimum of 3 times, sometimes more. I usually do not look at the map as sometimes that can be confusing and the cone do not walk the way they look they should on paper.
A staircase is usually 4 sets of cones, each set off the next. Similar to:
* *
* *
* *
* *
The cones are measured in the shortest driveable path and the speeds get faster as you move up the levels. The cones are also narrowed as you move up the levels.
Cones is getting quite exciting these days.
o.k. my cones star course did not come out above. Picture the 2nd set 5 spaces to the right, the 3rd 10 spaces to the right, and the 4th 15 spaces to the right. Use lots of imagination.
