Why are they shaped like funny leaning triangles?
We have a big outdoor at our disposal now and I set up a bunch of regular cones for the first time to maneuver around. We both had an absolute blast going around at a forward trot.
Any freebie resources out there for cone patterns or other “things to do” type activities?
Coachman’s Delight has some videos; driving Facebook groups are also a resource. I’ve googled “combined driving cones course” for ideas.
I’m no CDE Pro, but my 2¢ says the angle outward gives Drivers a better chance to pass through without knocking the ball off.
Cones distances are set according to wheelbase measure & don’t account for your hubs.
You can modify your standard cones by cutting off the tops just enough to balance a tennis ball (or other lightweight toy ball around the same size - from Dollar Tree or?)
Google can show you some simple courses to set & play with.
Cones courses usually have sets of cones set as “oxers” < 2 pair & “slalom” < a line to weave through.
They are angled for precise measurement and so the hub of the wheel can pass through the cone angle without hitting the ball. If the ball comes down, it better be because your wheel rubber hit it, not your hub!
Also, regular cones are deceptive, your eye should be looking at the body of the cone, but when you have that big flat plate on the ground, it makes the width look considerably wider than it does with driving cones. That’s no bueno for competition or practice. In competition we don’t have much room (at advanced they are set at 160cm down to 155cm, carriages must be no less than 138cm) and we have to go very fast, so the cone needs to be visually correct. Ponies go the fastest at 260 meters per minute, which means most need to gallop some/all of the course and making time is not common with an international course designer.
Lastly, it’s not a lot of fun to get a cone caught under the wheel. It’s pretty easy with a regular cone, mostly but not completely impossible with regulation cones.
My standard exercise is pretty universal for cones practice. A figure 8 of cones, typically 20m circles but 15m if I want to feel bad about myself 
. You can make the middle cone in the figure an oxer for added difficulty. A weave at 10m integrated into the outside line and an offset/staircase. But a figure 8 has just about everything you need, change of direction inside the circle, drive just the outside lines or drive it as one big oval and so on.
Thanks @DMK ! Im not gonna lie, as we were trotting around the cones yesterday I told Charlie to pretend he was Zan
Proper driving cones will be on my lookout for list. Now that we have a good spot, Im really looking forward to working on our maneuvering.
Tell me a little bit more about introducing the canter with a cart. We’ve been driving for 2 years now and I feel completely comfortable at the trot. His transitions are great as are his breaks. I very much trust him at the canter under saddle and our trainer has been really working on getting him more balanced at the canter under saddle. As we were “zooming” at the trot I was thinking that we might both have fun at the canter too.
Our cart is just a 2 wheel easy entry which I imagine isn’t has handy as a 4 (though BO DOES have a snazzy what I think is a marathon carriage among others). If it isn’t it looks very similar to one. AND BO is experienced with driving as well which is a total bonus. It’s possible she has some driving cones somewhere now that Im thinking about it.
Learn from my Fail.
Easy Entry is also Easy Exit if you cut your turns too sharp.
Big & Sweeping s/b your mantra.
This was from my Navigational Error playing in a Mini Quadrille:
“Protective” sunglasses over my regular glasses 
Pony was fine, I was fine & saved face when loose mini attached to empty cart stopped at my shouted (from the ground) WHOA!
We went on to finish the weekend doing this 
-apologies to COTHers who have seen this posted a zillion times 
@DMK Thanks for the figure 8 idea.
I have a set of 14 purloined road cones & play with them on my lawns.
Set wide enough so neighbor’s Belgians could probably trot through with their cart 
Slight exaggeration, but not set @ competing width for my modified Easy Entry
I’m havin’ FUN here 
Oh no!! Glad you were ok! Easy exit hahaha I can appreciate that. My first physics thoughts were canter on straightaways or VERY wide turns. Glad I was in the right vein of thinking there.
The water looks so fun!! Fun is 100% where we are at as well. Up until now when we have driven, it’s been on roads or parks get from point A to point B and back home type of drives. Fun, but not as exciting once the novelty wore off. Outside of trail riding, Working Equitation has been our thing. We both like the obstacles and boy was that fun driving cones last night. I am seeing a LOT more of that this summer 
Pony tax
{glances around shiftily} 
Same here & finding myself getting b-o-r-e-d! with Driving Club’s repetitive outings to the same County parks & drives on local roads. 
If I relocated about 3h South there’s another club that’s competitive & puts on the bi-annual Ntl Drive.
Which reminds me to ask:
If you’re anywhere near (& I drive that 3h to be there!) Hoosier Horse Park, that event is more fun than s/b legal 
I’m slowly moving Heaven & Earth so I can go in October 
Come to the Dark & Driven side!
We have ice cream 
We are about a 6 hour drive from Hoosier! Funny story…a couple months ago, a friend and I went out to a big blacksmith shop deep in Amish county. On the drive, I mentioned how cool that would be to take Charlie to one of the National Drives someday. That same afternoon, he had a reiki session and our practitioner has a knack for communicating. She asked if I was planning on taking him to a horse park. I said a few hours ago I was talking about the National Drive! I then asked if he would want to do something like that. She consulted with him and his response was “he likes to be seen” He actually came from a farm in Southeast Indiana so he knows the area well 
People come from farther…
Just sayin’ 
Look at their FB page from last week’s Spring Fling drive.
Such.A.Hoot!
Let’s just say that even with our very balanced presentation carriages that are somewhat designed for this job, at the speed single ponies are going now, there’s a lot of grumblings about how there’s going to be some pony carriages tipping in competition. I’ve definitely felt mine lighter on the outside wheels than I would prefer and I know a couple people have said they’ve lifted going around the corner. I won’t practice cones* unless there is a person or 150lbs of weight in the back. (*Don’t drive 'em unless you are driving them at your competition speed!)
Way back when I was much younger, I drove a pony and a cart, but not since then. So I don’t have much advice to offer other than I did canter in both the cart and carriage. It’s definitely a different feeling, but it’s a lot of fun! In my case I really trusted both of my animals to handle it well, and I just let them accidentally slip into a canter and then pulled them up a few strides later. We mostly did that for the first couple months. The biggest thing you really need to worry about is that it may scare them and they scoot so it’s helpful to know that in advance and have somebody experience to help you. The other thing they might do is buck and that is not good, so if you feel that’s even remotely a concern, a bucking strap is probably a really good idea! But cantering is a blast. We finished our last two-star event at Tryon, and it is just a straight km going up a steep hill to get back up to the finish area/last obstacle. We were running a little ahead of time because Big Fjord Trot, but had budgeted as much walk as we thought we should do, and then I let Xander pick his preferred gait going up the 1 km hill, and that turned out to be a canter/gallop (ahem 20-23 kph instead of the 12kph target (reduced from 13kph due to heat). I knew he would canter, just not that fast! So we finished the hill and were approaching the 7 km marker with my gator hyperventilating on the back because we were at 4 minutes under minimum which is really really really not good! Fortunately xan’s dressage training in half steps comes in handy in more places than the dressage sandbox!
Good to be prepared for! I don’t think it will elicit much of a response…but you never know. We did skijor at speed, granted I was riding him, but he had a BLAST pulling people on skis and sleds and getting to “go fast” haha. No scoots or even the thought of buck with that. Bucking isn’t something I’d be too concerned about either, every now and then he will think about it on the lunge line but I think its generally in the “too much effort” bucket . I would also be contained to the ring for a while with anything canter related as well, I wouldn’t feel nearly as comfortable with the thought if it was just out in the open. I like the idea of letting him go into a few strides and bring him back.
Our thoughts EXACTLY
It’s mostly that the cart and carriage feel differently behind them when they canter, so if he’s ever aware of new experiences with a cart, then you’re more likely to have a reaction. Needless to say, Xander did not fall into that category!
As far as driving, since you like working equitation, you should look into reinsmanship classes with ADS. That’s basically working equitation with wheels!
I used to take my larger pony, Salt, up into the back yard for a fast run. At that time we had the use of two other properties, so we’d go flying across my back yard, all the way over the other two properties, a wide sweeping turn, then back to my yard with a quick turn around the clothesline pole (don’t forget to DUCK!). He was a lazy boy, but seemed to really enjoy our back yard canters. I would occasionally canter him on a flat area of the road if the footing was good, but most of the time I kept him to a trot out there. And the flat spots were few and far between.
Rebecca
Had to add a photo, of course. And yes, I know the shafts were too low and too far forward. This was pretty early in his driving career, and as soon as I looked at the photos I realized I had a bunch of adjustments I needed to do.
Rebecca
Was Salt a Welshie? (Apologies if you’ve said before and I spaced it)
Probably, mostly. He was a kill pen rescue and I had no background information on him.
He was put together out of other horses’ spare parts. He had the same size barrel as my Paint mare, but short legs and tiny pony feet. He had a very short back but a long face, although he got tired of me asking 'why the long face?" He had Arabian ears and striped Appaloosa hooves. He had awful configuration, but somehow had a smooth trot and canter. He was so mismatched, he was cute.
Getting a harness for him was quite an adventure. I took measurements to Harley Troyer, and he said I must have measured wrong, no equine had these measurements. I whipped out a picture and Harley said “ok, I guess you measured correctly.”
He was wicked smart. He hated to be ridden, but was so happy when I started training him to drive. It was like “Mom, I’ve been waiting for your to figure out what I want to do!”
I retired him in May 2016 due to cataracts. I moved him to South Carolina when DH and I moved there, and he really liked it there as he loved heat and hated cold. He died well into his 30s, in October 2018. I still miss him every day.
Rebecca
Excuse my ignorance as I’ve only driven twice in my life, but isn’t cantering generally considered a “no” when driving because of the risk of crashing with an unbalanced carriage/buggy? Competitive driving, I appreciate, will be different.
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