What is combined driving and how is the competition structured?

Combined driving, also called horse driving trials, is a three-phase equestrian sport that evaluates horse and driver across disciplines of precision, cross-country athleticism, and accuracy, making it one of the most comprehensive tests of the complete driving horse's training and the driver's horsemanship. The discipline is the driving equivalent of ridden eventing. The dressage phase is contested first and evaluates the horse's way of going, obedience, and the quality of the partnership between horse and driver through a prescribed test performed in a large arena. Scores are given for each movement and converted to penalty points, with lower penalty points being better — the opposite scoring direction from ridden dressage. The marathon phase is the most demanding of the three phases and is driven across country over a defined distance that includes a section of road and tracks and a section of cross-country driving through multiple hazards — complex obstacles built from natural materials such as logs, brush, and water that the driver must navigate through a series of gates in the correct sequence at the best possible pace. The cones phase concludes the competition with a precision test through a course of cone pairs set slightly wider than the vehicle's wheel track, with balls balanced on top of the cones that fall if the vehicle clips a cone. The cones course is driven against the clock with penalties added for knocked balls and exceeded time, testing the horse's obedience and the driver's accuracy after the physical demands of the marathon.