Weber’s team competes cross country at a driving event.
Competing dressage at a driving event
World Driving Championships in Beesd, The Netherlands. He also won the Time Shuttle prize at the CHIO Aachen, and in July he won the 50th Anniversary of the German Fahrderby (Driving Derby) held in Riesenbeck.
In addition to leading the competitive scene, Chester is currently on the Board of Directors of the US Equestrian Federation, the High Performance Driving Committee, the National Driving Committee, the Safety Committee, and he is also Chairman of the Active Athletes Committee.
Team Mentality
Combined driving is a team sport in several ways: the horses work as a team, and the driver has grooms and navigators on board helping keep everything on track. With four or five horses to look after, plus truckloads of equipment, and countless hours of training to prepare for a competition, it is a time and labor-intensive group effort to put together a successful combined driving team.
Olof remarks, “It’s a great feeling being part of this team. I’ve been here since Chester was a pairs driver, from the beginning. Combined driving is a real team sport; it’s nothing you can pull off with one or two good helpers. There are many teams in Europe that are still made of family and friends helping out; Chester went out and put a team together. Sometimes that creates friction, because we all have a lot of experience and we have our own ideas. This is a strong test; it’s not always the easiest.”
Selecting Champions
So how does one go about creating the perfect team of driving horses?
“I don’t buy my horses under three years old,” Chester states. “I think three and a half or so is about as young as I like them. I’ll buy them as old as in their teens; really, the more they know the better. I would not say I prefer one breed, but I’ve had success with Dutch Warmbloods and the Dutch driving horse mixed in. I think they are brilliant but some aren’t the easi- est…but you know what they say about brilliance and genius.”
There are a few key factors in choosing horses for Chester’s team. “It’s very important that each horse is about 16 hands, bay and has good movement, especially a good extended trot,”he explains. “They have to be willing and forward. If they’re a bit difficult or quirky that’s fine with me, I don’t just want willing slaves. I write a training program for each horse, so it’s no problem. But if it kicks at you or is a little nervous, my own inkling is not to buy somebody else’s problems.”
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