Combined Driving — Training Level Through FEI

Steppy IK, owned by Ingrid Krause, a Haflinger Cross, trained and driven by Michelle Blackler. Steppy went on to become an Advanced Combined Driving Pony, selected to represent the US at the 2025 FEI Driving World Championship for Ponies in France with his new owner.

What Is Combined Driving 

Combined driving is the equestrian sport descended directly from war horse transport: the same discipline that moved caissons, ammunition, food, tents, and mail across battlefields for centuries. The modern sport is based on the format of 3 Day Eventing for carriages: three days and three phases — dressage to demonstrate the level of training, marathon with hazards for stamina and courage, and cones for speed, precision, and the horse’s soundness and recovery after the marathon effort.
It is also the most demanding thing you can ask a horse to do in harness. The marathon phase alone covers thirteen to fifteen kilometers at speed, pulling a four-wheeled carriage with driver and navigator through tight turns inside timed hazards — in whatever conditions the day delivers. The best competitors waste nothing: no strides, no real estate, no adrenaline spent before it is needed.

“The best competitors control the adrenaline, use as little real estate as possible — not one wasted stride. Over thirteen kilometers, that takes focus.” — Michelle Blackler

Black Prong marathon, Jerry Rozeboom driving Melchior, Michelle on backstep. Motion blur through the trees. Raw speed.

​The Three Phases
Combined driving scoring also follows the same principle as three-day eventing: penalties are accumulated, and the lowest score wins. A score in the thirties is typically achieved only by top advanced competitors. Each phase contributes to the final result:

• Dressage — horse and driver perform a prescribed test in an arena. The horse’s level of training, obedience, and quality of movement are judged. Lower penalty scores reflect greater harmony and correctness.
• Marathon — the cross-country phase. Horse and driver navigate a course of five to eight timed hazards — arrangements of posts and gates through which the horse and carriage must pass in a set sequence, at speed, within a time allowed. This phase tests fitness, courage, and the partnership between horse and driver under pressure.
• Cones — a precision driving course through pairs of traffic cones set to a narrow tolerance. Driven against the clock after the marathon, this phase tests the horse’s recovery, obedience, and the driver’s accuracy when both are tired.

What It Takes
Combined driving asks more of the horse than almost any other harness discipline. Preparation involves systematic fitness conditioning, daily monitoring of pulse and respiration, cold hosing, and the careful counting of strides between and within hazard gates. The horse must be physically capable of the marathon effort and mentally steady enough to perform the dressage phase with collection and submission the morning before it.
It also demands a particular kind of horsemanship from the driver. The weight-bearing and shifting cues that tell a horse where to place itself through a tight gate are subtle, practiced, and built over hundreds of hours of work. Michelle trains these skills from the ground up, beginning with dressage fundamentals and building toward competition readiness at whatever level suits the horse and driver combination.

The drive of her life. Michelle Blackler navigates the water hazard at Hickory Knoll CDE with groom, Theresa Burns.

The Tandem — Hickory Knoll CDE
A tandem is two horses driven in line — one ahead of the other, connected by a system of reins and traces that requires the driver to manage two horses moving independently at speed. Tandem drivers will tell you that a successful tandem drive is one in which no one is injured. It is that demanding.
At Hickory Knoll CDE, Michelle drove her Morgan tandem through the dressage arena and into the marathon. The dressage score was a 39 — a number that, in combined driving, is usually achieved only by top advanced competitors. For a tandem, it is godlike. Witnesses said it was the best dressage they had ever seen.
The professional photographer deleted every photo he took that day. He came to Michelle in tears. The drive exists now only in the memory of everyone who watched it, and in a tandem championship by Michelle's standards.
It was the drive of her life. That they lived was the biggest joy. 

21 yo homebred Morgan stallion, The Major General driven by Michelle Blackler in Cones Phase at CAI2* Kingdom of the Sun, FL. Groom: Karen Cherry

FEI Competition
Michelle earned her FEI stars at Kingdom of the Sun CDE in Florida, competing in the large pony division. FEI combined driving is the international level of the sport — the same framework used at World Championships and the World Equestrian Games. The 2* designation reflects sustained performance at the second level of international competition.
She is one of a small number of FEI-credentialed combined driving athletes in the Midwest, and the credential informs everything she teaches — from a client’s first lesson at Training Level to preparation for a Preliminary CDE.

Training & Lessons
Michelle trains combined driving clients from their first introduction to the sport through Preliminary level competition. The arc from first lesson to first CDE is different for every horse and driver — it depends on the horse’s baseline fitness and temperament, the driver’s experience, and the level of commitment to the conditioning program.
What does not vary is the foundation: dressage first, always. A horse that is not correct and responsive in the arena cannot be safe or competitive on the marathon. Form to Function applies here as much as anywhere — correctness is not a luxury, it is the entry requirement.
Clients are welcome to bring their own horses or to work on Michelle’s horses during the learning process. Combined driving horses must be assessed individually for suitability — the sport rewards a particular combination of boldness, fitness, and trainability that not every horse possesses.

​The Immersion Clinic
For clients who want an intensive introduction to the sport or specific performance goals, Michelle offers a private three-day driving immersion clinic. The clinic combines driving lessons with your own horse, theory & implementation sessions, arena walkthroughs, and time learning with Michelle’s horses — giving you a complete foundation in one focused experience.
Day one opens with a lesson on your horse, followed by a theory session covering the principles of correct driving. Days two and three include  deep dives and review into theory, implementation, arena presence and mastery, practical time driving Michelle’s horses, and a closing lesson on your own horse to consolidate everything you’ve learned.

The immersion clinic is private, intensive, and tailored entirely to you and your horse. It is the fastest way to find out whether combined driving is the right discipline for both of you and gain more sophisticated driving skills..

Is Combined Driving Right for You?
Combined driving is not for everyone, and it is not for every horse. It requires time, commitment, and a genuine willingness to put in the conditioning work. It also requires a horse with the physical capacity and mental temperament to handle marathon demands.
What it gives back is something no other discipline quite matches: a closeness to your horse earned through two hours of daily work, through monitoring pulse and respiration and cold hosing and counting strides, through knowing your horse’s fitness the way you know your own. When you drive a clean marathon — when you come through the last gate and your horse is forward and steady and breathing well — there is nothing else like it.

If combined driving is something you have been curious about, Michelle is the right person to ask. Very few trainers in the Midwest have competed at FEI level. Fewer still can teach the discipline from first lesson to international competition.

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