Equestrian driving is a separate discipline of horse sport. It has been contested at the Olympics only in 1900 in Paris, when there were two events held: four-in-hand driving and the hacks and hunter combined event. Both were open to men and women.
Equestrian driving consists of a rider driving a carriage pulled by either a single horse or a team of four. In modern driving, the sport has three phases, similar to eventing – dressage, a cross-country marathon, and obstacle cone driving. FEI World Cup Driving is a series of four-in-hand competitions for four-horse teams, which was introduced in 2001 and combines marathon and obstacle cone driving. The first World Championships in the discipline had already taken place back at Münster 1972.
Since 1970, driving is governed by the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI), which was formed in 1921 in Lausanne, Switzerland, by Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, Norway, Sweden, and the United States, and has 135 member national federations as of January 2026. The FEI governs several different disciplines of equestrianism, including jumping, eventing, dressage, and vaulting.
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