Driving is the oldest competitive equestrian sport. It is a discipline without riders; instead, drivers sit on a vehicle drawn by a single horse, a pair or a team of four. It consists of three phases: Dressage, Marathon and Obstacle Driving. Final placing is determined by the sum of the penalties accumulated over the three trials. Horses were driven long before they were ridden. Nowadays, mechanical vehicles have eliminated the need for horses as a primary form of transportation and Driving has turned into a fast-growing sports discipline. Driving became an FEI discipline in 1970.
The Four in Hand World Championships are held every two years, whereby every second edition coincides with teh FEI World Equestrian Games. The latest edition to have been held was thus during the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen (GER).
