A Vacation in England With Horse and Carriage

“Lengthen your left leader, shorten your right wheeler,” the instructor urged as my husband drove a team of horses four-in-hand down the country road.

A few days earlier we had driven the countryside in our rental car from the small town of Chagford in Devon to a long, narrow, tree-shaded road leading to our hotel.

A wooden sign nailed to a tree said: “Take heart, you are still en route to Gidleigh Park.” It was only another mile through the woods that opened to a green meadow. Then the black-and-white Tudor-style manor house of Gidleigh Park came into view.

Second Visit

This was our second visit to Gidleigh Park Hotel. Six years ago we hiked along the footpaths, driving our small car along country roads and riding horses over the moors. This year we were on a carriage-driving vacation and Gidleigh Park would be our home base.

We planned to relax for six days by taking instruction at the Fenix Carriage & Driving Center, owned and operated by Mark Broadbent, who has been a pony team national champion three times.

In the morning before the dining room opened we ate breakfast in our room overlooking the picturesque Devon countryside. Dressed in jeans and boots, we packed heavy sweaters, jackets, leather gloves and hats in the car and left the hotel by 8 a.m. It was a 30-mile drive along one-lane roads to reach the driving center.

We worked with the horses all morning and afternoon, with an hour off for a plowman’s lunch at a pub, Mount Pleasant in Nomansland or Cruwys Arms in Cruwys Morchard.

Each day at 4 p.m. we returned to the coaching barn, unhitched the horses, brushed them and led them out to pasture or locked them in their stalls.

Then it was back to the hotel, where a tea tray was set for us on a small table in front of a comfy sofa in the lounge. Later we dressed for a gourmet dinner that was served with a large selection of excellent wines.

Afterward, in the drawing room over coffee and sweets, we enjoyed talking with the other guests.

We were aspiring whips, novice pupils in driving carriages, although we ride our own horses at home. My husband, Fred, wanted to attain proficiency for competition and show driving. I was only interested in pleasure driving.

The first morning we learned to harness the horses and to hitch them to the carriage. To learn good-driving techniques it is necessary to have a good horse or pony with a proper-fitting harness and the right-size carriage.

Safety, Balance

Broadbent was a patient and thorough instructor. He stressed discipline for driver and horse. He was also the groom. When the whip is driving two or more horses, it is necessary for one or more grooms to ride along in the carriage for safety and balance.

The only means of communicating with the horses or ponies is the voice and directing them with the reins and a gentle flick of the whip, if necessary, on the back or neck.

Carriage driving takes many hours of practice. Ponies and horses are fast and will go wherever the reins direct them.

Fred took six days of instruction, driving a pair or team along the roads and country lanes. He was confident, using the English four-in-hand style, with all four reins in the left hand. He directed four big horses in the fields through the obstacle course, between pairs of cones, in the gate around the small square garden pen and out the opposite side of the pen, and through the water hazard.

I had four days of instruction with ponies only, driving pairs in the buttercup field, through the gates into the lane of mud puddles, then along the roads.

With the reins in my left hand, using wrist action only, I found driving the pairs took concentration. It was a challenge to be in control of those animals.

Riding as the groom, standing on the back step of the carriage, I could feel the misty breeze, hear the clopping of the hoofs, breathe the fragrance of spring and look over the hedgerows at the Devon countryside.

Curious cows ambled to the fence when they heard the carriage and horses; the sheep lifted their heads from grazing but the lambs turned away.

Right of Way

In England, horse and carriage has right of way. Cars and trucks slow behind the carriage until a lay-by is reached and the horses or ponies can be pulled aside.

The most thrilling obstacle and one of the most difficult is the water hazard. The whip drove the team through the pasture, down the grassy bank, splashing into the water hole and up the other side of the hill.

At the end of the week Fred, as whip, became quite proficient, driving the obstacle course and the water hazard with Broadbent acting as groom.

Several years ago we attended the Windsor Carriage Driving Championships at Windsor Great Park. It was our first time we saw horses and ponies, in pairs and teams, driven through an obstacle course and other hazards. The whip, with passenger and groom, always looked elegant.

Broadbent instructs his pupils for competitions and trains ponies and horses. He also designs and builds some of the finest competition carriages.

Several years ago Broadbent bought a stagecoach at an auction. He restored it and removed at least 32 coats of paint, afterward restoring the equipment in detail.

Tracing the history of the coach, he learned it was the Lorna Doone, built in 1884 to carry the royal mail and up to 20 passengers in a six-hour run along the Exmoor coastline.

The Fenix Carriage & Driving Center in East Ruckham, Cruwys Morchard, near Tiverton, Devon, has excellent facilities.

Instruction is given for the novice as well as the experienced. Horses and ponies are provided or a driver can be schooled with his own horses and carriage.

What It Costs

Approximate fees for horses and instruction are: driving single about $22 U.S. an hour, about $88 a day; driving pair of tandem about $26 an hour, $105 a day; team driving $35 an hour, $140 a day. Write to Fenix Carriage & Driving Center for reservations.

A list of firms that teach carriage driving may be obtained from the British Carriage Driving Supporters Club, the Mill House, Wattisfield Road, Walsham le Willows, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England 1P31 3BD.

Gidleigh Park is an hour’s drive from the Fenix Carriage & Driving Center and about a three-hour drive from London.

Paul Henderson, hotel owner, can make arrangements for horseback riding over the moors, a setting similar to Sherlock Holmes’ “The Hound of the Baskervilles.” He also can provide poles for fishing in the river and will make reservations for golf.

A tennis court and a croquet lawn are nearby. For walking over Gidleigh Park’s 40 acres on the North Teign River, guests may borrow rubber boots (also known as gum boots or wellies) in all sizes that are lined up in the mud room of the hotel. Address: Gidleigh Park, Chagford, Devon, England.

Nearby Hotels

Other hotels are Hartnoll Hotel, Tiverton, Devon, and the picturesque Fisherman’s Cott, Bickleigh,, near Tiverton, Devon.

About an hour’s drive from the Carriage Driving Center is the Mill End Hotel on the banks of the River Teign, Sandy Park, Chagford, Devon, and Teignworthy, Frenchbeer, Chagford, Devon, TQ13 8EX.

The Castle Hotel, Taunton, Somerset, has greeted guests and royalty for more than 300 years. It is about half an hour’s drive to the Fenix Carriage & Driving Center.

Reservations can be made through a travel agent or by writing directly to the hotels.

For more information on travel to England, contact the British Tourist Authority, 350 S. Figueroa St., Suite 450, Los Angeles, Calif. 90071, (213) 628-3525.