Driving cob

“HE’S DONE IT ALL”

BEN TURNER admits that when, in 2014, he decided to take up carriage driving, he was very naïve.

“I wanted a horse that was safe; not too hot-headed, and not too big,” he said.

Lots of people suggested cobs, so when he started driving in 2014, he bought one cob from Ireland. When that went well, he bought another seven.

“We must have looked at 250 horses to find the eight that we had at the time.”

When he started out in the driving world, it was private driving that took his fancy.

“I wasn’t planning on going into coaching, but when the horses started to become good, I bought myself a road coach and ended up competing alongside all the Gelderlanders and hackneys and so on,”

Ben says. “In the carriage world everyone has more flashy types; I was the only person doing coaching with the cobs.”

Despite not being as flashy as some of the competition, his cobs “do everything”.

As well as taking part in the London Harness Horse Parades and in the coaching marathon at Royal Windsor, his cobs have done film work, paraded with a cowboy wagon at the Edenbridge and Oxted shows, and also go hunting and on trips to the beach.

“There is nothing you can throw at them that they haven’t done,” says Ben.

His proudest moment was with one specific cob, Wallis. In 2019 the pair of them opened the Royal Windsor pageant, with Wallis (above) pulling a hansom cab with the actor Simon Callow as his passenger.

“We had to wait outside the arena where all of the stunt horses and military horses were warming up,” Ben says. “Then he had to go all on his own into a big floodlit arena, and he just took it in his stride. He has done weddings, he’s done funerals. He’s done it all.”

“There is nothing you can’t throw

at them”

BEN TURNER