Hugh Scott-Barrett has lived carriage driving from mud-spattered marathon courses to the glamour of World Cup Finals. Just retired as Boyd Exell’s backstep of 11 years, he’s now poised to further advance the sport he loves.
In the sport of carriage driving, the media spotlight often shines on the driver – however, like any equestrian sport, driving is a team effort. In four-in-hand driving, each team has a navigator and a backstep positioned behind the driver – and although their roles vary depending on the competition, along with the horses they are an important part of each team’s success.
British-born Hugh Scott-Barrett is one of the most highly credentialed and successful backsteps in the business. He spent 11 years on the back of Boyd Exell’s carriage, and in that time has been part of three FEI World Championship titles, five World Cup Final wins, and countless other victories at prestigious events such as CHIO Aachen and the Royal Windsor Horse Show.
Hugh recently retired from Team XL, with his last international event the CAIO4* in Saumur, France, and his last appearance the high-octane Ride & Drive feature at CHIO Aachen in Germany. Equestrian Life caught up with Hugh to find out more about his career on the carriage – and how he plans to support the sport he loves moving forward.
EQ LIFE: How did you get into horses and the sport of carriage driving to begin with?
HUGH: I’d never ridden a horse in my life, but I’ve always been passionate about horses. Since a very early age I was interested in horse racing and I have owned racehorses for 30 years. Horses were in the blood, but always separated by a fence – which I always thought was the best place to be, on the other side!
And then I married into a very horsey family. My late mother-in-law, Lady Hugh Russell, used to train the British eventing team; she actually trained quite a lot of the Australian eventing team as well. Back in the 70s she was the go-to person for cross country training.
“Horses were in the blood,
but always separated by a fence.”
In the sport of carriage driving, the media spotlight often shines on the driver – however, like any equestrian sport, driving is a team effort. In four-in-hand driving, each team has a navigator and a backstep positioned behind the driver – and although their roles vary depending on the competition, along with the horses they are an important part of each team’s success.
British-born Hugh Scott-Barrett is one of the most highly credentialed and successful backsteps in the business. He spent 11 years on the back of Boyd Exell’s carriage, and in that time has been part of three FEI World Championship titles, five World Cup Final wins, and countless other victories at prestigious events such as CHIO Aachen and the Royal Windsor Horse Show.
Hugh recently retired from Team XL, with his last international event the CAIO4* in Saumur, France, and his last appearance the high-octane Ride & Drive feature at CHIO Aachen in Germany. Equestrian Life caught up with Hugh to find out more about his career on the carriage – and how he plans to support the sport he loves moving forward.
EQ LIFE: How did you get into horses and the sport of carriage driving to begin with?
HUGH: I’d never ridden a horse in my life, but I’ve always been passionate about horses. Since a very early age I was interested in horse racing and I have owned racehorses for 30 years. Horses were in the blood, but always separated by a fence – which I always thought was the best place to be, on the other side!
And then I married into a very horsey family. My late mother-in-law, Lady Hugh Russell, used to train the British eventing team; she actually trained quite a lot of the Australian eventing team as well. Back in the 70s she was the go-to person for cross country training.
“Horses were in the blood,
but always separated by a fence.”
Karen, my wife, had been forced to give up riding when she was young, and because she wasn’t able to ride, she took up carriage driving. For quite a few years I helped out and did a little bit of backstepping for her. She decided she wanted to get to the bottom of the problem that was causing her not to be able to ride; in the end she had a double hip replacement. During the time that she was recovering from those operations, Boyd Exell asked me to go on the backstep of his carriage because he had a vacancy, as my predecessor, Ed Simonet, had been offered a job in Belgium. So, I had some free time and that’s how it all started back in 2012.
EQ LIFE: Can you explain the role of the backstep?
HUGH: I think of myself as crewman alongside the skipper and navigator. Correctly positioned over the inside rear wheel with a low centre of gravity, the backstepper can help maximise speed in the turn in the same way a crewman on a sailing boat can lean out over the water to help balance and optimise the boat speed.
It starts with safety, which is about stability, but then it’s also about speed, and speed on the turn; and I think that over the years, I hope that I’ve been able to help Boyd’s horses just go a little bit faster. There are certain turns on a course where he knows that he’s got the comfort of 100kg to lean out and keep the carriage stable, because there are sticky surfaces, there are moments where you do feel the carriage just beginning to lift a little – and so the extra weight becomes quite important.
At indoor World Cup events, the backstep is also responsible for making sure no cones are hit, in addition to keeping an eye on the clock and letting the driver know if they need to speed up or can slow down.
EQ LIFE: As a backstep, you’re not just sitting on the carriage… it’s quite physical?
HUGH: I was required to serve an apprenticeship when I joined Boyd; I joined in 2012 and the World Cup Final in 2015 was the first championship I did. I had to put in quite a lot of effort in the gym along the way, which has been a real plus actually – I’d be in the gym twice a week with a personal trainer for the last eight or nine years to keep me fit – because if you do hit a post with one of those team carriages, you certainly feel it sitting on the back. You have to be able to hold on. And just because of the way that gravity works, if you’re behind that rear wheel, the driver may not feel anything, but you sort of swing from side to side; gravity can be quite severe in places.
EQ LIFE: How long are you out for on a marathon course at a combined driving event?
HUGH: The actual section with the marathon is typically between 30 and 40 minutes, but you’ll be out there in total for around an hour and a quarter, so it can be quite demanding. The indoors [eg, World Cup events] and outdoors [eg, combined driving events such as the FEI World Championships] are quite different in terms of the demands they put on you. The outdoor events are much more around endurance and tenacity and resilience, while the indoor events are about speed and agility; everything has to happen very quickly.
Indoors, I’m also doing split times on the back of the carriage as well, so I’m looking at the clock and I’ve timed as many of the other drivers as I can, and then I’ll use that to tell Boyd how we’re progressing around the course with the splits and whether he’s got to speed up or slow down.
Particularly indoors, because there are such fine margins, you can just push that little bit too much sometimes. One small mistake has a sort of magnifying effect; it tends to trigger another one. So it’s important for the driver to know when they can ease off. Things just happen so fast, because you’re only in there for 120, 130 seconds at most and the cones and other obstacles come up so quickly.
EQ LIFE: As a backstep, you’ve probably dealt with a lot of mud over the years?
HUGH: Absolutely. There’s quite a library of photos of me after the marathon covered in mud, sand and water. It reflects the fact that you’re down that low, the water obstacles… there are often one or two places where we’d just about be underwater as we go through.
EQ LIFE: So, as a backstep you’re hoping for relatively warm weather on marathon day?
HUGH: At Saumur just a couple of months ago [Hugh’s final international event with Boyd’s team], it was the first time that I can remember having a warm shower through the water obstacle; it was actually quite pleasant after all the heat in France. Fair to say that’s probably not a very common occurrence.
“I think it appeals both
to those who like four wheels
as well as four legs.”
EQ LIFE: You’ve spent 11 years on the back of the carriage with Boyd. There must have been many highlights?
HUGH: There are quite few. I suppose winning the three World Championships and competing at eight World Cup finals – of which we won five – and then a few Royal Windsor Horse Shows and a few CHIO Aachens as well.
There are a couple of events that stand out, not always necessarily for the reasons you’d expect. There was a competition in Riesenbeck [northern Germany] in 2015 when our brakes failed on the marathon and we continued, but it was somewhat roller-coaster stuff. At one obstacle we slid into a post out of control, and I went flying into a maize field! I was helped back on to the carriage by the obstacle stewards and we finished the marathon. A nail-biting cones [where although not a backstep, Hugh was on the sidelines as a tactician, analysing the competition and working out the best way for the team to tackle the course] followed, and Boyd had to go double clear to win the competition – which he did. That was so nerve-wracking that I’ve never watched him do a cones competition ever since!
EQ LIFE: The World Cup Finals indoors, you were on the back of the carriage for those… they have quite an intense atmosphere and are run differently to the outdoor combined driving events?
HUGH: They are a little bit more special because I was on the back of the carriage from start to finish. They are hugely exciting competitions; quite tough mentally and we’ve had some wonderful finals which I shall look back on with a good deal of pleasure.
It’s quite interesting that the indoor driving has attracted a huge following… I think it appeals both to those who like four wheels as well as four legs, and that means that it draws in a slightly broader crowd. You don’t need to know a lot about horses to appreciate what you see in front of you when it comes to the indoor driving.
Shows like London International Horse Show [which hosts a World Cup Qualifier] – which for obvious reasons tends to be one of my favourites – does attract full houses for the driving. That’s all happened in the 10 years or so that I’ve been involved as a backstep. It’s fantastic to see driving appealing to a broader audience.
EQ LIFE: So you have seen the sport grow quite a lot in the time that you’ve been involved?
HUGH: Yes. The World Cup has really taken off in that time frame. You are getting full houses now at those shows. The Jump & Drive at CHIO Aachen this year in the main arena also attracted huge crowds. [A three-phase relay that involves a four-in-hand carriage, an eventer and a showjumper, this year’s Jump & Drive was won by Boyd Exell, fellow Aussie Andrew Hoy and Swede Fredrik Spetz. If you look closely at the videos, you’ll see Hugh on the carriage as well!]
“The World Cup has really
taken off… you are getting full
houses now at those shows.”
EQ LIFE: More than a backstep and tactician for Boyd’s team, you’ve also been involved in the sport in other ways?
HUGH: Yes, I helped set up Driving Valkenswaard International [DVI, an event run since 2016 at Boyd Exell’s property that attracts the world’s best teams]. I was chairman of the organising committee for four years, which was thoroughly enjoyable.
I also sponsor quite a lot of grassroots driving activities here in the UK and have been involved in sponsorship of local events, FEI events [including the London International Horse Show and Royal Windsor Horse Show] and some of the teams that go forward for European and World Championships [Hugh sponsored the Australian team for the 2018 World Championships in Tryon]. I have also helped set up and fund the International Carriage Drivers Association, which has been set up this year to try to bring a slightly more coherent voice for the drivers to all the discussions that take place around the future direction of the sport.
I volunteer at events as well to help out, and I do occasionally help my wife, Karen. I went on the backstep of her carriage for a local competition at Windsor a month or so ago, which is the first time I’ve done that for a few years.
“I’m quite keen
to give back
what I’ve learned.”
EQ LIFE: Karen is still involved in the sport – what does she drive?
HUGH: She used to drive pairs, but at the moment she is driving a single horse. Being on the back of the single horse for the first time in a number of years reminds me that actually you’ve got quite a lot to think about. You’ve got the navigating, you’ve got the turntable brake, you’ve got the stability of the carriage and all those things to think about [single horse carriages have one person on the back, as opposed to four-in-hand team carriages where there are two].
It reminds you also that the team carriages are over 600kg; you feel quite safe in those because they’re pretty solid. A smaller, single carriage… they’re not quite so robust. You feel a bit more exposed!
EQ LIFE: What are your plans in the sport now that you’re stepping back from Boyd’s team?
HUGH: I’m standing as a candidate to be chairman of the FEI Driving Committee; that’s the group that oversees driving as a whole. There are elections taking place for that in November and I’m one of three candidates. Given all the different roles I’ve played in sport on the one hand, and a business background on the other, the combination of the two… I was persuaded that I’d be a good candidate. The timing of stepping down from Boyd’s team is partly driven by wanting to spend time focusing on the campaign for this role.
And then I’m volunteering to do a few backstepping clinics. I did one online with Equestrian Queensland recently, which was great fun, and I’m doing one locally in Dorset in person soon. I do think the importance of the role of the navigator or backstep is often underestimated, and I also feel that it’s an area where there isn’t such an established training path. For drivers now, there’s quite a well-established process of progression, testing and exams, but for the backsteps, it’s still in its infancy. If I can help increase awareness of some of the issues and help as a catalyst with the various associations to begin to establish a program for navigators and backsteppers… I’m quite keen to give back what I’ve learned over the last 11 years with Boyd.
EQ LIFE: Where do you see and hope that the sport of driving progresses to in the coming years?
HUGH: I think what driving offers is that of all the equestrian sports, it has the ability to be the most inclusive because it can appeal to such a wide range of participants.
It’s great to go to a competition, which I did with Karen a few weeks back, where you’ve got people competing from the ages of juniors, 16-to-17-year-olds, all the way up to 75-year-olds. At grassroots level, it has a fantastic opportunity to draw people into sport, some of whom will be honed athletes and others who will be there with a slightly different purpose… they’re looking for an opportunity to experience a sport, perhaps not at the highest level, but one where they can enjoy themselves.
It’s more difficult in Australia where people do have to travel often quite long distances, but in Europe and certainly here in in the UK, drivers can literally on a Sunday go to the local arena and there’ll be 30 to 40 people there and they’ll do an indoor short dressage test and cones, and a couple of marathon obstacles, and they’ll have great fun. That’s not hugely expensive to be able to do. Clearly, if you do the sport at the four-in-hand team level, it’s a bit different. But at the grassroots level, it’s pretty inclusive in terms of its ability to draw in people without having to invest in huge sums of money, and I think that’s a great building block.
“Driving has real
pulling power.”
Because it’s a non-Olympic sport, it does suffer from lack of funding. And that’s true in the UK, it’s true in Australia, it’s true in many countries where finite resources for equestrians are devoted towards the Olympic sports. But I think that as the World Cup has demonstrated, driving has real pulling power. If you look at the number of video views that Boyd and some of the others competing at CHIO Aachen [July 2023] attracted, there are a large number of them that are well into seven figures. So there’s something there in terms of its ability to draw people in, and that would be one of my areas of focus if I’m elected to be chair of the Driving Committee; to see how one could better exploit the opportunity to try and draw in more sponsorship to the sport, because I do think it has the ability to be very exciting for spectators and sponsors.
EQ LIFE: Even though you’ve retired from Boyd’s carriage, you’ll no doubt still follow the success of the team?
HUGH: I’m hugely grateful to Boyd and the rest of the team, and he’s built up an extraordinary group. It’s a big group – but it’s combinations of people at different events – and it’s really a close-knit group who have just wonderful experience and enjoy hugely what they do.
My time as part of Team XL has been the most fantastic journey for me and it’s really been a major part of my life. And although I won’t be quite as closely involved with Boyd and the team as I have in the past, I will certainly follow very keenly their continuing success.
EQL: I don’t think Boyd has any plans of slowing down anytime soon by the sounds of it!
HUGH: No, which must be a source of frustration for some of his peers… he’s got a new young team, which seems to be almost as good as the established team! EQ
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE TO READ BY HEATH RYAN:
Boyd Exell Reigns at Aachen – Equestrian Life, July 2023
Boyd Exell’s Champagne Campaign – Equestrian Life, October 2022
