Martha Younger: Driving Toward the 2027 FEI Pony World Championships

Martha Younger’s career in the horse industry has taken her across continents, disciplines, and decades of high-performance competition. A lifelong horsewoman, Martha has trained, competed, coached, and built equestrian businesses across North America, Europe, and the Middle East.

After a serious back injury during her show jumping career, she found a new competitive outlet in combined driving, a demanding FEI discipline that asks horses and ponies to perform dressage, marathon and cones phases while pulling a carriage.

Today, Martha operates Ben Howe Carriage Driving in Ontario, where she develops FEI-level driving ponies with the same versatility and athletic foundation that shaped her show jumping background. With her driving pair, Archie and Kas, Martha is now working toward qualifying for the 2027 FEI Driving World Championship for Ponies.

Behind that goal is a program built around careful conditioning, international competition experience, and targeted nutrition. With support from Mad Barn, Martha helps her driving ponies handle the demands of upper-level sport while keeping them healthy, comfortable, and ready to perform.

A Career Built Across Continents

Martha Younger’s path through the horse industry stretched far beyond one country, one discipline, or even one career.

“I’ve been involved with the horse industry my entire life,” Martha says. “I’ve also spent much of my life abroad, which allowed me to live, compete, and train on three continents.”

 

 

Martha started her career in education and raised five children, often balancing teaching contracts with horse show seasons across different parts of the world. Over the years, Martha also launched and operated several equestrian facilities.

“I’ve built and run three facilities over the years,” Martha says. “The first one was Marcach Farm in Bradford, Ontario, which I opened in 1989. We focused mostly on junior riders, ponies, pony jumpers, hunters and jumpers.”

As Martha gained experience and reputation, her coaching skills brought her to the Middle East, where she would stay for nearly a decade.

“I was hired to coach the daughters of the Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nayan of the UAE in show jumping,” Martha says. “My daughters would warm up their ponies or horses, and then I would coach them. That was an amazing experience.”

After returning to Canada, Martha shifted back into running a full-time training and breeding operation, building a program centered on upper-level jumper sport.

From Show Jumping to Combined Driving

A serious injury years ago changed the direction of Martha’s riding career forever. While it ended her time as a show jumper, it didn’t stop her from pursuing high-level competition.

“I broke my back, and that’s what ended my show jumping competition career,” Martha says. “I continued to coach show jumping at the elite levels for a while, and we still had FEI show jumpers, but I really missed competing myself. I missed the excitement of the jump-off and the adrenaline rush.”

That competitive drive eventually led Martha to combined driving. After first trying pleasure driving, she was encouraged to try combined driving instead. She entered her first event with a little preparation, her pony, a small carriage, and her daughter as navigator.

 

 

“Being an overconfident horse person, I thought, ‘I know all about competing at high levels. I’ll be fine.'” Martha says. “So I threw my pony and our little carriage onto the trailer and drove to Michigan for my first combined driving event.”

She entered the preliminary division without realizing it was not a beginner level, but the experience introduced her to a new sport and a welcoming community. For about 10 years, Martha maintained a roster of show jumping clients while she trained herself and her horses for the demands of high-level combined driving.

In 2019, she and her husband sold their farm, planning to retire and move to the south of France with her two driving ponies. However, between the COVID-19 pandemic and her husband’s sudden cancer diagnosis, best laid plans were set aside.

Martha stayed in North America, but quickly realized she was not ready to slow down. Lockdown gave her time to pursue a combined driving career with Checker, a young stallion at the time who is now the pride of her three-star program.

“When you’re in the horse industry, you work 14-hour days, seven days a week, almost the entire year,” Martha says. “To go from that to not having a lot to do, I was dying of boredom. So, I decided to take up combined driving in a more serious manner, went to the U.S. with Checker, and we had a fair amount of success.”

In 2023, Martha moved to Ontario and opened Ben Howe Carriage Driving, a high-end facility focused on developing FEI-level combined driving ponies.

“All of our competition animals compete at the FEI level,” Martha says. “We also breed sport ponies with German bloodlines, then develop them and get them into driving.”

Although combined driving is now Martha’s main focus, her show jumping background still shapes her program. Her ponies are developed as versatile athletes who jump, do dressage, and compete in driving.

Performance Under Harness

Martha describes combined driving as a true test of equine athleticism. “A lot of people think carriage driving is what they see at fairs or pleasure shows,” Martha says. “But combined driving horses and ponies have to be true athletes. It’s a bit like eventing, but with a carriage.”

The sport includes three phases: dressage, marathon and cones, requiring horses and ponies to show strength, stamina, accuracy, and speed while pulling a carriage.

 

 

“At the three-star level, they have to perform true collection while pulling more than their body weight,” Martha says. “It’s basically the equivalent of a Third Level dressage test with a few higher-level movements thrown in.”

One of Martha’s most memorable driving equines is Mummy’s Mercedes, the small Welsh pony who first helped her fall in love with the sport.

“I’ve had her for 20 years now, and I competed her all over, including in Europe and the Middle East,” Martha says. “She was a combined driving pony, but she also competed in dressage and hunters in Canada, and in Europe she did the pony jumpers.”

One of their biggest moments together came at Live Oak, where Martha spent years petitioning to bring Mercedes, who was smaller than the usual FEI pony height requirement. After starting in 10th after dressage, Mercedes moved up with a strong marathon performance before delivering the best cones round of the competition.

“She was absolutely outstanding in marathon,” Martha says. “Then in cones, nobody had gone double clear, and we laid down the best trip of the day. We won cones for the entire horse show, had a double clear, and ended up finishing third in our division.”

The podium finish at the event was even more special because of everything Mercedes had done for her over the years. “I’ve had much bigger victories than that, but for me, that was the best finish I could possibly have asked for,” Martha says. “She was my favorite pony. I pulled her out of retirement to compete at Live Oak when she was finally eligible, and I retired her permanently after that event.”

Mercedes is still part of Martha’s program today, helping introduce new people to combined driving. “She still gives lessons, and she loves being a teacher,” Martha says. “She has started an awful lot of people in driving, so she’s a good ambassador for the sport.”

From Canadian Championships to the 2027 FEI Pony Worlds

Once Mercedes retired, Martha spent a few years exploring how far she and  Checker could go together. “Checker is the young stallion I imported from Germany in 2020,” Martha says. “He’s the one who really convinced me that I could truly compete at the FEI level in combined driving.”

Martha and Checker won the Canadian Championships at Bromont and moved up through the FEI star rankings. Her path toward the 2027 Pony World Championships began to take form, and a 2026 trip to Europe further shaped Martha’s goals.

“I wasn’t sure whether I was competitive enough in Europe,” Martha says. “Checker was very competitive in marathon and cones, but I realized his dressage would always be in the bottom half of the pack. I didn’t want to go to Worlds just for the experience. I want to go and do well.”

That experience shifted Martha’s focus to her driving pair, Archie and Kas, who exceeded expectations at Kronenberg, one of Europe’s largest combined driving events.

 

 

“I hadn’t been driving a pair very long, but Bram Chardon convinced me to take them to Kronenberg,” Martha says. “It was one of the biggest carriage driving events in Europe, with about 500 horses, and most of the drivers were professionals.”

After returning to Canada, Archie and Kas won the two-star Canadian Championship at Bromont. Martha is now aiming to move them up to three-star competition at Tryon as she works toward qualifying the pair for the 2027 Pony World Championships.

Nutrition for Upper-Level Combined Driving Ponies

Martha uses numerous Mad Barn products in her feeding program, but Visceral+ has made the biggest difference for Checker especially.

Visceral+ is a comprehensive gut formula designed to maintain stomach and hindgut health. It helps support the stomach’s natural protective barrier, a healthy intestinal lining, and microbial balance in the hindgut.

“Checker has a lot of air miles, more than most humans, and that’s pretty stressful,” Younger notes. Since adding Visceral+ to Checker’s feeding program, Martha reports that she has needed to use omeprazole less frequently while managing the demands of extensive travel and competition.

“He’s been on Visceral+ for a year and a half,” Martha says. “In that time, he’s competed all over North America and traveled to the Netherlands and back. I’ve been very happy with how he has done on it, and it has also saved me a fair amount of money.”

Martha also uses Mad Barn’s 3:1 Zinc Copper support across her program.

“Our water is very high in iron, which makes it more difficult for the horses to absorb copper and zinc,” Martha says. “With Mad Barn’s 3:1 Zinc Copper, all the horses have beautiful coats and strong feet.”

Martha’s focus on copper and zinc was reinforced when Checker developed birdcatcher spots despite otherwise looking healthy.

“Birdcatcher spots are common with chestnuts, and he is a palomino,” Martha says. “Even though I’ve been in the horse industry for almost 50 years, I didn’t know birdcatcher spots could be a sign of copper deficiency.” After adding Mad Barn’s copper supplement to Checker’s diet, Martha noticed a visible improvement in his coat quality.

The copper and zinc support has also been helpful for horses in Martha’s program prone to scratches.

Science-Backed Feeding Strategies for Happy, Healthy Horses

For Martha, the performance nutrition goes beyond adding individual supplements to her feeding program. She places particular importance on having access to nutritionists who can evaluate the complete diet and help make informed adjustments for each horse or pony.

That matters in a barn where nutritional needs can vary considerably between individuals. Rather than making changes based on a single ingredient or concern, Martha can work with the Mad Barn team to consider the full feeding program and identify where targeted supplementation is appropriate.

She also values the research behind Mad Barn’s products. After decades of managing horses at different levels of sport, Martha looks for nutritional recommendations that have a clear rationale and can be adapted to the individual horse.

Summary

Martha Younger has built an international equestrian career spanning show jumping, coaching, breeding, and FEI combined driving. She now develops high-performance driving ponies in Ontario while working toward the 2027 FEI Driving World Championship for Ponies.

• Martha has competed, coached, bred horses, and operated equestrian facilities across North America, Europe, and the Middle East
• A serious back injury ended her show jumping career and eventually led her to pursue combined driving at the FEI level
• Her program at Ben Howe Carriage Driving focuses on developing versatile, athletic ponies for upper-level competition
• Martha has achieved major results with ponies including Mummy's Mercedes, Checker, Archie, and Kas
• Archie and Kas are now being prepared for a campaign toward qualification for the 2027 Pony World Championships
• Mad Barn nutrition supports her ponies through travel, training, competition, recovery, and long-term performance