Photo Credit: Picsofyou.com

2012 FEI WORLD DRIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS FOR SINGLESLEZIRIAS, PORTUGAL SEPTEMBER 13-16, 2012•

2 2012 FEI World Driving Championships for Singles

The following drivers have been named by the United States Equestrian Federation to represent the U.S. in the 2012 FEI World Driving Championships for Singles.

2012 FEI World Driving Championships for Singles 3

Berndl and Uminco started the 2012 season at the Sun-

shine State Combined Driving Event where they finished

second in the Advanced Single Horse class. They fol-

lowed that up with another second at the Little Ever-

glades International in the FEI Single Horse class. The

Live Oak Combined Driving Event would see the pair in

the winner’s circle when they won the Advanced Single

Horse division. They followed that victory up with a sixth

place finish at the Southern Pines Combined Driving

event in April.

Berndl is a California highway patrol officer and para-

medic. She has been flying as a crew member of an

advanced life support helicopter for over 15 years. When

Berndl is not driving, she enjoys hiking, biking, and going

to air shows. Berndl and husband, Mike, have two chil-

dren, Austin and Ashley.

Leslie BerndlBorn: April 20, 1962 Residence: Newcastle, CAUminco – 11-year-old KWPN gelding owned by Fritz Grupe

Leslie Berndl has found much success in the sport of

combined driving. In the fall of 2007, Berndl and Koop-

man’s Lightning Rod won the FEI Single Horse division

at the CAI-B Shady Oaks in California. She made the

trip east in 2008, coming in third in the FEI Single Horse

division at the Sunshine State Combined Driving Event

and fourth in the Advanced Single Horse at the Southern

Pines Driving Event.

Berndl went on to place third in the Advanced Single

Horse class at the Garden State Combined Driving Event

the next month. She returned home that Fall to win the

CAI-B Shady Oaks Advanced Single Horse class. Berndl

then traveled to Europe to represent the U.S. at the FEI

World Singles Championships in Jarantow, Poland.

To start off 2009, Berndl placed fourth in the FEI Single

Pony Class with Greenvale’s Fred Astaire at Live Oak.

The duo then upped their results by placing third at the

Southern Pines event in the Advanced Single Pony Class.

Following their pattern for the year, they pulled off a

second place drive in the FEI Pony Single Class at Brom-

ont. Berndl ended 2009 with a second place finish in the

Intermediate Single Horse class at the CAI-B Shady Oaks

event.

Berndl returned to Live Oak in March of 2010 to place

second in the FEI Single Horse event with Uminco. The

pair continued on to Southern Pines where they placed

second in the Advanced Single Horse class.

In 2011, Uminco and Berndl finished second in the CAI-B

Shady Oaks Advanced Horse Division.

Photo Credit: Picsofyou.com

4 2012 FEI World Driving Championships for Singles

Donna CrookstonBorn: May 18, 1948 Residence: Saltsburg, PA

RG Cowboys Black Cadillac – 16-year-old Morgan gelding owned by Donna Crookston

Donna Crookston was nine years old when she got her first

pony. She rode bareback until she talked her parents into buy-

ing a saddle when she was 13. As a kid, she showed Western

before switching to hunters, jumpers, eventing, and dressage.

She started foxhunting in 1972, and it’s been a passion ever

since. Crookston hunts with the Rolling Rock Hunt in Ligonier,

PA. She’s been out with a number of packs in the U.S., as well

as Ireland, England, and Australia.

Crookston started driving in June 2002 after she retired. She

bought her first driving horse, Romeo, because he could ride

and drive. Crookston knew nothing about how to get started

in driving so she contacted Lisa Singer. She visited Singer in

August 2002 for her first lesson – and has been working with

her ever since.

Crookston showed Romeo at preliminary and advanced CDEs

and did some pleasure shows. Romeo developed stifle issues

and she began to look for another horse. She saw a video of

Cowboy and was so pleased that she bought him at a sale in

December 2004. Crookston and Cowboy went to two training

events and worked at preliminary for the rest of 2005. Cowboy

has competed at advanced since 2006.

2007 was an exciting year. Cowboy was USEF Reserve Single

Horse National Champion, USEF Single Horse CDE Champion,

and AMHA Single Horse CDE Champion, and Crookston and

Cowboy were the FEI North American Single Horse Challenge

Champions.

In 2008, she and Cowboy went onto represent the U.S. at the

FEI World Singles Championships in Jarantow, Poland.

2009 started off with a win for Crookston and Cowboy as they

led the field in the FEI Single Horse class at the Sunshine State

Combined Driving Event. They followed that up with a second

at the Live Oak Combined Driving Event and a third at Bro-

mont. They brought home a pair of fourths at The Laurels at

Landhope and the Kentucky Horse Park CDE to finish off their

season.

A pair of second places brought in their 2010 season with red

ribbons at the Little Everglades International and Sunshine

State Combined Driving Event. A fourth place finish at the Gar-

den State Combined Driving event broke that streak and the

pair finished up their year with a win at The Laurels at Land-

hope in the Advanced Single Horse class.

Crookston and Cowboy started their 2011 season at the Live

Oak International in March where they finished seventh. After

a lengthy break, they came back in October for the Kentucky

Classic CDE where they won the Advanced Single Horse class.

They finished off the year with a fifth place finish at the Katy-

did Combined Driving Event.

This year, the pair has been successful in multiple events with

a sixth at the 2012 Live Oaks International and a second place

finish in the USEF National Single Horse Championship at the

Southern Pines Combined Driving Event.

Photo Credit: Picsofyou.com

2012 FEI World Driving Championships for Singles 5

Challenge and Single Horse championship three times

each. In 2008 he won the USEF National Combined

Driving Single Horse National Championship with Dante,

a Sport Cob owned in partnership with Dr. Wendy Ying,

and Dante won USEF Combined Driving Single Reserve

Horse of the Year 2008.

In recent years, Graburn has found much success driving

Ulano. In 2011, he and Ulano finished sixth in the Katydid

Combined Driving Event in the Advanced Single Horse

division.

2012 has been a banner year for Graburn and Ulano.

They started out the year by finishing third in the Little

Everglades International CDE in the Single Horse divi-

sion. The pair then improved to a second place finish at

Live Oak CDE in the Advanced Single Horse division. At

the Southern Pines CDE, Graburn and Ulano took top

honors in the Advanced Single Horse division.

Graburn competes in both Pleasure and Combined

Driving, with singles, pairs, tandems, unicorns, and four-

in-hands. Prior to moving to Gayla Driving Center in

Georgetown, KY, Graburn, along with Wendy, operated

the Kingsforth Hall Training Center and Wysiwyg Sport

Cobs in Bonifay, FL where they specialized in teaching

horses and their people to ride and drive.

Sterling GraburnBorn: February 20, 1963 Residence: Georgetown, KYUlano – 11-year-old Dutch Harness gelding owned by Larry Denny

Sterling Graburn has been involved with horses all of his

life. His mother, Sally Eastman Graburn, was a well-es-

tablished trainer continuing a family tradition that began

with his great grandfather. He was brought up in south

eastern Pennsylvania, an area steeped in equestrian

tradition. Graburn spent his early childhood competing

in combined training, in part as a member of the Radnor

Hunt Pony Club, adding combined driving in his teens.

Graburn owes his strong dressage foundation to his

mother who was always a dressage trainer first and em-

phasized that dressage is training on the continuum.

While Graburn presents horses for breed inspections

and sport horse in-hand shows, his true love is the sport

of driving. He began his driving career in 1977, and en-

tered his first Combined Driving Event in 1979. Graburn

participated in his first international event in 1984 as

navigator for the Four-in-Hand of Emil-Bernhard Jung,

a member of the American team, at the World Four-in-

Hand Championships in Szilvasvarad, Hungary. In 1993,

he again was navigator, this time for numerous times

National Pair Champion Larry Poulin for the World Pairs

Championship. Graburn was also groom/navigator for

his partner, Wendy Ying, DVM at the 2005 World Pony

Championships at Catton Hall, England.

In 2006, Graburn competed as an individual at the FEI

World Singles Driving Championships at Pratoni del Vi-

varo, Italy, where he was fourth on the marathon and the

highest overall placed American driver with Alexander

Hewitt’s Belgian Warmblood gelding, Quincey. He has

won the FEI Top Driver Award, North American

Photo Credit: Picsofyou.com

6 2012 FEI World Driving Championships for Singles

Marie de RondeBorn: April 18, 1965 Residence: Zwartewaal, The NetherlandsChef d’EquipeMarie de Ronde has years of experience in the sport of

combined driving. She is the wife of Dutch Four-in-Hand

driver Koos de Ronde, with whom she collaborates as a

groom. From 1994 to 2007, she was the Chef d’Equipe

for the Dutch national pairs team. In 2008, de Ronde

took on the job of Show Secretary for the 2008 FEI

Four-in-Hand World Championship in Beesd, The Neth-

erlands. Her various experiences in the world of driving

will help her guide the U.S. driving team to success.

2012 FEI World Driving Championships for Singles 7

Elizabeth StallerBorn: November 7, 1966 Residence: Bedminister, NJTeam LeaderElizabeth “Lizzy” Staller has been involved in equestrian

sports since the age of 10 when she began riding with

Sally Graburn. Although her chosen sport was eventing

all of Graburn’s students were taught to drive a pony.

After completing school, Staller rode and trained with

noted Canadian eventer, Lorraine Laframboise.

An equine radiology and endoscopy technician, Staller

worked at the University of Pennsylvania’s Large Animal

School of Veterinary Medicine New Bolton Center in

Kennett Square, PA. After moving to New Jersey in 1992,

Staller spent several years with well known Four-in-Hand

driver James Fairclough and had a formal introduction

to driving. She was taken with the sport and helped

Fairclough with his team, grooming horses, assisting at

vet checks, and riding on the carriage. She went to many

combined driving events in the U.S. with the Fairclough

team, and in 1996 assisted him at the World Champion-

ships in Waregem, Belgium.

Staller worked at the USET Foundation in 2004, fund-

raising for the Olympics in Greece. In the spring of 2009

she joined the USEF as the Director of High Perfor-

mance Driving Disciplines.

With her husband, Bill Denney, Staller keeps a home in

Philadelphia as well as in Bedminster, NJ. Staller and Bill

have three children between them.

Photo Credit: USEF Archives