When wheelchair-bound Diane Kastama pulled up to a clinic in San Diego, Calif., with a secondhand driving carriage–complete with old motorcycle wheels–and two homebred Appaloosas loaded in a trailer, she didn’t exactly fit the conventional idea of a World Champion driver. But as Hardy Zantke, a U.S. Equestrian Federation driving chef d’equipe, watched her unload horse and carriage, tack up and prepare to drive with help only from her trusty service dog, he saw a true horsewoman and international competitor.

Kastama proved Zantke’s intuition right in 2002 by earning the individual silver medal at the FEI World Carriage Driving Championships for Drivers with Disabilities with a borrowed 19-year-old, Welsh Cob stallion named Derwin Sherlock Holmes. In 2006, the stars aligned for Kastama and her own 11-year-old Welsh Cob, Jasper, when they earned the individual gold at the World Championships in Hellendoorn, the Netherlands.

Her path to the top required the utmost horsemanship and dedication, and the beginning of the road was often cobbled with doubt. “People would see me at shows and think it was neat that I was driving, but I was never considered a threat,” Kastama recalled.

But the driving community soon realized her dedication to the sport as she climbed to the top of the game. “No one thinks of me as being in a wheelchair anymore,” said Kastama who drives five to seven days a week after working her day job as a software engineer.

She spent most of her younger years on trails with pleasure horses. But in November of 1991, a car accident turned her world upside down. “My first question to the doctor when I was coherent was, ‘When can I ride again?’ ” she recalled.

Kastama found herself aboard another horse in a therapeutic riding program a year to the date after the accident. But it wasn’t the same. Something was missing. “It didn’t fulfill me,” said the ever-independent Kastama. “I always had to get help and could only ride on the flat, and if the horse didn’t change gaits perfectly I fell off.”

She also started breeding Appaloosas around that time–she now breeds sport horses–and showed youngsters in-hand. It was 1994 when she first considered driving. “At a garage sale I bought this old cart and found some local shows, mainly just to meet people,” Kastama remembered.

Soon enough, a friend convinced her to go to a Morgan show where she met Jody Cutler, president of the American Driving Society, who introduced her to driving clubs and clinics. So with her makeshift carriage and young Appaloosa, Kastama started training and began combined driving in 1998 with her first homebred, self-trained 3-year-old mare, Roxanne. She also met Zantke of Torrance, Calif., that year.

He first approached Kastama at a local California pleasure show. “She was there with an Appaloosa mare, and I saw her mucking her stall in her wheelchair and that kind of put me beside myself,” recalled Zantke.

He took the opportunity to clue Kastama in to the World Championships. “At that time she didn’t want to hear much about it. She wanted to compete in regular competitions,” said Zantke. “After she started driving up to train with me, I began to realize her outstanding horsemanship. And after seeing her positive spirit, I thought I should take a different approach than the others.”

While others advised superfluous caution, Zantke left decisions concerning risk up to Kastama. “She doesn’t see problems. She sees solutions to solve whatever needs to be solved,” Zantke added.

Perhaps it was fate that Kastama borrowed a Welsh Cob named Jasper at the 2004 World Championships for Drivers with Disabilities in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her teammate, Gene Hagsburg, took the reins of Rupert, another Welsh Cob and Jasper’s pairs partner. After experiencing Jasper’s gusto, Kastama readied her checkbook but discovered that Jasper and Rupert came only as a pair. Suffice it to say, she now competes in pairs competition as well.

Finally equipped with a solid advanced-level partner, Kastama took her own horse to the 2006 World Championships. “I’ve always just borrowed horses because it’s often cheaper,” said Kastama. “But I wasn’t going to go unless I raised the money. So I had a list of people and everyone got a letter.”

And support came in more shapes than dollar signs. A fellow driver from the Netherlands named Gerwin Knippinborg became a most obliging friend. His kind efforts steered Kastama toward reasonable accommodations, horse and carriage transportation, trails and a ring for training, veterinarians and health certificates, directions, and miscellaneous but vital tools that couldn’t be shipped–like pitchforks and wheelbarrows.

Along with Knippinborg’s hospitality, Anke Magnussen, who owns a business in the Netherlands called Liberty Horse Exerciser and also imports and exports Holsteiners, sponsored Kastama and helped dramatically reduce shipping, transportation and quarantine costs.

“To have all that support from home and abroad and actually win was so amazing,” Kastama said. “I wore my medal home on the plane; it was not leaving my sight! All that hard work just paid off.”

Less than a week before she drove to gold, Kastama experienced a taste of the FEI World Equestrian Games–a resolute goal for 2010–where she drove in the closing ceremonies to represent the new eighth FEI discipline, para-equestrian.

Jasper, who seemed to believe the WEG applause was all for him, strutted around the arena in his best extended trot. He’s described as a blas� “plow horse” when the work is done. “But once I get in the carriage, it’s like he has this go button. He becomes a completely different animal with all of this talent and charisma,” Kastama explained. “He likes to be the leader and do things his way.

“It took eight months of me bridling him every day before he thought, ‘Well she’s not going to give up,’ ” she continued. “But now he puts his head down for me, and he’s perfectly comfortable with me wheeling around him.”

Zantke credited Kastama’s horsemanship skills for the bond she develops with her horses. “They trust her, and she trusts them,” he said. “She’s probably learned a little bit about driving from me, but whenever I’m with her, I learn so much more about life.”


Personal Profile
Age: 39.

Home: Arroyo Grande, Calif.

Key Players: Hardy Zantke, Anke Magnussen, Jody Cutler, Gerwin Knippinborg.

Horses: 11-year-old Welsh Cobs Jasper and Rupert.

Gold-Medal Partner: Jasper.

Hobbies: Reading, wine tasting and exploring Central California.


2006 Competitive highlights
Individual gold—FEI World Carriage Driving Championships for Drivers with Disabilities (the Netherlands) (Jasper)
1st—Arizona CDE (Jasper and Rupert)
5th—Shady Oaks (Calif.) USEF Pairs National Championship (Jasper and Rupert)