There’s a new name on the U.S. Equestrian Federation’s Moore Trophy for the national pair horse driving championship. Fritz Grupe, a 67-year-old Californian who has been competing with horses for only two seasons, took the title during the Garden State Combined Driving Event, May 5-8 at the Horse Park of New Jersey in Allentown.

Grupe enjoys some other distinctions too. He’s the first person based west of the Mississippi, and the first grandfather, to win the honor. The first grandmother to earn the title, Lisa Singer, 57, was foiled in her bid to earn the trophy for the eighth time. Her seventh victory in 2004 made her the record holder for the championship.

But Singer demonstrated her sportsmanship by commenting favorably on Grupe’s rapid rise. “It’s kind of cool how quickly Fritz came along,” she said. “We’re both part of the older generation. We’re both getting better, like good wine.”

That was a particularly appropriate comment, perhaps prompted by the fact that Grupe, a real estate developer who grows wine grapes on his property in Lodi, Calif., brought Singer a bottle of wine after the competition.

Grupe started the weekend behind Singer, taking second to her and Mimi Thor-ington’s Morgans in the dressage. But he was within striking distance of the top, with a score of 45.57 penalties to Singer’s 44.8 penalties.

Finishing a strong third in the marathon pulled Grupe into the lead. Singer accumulated two knockdowns in the last of eight hazards to come in fifth in the marathon and stand 2.95 penalties behind Grupe after two days of competition.

Jim Richards, better known as a four-in-hand driver, won the marathon with a score of 67.60 penalties, but that only pulled him up two places from seventh, where he stood after dressage. Larry Poulin, a six-time national pairs champion, was second in the marathon.

The leaders each had trouble in the cones, knocking down two balls apiece and incurring time penalties, but Grupe, who drives his own German- and Dutch-bred horses, was faster to win the division (127.68), ahead of Singer (130.92).

The cones course utilized two rings, with a grass lane between them. Singer considered the layout “cool,” but noted that the stone dust surface in the arenas caused carriages to slide, making it impossible to finish within the time allowed.

Garden State, running as an FEI-sanctioned event for the first time, was a selection trial for the U.S. teams for September’s World Pairs Championship in Austria and the World Combined Pony Driving Championships in Britain during July.

Grupe and Singer hope they will be the nucleus of the pairs team. Singer, of Chadds Ford, Pa., is a veteran of international competition, but Grupe–who started his driving career with Halflinger ponies–will be honing his skills with four-in-hand world champion Michael Freund of Germany during a trip to Europe prior to the championship.

Grupe believes that his age is no handicap, and he sees driving as beneficial to his health. “It motivates you to stay fit and keep your mind active,” he said.

“Fritz has a great mind and is physically as fit as any of them in that group. He’s a competitor, and I’m really excited for him,” said two-time national pairs champion Chester Weber (also the U.S. four-in-hand titlist), who has been helping Grupe.

Quite A Kerfluffle In The Ponies

The pony championships selection picture sorted itself out somewhat at Garden State, where Live Oak CDE (Fla.) winner
Sara Schmitt–the highest-placed U.S. driver at the inaugural World Combined Pony Driving Championships two years ago–was an easy victor over Canada’s Jennifer Matheson in the single ponies. But there was a lot of water under the bridge before she claimed her trophy.

Rochelle Temple had won the dressage, but her bid was ended by a turnover on the marathon. Suzy Stafford, a top contender for the team, was second in dressage with the Morgan Courage To Lead, but on the marathon phase, she was disqualified at the water hazard by judge Diana Brownlie for excessive use of the whip.

Stafford was shocked at her penalty. “When they stopped me, I thought my harness was broken,” said Stafford. “They told me I was eliminated and it was for excessive use of the whip. My mouth was just open; I didn’t know what to say.” She said a veterinary examination later showed no marks on the pony.

Noting that competitors were warned during the briefing that judges would be vigilant about the way horses were treated, Stafford observed, “They seem to have made me a poster child,” adding that other drivers who may have gotten overzealous on course were simply given warnings. She theorized that attention may have been drawn to her because her whip was quite noisy. Brownlie did not respond to a request for comment.

Schmitt, fourth in dressage with her Morgan, High Country Doc, won the marathon and had the best trip of any of the advanced competitors in the cones, accumulating just 2.81 time penalties. She finished on 115.61 penalties, to 127.41 for Matheson.

Schmitt decided to skip the final selection trial in Bromont, Canada, saying her horse has been “extremely consistent.” Once she is named to the team, the real work will begin. The Glen Gardner, N.J., resident figures she will need at least $24,000, and probably more, over the USEF’s allocation of $8,300 to make the trip and compete in England before the championships. She is organizing a fund-raising campaign so she can be ready to put it into action if the selectors choose her.

Pair ponies competitor Tracey Morgan, of Bealsville, Md., and her experienced Dartmoor duo, Joe and Maude, have not been beaten in a U.S. event, and she also qualified an up-and-coming pair earlier in the season to make sure she has another pony for her mix in England. Morgan said new rules allow two substitutions instead of one, making the availability of a third pony more important.

At Garden State, Morgan topped both the dressage and the cones, though she lost the marathon to German sport pony driver Paul Martin of New Holland, Pa., the only other competitor to complete the division. Her final score was 113.38 penalties, to Martin’s 128.37.

Off To The Championships

Boots Wright, the winner of the FEI four-in-hand at Garden State, had more than her ponies to worry about over the weekend. Her husband, Dave, was hospitalized with bleeding ulcers at a medical center 40 minutes from the Horse Park, but he insisted that his wife compete anyway.

Wright won the dressage with an edge of nearly 20 penalties and was second in the marathon to Elizabeth Keathley, but recouped in the cones with just a single knockdown and time penalties to wind up first on 162.86 penalties to Keathley’s 178.56.

After bursting into tension-releasing tears when she crossed the finish line, Wright went off to see her husband and get ready for a trip to England with the ponies days later in preparation for the championships. Lisa Stroud, another contender for the championships, was already in England showing her four-in-hand.

In the single horse division, Bob Koopman of Northbridge, Mass., scored his first advanced win with the Dutch Warmblood Lionhart. Mark Holman, a veterinarian and close friend, gave Lionhart to Koopman as a 4-month-old weanling. Koopman was best man at Holman’s wedding, and helped build his house “and never charged him a dime,” he said, laughing.

Holman thought the gray gelding, nicknamed Teddy, would be a good driving prospect. Koopman learned how to drive on his own through trial and error years before, when someone gave him a retired Standardbred and he bought an antique surrey to give kids a ride through the neighborhood.

But when Koopman got serious about driving, he started training with Larry Poulin and enlisted the aid of his 27-year-old daughter, Anna, a former intercollegiate horse show competitor who rides along as his groom.

Koopman, 61, concedes he needs to work on his dressage; he was fifth in that phase with 70.6 penalties. But he climbed into third place with a victory in the marathon and won with just 2.83 time penalties in the cones, overtaking R.K. Brownridge, the leader going into the cones.

The trophy for the single horse championship was given in memory of George W. Hoffman, a competitor who was a guiding light of the Gladstone Equestrian Association. Hoffman won the silver punchbowl in the Walnut Hill competition (N.Y.) years ago.

The event’s other memorial trophy is named for veterinarian Gaylord McKissick, a frequent volunteer at New Jersey driving events, and given to the best-conditioned horse. The winner was Lorraine Potter’s Rasqual, a Welsh cob who was sixth in the preliminary single horse section. Potter, of Pine Bush, N.Y., is an engineering technician who conditions the pony every day, “sometimes in the dark” because of her demanding work schedule.