2008 World Singles Team

Robin Groves

Robin Groves, age 63 lives in Brownsville, VT a small town which boasts of having more horses than people in it. She and her husband Wilson own and operate R & W Horsedrawn Services, a training and teaching facility for drivers, riders and all manner of horses. Robin also does clinics all over the US and Canada for drivers and riders of all levels of experience.

What the Groves do for work all week, they also do on the weekends. They compete in combined driving, carriage pleasure shows and competitive trail drives, at distances up to 100 miles. Robin feels that horses that compete at the highest levels of their sport are better prepared when they compete at regularly at a variety different disciplines.

Robins horse for the 2008 Combined Driving Championships is Lana Wright's Thor's Toy Truck. TJ as he is know, has spent 7 years in this program. He is the 2007 USEF National Single Horse Combined Driving Champion and his 2008 selection for this year's singles World Championship is the culmination of what Robin and Wilson do and what they believe in. Photo by Pics of You.

Bill Peacock

Bill Peacock, farrier by trade, discovered driving after purchasing a buggy from a shoeing client and hooking it to his sons 4H horse.   Initially he built his own carriages, wheels and all.  Aspiring to do more than pleasure drive, he began making annual trips to the east coast from Texas to gain experience.   Soon he was organizing clinics and CDE’s in Texas and was behind the Pine Hill CDE that ran for ten years.   Clinicians and judges to include Sally Graburn, Lana Wright, Larry Poulin, Bill Lower and others  did much to further his career as well as those of other Texans. 

Bill lost one of his pair of buckskin cobs to colic and replaced it with Friesian cross bred buckskin provided by Jim Mosebrook, owner of Proud Meadows located south of the Dallas/Ft Worth area.  Bill drove this pair for years and now competes Beau, half brother to the buckskin Friesian cross and another Proud Meadows bred horse. Beau has led Bill to the 2008 World Singles Championships.

Bill resides in Bellville, Texas west of Houston with his wife Billi.  They have three married sons and eight grandchildren.  All three sons and their wives are Texas A&M graduates and you can bet that those eight grandchildren are bound for A&M as well.

Donna J. Crookston

Donna Crookston, age 60 competes two horses, RG Cowboys Black Cadillac a 12 year old Morgan and Romeo, a Dutch Gelderlander,15 years old. She resides in Saltsburg, Pa. 

Donna was 9 years old when she got her first pony, riding bareback until she could talk her parents into buying a saddle when she was 13.   As a child she showed western and later moved to  hunters, jumpers, 3 day eventing and dressage .Donna started foxhunting in 1972 and its been a passion ever since. She hunted both horses with the Rolling Rock Hunt in Ligonier. " I’ve been out with a number of packs in the US, as well as Ireland, England and Australia."

Like many ADS members Donna started driving in June, 2002 after she retired. " I bought Romeo because he could ride and drive. I knew nothing about how to get started, but I knew Lisa Singers name from Chronicle articles.  Lisa gave me advice on what carriage and harness to buy.  I followed it, went to her place in August of that year for my first lesson, and have been working with her ever since.  I competed Romeo at preliminary and advanced CDEs and did some pleasure shows.  My Irish field hunter had a problem with a stifle, so I went looking for another horse.  I got a video from Enos Yoder of Cowboy and was pleased.  I had to go to the sale in Harrisburg and bid on him as he was consigned.  That was December, 2004.  We went to two training events and worked at preliminary for the rest of 2005.  He's been competing at advanced for the last 2 ½ years."

Cowboy ended up 2007 as USEF Reserve Single Horse National Champion and winning the USEF Single Horse CDE Championship, the AMHA Single Horse CDE Championship, and we were the FEI North American Single Horse Challenge Champions.  This year Donna and Cowboy are honor to represent the US at the Single Horse World Championships in Jarantow, Poland as part of the US Team.

Leslie Berndl (competing as an Individual)

Resides in Newcastle, California with her husband Mike and son, Austin 9 and daughter, Ashley 7.

When not competing Leslie works for the California Highway Patrol and for the last 15 years has been a part of the Advance Live Support Helicopter team.  While competing for a place on the Singles Team Leslie commuted from the West Coast to the East Coast by 'stacking' her work days together in order to give her 3 to 5 days to fly east.  When she's at home she drives 6 hours a day 7 days a week.

Leslie also runs Whispering Oaks performance horses where she gives lessons in driving.

Leslie has been competing for about 8 years in CDE's.

In a newspaper article earlier this year Leslie was quoted this way "It's been a life long dream of mine since I started driving", Berndl said of making the National team.  "It (would be) a dream come true.  It's just an honor to represent your country in anything.  A complete and total honor."

Alternates (in ranked order):

Leslie Berndl / 45 / Newcastle, CA / Koopman's Lightning Rod / Gelding / 12 / Hackney/ Ann McClure

Marjas Becker / 61 / Brooker, FL / Capodimonte / Gelding / 10 / 1/2 Arabian-NSH / Marjas Becker