Seven years ago, Fritz Grupe knew nothing about combined driving. But in September he’ll be representing the United States at the World Pairs Driving Championships in Austria after performing consistently well through the spring’s observation trials.

Gruppe, 67, may have come to the sport a bit later in life than most, but his life-long love of horses and strategic determination have helped him vault to the top ranks of pairs driving. In 1998, Grupe, of Stockton, Calif., became fascinated with the concept of horses pulling carriages while visiting a friend who competed in combined driving.

He thought it sounded like fun and decided to try it with two Haflinger ponies he had on his farm. His only previous “experience” with driving was through his wife, Phyllis, who’d previously competed in draft horse competitions. When he started winning with those ponies, he bought a “better” pair of Haflingers and began sending them to competitions on the East Coast.

Then, three years ago, Grupe went to Germany and bought a pair of Holsteiners. He competed them at the preliminary level until Chester Weber, who’s contested the World Championships for both pairs and teams, encouraged him to buy some better horses and try to make the U.S. pairs team. Fritz had known Weber for years because Phyllis had once competed against Weber in draft horse competitions.

So with Weber’s help, Grupe bought a pair of Dutch Warmbloods, named Max and Lloyd, last year. Since then, he’s purchased two more horses, named Peter and Magnum. Max and Lloyd have been competing together for seven years.

Grupe’s love of horses as athletes brought him to the sport. “It’s a great opportunity to see super horses do things you wouldn’t think they could physically do,” he said. “It’s a real thrill to be around a great athlete like that, and they are really fun to drive.”

Last summer Grupe went to Europe to gain valuable competitive experience. He competed in England, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany, and he said the experience helped him improve. One of his horses was lame when he got to Europe, which forced him to lease an unfamiliar pair of horses. That, he admitted, was pretty challenging.

For the past year, Gruppe has been training with Weber, who’ll be the coach for the pairs team. Before the season started, Weber said, “If I were making a prediction, one of these next selection trials he’ll get it all put together and might just jump out in front.”

Grupe did just that when he won the USEF National Pairs Championship at the Garden State CDE (N.J.) on May 6-8. He was the first driver from west of the Mississippi River ever to win the championship.

Weber said Grupe’s strongest phase is the marathon. He had the second-fastest time at Garden State and the fastest time at Live Oak (Fla.) in March.

Weber believes Grupe’s innate sense of timing is his most important asset in the marathon. He also has a good perception of the space around him, said Weber.

“If you’d asked me a couple of years ago what phase of the sport would be the most challenging for him, I would have said it would be the marathon, because it should be difficult for a 67-year-old personto be that quick with their hands and reactions,” Weber said. “I’ve certainly been proved wrong there.”

Western Background

Horses are in Grupe’s blood. His family has owned the same ranch land in Cali-fornia since his great-grandfather, John Carsten-Grupe, arrived in central California in 1849 in search of gold. He found gold–but not in the ground. He started a freight line and later a dry goods store. John Grupe settled in Linden, Calif., and Fritz now owns 170 acres of his grandfather’s original land.

Fritz grew up riding Western on the family’s cattle ranch. And he still rides, ropes calves and does branding.”I rode bareback until I was probably 18,” Grupe said. “I never even used a saddle.”

Grupe grows Chardonnay and Merlot grapes on his farm, as well as apples, cherries and walnuts. He also hosts the California Classic CDE each year at his Shady Oaks ranch, a few miles north in Lodi, Calif.

But Grupe never competed with horses until he started driving, because he started his company right after college.

He’s chairman of The Grupe Company, which employs 500 people and develops large-scale, master-planned communities. He balances the combined driving events and managing his company by returning to California the week after each show. While he’s away, his son-in-law runs the company.

When Grupe isn’t at a combined driving event or running his company, he also finds time for fly-fishing and bird hunting. Grupe practices driving five times per week, except for the week following a show, when he gives the horses a break. Weber recalls going snow skiing with Grupe and having to work to keep up with him, because he “skis like he drives.”

“I think I said to somebody once before, which part of him is 67?” said Weber, 29. “Cer-tainly not his mind or his wit or his spirit.”

“Great Student”

Grupe has always enjoyed sports, espe-cially team sports. He said driving is a team sport because “you have people helping you at all levels. It takes a whole bunch of people to make a driver successful,” he said.

Boundless energy has certainly helped Grupe advance quickly, but Weber said that his desire to learn has helped him just as much. “I think we have a great strategic plan that we put together, and we’ve all been working very hard to implement it,” Weber said. “Fritz has been a great student and allowed the people around him to do their jobs.”

German driving ace Michael Freund, with whom Weber trains, also helps Grupe, as does Koos de Ronde, a Dutch coach.

“I think learning and getting to be a better driver and having great horses is the thrill to me,” Grupe said.

But Grupe’s preparation for the World Championships literally hit a bump in early June, when he turned over his carriage at an obstacle during a European event and broke a couple of ribs.

Weber, who was on the back of the carriage as navigator at the time, said that setbacks like that don’t bother Grupe, though, because he has the patience to know “if not today, maybe it will work out tomorrow.”

Added Weber, “He’s probably as hungry as any of the drivers out there, and like most successful people, if they set their minds to do something, they’re going to make sure they’re successful at it.”