Born February 20th, 1963, Sterling Graburn has been involved with horses all of his life. His mother, Sally Eastman Graburn, was a well established 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. He 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. He owes his strong dressage foundation to his mother who was always a dressage trainer first and emphasized that dressage is training on the continuum.
Sterling is a nationally recognized handler of sport horses, winning championships at the prestigious Dressage at Devon, and Horse of the Year Awards from the United States Dressage Federation as well as USEF. While Sterling 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 entered his first Combined Driving Event in 1979. Sterling 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 Lawrence Poulin, at Gladstone, New Jersey, for the World Pairs Championship. Sterling was groom/navigator for his partner, Dr. Wendy Ying, DVM at the 2005 World Pony Championships at Catton Hall, England. In 2006, Sterling competed as an individual at the World Singles Championships at Pratoni del Vivaro, Italy, where he was fourth on the marathon and the highest overall placed American driver with Alexander Hewitt's Belgian Warmblood gelding, Quincey. Sterling has thrice won the FEI Top Driver Award, North American Challenge, Single Horse championship. In 2008 he won the USEF National Combined Driving Single Horse National Championship with Dante, a Sport Cob owned in partnership Dr. Wendy Ying, and Dante won USEF Combined Driving Single Reserve Horse of the Year 2008.
Sterling competes in both Pleasure and Combined Driving, with singles, pairs, tandems, unicorns, and four-in-hands. Sterling is currently the head trainer at the Gayla Driving Center in Georgetown, KY. Prior to moving to Gayla Driving Center, Sterling, 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.
Competitive Highlights
1st Live Oak CAI-A and USEF National Single Championship 2008 - Dante
1st Sunshine State CAI-B 2008 - Dante
4th Laurels At Landhope CAI-B and USEF National Pony Championship 2008 - Nova
4th Live Oak CAI-A 2007 - High Country Doc
1st Sunshine State CAI-B 2007 - High Country Doc
4th Bromont International Driving Can-Am 2007 - High Country Doc
3rd Live Oak CAI-A 2006 - Quincey
2nd Sunshine State CAI-B 2006 - Quincey
1st Bromont International Driving Can-Am 2006 - Quincey
18th FEI World Singles Driving Championships, Pratoni del Vivaro, Italy, US Individual - Quincey
Numerous Pleasure Driving Championships including Fl State Pair/Tandem Champion, 2002 Florida State Fair Single Horse Champion
Awards
2004 FEI Top Driver Award, North American Challenge, Single Horse Champion
2005 FEI Top Driver Award, North American Challenge, Single Horse Champion
2008 USEF National Combined Driving Single Horse Champion
2008 FEI Top Driver Award, North American Challenge, Single Horse Champion
2008 NW Florida Chapter of the Deep South Dressage and Combined Training Association Joyce Kuhn Memorial Sportsmanship Award
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