Newton, NH - Hardy Zantke has been involved with horses since he was a small boy at his Grandfather’s trucking company after World War II.  The company included a half dozen teams of draft horses, which were more reliable than the trucks of the time.  By the age of 13 he was driving his own team for the company.

Hardy and his wife Jutta, from Torrance, California, are among the top competitors in Combined Driving in the United States with their pair of 17 hand bay Holsteiner geldings. They compete regularly throughout the Western United States and have traveled frequently to the East Coast and Canada to compete. They were first alternate of the U.S. team at the 1993 World Pair Driving Championship in Gladstone, New Jersey with their old pair. The Zantkes are of German origin and import their horses from Germany as three-year-olds and as Hardy does the driving, Jutta trains the horses under saddle in ridden dressage. They now compete with their younger pair, which they have also brought up to Advanced level and are longlisted as Pair Competitor with the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF). At home for local events they have often combined their old with their young pair and driven them four-in-hand and have reached the USET List of Developing Drivers with the team.

Hardy is a retired transportation executive and now Western Representative of Kuehnle Carriages as well as an importer of Holsteiner driving horses.

Hardy & Jutta are also active on the organizational level of driving, as they have helped organize the California Classic Combined Driving Event (CDE) in Southern California for the past sixteen years.  The California Classic is one of the few Advanced Level CDEs in the Western United States. Hardy is a Director of the American Driving Society (ADS) as well as a member of the ADS CDE and Dressage Committees. He is also a member of US Equestrian Federation Driving, as well as Active Drivers' Committees, Driving Technical Committee, and Para Equestrian High Performance Committee. Hardy served as Chef d'Equipe for twelve U.S. Teams since 1996 at World Championships and International Competitions and has helped bring home five medals, including Team Silver with The Four-in-Hands from Jerez in 2002 and Individual Gold for Suzy Stafford from the Pony Worlds in 2005. Hardy is an ADS & USEF "R" licensed Combined Driving Judge and judges all over the country, as well as an International Candidate Driving Judge for the International Paralypmic Driving Committee.

Hardy writes a popular column in "Carriage Driving World" (formerly "Driving West") as well as in the ADS Newsletters, The Wheelhorse and The Whip, and is a contributing writer to the German driving magazine "Pferde Fahren Sport". He gives driving clinics as well as private instructions where he emphasizes Dressage as the basis of all and teaches the Achenbach driving system.

Hardy received the American Driving Society President’s Award for his contributions to driving in 2000.