Whispering Winds Training Center

Debbie started riding horses almost as soon as she was born. She participated in 4-H and consistently won blue ribbons at the county fairs. She went on to show in hunter under saddle classes and over fence classes at local shows with great success without ever having a lesson. At the age of 28 she took her first dressage lesson with Judy Baumeister in Oklahoma. Judy had trained in Germany. Debbie got the dressage bug and wanted also to train in Germany. 

Debbie studied dressage in Germany for 4-1/2 years, training in Landstuhl, Germany with Master Werner Brumme and in Rodenbach, Germany with Rudolf Brumme. After her first year of study she was hired as an instructor, which she continued to do for the duration of her stay in Germany. She also purchased a Hanoverian mare, which she trained from Training level to Prix St. Georges in four years. She studied for and passed her German riding license with the highest scores at the testing. While in Germany she also formed a German-American riding club of which she was president for three years. This club helped to form a strong bond between the Americans in the Kaiserslautern area and the German riding clubs of Landstuhl, Siegelbach, Rodenbach, and Zweibruecken. The club held two horse shows a year in which Germans and Americans competed and also organized many horse-related trips throughout Germany.

 

Since coming back to the States she has gotten actively involved in the dressage community. She moved to Texas in 1995. In 1996 she began serving on the board of the Dallas Dressage Club. She held the position of president for two years and served as a member at large so she could perform her duties at the regional level as the Large GMO Representative from Region 9 to the USDF. She served on the USDF GMO Council in this capacity and attends the annual USDF convention and both yearly Region 9 meetings.

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Debbie continues her education, having completed the instructor certification workshops as well as auditing the "L" judge's program. She rode regularly with Dr. Thomas Ritter and now takes some of his classes on Artistic Dressage and increasing her knowledge base of biomechanics.

Debbie’s passion is teaching. She feels strongly about starting students properly and adheres to the principals and teaching methods she learned while in Germany. She believes that if the rider is correct, the horse can be correct. She also always asks her students to first look to themselves if something is not going well, as it is usually the rider and not the horse at fault. But she also believes riding should be fun and that dressage riders shouldn’t take themselves too seriously. Life is too short to not enjoy what you are doing, and every day we get to sit on the back of a horse is a true blessing.

 

"Reins and legs can never compensate for an incorrect placement of the rider's weight." 

-Kurt Albrecht, Dressage Master

 

"At its finest, rider and horse are joined not by tack, but by trust.  Each is totally reliant upon the other. Each is the selfless guardian of the other's very well-being."

- Author Unknown