Debbie McDonald

Who is Debbie McDonald?

Debbie McDonald is an American dressage rider who has competed in the Olympics and many international competitions. She now lives in Hailey, Idaho, with her husband Bob, a hunter/jumper and trainer. Debbie trains and teaches riders on Peggy and Parry Thomas' River Grove Farm in Sun Valley, Idaho.

McDonald's first mount was a $800 pony. She agreed that she would pay for board if her parents bought it for her. Shortly thereafter Debbie managed to find a gaited horse trainer near her hometown who allowed her to groom horses and clean stalls in exchange for board. At age 14, when Debbie went to turn her pony out, she discovered a strange man in his stall, beating him. She went running for help and ran into a young trainer and her future husband, Bob McDonald, who ran a hunter/jumper farm and hired her as a stable hand. It was at this facility that she began her career.

McDonald began her career in show jumping. However, she switched to dressage after a serious fall in which her horse somersaulted over her breaking ribs, rupturing her spleen, and fracturing a vertebra in her neck, She first met Parry and Peggy Thomas when she got a catch ride at a dressage show in Las Vegas on one of their horses whose rider was not available.