Oct. 15, 2026
By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
Debbie McDonald has returned to coaching after “retirement” a couple of years ago to help Morgan Klingensmith, stable rider for her friend Elizabeth “Betsy Juliano.
Both one of the most successful riders in American dressage history and a coaching partner of USA team leader Robert Dover, Debbie describes her latest role as a “fill in” helping out Allison Brock as the regular trainer of Morgan on Betsy’s string of horses at Havensafe Farm in Wellington, Florida. Morgan is Debbie’s only student–online so far but might see her return to Wellington briefly to escape the snow in winter.
As a rider on the mare Brentina, Debbie led the U.S. to silver at the 2002 World Equestrian Games when German Olympic gold medalist Klaus Balkenhol was team coach (2001-2008), on the bronze medal team four years later, in 2003 became the first and still one of only two Americans to capture the World Cup as well as two Olympics including bronze in 2004.
She took on the official post of developing coach and worked within the “pipeline” created by Robert Dover to develop riders and horses from youngsters to top sport. Christine Traurig who was on the Sydney 2000 bronze medal team was named young horse coach at the time.
From the 2014 World Games, her own students made up significant numbers of the teams. Adrienne Lyle who had begun as a working student of Debbie’s years before had been on the 2012 Olympic team with Wizard and was back for 2014 along with team newcomer Laura Graves on Verdades. Two Years later at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, another of Debbie’s students, Kasey Perry-Glass on Dublet, joined Laura on Verdades and, along with Ali Brock on Rosevelt and Steffen Peters on Legolas claimed bronze after disappointments the previous two Games.
Debbie as the personal coach of three of the four riders on the Robert Dover-led squad captured silver at the WEG at home in Tryon in 2018 and, having succeeded Robert as coach, at the Tokyo Olympics followed with the first silver for U.S. dressage since the 1948 Olympics when there were only five team while the globe was still recovering from World War II.
“I love the fact that Betsy has given Morgan this opportunity because she has worked her butt off for years grooming, being there for Salvino and just 100% committed,” Debbie said. “She’s a decent rider. She’s got good feel and she’s a great student.”
As to the lineup of U.S. horses those of the three riders she was coaching during the peak years from 2014 to 2021 have retired.
A key to success at the time, she said, was teamwork.
“Robert and I were great together,” she recalled. “He was adamant about the team thing and he stuck to it and I stuck to it and it became a team. But you’re not a team if you’re not rooting for each other; if you’re just there for yourself, it’s not a team. And trust me, that goes a long way, team spirit.”
And she refers to the years when Klaus Balkenhol was coach and the U.S. teams included herself, Robert Dover, Günter Seidel, Steffen Peters and others “were always a team and helped each other in the warm ups. I mean, it was amazing. Not one of us was wishing they didn’t win if the other one did. You know, it was just pure team spirit.”
Another issue is that unlike previous periods in the U.S. as well as major dressage nations there have been separate coaches for different divisions, Christine Traurig has multiple responsibilities–team coach, young horses and developing though she has assistance from fellow Californian Günter and Olivia LaGoy-Weltz based on the East Coast.
“What country is their top coach doing all the stuff?’ Debbie questioned.
“You need really good people all the way down the line,” she said, “not that Christine isn’t good and can’t do the job. It’s an impossible job to do that and it’s really, really important for the developing. I mean the top is the top. They’re there. But the developing is really where it is.
“How is it possible to keep an eye on all the people who are in the developing squad and do the teams that you want to go to Aachen or wherever? Well, if you’ve got a developing coach working with riders coming up, those would not be going to Aachen, but they would probably go to lesser shows.”
