McDonald served as US Equestrian’s Dressage Development Coach before taking on the Technical Advisor role. She has spent over a decade advancing athlete-and-horse combinations through the U.S. dressage pipeline. Her success has proved contagious as a personal coach having guided three of her athletes and their horses to the Olympics, including 2012 London participants Adrienne Lyle and Wizard and Rio 2016 team bronze medalists Laura Graves and Verdades and Kasey Perry-Glass and Gorklintgaards Dublet. As an athlete, McDonald heavily contributed to U.S. Dressage’s early accomplishments due to her impressive achievements with the chestnut Hanoverian mare Brentina. Their string of accolades included a 1999 Pan American Games team and individual gold medal, an Athens 2004 Olympic team bronze medal, a WEG 2002 team silver and 2006 team bronze medal, and was the first American to win a FEI World Cup Dressage Final in 2003.

Hallye Griffin grew up in Lexington, Ky., competing in the discipline of eventing and as a member of the United States Pony Club. She attended Transylvania University in Lexington, Ky., and majored in Political Science. Beginning her employment in the 2010 Alltech® FEI World Equestrian Games Organizing Committee in the Competition Department, in 2011, Griffin joined US Equestrian as the Director of Dressage National Programs. Following the 2015 Pan American Games, Griffin was promoted to Managing Director, Dressage. Griffin’s role as team leader includes managing all logistics around the selection process and preparation for the Olympics, as well as coordinating the day-to-day plans for the U.S. Dressage Team while at the Olympics.

Born and raised in Whidbey Island, Wash., horses have always been a part of Adrienne Lyle’s life. Beginning in the United States Pony Club, and growing up with only occasional group riding lessons, Lyle qualified for and competed in the North American Youth Championship in 2004 riding Miguel. She went on to ride with her future coach, Olympian Debbie McDonald, as a working student in 2005.

In 2006, Lyle earned the ride on Wizard, the 1999 Oldenburg gelding, owned by Peggy and Parry Thomas. The combination would move to the Grand Prix level together and win numerous prestigious titles, including the 2008 USEF Young Adult Brentina Cup. In 2012, they represented the U.S. at the Olympics in London, and in 2014 competed at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games™ in Normandy.

In 2018, Lyle and Salvino competed on all three U.S. Dressage Nations Cup teams, helping the U.S. earn gold at FEI Dressage Nations Cup™ USA, bronze at FEI Dressage Nations Cup The Netherlands, and silver at FEI Dressage Nations Cup Germany before being named to the team that ultimately won the team silver medal at the FEI World Equestrian Games Tryon 2018.

Lyle and Salvino were part of the bronze medal-winning team at the 2019 FEI Dressage Nations Cup Germany CDIO5* at CHIO Aachen. In 2020, Lyle rode Harmony’s Duval on the team that won gold at the FEI Dressage Nations Cup USA CDIO3* in Wellington, Fla. The pair repeated the feat at the 2021 FEI Dressage Nations Cup USA, where they also swept the individual standings in the FEI Grand Prix, FEI Grand Prix Special, and FEI Grand Prix Freestyle to Music.

Lyle and Salvino went on to be named to the team for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, where they won the team silver medal. In 2022, the pair traveled to CHIO Aachen where they finished in second place in the CDI4* FEI Grand Prix. They were selected for the U.S. Dressage Team at the FEI World Championships in Denmark that year.

Born in Wesel, Germany, Steffen Peters came to the United States in 1984 to work for trainer Laurie Falvo in San Diego. Southern California was a good fit for Peters, and he made the decision to stay, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1992. He has been one of the country’s top international dressage competitors ever since, having represented the U.S. at five Olympic Games, five FEI World Championships, and two Pan American Games.

Peters rode his KWPN gelding, Udon, to team bronze in his first Olympic outing in the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games. With Legolas 92, he won team and individual gold at the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games and team bronze at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics. With his longtime mount, Ravel, the KWPN gelding owned by Akiko Yamazaki, he won the FEI Dressage World Cup™ Final in 2009 and individual bronze at the 2010 WEG in Lexington. He has been recognized for his accomplishments with three USEF Equestrian of the Year titles, in 2008, 2009, and 2011.

Peters has built a phenomenal record with his current top horse, Suppenkasper, a KWPN gelding owned by Akiko Yamazaki and Four Winds Farm. In their first year together, they helped the U.S. team earn silver at the FEI World Equestrian Games™ Tryon 2018.

Peters and Suppenkasper were part of the silver medal-winning U.S. Dressage Team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, where they also placed in the top 10 in the Grand Prix Special and Grand Prix Freestyle to Music.

In 2022, Peters and Suppenkasper swept the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Special CDI3* close to home in Thermal and Temecula, Calif., before traveling to compete in Europe for the summer. They represented the U.S. at the FEI Dressage Nations Cup Germany CDIO5* at CHIO Aachen, then went on to win the Kronberg CDI4* Grand Prix and Grand Prix Freestyle in July. The pair again represented the U.S. at the ECCO FEI World Championships in Herning, Denmark.

Peters and his wife Shannon, a U.S. Dressage Federation bronze, silver, and gold medalist and three-time National Championships competitor, operate SPeters Dressage out of Arroyo Del Mar in San Diego, Calif.

Originally from Krefeld, Germany, Sabine Schut-Kery came to the United States in 1998 to build her career as a professional dressage trainer, first in Texas and later in California. With Alice Womble’s Hanoverian stallion, Sanceo, Schut-Kery represented the U.S. in international competition for the first time in 2015 at the Pan American Games in Toronto and brought home a team gold medal. In 2018, she was part of the winning FEI Nations Cup USA team in Wellington, Fla.

Schut-Kery has brought Sanceo up from the start of his career as a young horse to the highest levels of the sport. In 2021, the pair won the FEI Grand Prix Special at Adequan Global Dressage Festival 6, the FEI Grand Prix and Grand Prix Special CDI5* at AGDF 7, and the FEI Grand Prix and Grand Prix Special CDI3* at AGDF 10. Schut-Kery and Sanceo earned personal best scores of 78.978% in the FEI Grand Prix and 78.298% in the FEI Grand Prix Special at the U.S. Dressage Mandatory Observation Event.

Nick Wagman is a California-based dressage rider. He represented the U.S. at the 2019 FEI Dressage Nations Cup – Geesteren, the Netherlands, and that same year at FEI Dressage Nations Cup™ France where The Dutta Corp. U.S. Dressage Team finished in bronze-medal position. On both teams, he rode his longtime partner, Beverly Gepfer’s Dutch Warmblood gelding Don John. In 2019, Wagman won the USEF Developing Horse Grand Prix National Championship with Ferano and the USEF Grand Prix Dressage National Championship with Don John at the U.S. Dressage Festival of Champions. With Don John, Wagman collected second-place finishes in the CDI3* Grand Prix and Grand Prix Special during week five of the 2020 Adequan® Global Dressage Festival (AGDF).

In 2021, Wagman began the year by winning the CDI3* Grand Prix Special with Ferano during week three of AGDF. He rode Don Juan to wins in the CDI3* Grand Prix during week five and the CDI3* Grand Prix and Grand Prix Special during week eight at AGDF. Wagman and Don John collected a personal best score of 75.652% in the FEI Grand Prix at the U.S. Dressage Mandatory Observation Event.