Raised in a military family, Debbie Rodriguez has studied a wide variety of riding styles and training methods in such locations as Virginia and Germany.  She started competing in several disciplines, but mostly just had fun riding. Debbie graduated from Lake Erie College with a dual major in Equestrian Studies and Business Administration.  After college she worked in the management of several facilities, among them the Bowie Horse Center, the Prince Georges Equestrian Center, and Drummonds Stables. 

She holds USDF Bronze,  Silver and Gold medals, and is a USEF ‘S’ dressage judge, a USEF ‘r’ Dressage Technical Delegate, and a USEF ‘r’ eventing judge.  Since 1989 she has been a freelance instructor and trainer in the Williamsburg, VA area.  In addition to riding, teaching, and judging Debbie is the show manager of Dressage at Lexington, a favorite USEF/USDF dressage show at the Virginia Horse Center.

Sandy Osborn is a USEF "S" judge, as well as a USDF Gold and Silver Medalist, who has been actively involved in dressage, beginning in the NEDA region since 1980. She began her dressage career while a student at the University of Massachusetts under the instruction of Linda Jaskiel Brown and Sarah Geikie. After graduating she worked for Kathy Connelly who helped her get started in the "r" judges program and was influential in helping her start her early days of freelancing in the Concord, Massachusetts area.
Subsequently, Sandy went on to ride and study with such notable professionals as Robert Dover, Jessica Ransehousen and Gerd Reuter. In 1986 she was offered the position of Director of Equitation at the University of Massachusetts, a position which she held for eight years before going back into the private sector. During those years at the University of Massachusetts, she was influential in building the foundation of some of NEDA's most popular instructors today.

In 1996 Sandy met Roel Theunissen, the trainer with whom she has studied exclusively since then. Through Roel, she found her equine partner of six years, Milestone, the horse with which she was finally able to negotiate the long road to the Grand Prix. That journey culminated with the achievement of qualifying for Devon in their first year at the GP, and then making the cut for the freestyle as well.  During those years leading up to the realization of that dream of training her own horse to the GP level, Sandy joined Roel as a trainer in his business outside of Boston, Massachusetts, in order to immerse herself in a classical European training system and discover the mysteries that make dressage so elusive and so difficult for so many.