Favorite Photos -

Pantera, Spring Run Horse Trials, Preliminary
(V.W. Perry Photo)

Melancholy Blues, 2005 Champagne Run, Intermediate
(Palmer Video Photo)

Pantera, 2006 FENCE Horse Trials, Preliminary
(Sport Horse Studio Photo)

Click on photograph to enlarge. Photographs used with permission.

Debbie started Eventing in 1987, previously working with racehorses, show hunters and competing show jumpers. She "found myself hooked on Eventing, galloping on cross-country was such an adrenaline rush." Debbie competed many different horses, including homebreds, from Novice to Advanced levels. She really enjoyed the traditional three-day events having competed in ten CCI 1-star and one CCI 2-star events. Competing at the Advanced level for the first time in 2006 was Debbie's biggest thrill. She was never given or purchased a horse that had higher level experience, but always brought them to it. She trained several horses to the Preliminary and Intermediate levels, including Chansonnier, Gentille, Notable Prove It, and more recently Melancholy Blues, Pantera and Ain't Life Grand. Pantera is now ridden by Cathy Wieschoff and Debbie is excited to watch her progress.
Debbie also found teaching and coaching rewarding. For 14 years she managed a boarding and training barn south of Nashville, Tennessee. Her event stable and farm was a prime example of her hard work and dedication, as she designed many additions to the facility including a new barn, paddocks, all-weather surface and updates to the existing barn and apartment. She established herself as a successful coach and trainer. She coached several young riders to the upper-levels and through the qualifications for NAYRC Championships. Her skill and knowledge of riding and teach is exemplary. She exuded patience and teaching skills that gave riders and horses a confidence and trust beyond most, a kindness to animals that created a sincere willingness to work and please.
The equine world has been her life. Debbie committed herself to the sport with her straight forward and no nonsense approach. Her dedication has been an inspiration to many people including dozens of students and their families, becoming friends as well as the wonderful rider/trainer relationship. She is well known and respected by all who knew her locally and at the myriad of events she frequented which stretched over much of the central and eastern United States.

Debbie Atkinson sustained severe injuries in a fall at the Kentucky Classic Horse Trials at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY, on September 2, 2006.   Debbie's neck and spinal cord were severely injured when she fell from Melancholy Blues at a fence on the intermediate horse trials cross-country course. The horse was unhurt and the fence caused no other incidents.

The comments below were extracted from posts on the Chronicle of the Horse bulletin board.

If you have never met Debbie, I want you to know she is the best of horsewomen, a generous and caring friend, and a wonderful instructor and coach. Years ago, I was helping her at an event where she was competing two horses. I took "Prove It" up to the show jumping to wait for her...she would compete him after finishing up with a greenie. We were standing in the shade and had been hanging out for a while when Prove It lifted his head, his eye on something in the distance. And from that long way off he saw it was Debbie coming for him, and he went to the end of his reins and nickered for her. (3dazey, 9/3/06)

I have known Deb for 15 years, have ridden with her, we have hauled together, set jumps, cleaned stalls, groomed horses, braided, wrapped legs, vet boxed, laughed and cried together. She is an incredibly resilent woman, strong in many ways, and a true horseman. She saw through the bluff of my good horse while I rode with her, and helped me get him through his first horse trials. She is one of two people I'd leave to wrap my horse's legs if I needed to do so, because she is the kind of person who pays attention to the details.
I have been out of eventing for several years now, (my own neck injury gave me enough pain and enough of a scare to sideline me) but have kept up with Deb, though I have missed her terribly since she left Tennessee. I'll be at her side tomorrow, along with another friend and a student. It's hard to know what to pray for at a time like this...but I continue to pray.
I honestly think the eventing world contains some of the finest folks in the world. Deb is proof of that. Keep up the good wishes and prayers - Juni Fisher (MachTwo, 9/8/06)

Debbie was one of my instructors many, many, many years ago, when she taught at Whitings Neck Equestrian Center in Martinsburg, WV - my favorite coach, by far. We were able to catch up after all these years at a few events in the recent year or so. It was so wonderful to see her again on those occasions. I always loved her teaching and her sparkling personality. She was positive and motivating and I know her wonderful qualities will help her through this time of struggle. I'm sending my prayers and thoughts to her and to her family and local friends and I thank you all for the updates. (KateDB 9/12/06)

I heard from someone who visited her this weekend that she seemed very pragmatic about everything and was very anxious to get the whole rehab thing started. Which sounds EXACTLY like her. I can hear her at my disastrous River Glen warm-up last year telling me to stop getting in a wad about his bad behavior and just get on with it--"and if you're not going to ride him *forward* to that warm-up fence then you may as well not bother." Which was exactly the kick in the pants I needed! (subk 9/25/06)

River Glen must be Debbie's "kick in the pants" event of choice! A couple years ago I was making a pretty weenie go at Intermediate. She came out with me to xc warm up and told me to "stop treating him (the horse) like such a mama's boy!" A great kick in the pants that stayed with me. I still laugh when I think about it. Only Debbie could say it like that, so deadpan and matter-of-fact, yet hit the nail on the head AND made me laugh even while I was kicking on around. Love you, Deb. (3dazey, 9/25/06)

I was one of the lucky and happy visitors with Debbie this past weekend. What struck me the most is that she is still Deb, completely, absolutely, she's Deb. She has been through hell and back and is enduring things I can't even guess at or imagine, but all she wants is to talk about her friends and horses and all the things she has always loved. She even could smile at our terrible jokes.
Please, if you are at an event where Cathy is competing Pantera, could you take some pictures and send them on? Debbie would be over the moon, and a video would be beyond awesome. She has some beautiful pictures of Cathy competing him at Radnor and some xc schooling shots, but I know more would be so welcome. Also, Pantera will be in Ocala with Cathy over the winter, so if any of you see him there, give him a kiss and a cookie (with permission, of course!) and tell him his mom loves him and is following his career very closely.
I am in awe of our friend, but we always knew she was something so special. (3dazey, 11/8/06)