Debi began riding at an early age on a backyard horse exploring the woods and fields around her home. She sold her horse when she went off to college, but purchased another one immediately after graduation. Initially, she rode western, but then began taking English riding lessons at a nearby barn and quickly became hooked. She competed in local hunter-jumper shows for several years until she acquired an off-the-track Thoroughbred named "Grandpa's Cadillac". Gramps was just too rambunctious for the hunters and Debi, although not really knowing much about the sport of eventing at the time, decided to give it a try and began taking lessons at Jim Graham's Meadow Run Farm in Florence, Alabama. She knew immediately that this was her niche in the horse world.

Since that time, Debi has trained several horses to the upper levels of eventing. Most notably, she competed Mighty Mite ("Beau") at the Advanced level and won the Radnor International Hunt CCI** Championship on him in 2003 among a field of over 100 competitors. Debi was also one of approximately 30 event riders in the nation to be selected to participate in the United States Equestrian Team (USET) Eventing Developing Rider Program in 2003 and again in 2004. This program is aimed at promising horse and rider teams that have not previously represented the U.S. in competition and allowed her to participate in three days of intensive training conducted by the USET's Developing Rider Coach, Olympic gold medalist David O'Connor in 2003, and Kim Severson in 2004.

Debi and Beau have also been featured in numerous magazines including the August 2002 issue of the American Quarter Horse Journal, a magazine published by the American Quarter Horse Association and internationally circulated, the May 2004 issue of Practical Horseman, and the December 2003 issue of Eventing, a British magazine dedicated to the sport of eventing.

In late 2005, Debi began competing Beau in recognized dressage shows at FEI Prix St. George. Debi completed the requirements for her United States Dressage Federation Silver Medal in early 2006.

Debi is now concentrating on training and teaching at Cotton Meadows Farm. While she will continue to compete in dressage and eventing, her primary focus has changed to helping others achieve their riding goals and raising and training quality dressage and event prospects for sale. Debi is committed to developing Cotton Meadows Farm into a premier boarding & training facility in the area with an emphasis on first class facilities and services.

The majority of boarders and employees at CMF dressed up for a night on the town in Sep 09 followed by a tie-dye party at Debi's house. Since we rarely get to see each other in anything other than barn clothes, it was a lot of fun to see everyone dressed up and wearing makeup. More photos of the Ladies Night Out have been posted on the Photo page.

Rosie began riding at the age of eight and took lessons on school horses throughout her youth. When she was seventeen, she finally got her own horse, a throughbred/trakehner cross mare named Cricket. Rosie has joined us here from Florida, where she is working on a degree in Early Childhood Education. Though she's not looking to make a career out of horses, Rosie hopes to gain much insight and to become a more knowledgeable horse person during her stay at CMF. Rosie and Cricket are here to soak up as much information from Debi (and others) and to compete at some recognized horse trials before they return home to FL in May 2010.

Ashley was a previous working student at CMF and she is now a boarder and part-time worker. Ashley is one class shy of completing her Equine Studies degree from MTSU and came to us to learn the ins and outs of the horse business. Her knowledge and hands-on experience are a valuable asset here at CMF.

Ashley owns two horses, Rocky and Neville. Neville is now retired, but she competes Rocky at recognized horse trials at the Beginner Novice level with a win at the Middle Tennessee Horse Trials in Oct 2009. Way to go, Ashley! She hopes to move up to Novice in the near future.

Jamie has been working at CMF for many years now and is an integral part of our team. She has extensive experience with horses, both as a competitor and on the job. Jamie owned a horse when she was younger and has competed in both dressage and eventing. These days, her focus is on breeding, training, and showing miniature dachshunds. She has achieved national success in the agility ring with Mandy, a female piebald miniature longhair dachshund, that she has been showing for many years now.

Michelle's introduction to horses began when she started working at a breeding farm in 1995. Since then, she has worked at several farms performing all aspects of farm repair and maintenance as well as handling horses.

At CMF, Michelle is responsible for all farm maintenance including repairing fences, maintaining all farm equipment, bush hogging, etc. When something gets broken, Michelle will fix it! She keeps the farm grounds looking neat and clean and makes sure that everything stays in good working order.

Michelle has many hobbies and interests including water sports, riding motorcycles, and working out to stay physically fit. She was Ms. Huntsville/Tennessee Valley, a body building contest, in 1989 and Ms. Gadsden in 1990. She was also the first (and only?) female to pass the Alabama firefighting physical ability test (CPAT) since it was instituted several years ago. Michelle has a BA in Liberal Arts from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Caitlin joined us at CMF in May of 2010 and has quickly become "one of the girls". She moved here from northern Ohio where she graduated from Oberlin College and was working at two barns in the area. She came with a wide variety of equine experience that helped her to easily fit into the routine at CMF and has already indispensible.

Caitlin has been interested in eventing in the past, but did not have the opportunity for weekly dressage and jumping lessons to prepare her for competing in the sport. Caitlin brought her Thoroughbred gelding, Chase, to Alabama with her and both have progressed very quickly. We expect them to make their eventing debut in the fall of 2010.

Caitlin's other interests include soccer and running.

Photos coming soon...

Wendy is a small animal veterinarian and has been riding since she was a child. She currently owns an off-the-track Thoroughbred gelding named Blake that she competes in training level dressage and eventually hopes to compete at horse trials at the lower levels.

Wendy excelled in track and field events when she was younger. Some of her current interests include water sports and running.

Amanda began riding as a 10 year old and quickly fell in love with horses and the sport of eventing. She currently attends Bob Jones High School in Madison, AL. Amanda competed her first horse, Pilot, at Beginner Novice for two years but decided that he didn't love the sport as much as she did. In April of 2006, Amanda purchased an OTTB named Grayboo from Bits and Bytes Farm in Canton, GA. Debi has been instrumental in retraining Grayboo for his second career as an eventer. Amanda successfully competed Grayboo at Beginner Novice in 2006 and they are now competing at the Novice level. Amanda would like to continue to move up the levels in this sport.

Karen began riding as an adult and has been taking lessons in dressage for six years. She began riding on lesson horses and soon decided that she wanted to own a horse of her own. In July of 2003 Karen purchased a four year old Percheron/Paint gelding named Everybody Loves Raymond (barn name Raymond). Karen will continue her dressage training with Debi and plans to begin showing Raymond at recognized dressage shows in 2007. Karen works full time as a software engineer but makes time to ride as often as possible (when she isn't hauling her daughter Amanda and her horse Grayboo to horse trials!)

Sue has been involved with horses for most of her adult life and, in the past, has been very actively involved in foxhunting as well as Thoroughbred breeding. More recently though, her focus has been on dressage with her long time partner, Dream. Dream is a one-in-a-million TB mare that has a quiet, yet not dull temperament coupled with three very nice gaits in a wonderfully comfortable-to-ride package. Unfortunately, Dream has had more than her share of unlucky health issues which have been frustrating for both Sue and Dream. Regardless, this team has overcome their issues and showed very successfully in 2009 at recognized dressage shows at First Level and they are working hard to continue this trend in 2010!

Nans started riding at age 6, taking weekly lessons at a riding school. At age 17, she got her first horse and showed for 2-3 years in low level eventing, jumping and dressage. She got out of horses in college, but got started riding again years later.

Nans currently owns two dressage horses: Springer, a 10 year old Quarter horse / Tennessee walker cross that she's had since birth, and Oliver, a young warmblood gelding that she bought when he was 3 months old. After 4 years of dressage schooling shows and 2 years of recognized shows, Springer and Nans received qualifying scores towards their USDF bronze medal in First and Second level and are currently working towards getting their Third level scores. Oliver was started under saddle in February 09 and Nans is now riding him in hopes of showing him at Training level in the spring of 2010.

As a child, Kay Sommerkamp played with toy horses instead of dolls. She started riding as soon as she could convince her parents that the family should go on a trail ride and earned money as a baby sitter during junior high school to pay for weekly riding lessons. She joined the Army as a JAG attorney in 1985 and bought her first horse in Ansbach, Germany. She has had several horses over the years and evented a few times in her early 30s, but stopped riding for about 10 years after the birth of her son, Will. She returned to riding several years ago and bought a Quarter horse, Levitikus Strauss (aka Levi), that she owned for three years and competed at training level in recognized dressage shows. In November of 2009, Kay purchased a 5 yr old, black Trakehner mare, Lavanya, as a dressage prospect. Kay hopes to one day earn her Bronze medal in dressage on this mare.