Our Team
Get to Know Us
President - Nady Rampelbergh-Peters
Nady Peters has been passionate about Western Dressage since she first saw it at the Massachusetts Morgan show in 2014. She started training that winter and competed successfully in 2015 at Morgan breed and Open shows and winning the Morgan World Championship in Western Dressage Basic Level.
Nero has shown great talent and growth moving up the different levels. This team showed at at Level 3 while continuing his Level 4 training in 2022. He has earned 3 World Champion titles and a Reserve World Champion title in Western Dressage at the Morgan Grand National and numerous Regional and National USEF HOTY awards and earned the WDAA Supreme Champion award in 2021.
Nady's passion for the discipline along with her business and software background make her a valuable member of the team.
Treasurer - Cecilia 'Sis' Bergeron Allen
Sis is a Retired CPA who brings her Business Background to Community Boards. She has been a horse owner for most of her life and a lifetime New Hampshire Resident. In addition, Sis has been involved with the AMHA Youth Program as a Youth Leader for Rising Stars as well as a committee member of the NEHC Western/Hunt Seat Medal. Over the past ten years, she has been actively showing on the National Morgan Horse Show Circuit in both Western pleasure and English pleasure disciplines. In 2021, she retired her western pleasure horse “Whispering In The Wind CH” (Onyx) from the Main Ring. Trainer Chris Cassenti, said one day, “Why Don’t we try Western Dressage” and OUR journey began! The experience has been wonderful with great support from everyone in the Western Dressage discipline and her horse Onyx thoroughly enjoys it! Sis loves learning new things and meeting new people and this new discipline has exceeded all expectations. The thought of “why didn’t I do this before” has come up multiple times.
In 2022, Onyx continued to excel Achieving Morgan Grand Champion in Basic Level and Reserve Champion in Introductory Level at the New England Morgan Horse Show. He also won at the Morgan Grand Nationals and World Championships in Oklahoma and was Reserve World Champion at the Introductory Level. In addition, Onyx was named the AMHA Star Award for Overall Western Dressage and Sport Horse of the Year. He was voted 2022 People’s Choice Champion in Morgan Western Dressage Overall. Onyx has won multiple Year End Awards from New England Morgan Horse Association, USEF as well as WDAMA (Introductory and Basic Level) as well as the WDAMA Bronze Medal.
Sis loves her partnership with Whispering In the Wind CH and believes that this discipline has strengthened it. Sis loves learning the discipline and how positive everyone is. She is always a cheerleader and encourages others to try it!
Membership Secretary - Regina Downey
Dr. Regina Downey is the owner of Holistic Animal Healing Clinic in Exeter, NH. She has been practising Veterinary Medicine for 35 years. Her practice offers an integrative approach to veterinary medicine for dogs, cats and horses.
Regina is a member of the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA), the Massachusetts Quarter Horse Association (MAQHA), USEF, and the Western Dressage Association of America (WDAA).
Regina is originally from the beautiful Jersey Shore and currently resides in New Hampshire. She started riding at age 50, offering herself a riding lesson for her birthday. The following year, bought Freckles Tivio Dancer, a AQHA registered mare, and barrel raced her for 7 years. Several years ago, she started riding dressage on Ruslan, their classically trained Russian warmblood, who reached Intermdiate Level. Her western dressage journey started in 2016 with Aspen Five Oh, a AQHA and ABRA registered mare, and has succesfully shown at the Basic level and Level 1. She rides at least one horse day!
With her endless energy, knowledge, positive can-do attitude, and love for the discipline, Regina is a fantastic addition to this board.
Vice President - Linda Lamarche
Linda Lamarche is the owner and trainer at Painted Image Farm in East Candia, NH. Linda has successfully shown in Western Dressage for multiple years through a number of levels and has trained and coached riders and their horses at a variety of shows. At the 2017 WDAA World show in Oklahoma, Linda earned a Top 5 in Level 1 Open and placed 8th overall in Level 2 Open.
She holds judges licenses with Pony of the Americas, American Stock Horse Association, North American Western Dressage and USEF Western Dressage.
Linda enjoys training, showing and judging this wonderful sport of western dressage and her knowledge is invaluable to this team.
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Board Member - Maria Hurley
Maria is the owner of Divinity Farm in Groveland, MA. As a Licensed Riding & Therapeutic Riding Instructor, Maria Hurley has taught horsemanship and riding for 40 years. Divinity Farm specializes in Western Dressage. Divinity has been proudly involved with United States Pony Club, 4-H- program & proud members of AQHA, WDAA, WDAM. Maria also has an extensive therapeutic program working with individuals with disabilities including but not limited to Autism, PTSD, Bipolar, OCD, ADHD, ADD NOS etc.
Maria enjoys competing with her powerhouse mare Poco as well as teaching western dressage and her enthusiasm is welcomed by all.
Board Member - Kristen Whittaker
Kristen Whittaker is the owner and trainer at Whit Acres Farm in Norwell, Massachusetts. Kristen strives to use good horsemanship and clear, effective communication to enrich her teaching, training, and competition in Western Dressage, Garrocha, and versatility/obstacle events.
At the 2017 WDAA World Show in Oklahoma, Kristen earned a Top 5 in Level 1 Open in 2016. She earned a Reserve Championship title and overall 4th Divisional Championship in Level 2 Open in 2017. Furthermore, Kristen has trained and coached Amateur and Junior level riders and their horses to WDAA World Divisional Championships and Reserve Championships in 2016 and 2017.
Kristen is dedicated to make this discipline a success in New England and we are lucky to have her on this dream team!
Board Member - Kerry Mayer
Kerry is an adult amateur dressage rider that earned her USDF Bronze medal in 2021. She started riding about 50 years ago through pony club and evented to training level in the 1980's. In the early 90's, she bought her first APHA horse, Elden, who was an amazing western horse and taught Kerry how to compete in Western Pleasure, Horsemanship, and Reining.
In 2012 she purchased Sheza Pure Color (J.Lo), a 2 year old APHA buckskin mare and with the help of her trainer, Kerry successfully trained & showed her through 2nd level, as well as some APHA ranch riding classes. Their background made for a natural transition to western dressage.
In 2022 she entered her first western virtual show and had a successful year showing basic level western dressage and earning WDAMA Reserve Champion year end. She is looking forward to designing a freestyle and moving up the levels that WDAA offers and earning her rider medals through the WDAMA. One of her goals is to travel to Oklahoma and compete at the WDAA world show!
She resides in Groton, MA with her husband and cattle dog Charlie Girl. Kerry is a member of USDF, USEF, APHA, WDAA and WDAMA and held a board position for the NE Paint club for many years. She brings creative ideas and hopes to leverage her love for social media to help get awareness out to the local community about western dressage and our club.
Advisory Board
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Chuck Patti
Chuck Patti has over 40 years of experience in both Western and English disciplines, training and showing from Classical Dressage to Western Trail, Ranch Riding and Western Dressage. He and his clients have shown successfully at a number of levels in Western Dressage.
Cathy Drumm
Cathy Drumm has for over 30 years used Classical Dressage concepts to train her own horses, as well as her students and their mounts. Since 2010 she has focused on teaching Western Dressage—incorporating these very concepts. She has successfully shown her morgan mare, Asia, at Morgan and Open horse shows.
Anne Lamoriello
Anne's background encompasses many years of writing, photographing and publicizing all things equine, canine, and reporting on amateur and professional sports. The combination of her ability to pen compelling feature pieces and document those events in photographs led to a successful writing career for a variety of publications, including The Equine Journal and Warmbloods Today, as well as stints as a publicist. Her first experience on a horse was at age three years when she was put on the family's feisty Shetland pony. Some years later she graduated to a Palomino where she occasionally rode bareback. While she didn't ride or own a horse for many years, her love for horses and riding was rekindled in 2008 when she bought her first horse as an adult, a classically trained and, as she says, very forgiving Russian warmblood.
Anne is excited and honored to be part of the advisory board of the Western Dressage
Association of Massachusetts and looks forward to publicizing the only Western dressage club of its kind in New England using her years of experience to broaden the club's outreach and membership.