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Kelly's Philosophy page: -------------------------------------- Horse lovers that visted my site.
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Aug. 1st/2008: Hi everyone.. I hadn't looked at this page for awhile and I realized I needed to amend or change some info. In late 2006 I lost Navarr, (my Andalusian), to a severe case of founder. We tried for a year to save him but he was in so much pain, (and I was bankrupt), that I decided to let him go. This was a huge tragedy in my life. I have since been looking for my next Navarr and I feel I have to have something with Spanish blood. There is nothing like a horse that wants to carry you and want sto dance with you the way the Spanish breeds seem to want to do! I am honing my skills on big and slow Bobby Sox. I am learning how to play with and motivate the most lazy and least motivated horse on earth! (LBI from Parelli Horsenality profile). But I guess I must be doing something right because even now Bobby is starting to carry me happily!! See Bobby's page: BOBBY SOX I have 2 new babies, shown on this page: YEARLINGS...... Both are half Andalusian and both are spectacular individuals! I have great hope that one or both will be my next dancing partner. I am now deep into the Parelli program. I have completed my Level 3 Home study course and am eating up everything else they have provided! I LOVE the new Horsenality charts and tactics that work for each individual horse and that horses individual horsenality! I am teaching allot. Traveling for clinics when asked. AND I am going to KY in OCT/08 to train with BALANCE INTERNATIONAL saddle company to become one of their new US Saddle Facilitators! So the above is my most current news. Feel Free to ask me anything! I am happy to connect with anyone that shares my passion for the horse! :] FROM 2004: Hi Everyone!! I have been asked so many times about my background and history with horses that I thought I should just do a whole page about ME!! (what fun!) I am 37, (2004) and am still as horse crazy as I was when I was a kid! I currently own 2 horses, Navarr the bay Andalusian/TB cross who is 10 and Bobby Sox the chestnut Sabino Belgian/paint cross that is 6. I had my first official riding lessons when I was 9 for about a year... thanks to my grandparents that carted me out to the stables once a week and paid for the lessons. Then we moved to northern California when I was 16 and was given my first horse when I was 17. Just the horse and halter so I rode everywhere bareback in that halter! Then I got a job with a local endurance rider who had a stable of trail horses so I helped take tourists out on rides in the back country. That is where I started to learn about tack and quality and the differences between styles! I was in charge of tacking up 12 horses per ride and everyone had different gear... both English and western. That same lady was into dressage for her flat schooling. I ended up helping break some of her babies too. After 2 years with her I had a huge foundation that I still draw from! After that I watched and read and soaked up anything that pertained to horses. I networked from those connections and ended up with a gorgeous TB mare that was 4 years old, unbroken and pregnant. My deal was I kept the mare but had to give back the baby. Of course the baby was a gorgeous filly by the stallion Hand In Glove... I struck a deal to buy her for $3000.00 over time with the breeder... and so my breeding program started. That filly is the mother to Navarr that I have now! The 2 TB mares were my hunter and jumper horses respectively for a few years. Once the filly was old enough to be my full time show horse I sold her mother. From that sale I bought some other prospects and that snowballed into me having about 10 horses at once for a short time. I found that I had/have a huge talent for starting youngsters so I ended up going that direction and I stopped showing except for local unrated shows to help with the baby training. The Hand in Glove mare pulled a tendon so I bred her and now I have Navarr. Once she healed and went back to work I ended up selling her too.... Through the years I have taken numerous lessons from visiting clinicians and have also traveled to train for week long stints. Mostly working on my dressage but also recently with the Natural horsemanship/Parelli traveling clinicians. I have never been in a full time training situation. I have been forced to self school and figure out what needed to be done with each horse and myself. Because of this I am finding that I am a way more "natural" rider than most other dressage riders. I have found that once I get that rhythm with each horse none of the movements are as difficult or forced! I still jump a little but my main focus is dressage. I adore the dance! Navarr is now 10 and although super talented he is a spooky horse... and quite explosive. Because of this I was finding that my dressage training was only making him worse.. more forced and confined. So I started getting into some spook training stuff and found the whole Parelli system! After about 3 years of really working on Navarr with only natural horsemanship techniques. I am so happy to report he is getting it! He is finally spooking in place more often than running and bucking! WHEW! So, now I am back to dancing with some of my classical dressage training, (often in just a rope halter!), but I am adding in the fluidity and unforced/willingness that comes from the natural horsemanship... AND.. I am loving the results! I give lessons and still take horses in training but only a few at a time.. so I have the time to really focus correctly on each individual horse and what they might need! I am perfecting my combination of the 2 "disciplines" of Dressage and Natural Horsemanship, all with a KELLY flair... should we call it Dresselly?? or perhaps Kellagge? the results are wonderful! I am starting a new program with a few of my online clients to give video lessons and training through email. I am finding the whole thing extremely rewarding ... both for us the riders and the horses! They are so much happier when they are willing, understand and you can work within their timing and rhythm instead of yours!! So, you can see I am a hands on horse person that is obsessed with nice tack! I love good leather and hate to handle anything else... even for the daily work! I do not see the need to have to deal with crappy leather every day when a nice bridle will last you years! I have become expert at helping fit hard to fit horses.... especially those really wide horses.... like my 2! I went from easy to fit TB's to these 2 very odd shaped horses! Navarr is currently in a saddle that has a 40cm tree! So, you can see that I have had experience with all kinds of body types! I am also up on all the current trends and styles! I live, eat and breath horsy! so feel free to ask me anytime about anything as long as it pertains to hoses or tack! :] Happy to share more if you have questions! THANKS for listing! God bless! K |
