COACH KRYSTAL KELLY

FEI II Certified Show Jumping Coach

From California to Europe

I left California at 20 years old with $200 to my name and a one-way ticket to Belgium.

I had no connections. No wealthy family in the sport. No plan beyond knowing that I needed to be around top level horses... horses that knew things mine didn't.

What followed was fifteen years of doing it the completely wrong way — and I mean that as a compliment to myself.

I trained horses for kings in the Middle East. I survived a revolution in Cairo. I built a riding program in India for boys who had never seen a woman in charge. I finished a 1,000 km race in Mongolia known as the world's longest and toughest horse race. I drove a hot pink Toyota Yaris from England to Mongolia through sixteen countries SOLO — and somewhere in Azerbaijan, I met my husband.

By 2016 I became the first and only American woman to earn an FEI Level II Show Jumping coaching certification in Europe. I have now coached riders in 146 countries virtually — from nervous adult amateurs who haven't competed in years, to 1.30m competitors who simply needed someone to finally tell them the truth about what was actually wrong.

And the truth is almost always the same thing.

It's not the horse.

A Private Stable in a National Park in Spain

My husband, Christian, and I bought a private show jumping stable located on a mountain in a national park in Spain. It required a LOT of renovation, and we've spent the last few years slowly upgrading the facilities.

We did it because we were done playing by other people's rules.

I had spent fifteen years riding other people's horses, building other people's programs, watching other people compete on horses I had trained and take the credit for results I had produced. I had been fired in Cairo for reporting an assault. I had been passed over in Romania because of "politics." I had been told in country after country, by man after man, that I was talented — and then quietly handed the door.

So we built our own door.

Today our stable is home to our beautiful horses, including our two show jumpers I have trained myself from scratch.

Zefira is my 8-year-old Warmblood mare. She is barefoot. She goes in a snaffle. No martingale. No gadgets. She is competing at FEI level in 2026 — her first international starts — and she is proof that slow, correct, horse-first training works. The internet critics who spent years asking me why I was "jumping so small" are now very quiet.

Valentin is a 5-year-old by Baloubet du Rouet — one of the greatest show jumping horses who ever lived, a horse I dreamed about as a child watching show jumping on television in a small town in California. Valentin is just beginning. He is everything I am building toward next.

Both horses are exactly what I always wanted and never had — mine, trained my way, at their pace, without compromise.

This is the part I am most excited about.

I spent fifteen years riding elite horses I did not own. Horses I trained, developed and loved — and then handed back. I know better than almost anyone what it means to want the opportunity and not have the horse.

So we are creating that opportunity for you.

Through our FEI Leasing Program, adult amateur riders from anywhere in the world will be able to lease one of our competition horses, travel to Spain, train with me personally, and compete at an FEI show in Europe.

A real FEI start. Your name on the entry list. A competition number. A video on Clipmyhorse.tv and an FEI ranking. A clear round in an international arena — or the experience of fighting for one.

For some riders, this is a lifelong dream. The kind of thing they have written on a bucket list and looked at for years, wondering if it will ever actually happen.

It will happen. That is what this program exists for.

I have spent my entire life crossing off goals that everyone told me were impossible for someone like me.

$200 and a one-way ticket to Belgium to work for a five-time Olympian.

Riding and training Grand Prix horses in Sicily.

Starting and developing multiple riding clubs in India, applying our unique curriculum to the show jumping sport in Asia.

1,000 kilometres across Mongolia on 35 semi-wild horses.

Becoming the first and only American at 25 years old to be FEI II Show Jumping Coaching Certified.

A private stable on a mountain in Spain that my husband and I built ourselves.

An FEI competition number at 36 years old on a horse I produced from scratch — barefoot, in a snaffle, without shortcuts.

Every single one of those things lived on a list before it lived in reality. Every single one felt impossible until the day it wasn't.

I know what it means to want something so badly it lives in your bones. I know what it means to be told you are not the right person, the right background, the right age, the right anything.

And I know that the riders who find their way to this page are not lacking talent or heart.

They are lacking a system, a clear path, and someone who believes in them enough to tell them the truth and then actually help them get there.

That is what I am here for.

That is what Christian and I built this stable for.

The dream is real. Come and live it.

Ready to work together?

Train with me virtually → https://www.theinternationalequestrian.com/jump123

Explore the Sticky Butt™ Rider Foundation System → https://jump.theinternationalequestrian.com/sticky-butt-bootcamp

Enquire about training in Spain or the FEI Leasing Programme → https://www.theinternationalequestrian.com/jump123

Or email: info@theinternationalequestrian.com