About
COACH KRYSTAL KELLY
FEI II Certified Show Jumping Coach
Photo: Coach Krystal Kelly pictured in Spain where she has her own private show jumping stable overlooking a beautiful National Park, close to some of Europe's biggest show jumping competitions!
From California to Europe
I left California at 20 years old with $200 to my name and a one-way ticket to Belgium to work for a 5-time Olympian. I left my home country before I could even legally drink and I never looked back.
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 I was unable to access.
Since boarding that flight almost two decades ago, I've 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.
Nearly every "problem" was solved by focusing on rider fundamentals. We do that in one of two ways: via our Sticky Butt Bootcamp (the DIY version where you access the entire curriculum, audio lessons, videos and student critiques and work through the program at your own pace), or the quicker, more personalized version is following that same curriculum with my help. That means sending me private messages whenever you get stuck. That means voice chats, zoom calls and personalized video critiques. That also means continuing beyond the fundamentals and moving onto jumping fundamentals with systemized pole and jumping gymnastics to help you achieve your specific goals.
Regardless of how you choose to work with us, whether it be on your own or with me holding your hand and supporting you every step of the way, know that we have helped thousands of others just like you and have the results, systems and strategies to back it.
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.
Every "opportunity" came with limited doors and glass ceilings above me dictating how far I could go in this sport.
So we built our own door with no ceilings or limits.
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.
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 my current project going through the same systems utilized by each and every one of our students inside our programs.
Both horses are exactly what I always wanted and never had — mine, trained my way, at their pace, without compromise.
The Mission
I coach riders virtually from anywhere in the world using the same system I have developed across twenty years and five continents. Not corrections. Not tips. A complete rebuild of the pattern creating the problem — because corrections don't fix muscle memory, and I stopped pretending they do a long time ago.
But coaching is only part of what we are building here.
Here's what I know about the riders who find me.
They are not beginners. They have been riding for years, sometimes decades. They have spent thousands on lessons, clinics, new horses. They are dedicated, hardworking, and completely serious about this sport.
And they have a dream they have never said out loud to anyone. Or maybe they have said it out loud once, and someone laughed, or changed the subject, or told them to be realistic.
The dream of competing internationally. Of walking into an FEI arena. Of pinning on a competition number that actually means something. Of jumping in Europe — in Spain, in Portugal, in France — on a horse that is genuinely capable, in a program built around them.
That dream is not crazy. It is not out of reach. And it is exactly what Christian and I are building toward.
Train With Me in Spain
We have already welcomed a select group of riders to our mountain stable in Spain for private training retreats. These are not group holidays. They are immersive, one-on-one coaching experiences where I work with you and your riding in the place I train my own horses every day — with the mountains behind us, two FEI horses in development in the barn, and no distractions.
Photo: Course walking training & theory class just before the final ride on "show day" during the retreat.
Riders who come to Spain leave different. Not because of one magic session, but because being in this environment, away from the noise of their normal riding life, gives them the space to actually change.
We are expanding this program. If training at our private stable in Spain is something you have been wanting — put it on your list. We will make it happen.
"It was the best vacation I've ever had." Gina from Texas.
The FEI Leasing Program — Cross "Compete in Europe" Off Your Bucket List
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.
Photo Credits: Krystal and Christian on set for HGTV's popular show: International House Hunters S.118 E.12: "Horses before Humans"
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