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odie has been riding for as long as she can remember. She has lived in Destin, Florida where she was born in 1983. She
was 2 years old when she got her first pony, Little Joe. At that time, Jodie spent her riding days at her family’s
private 5 stall barn at their house in Destin, Florida. Jodie acquired her love for horses from her mother, Laurie Kelly,
who kept her horses at their barn at home for many years.As Jodie got older and more serious about riding, her family built their current boarding and training barn, Southern Cross Equestrian Centre. Jodie moved on to two remarkable ponies, first Good Boy Chip and a few years later, to Savannah Cross. Jodie’s pony years allowed her to explore the possibilities in the riding world. From galloping wildly, bareback through the woods, to the finer aspects of dressage, the technical challenges of pony jumpers and combining it all in one weekend at three-day events Jodie had a blast at every discipline. She was involved in her local 4-H and Pony Club where she competed at local, regional and state championships with both ponies.
In 1994, Jodie’s parents took her to the World Equestrian Games in The Hague, Netherlands. This trip not only proved to be her first experience at seeing true world class horses, but would also begin a friendship that would open the door to Europe for Jodie. Jodie and her family were introduced to Toine and Ingrid Hoefs by her Dutch trainer at the time, Jos Sevriens, who resides in the United States. Toine, a breeder, judge, and dealer from Holland was at The Hague with his recently approved young stallion Juventus.
That summer of 1995 Jodie spent several weeks living with Toine and Ingrid, riding Toine’s young horses. That was also when Jodie was introduced to Anky van Grunsven. Juventus was in training with her and Toine was there on a regular basis watching the progress of his stallion. Those visits turned to Jodie spending every morning at Anky’s while she was in Holland. Toine lived in the same town, so he would drop her off every morning and pick her up around lunchtime. In that time, Jodie would do everything from warm horses up for Anky, groom, or simply sit on the bench and roll wraps while soaking up every bit of information she could. After that first summer, Jodie spent every summer from when she was 12-18, in Holland for 4-8 weeks. She lived with Toine and Ingrid, spent mornings at Anky’s, and rode Toine’s horses in the afternoon. Meanwhile, in the states, Jodie was making great progress with her horses. She continued riding with Jos, and Toine began making regular trips to Destin to help Jodie as well. Her local and Regional shows led to national rankings in the JR/YR divisions.
Jodie went on to ride for Region 3 four times coming home with top individual placings and a team gold medal three times and finally ending her Young Rider's career with an individual bronze medal. Jodie still spends most of the year at home in Destin, Florida riding and training from Southern Cross. She trains from Wellington's Edge in Loxahatchee, Florida, just outside of Wellington during the months of Jan, Feb, and March. While she is in South Florida, she trains with Courtney King-Dye. During the rest of the year, Jodie has many phone and email lessons with Courtney.
Because Destin is such a remote place for horses, Jodie has spent her whole life training herself between clinics. She enjoys the training time she has alone to “digest” things she has learned. She is always open to riding with a new person and from this feels that she has really been able to develop her riding by taking valuable things from each person she rides with. Over the years she has had the pleasure of participating in clinics with experts such as Klaus Balkenhal, Conrad Schumacher, Debbie McDonald, Jan Brink, Steffan Peters, Oded Shimoni, Charles DeKunffy and Courtney King-Dye. Jodie has now graduated from the young rider division and is competing two of her horses in the small tour. She has a string of young horses that are coming along nicely as well. Jodie is proud of the fact that with the exception of her very first dressage horse, she has trained all of the horses she competes from their very first days under saddle.
The pair worked its way into the top 20 USEF Grand Prix national rankings early in 2008 and finished the year in the top 250 FEI World Dressage rankings. Her goal is to continue to compete him on the big tour and hopefully take him back to Europe to compete. |
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USDF Bronze, Silver and Gold Medalist |
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odie Kelly Dressage has two locations; in the summer, we reside at Southern Cross Equestrian Centre in Destin, Florida, and in the
winter, we move our operations to Wellington Edge Farm in Loxahatchee, Florida, near Wellington. Our focus is on the training of top
quality dressage horses of all ages and levels.Buying trips to Europe are organized regularly for clients so that they can personally choose the right horse for themselves. We accompany our clients on these trips, and our European associates help to make this experience comfortable and productive. Our European associates ship several horses over to us in advance of the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, FL held December through April each year. Jodie offers dressage training and instruction through the FEI levels. There is usually a large presence of Jodie Kelly Dressage horses and clients at USDF shows in Louisiana, Georgia and of course Florida. Jodie is also available for clinics as well. |
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Courtney King-Dye - Trainer. Jodie started training with Courtney during the winter season in 2008.
Like Jodie, Courtney and her team have moved to Loxahatchee, FL for the winter season. Except for the winter season, Courtney is based at Sunnyfield Farm in Bedford, New York. In 2000, Courtney was named to the USET Olympic Long List and in 2004 she was named to the USEF High Performance Developing Riders List. In August 2008, she represented the USA at the Olympic Games in Hong Kong on Harmony's Mythilus. She is a USDF Gold Medalist and a USDF Certified Instructor through Fourth Level. She is also a 2004 graduate of Columbia University in New York and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature. |
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Jennifer Boblitt - Barn Manager. The latest edition to the Jodie Kelly Dressage family is Jennifer Boblitt.
Jenn has a B.A. in Equine Facility Management and Equine Health Technology from Otterbein College in Westerville, OH, and is also a registered Veterinary Technician. She has been working professionally with horses since she graduated in 2002. Jenn has been riding for about 17 years, mostly dressage, and is currently working toward her USDF silver medal. She trained and competed her second horse Kayla to 3rd level. Because Kayla was getting too old for competitive riding, she bought a young horse, Aragon, who is now schooling 2nd level. |
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