Featured Rider - Kelly Prather |
| Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 |
Kelly Prather (Part 1 of a 4 Part Series)
In the winter of 2002 while working and living in Ireland, Pippa and I first met at Seamus Hayes’s yard. Seamus had just purchased her from a farmer who bred and raised her. Our first meeting was also the first day he had sat on her. I asked Seamus to hop off so I could really see her move as she had absolutely no steering! The moment I saw her move I knew she had to come home with me. James and Andrea Pfeiffer stepped forward to purchase her, and home she came to Chocolate Horse Farm in Petaluma, California. It was the beginning of a huge adventure for us all.
I live in Bodega, California about 25 miles north of Chocolate Horse Farm where I ride and train for James and Andrea Pfeiffer. Pippa and I are there 5 days a week. On most Saturday evenings after work I pack Pippa’s overnight bag and off we head back to the coast to her weekend home! The benefit of this is I am 5 minutes from the beach were we do our long gallop work. The "Princess" as she has been nicknamed has her own stall at my home with the 5 other equine friends. On her day off she gets to lounge in the pasture filled with an ocean breeze. She is a lucky girl.
The weather here on the North Coast of California is pretty mild compared to most of the 
country. In the winter we are in the 50’s during the day and the low 40’s at night. However we still complain about the cold! We have had a fairly dry winter so far but they keep promising a very wet February and March. This makes the conditioning a bit more difficult as it gets muddy and slippery here. The beach always stays great but with Pippa she really does need the hills to reach her optimum fitness level. We do have a long driveway that is about 3 miles up hill to the barn. We know every inch of it as we spend a lot of time trotting up it!
The main conditioning track we use in the field during the dry months is shared by a herd of cows. One of Pippa’s favorite pastimes after a gallop is to head to the "trough" shared by the cows. She bellies right up to them and shares a drink with her bovine herd. She loves to sniff noses with all the babies. Pippa is not real fond of other horses but she sure does love her heard of cows! I think it reminds her of her farm in Ireland.
I can’t quite believe I am actually getting ready for Rolex. It is a dream I have had from when I was a little girl and knew what Eventing and Rolex was! I was pretty much born on the back of a horse and have been riding ever since. I am so excited to be going to Rolex to appear at my first 4* event on a horse that I have such an amazing relationship with and can’t wait to continue the journey we started 8 years ago.
