Lindsay Kelley
Lindsay Kelley is a competitive International Three-Day Event Rider, FEI winner and avid Fox Hunter with the Piedmont Fox Hounds and the Orange County Hunt in Virginia. With over 20 years of experience, Lindsay has won many awards and accolades. She has produced and competed dozens of horses of all ages and disciplines. Having trained with top riders and coaches, Lindsay now operates Phase2 Performance horses out of Middleburg, Virginia, where she specializes in training and competing horses for Eventing and Fox Hunting, as well as coaching students at all levels.
Lindsay’s barn in Middleburg is home to both event horses and fox hunters, and she is actively involved in both disciplines as the benefits of combining training techniques from multiple disciplines are unmatchable. Lindsay has set herself apart from many other equestrian professionals by remaining well rounded throughout her career.
Lindsay comes from a deeply rooted equestrian family in the Middleburg, Virginia area where she began riding horses at a very young age. She started with her great aunt, Nancy Dillon in learning the solid basics of riding. She began fox hunting with the Piedmont Fox Hounds at age seven. From that point forward she has always had a strong passion to be in the hunt field up to five times a week. She started her competitive career in show hunter and field hunter competitions as a child; it was there that she learned that her real passion was to compete. Lindsay won the first Junior North American Field Hunter Championships in 2002. Lindsay’s aunt, Barbara Graham, taught her about horsemanship. Barbara bred and broke Thoroughbreds, taught them to gallop, and sent them to the track. From Barbara, Lindsay learned about the basics of horsemanship, from breeding to genetics to breaking and training racehorses.
Lindsay became interested in Eventing while being a working student for retired event rider Julie Gomena. Julie recognized Lindsay’s strong desire to be competitive and took her under her wing to introduce her to the Eventing world in 2003. Julie gave Lindsay the leg up in teaching her the “old school” way of bringing along horses and competing them in the Eventing world in the most raw and natural way.
In 2003, Lindsay began galloping racehorses for Neil Morris at Kinross Farm where she learned about horse management, galloping strong horses, and managing and communicating with owners and clients. She continued to work for Neil throughout college and beyond, totaling 13 years under his watchful eye. Her understanding of horses and the equestrian business can be attributed greatly to her time at Kinross Farm.
It was at Kinross that Lindsay found her first event horse, Buckharo, to make up and compete through the upper levels. She picked “Bucky” up after his last hurdle race as a four year old and began the training process soon after. Together with Julie, Lindsay brought this untrained off-the-track thoroughbred up the levels, culminating in a top 20 finish at the Bromont CCI* in 2012. During this process, Lindsay realized the event world was where she wanted to stay. She fell in love with the sport and has since developed a strong passion to rise to the top of the Eventing rankings.
Phase 2 was founded after Lindsay received her Bachelors Degree from the College of Charleston and George Mason University, completing her education in three years. She understood the importance of having a well-rounded, complete education so that she would have numerous career options in life. After graduating from college, Lindsay started working at Booz Allen Hamilton as a government consultant. After three and a half years, she decided she needed to chase her passion in the Eventing and hunting world. She had a couple of clients who were willing to support her dreams and gave her the confidence to take the plunge and try to “make it” in the horse world.
From there she started her business from the bottom up—out of a small six-stall barn, doing everything from mucking stalls to billing clients. Her initial business plan was to take OTTB’s from Neil Morris and develop them into their second careers. Thus the name Phase 2 was developed, insinuating both the second phase of Lindsay’s career after the corporate world and the second career of the Thoroughbreds after their racing careers. Since its beginning the business has developed into much more. Lindsay still loves developing young Off-the-Track Thoroughbreds, but is not limited to just that. The valuable insight Lindsay gained on running a business from her corporate experience at Booz Allen Hamilton gives her an edge on others in the industry.
Since starting Phase 2, Lindsay has proven her abilities as a trainer, rider and coach. Lindsay has competed and trained a variety of horses throughout the levels, has shared her love of Eventing and hunting with her students, and has multiple extremely talented upper level horses in her barn to compete among the top levels of the sport.