Vicki Kelley still laughs when she recalls the moment it hit her she wasn’t a California girl anymore.

Not long after her move to Pinehurst in 2005, Kelley and her husband, Sean, had a few California friends pay a visit. On a shopping trip to Walmart, one of Kelley’s houseguests spotted deer corn for sale. “Isn’t that nice?” the woman gushed. “They feed the deer here!”

A native of Walnut Creek, about 20 miles outside San Francisco in the East Bay region, Kelley, 50, is an FEI level dressage training and instructor who hosts a popular series of schooling shows at her Antares Farm on Linden Road.

A USDF silver and bronze medalist as well as an “L” certified judge, Kelley trains approximately 30 students in Moore and Hoke Counties, including riders at St. Andrews College.

Q: What prompted you to move to Pinehurst?

A: We were in Sebastopol (Sonoma County) for 12 years. I was importing a lot of young horses from Germany to train and then sell. It’s such a long trip from Europe to California; we thought it would just be a lot easier living on the East Coast. We were going back and forth to Germany three or four times a year.

Q: Was the resale business your main focus?

A: I was riding and teaching, too. The resale business was good until the economy changed. It pretty much floated way down in 2008 but it started picking up last year. Like the housing market, it’s affected the higher end horses.

Q: Is Sean involved with the horses?

A: Sure. Sean handles and rides the horses.

Q: How did you and Sean meet?

A: We met in Santa Rosa, in 1990. I was out dancing one night with some girlfriends; he was at the same place for a friend’s birthday.

Q: How many horses do you have now?

A: We have eight right now, but we have the capacity for 11. Four are our horses. Sean’s horse, Saphira, is a TB/Friesian cross. Windsong, one of our sales horses, is a black Hanoverian gelding. Rondo Veniziano is a Bavarian Warmblood who just turned 20 … hopefully we’re going to show at Grand Prix level this year. Antares just turned 14. He’s an 18-hand black Hanoverian gelding.

Q: When did you get your first horse?

A: When I was 3, my dad got me a pony, Joe, and a cart. I started driving Joe before I started riding! He was training to do some tricks … bow, count … my parents weren’t horse people but they loved horses. We had an acre of land out there, so it was just enough room for a pony and a horse.

Q: When did you really get serious about riding?

A: Everybody in my neighborhood had a horse, and there was a riding club at the end of the road. I would ride down there every day after school. Pretty soon friends started having me ride their horses. Everyone out there rode western, so that’s what I did.

I was the state reining champion with my quarter horse mare (Pause) in 1973. When I was 13, I saw an English saddle for the first time. I thought it was the coolest thing ever, because it was so light!

Q: So you weren’t one of those teenage girls who traded horses for boys?

A: (Laughs) Oh, no. I kept riding because I realized it was becoming a way to make money and support myself. Pretty much that’s been the way I’ve supported myself all my life.

Q: When did your focus shift to English riding?

A: I was riding at Kimberwick Stables in Danville with a woman who had been a steeplechase rider. She was into dressage and eventing. I would take lessons on their horses. I was always there an hour before my lesson and I’d stay an hour or two after. Because she had a jumping background she would tell me I had to jump into the ring where I was having my lesson!

Q: Why dressage?

A: I had a quarter horse gelding (Somme) that I bought as a 2-year-old.

I had been training Arabians (in Sonoma County) and hunter/jumpers, and doing a little eventing. But unfortunately, as a trainer, you have to train horses that aren’t good at some things. And a lot of quarter horses aren’t good at jumping. We had Gwen Stockebrand (an Olympic dressage rider) nearby, and Hilda Gurney (the 1976 Olympic bronze medalist) would come up to teach.

They became my idols, and I decided dressage would be my focus. I rode Somme all the way up through Prix St. George. I loved the art of it … being “one” with the horse. In dressage, the horse is like an extension of you. It gives you a feeling of euphoria … and when you realize you can change a horse’s gaits, it becomes addictive.

Q: When did you start hosting the schooling shows at the farm?

A: One of the things we wanted when we bought a farm was a place where we could have schooling, or even recognized shows … although to support a recognized show I’d probably have to have more than one ring! I want to give people a safe place to practice their tests and take young horses out safely.

Q: What’s a typical day like for you?

A: Well, right now I do everything. I start the day feeding, cleaning, and doing turnout. I teach, or ride, and then it’s time to bring them in.

Q: Do you give lessons at your farm or travel to your students?

A: Both. I go to them or have them trailer in. I also go out to St. Andrews to teach once a week.

Q: If you could own any horse in history, it would be …

A: That’s not hard … Totilas (a Dutch Warmblood stallion and record-breaking triple gold medalist at the 2010 World Equestrian Games, Moorlands Totilas recently sold for a reported $13 million). I’m not sure anybody ever dreamed a dressage horse would sell for that much!

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