(powerful rock music) ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ - Welcome to "A Shot of Ag" My name is Rob Sharkey.

I'm a fifth generation farmer from just outside of Illinois.

Horses.

Every kid wants 'em, but not every kid can ride one.

What do we do about that?

Well, we go to our guest today, Kristina Koehler.

How you doing?

- I'm well.

How are you?

- Yeah.

You're from Brimfield, right?

- Yes.

- Okay.

Originally from Edelstein?

- Yep.

- Not everybody knows where Edelstein is because, sometimes, when they're driving north, they blink.

- Ah, yes.

- Yeah.

Not a very big 'burg, is it?

- No.

But Tanner's Orchard kind of puts it on the map.

- Is that the address?

- Very close.

Yeah.

- Really?

Okay.

Grew up there on a farm.

Correct?

- Yep.

- All right.

And then, how'd you get into horses?

- It was a total accident.

No one in my family rode horses.

They put me in riding lessons along with piano, dance class, horseback riding.

- [Rob] Really?

- And something went wrong along the way, I don't know.

- Do you still dance or play the piano?

- No.

- But the horse stuck, huh?

- Yeah, it stuck on accident there.

- Okay.

Was it just kind of an automatic love for it?

- Yeah.

You know, every little girl.

I actually rode my first horse at Tanner's Orchard, funny enough.

- [Rob] Really?

- They, I swear, still have the same like, pony thing, you know, that every little girl in central Illinois has been on.

- [Rob] Oh, was it a merry-go-round thing?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

I rode my first one there, and then I begged and begged my mom to let me ride, and I got put in weekly lessons, and yeah, I was just sort of obsessive about it as a kid.

It was all that I really wanted to do.

- [Rob] Yeah.

And you went off to ISU?

- Yes.

Well, I was sort of headed towards the, like, age 16, you know, what do you wanna be when you grow up?

Started taking SATs and ACTs, and full-time horse girl really isn't one of the options to toggle when you are indicating what you wanna do when you grow up, so I started looking for, you know, if not the horse stuff, you know, that's not a real job, then what?

And teachers seemed to be something I was interested in.

You know, at least it was a path forward, and so, I went to ISU for secondary English education.

- Okay.

And what'd you do after graduation?

- I taught high school at local community high schools for four years.

- [Rob] That sounds horrible.

- Yes.

It was awful.

I really didn't like it very much.

(laughs) - It wasn't your deal, huh?

- No, not my cup of tea.

But while I was doing that, I was also building my little business, Eyes Up Equestrian.

I say little, 'cause at that point it was really just six kids, and a pony, and me.

So I was building that business after school, and then teaching high school during the day.

- Eyes up.

Is that a horse thing?

- Yes.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

So, when you ride, you don't wanna be focusing on the ground, you know?

Everybody gets on.

They're like, "Oh my gosh," at first.

I'm so high up here!

- [Rob] You're a long ways up there.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

It doesn't feel like that anymore.

I've kind of lost like, my sense of that, of heights, but anyway, yeah.

So, you wanna be like, looking up and looking forward, and it's also a metaphor, you know, for keeping your eyes on the future and what's coming next.

- [Rob] Oh, I get it.

Double meaning.

- Yeah.

- I am quite ignorant on horses.

Okay?

So I'm gonna ask a lot of dumb questions.

So, my wife, she has what they call a quarter horse.

- Mm.

- Is that what you're training with?

- No.

- No?

- So, kind of the opposite.

Like, quarter horses are, I think, for non-horse people, the easiest way to understand it is like, your family Labrador might be a nice way to put it.

They're phenomenal athletes, usually easy to get along with, usually kind of teachable.

I don't work with a lot of quarter horses.

Well, I guess I'm transitioning.

One of my specialties is off the track thoroughbreds.

So those horses originally are bred and designed to race like what you see in the Kentucky Derby.

But in the racing industry, there's this huge sort of like, "what next" when the horses stop running, which usually happens at age two, three, four, five, six if you're lucky, seven if you're lucky, eight, nine's unheard of, and so, - And a horse can, what's it like, 30?

- Yes.

- Really?

Okay.

- Yeah.

Sometimes later.

So then, you know, after their racing career, then what?

And so, I retrain those horses and give them a new skill set to go on and be family horses, or jumping horses, or something like that.

- We had a guest on before that said that racing horses were emotional animals.

- Yes, that's true.

- Is it?

- All horses are emotional animals, but race horses are bred to be, like, their flight instincts are so, I mean, that's what they're meant for, right?

Like, go, boom, and yeah, they can be very flighty and very emotional, and they're bred to be that way.

- [Rob] Okay.

Explain to me how you train an animal like that that is only been known to, I gotta run and be the fastest to, all right, now I'm gonna let Rob jump on my back and we're gonna go for a walk.

- Yeah.

Well, I think it's really two things, primarily.

One, it's all about desensitization and sensitization.

So like, a horse like that has pretty much only been told go, you know?

And so, they think everything means go, so you kick 'em, it means go.

You pull, it means go.

You flap your arms and it means go.

And so, you have to teach them that, you know, sometimes I'm just gonna reach up and pat you, you know?

And that doesn't mean go.

that just means I'm having a good time, And so, desensitizing them is part of it.

So we'll take a tarp, you know, and show them that that doesn't mean anything.

Look, it's just a tarp.

Or we'll take a pool noodle and say, "You know, hey, this is just a pool noodle.

That doesn't mean anything at all," so that they can go in the world and have a small child run past her and not think, "Oh my gosh, I need to run away from that."

And then when I say desensitize, sensitize, you also have to then teach them what things really do mean.

So when I put my leg here, it means go sideways.

When I put two legs here, it means something else.

And so, you have to sort of educate them just like you would a kid, right?

This is your ABCs, and then you teach 'em sight words, and all of a sudden they're reading sentences, which is pretty cool.

- What if they see a rabbit?

'cause don't they chase that around a track?

- No.

- Is that the dogs?

- (laughing) I think that might be the dogs.

- Is it dogs?

- I think you're thinking fox hunting, which is a thing on the east coast, but no rabbits, just foxes.

- Just so fast, right?

(both chuckle) Do you have to be patient to do that?

Because it seems to me like you'd be constantly fighting what they've been taught for years.

- Yeah.

So, I have a variety of mentors in my life who help me with my horsemanship, and I think becoming a horseman is like, more than a lifetime of knowledge and information, and so, one of my favorite horsemen described it as like, our job as trainers is to help them feel every single emotion on the wheel, right?

Every single one.

They get angry, they get anxious, they get frustrated, they get rewarded, they feel fulfilled, you know?

And they get excited, and so, our job is to like show them all of those feelings and help them process them.

And so, yeah, it takes a lot of patience and a lot of intentional work.

Not any of it can be kind of, what you think about.

Like, oh, we're just, you know, gonna go cowgirl around.

It's not like that.

It's really methodical.

- You have to bean athlete to do what you do.

- Yes.

- If you're going to be training these animals in such a way, I mean, you've gotta be physically fit to handle it, or else, it seems to me like they'd just beat the tar out of you.

- Yeah.

I usually ride about six horses per day, sometimes more, sometimes less, just depending on what horses I have for training or, you know, in my program, and it is a lot of physical work, but it's so much fun.

You know, sometimes I forget how much physical work it is until the end of the day.

I'm like, "Oh gosh, I'm tired!

I'm sore."

But yeah, no, it's a lot of work, but it's a lot of good, hard farm work, you know?

- [Rob] Yeah.

So knowing how to train a horse, knowing how to do all that is one thing.

To actually make a business out of it, that has to be a whole new ball game.

- Yeah.

I got really lucky.

I'm not entrepreneurial in nature.

That might not be true, but, - I would say you are.

- I think I might be, but I don't think I ever would've been brave enough, you know, to like, When I was 16 and was like, "oh gosh," like I couldn't see a path forward to, you know, the next 15 years of my life that were gonna get me here, you know?

And so, I think I was really, really lucky that I got to have my teaching career in the beginning, go on to get a master's degree that was very linear.

I had income, I had insurance, I had a way, and then I got really lucky that it was just, you know, six kids after school, and then it was 10 kids after school, and then it was 20 kids after school.

And then, you know, so it kind of grew organically.

And so, by the time we got to a place where the business was self-fulfilling, I don't know, it was running already by the time I was able to walk away from my full-time job.

- So was that, I mean, Anytime you walk away from a job with, you know, a steady paycheck and benefits and all that, generally, people are like, "That was one of the most scary times of my life.

You kind of had that backup plan already in place, so was it that bad for you?

- It was absolutely terrifying.

(laughs) - [Rob] Was it?

Okay.

- It was terrifying.

And, you know, so many people, right?

Friends, family, well-meaning, loving people were worried about me, you know?

Like, "Are you sure?

You know, you have a great job, you have a great career, you're so good with the kids," and I'm just like, "I know, I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm doing it!"

You know?

And, I don't know, I read a book.

It was Matthew McConaughey's autobiography or whatever, memoir, whatever.

(Kristina laughs) - Stop right there.

Let's all digest what she just said.

- Yeah.

Right?

But he's so handsome, so, - All right, all right, all right.

- Yeah, there it is!

Yeah, exactly.

Anyway, his book is called something-something "Greenlights", and like, the whole premise is, if you just keep following the green lights in your life, you end up where you're meant to be.

- [Rob] He stole that idea.

- Yeah.

- [Rob] Actors actually don't think for themselves.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- Oh.

- Oops.

Trust me, I'm on TV.

(Kristina laughs) - Oh, man.

Yeah.

So, yeah, it was super scary, but it seemed like a green light in that moment, and luckily, the Peoria area has just been so great to my business and support it.

We have so many different people who ride at my farm.

We have seven lesson horses, and they come in all different shapes and sizes.

- [Rob] I don't know what that means.

- A lesson horse?

So, we have seven horses that I personally own.

Well, I guess my business owns, and then people come and pay a fee to ride that horse in a lesson with me.

- [Rob] Okay.

- Mmhm.

- So, you know, if you wanted to bring a loved one out, you could bring a child, an adult, a friend, and you know, you can bring a couple guys in some beer, right?

And come ride my horses.

And so, it's kind of a nice way to, you know, dip your toes in the pond and see what's up.

- [Rob] Okay.

That would drive me insane.

Because obviously, you put a lot of time into these horses and that, and then you get a yahoo like myself that just gets up there and doesn't know what they're doing.

I mean, I'd be using this on the rider more than the horses.

Does that ever bother you?

- Yeah.

You know, I think, one of my like, I don't know, superpowers is reading people and moving people.

Like, the horses moving them where they need to be, right?

So I think it's really engaging.

It's like problem solving at like, the highest level to get a person that's there for, you know, whatever goal.

Whether that is, you know, I just wanna have fun, I just wanna yippee ki-yay around, you know, or I wanna get serious, I wanna understand the sport.

We have all different people, and so, it's really engaging to me to take whoever it is that comes to me with whatever it is their unique goal is, and work through that with the other dynamic, which is the horse that they're riding.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- You know, so it's, I don't know, it's really complex.

It's fun.

I like it.

- Peoria areas is, I mean, it's a good area, right for like, people and that, but when you equate it to how many people actually want to pay for their kid to get horse lessons, is it a good area?

- I think so.

- [Rob] Are you full?

- Yeah, I'm really full.

- [Rob] Really?

- Yeah.

Yeah, I'm really full.

I think so.

I think we're lucky.

We have a lot of different, you know, surrounding communities, so I have students that come from Canton, and Washington, and Pekin, and Bloomington, and, gosh, I mean, like everywhere that you could imagine, people come to our barn.

There's not a lot of other centers for riding here, so.

Yeah.

No, it's really full, it's really busy, and lots of different ages.

The student that I taught just before I came is in her seventies, and she's amazing.

She rides every single week.

- [Rob] Does that worry you?

- No, she's amazing.

She's so strong.

- She could break something just getting on there.

- Yeah, no.

She's been riding for a couple of years now, and, you know, we focus on safety and confidence, and we just do it.

It's awesome.

It's amazing.

- [Rob] What's your bread and butter, though?

Is it the kids?

- Yeah.

My favorite age to teach is actually middle school.

- [Rob] Like, junior high?

- Yeah.

- [Rob] Oh my gosh.

They're so mouthy, though!

- Oh, but they're awesome.

They're like little people, you know?

And, I guess, of course, all of them are little people, but they're like little mini adult versions of who they're gonna be, but they're not cooked yet, you know?

And so, they're still real impressionable, and yeah.

- [Rob] I know.

They squish if they fall off that horse.

- Yeah.

(laughs) - Okay, so, that type of student, right?

I think it'd be so hard because you have to work with that student, but yet, the parents are paying.

Because it is a business, right?

You have to stay in business.

Is that ever a hard balance to get between, "Hey, I need to push this person, but yet, the parents have to be happy, too?"

- Yeah.

I think, rider goal, like identifying what our goals are, one of the learning curves in my own learning and growing how to be a better coach is about like, really hearing and listening to what their goals are, right?

Whether it's the student or the parent, and not making it about my goals.

So my goal is to ride at the absolute highest level of the whole sport on an international level, and, you know, that's not normal, you know?

So what is more normal is, "Hey, we just wanna take a weekly lesson and teach our daughter about grit or something, you know?"

And sort of letting go of my own stuff and listening to them, whether it's the parent or the student or whatever, and, you know, helping them on their personal journey, and that's been, yeah, something I've learned.

- [Rob] So let's talk about the competitions.

- Yeah.

- I don't even know what they are.

- Oh, I'd love to tell you about them.

- Okay.

- So I am a eventer.

I event, right?

Like, how to use that word.

I'm an eventer.

So there's three phases of every competition.

You have dressage.

Well, hold on, back up.

It was a military sport in the beginning.

And so, - [Rob] Dressage?

- Well, eventing.

So what it was, it was a military test, and so, the soldier in its mount would present themselves as certified for this level of combat, right?

This level of difficulty.

And so, with each level, right?

Then it gets harder and harder, and obstacles get bigger.

And so, anyway, the three tests, right?

Are, one, about obedience, so that's dressage.

People know it looks real fancy.

You go, like, prance around and look all, you know, beautiful and elegant.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- And then you have cross-country, so the obstacles are big and solid, and the idea is like, "Hey, you and your horse have to go deliver this message to this general right now, and, you know, something's in the way.

This log, this fence, this pond, this ditch, but you gotta get it there."

So your horse has to be brave enough to say "Yes ma'am" when it counts.

And then the show jumping is all about agility, and so, making sure that your horse agile enough for the competition, or for the mission.

So, in modern times, we don't have a lot of mounted military anymore, and so it's just - [Rob] You never know.

- wrapped up for sport.

- It could come back.

- You don't know.

- So you do this?

- Yeah.

Mmhm.

So, I do 3 day eventing.

There's lots of different levels.

We have students at Eyes Up that are 10 that are doing the starter novice level, you know, that are real little, and I compete on an international level, which is really fun.

- [Rob] So you must be good.

- Yeah, kind of.

Well, I'm getting better all the time.

- Well, okay.

I mean, brag about yourself.

- Well, gosh.

I'm not excellent at that, but I'll try.

So, I ride at the two star level.

The top of the sport is five stars, so I still have room to grow.

I'm not like, a five star eventer yet, but I want to be, so.

- Yeah, but you're really young.

To be a five star, do you have to be like, the 18-year-old prodigy, or is that something you build on?

- I think you can grow into it.

I think you grow into it.

A lot of people, you know, like my peers don't have a lot of stories like mine, right?

And so, I'm self-funded, I didn't start a venting until I was 21, and so, I'm kind of coming to it later in my life.

A lot of people have been riding, since they were five, you know?

So anyway, my story's a bit different, but yeah, no, I'm excellent at my current level, which is two star.

I take so many riding lessons myself, still, so I'm a great student and I'm always trying to learn and understand the sport better.

- [Rob] So who's teaching you?

- So my coach, his home state is in Maryland.

His name is Danny Warrington, and he does a program called Land Safe that focuses on teaching riders how to protect themselves in the case of a fall.

- [Rob] Oh - Yeah.

So that's what he's known for, but he was also an event rider, and he's very good at coaching people, including me.

- Ground will break your fall, won't it?

- Yes.

Well, sort of.

(both chuckle) - Have you been hurt?

- Not badly, no.

Honestly.

No.

You know, little bangs here and there, - I only broke my pelvis and my collar bone.

- But no, no.

Like, a broken finger, you know?

A busted open chin, or you know, something silly, but nothing big.

- Okay.

- So, lucky.

- So you are doing this.

Are you teaching your students to do this too?

- Yeah, so we have a competitive team.

Last weekend, we had four students compete at a national level.

That was exciting.

And then I ran my two horses, too.

And then, in three weeks, we're taking five students to Barrington to compete in a national horse show there, so very exciting.

- [Rob] Oh, wow!

Okay.

- Yeah, so, not all of our riders at Eyes Up are competitive, right?

And some are, and that's been a fun part of the business, to see that sort of grow on, you know, my passion for the sport kind of be passed down to other kids in the area.

- So, your business, right?

Is that for you to make a living, or is that for you to continue your pursuit of being an an eventer?

- Yeah, it's all about that.

Like, my life is completely wrapped up in my sport, you know?

Like, I eat and breathe that love of the sport and love of learning how to do it better.

I'm really lucky.

I know some people who are very competitive, and who doesn't like to win?

You know, that feels really good.

But I'm more motivated by being excellent at my level and really understanding what we're doing and why.

So, yeah.

No, I eat, sleep, and breathe it.

- Sounds pretty competitive to me.

- Yeah?

- Even if you're competing against yourself, right?

- Mmhm.

Yeah.

- Okay.

- I mean, when you go to these events, are you guys going as you and all your students, or is it kind of separate?

- We usually travel as a team.

So, when we go, the closest one is actually in Barrington.

It's just three hours away, but normally, it's across the country.

We've been to Indiana, we've been to Wisconsin.

When I travel, I go to Atlanta and Florida, so we go all over the place.

And so, that's a fun bonding experience.

You know, the girls all kind of, you know, get to swim in the hotel.

It's kinda like a travel softball, baseball, cheerleading team, something like that.

- Well, honestly, you know, my wife grew up with a horse.

I mean, we've had a horse, and it just, I don't know, whatever it is.

I never got upset about it because I'm like, "Well, my kids could be into a lot worse stuff than doing horse."

It does take some discipline for these kids to learn what you're teaching them.

- Oh, yeah, definitely.

I think, every year, there's this Facebook post that kind of gets circulated, like everybody shares it and stuff, and it's like, "I don't pay for my daughter to ride a horse, I'm paying for my daughter to learn blah, blah, blah, blah, blah," you know?

And the lessons that kids learn.

Grit and stewardship, and, you know, perseverance, and empathy, like it's just responsibility, leadership, emotional control, physical control.

Like, it's incredible what the sport has to offer the kids as they grow up.

- There are some people that believe that, honestly, you don't need to be that big of an athlete or that good of an athlete to ride a horse at your level of competition.

I would suggest those people have never ridden a horse before.

- Yes.

Probably not.

Probably not.

Well, maybe once on a trail ride in Mexico or something.

- It looks easy on TV, right?

You just ride it.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

You just sit there.

- Yeah.

- You have to be in incredible shape.

I mean, you're a high performance athlete.

I mean, this is what you have to do.

Is it more than just riding?

Do you have to like, work?

I don't know what workouts you would do.

- Yeah.

I personally lift weights.

I think that's so fun.

- [Rob] How much you bench, huh?

(chuckles) - Oh, I don't know.

Gosh, I bench whatever my trainer puts on the bar.

Like, I don't know.

I don't carry my own weight.

Sorry, that's below my pay grade.

No, I'm kidding.

(laughs) - [Rob] But you would have to build up your entire body, wouldn't you?

- Yeah, no, it is a full body thing.

Yeah.

And it's real dynamic.

It's about agility, you know?

Especially at my level.

You're traveling at so many meters per minute, you know?

You're galloping.

(mimics horse galloping sound) You know, so it's very quick pace and you gotta be, you know, real on your feet and agile, mentally and physically.

- [Rob] Are you givin' lessons every day?

- 365, yeah.

- Really?

On Christmas?

- Well, not really, but I'm mucking manure, right?

On Christmas every year.

It's part of the tradition.

- You did say at the beginning of the interview that you were full, and I guarantee there is someone that's going, "Damn it."

They're like, "There's not one spot?"

- Yes.

No, well, of course there's one more spot.

There's always one more.

So no, we're always adding to our program and it's really neat.

We offer semi-private and group lessons for people too, so we have like, places in our groups and semi-privates to welcome people and to meet other people who like horses or other kids, you know, to meet other kids who love.

- What do you see 10 years down the road?

Do you wanna just keep growing with this?

- Oh, thanks for asking.

- [Rob] You're welcome.

- I don't know.

You know?

I was just thinking about that.

My most recent business venture.

This is a bit ridiculous.

I'm a little embarrassed, but I'm gonna tell you what it is.

I came to the realization, I don't know, like, six months ago in September, I was like, "You know what makes me no money?

Actually $0 is all of the hard work I'm doing to develop myself as an athlete and my own competition."

Like, believe it or not, we go across the country, we stay in hotels, we horse show, we do all this, and you win, and you make nothing.

There's no prize money.

I mean, seriously, the ribbons aren't even that nice.

Like, it's wild!

It makes no sense.

I walked my CPA through the barn and she was like, "Wait a minute.

So all this equipment, and all these horses for you, like, they don't generate anything?"

And I was like, (whispering) "No."

They don't.

- [Rob] (laughs) Sounds like farming.

- Yes.

Yeah.

Shoot, right?

Like, where did I come up with that?

So I decided I wanted to find a way to monetize my own personal journey, right?

My own story.

Like, how do we do that?

- [Rob] We have to, yeah.

- Yeah.

And so, anyway, I've started this whole Instagram thing, trying to put my story out, my horses' development, my own development online and sort of share that story.

So I dunno in 10 years.

That's starting to get a lot of traction, and so, in 10 years, I hope that I have something that allows me to, you know, travel and be mobile with my competitive team, and yeah.

Make a larger impact, maybe nationally or internationally.

Who knows?

- There's people that will tell you it's foolish to think that you can make money or any significant, you know, leeway with social media and that, but I've honestly probably interviewed over a thousand people that are making significant money with it.

So, yeah.

You have to work at it, but it's definitely attainable in that.

- It's interesting.

It's a whole market in and of itself.

- As a former English teacher, I think it's really interesting from like, a tech study perspective, and, you know, a rhetorical analysis.

What's your audience, what's your genre, like, what's your message?

What are you doing?

You know, how are you engaging?

And yeah, it's fun.

It's an interesting project to work on.

- I will say everybody has worked very hard, and it has to be positive.

Don't go just jump off a horse on your head and say, "Oh, that's how funny this is."

Okay.

If people wanna find you on social media, if people wanna find you, internet, where do they go?

- Yeah, so you should follow my journey and my story at my Instagram.

It's @Kristina, my name, K-R-I-S-T-I-N-A, underscore Koehler, K-O-E-H-L-E-R, underscore eventing, E-V-E-N-T-I-N-G. That's my Instagram.

That's the best way to follow me.

I have a TikTok.

I just started it though, so you can probably be my hundredth follower if you hurry up, but.

- [Rob] Well, I noticed you weren't following me yet.

- Oh, shoot.

Sorry.

I'll remedy that right away.

(laughs) - It's okay.

I mean, we all have feelings, and sometimes, they get hurt.

- Yes.

Well, you can work through that.

We can work on that together.

It'll be all right.

- We didn't even get to this thing, but it's probably for the best.

- Yeah, probably.

I mean, honestly.

- Probably a lot of bad jokes there.

(both chuckle) I think what you're doing is amazing because passion.

If you have passion for something and you can make a career out of that, you are not going to be unhappy.

You're gonna be a success, and I can already tell, I mean, you've got the passion, you've got the drive.

When you put those two together, the world is your oyster.

And my gosh, you know, I asked that about 10 years.

I'm gonna be watching because I don't know what you're gonna be doing in 10 years, but it's gonna be amazing.

So Kristina Koehler, thank you very much for being here.

Everybody else, we'll catch you next time.

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