KYMBERLY PULLEN: A Rising Star in Dressage Wins with Integrity
In the competitive world of equestrian sports it can be challenging for professional riders and trainers to maintain their integrity. There is pressure from many angles — the pressure to win, financial pressure, peer pressure — and a striving young pro can find themselves justifying an action they know isn’t right, like deceiving a client for personal profit, pushing a young horse too fast, or turning to drugs to enhance a horse’s performance in the show ring.
We’re shining a spotlight on professionals who stay true to themselves and the horses and people they work with, achieving success through hard work and ethical treatment of horses and people. Kymberly Pullen is a perfect example.
Her Success
Kymberly is an international competitor in dressage with a knack for training young horses up the levels. She owns and operates Kymberly Rhea Dressage based out of Pottstown, PA, outside of Philadelphia, and travels to local barns as well. She has built her business from the ground up, acquiring 35+ clients in just two years. Her proudest achievement is developing Hot Date, a 2008 Hanoverian gelding, from a green broke youngster to the international level. Kymberly has partnered with Hermès and recently became an Equine Exchange Ambassador. Olympic rider and coach Michael Barisone describes her as “an excellent rider and trainer… fair, patient and compassionate in her training while improving each and every horse she rides.”
Kymberly chronicles her journey on Facebook where followers can see that her success in the show ring is a result of hard work, determination and grit — she’s up before dawn and working with the horses nearly every day, even in weather well below freezing. On tough days, she reminds herself that “What comes too easy doesn’t usually last, and what lasts doesn’t usually come easy.” In addition to her clients and working students, she credits the support of her parents, Scott and Carroll Ann Pullen, and mentors Boyd and Silva Martin, Michael Barisone, Vera Kessels, and Elly Schobel with helping her get where she is today. “It takes a village,” she says.
Sticking to her Principles
While Kymberly pursues her goals with fierce determination (she’s aiming for the Olympics after all), she vows she will never do so at the expense of the horses or people she works with. One example is her decision to hold off on introducing Hot Date to Grand Prix competition until he is 10 in order to be certain he has had sufficient time to develop and mature as a young horse. Another example was when she was offered a secret “finder’s fee” when a client was shopping for a horse. Kymberly declined it, of course. Top international dressage rider Silva Martin has described her as “one of the most honest people I know.” Kymberly says, “I’m completely transparent with my clients… I’m a big believer in being open and honest with the world.”
On Becoming an Equine Exchange Ambassador
Kymberly tells us, “I’m tired of horses being misrepresented in the sales process and I hate to hear stories of people unknowingly paying thousands of dollars in secret commissions or horses being sold into bad situations. There are also lots of misunderstandings that can happen. Without a standard process and documentation, information tends to fall through the cracks, even with experienced horse people. I want people to know that now there’s an easy way to ensure everyone is well-informed and protected in the horse buying and selling process: Equine Exchange.”
Get Your Free Copy of The Equine Exchange Guide to Buying a Horse
