Member Feature: Kelly Thoits

27-year-old Kelly Thoits is a Santa Barbara native. She's been riding for  20+ years and 15 of those with trainer Kate Sulzbach and In The Iron Farms. Kelly grew up being a part of Tecolote Pony Club. Now, she loves teaching beginner kids and lower level adult amateurs . under the banner KTS Dressage and is the Developing Rider Coordinator at In the Iron Farms.  She always loved Dressage and decided to stick to it professionally partially because she likes that Dressage is very detail oriented and requires goal setting to move on and improve the skills. In Dressage, you never stop learning which keeps her motivated for herself and her students.

While she gets to ride many horses, Kelly has been working with Sawyer, Redowa Star, owned by In the Irons Farm and Terri Rocovich, for more than five years. They've earned High Point at the SBC-CDS Summer show in August 2023. In 2025, Kelly competed with "the Wonder Pony" Princess Isabella, also owned by In the Irons Farms. With Princess Isabella, she accomplished to earn High Point Pony in both the SBC-CDS May and August show! Between Princess Isabella and Sawyer, Kelly was able to achieve her goal of getting the CDS Ruby Gem, a CDS Rider Award and recognition for earning 2 scores of 60% or better on each level Training, First and Second. Learn more about the CDS GEM Rider Award HERE.

Kelly enjoys being part of SBC-CDS mostly because the chapter is so active. She's a member-at-large and meets with the board every month. One of her many contributions to the chapter was pulling off the "Inaugural Equestrian Trivia Night" at Creekside Restaurant, which you can read about in our latest newsletter HERE and inspired other chapters to hold their own version of it!

When asked what she's looking forward in 2026 she says that the two SBC-CDS shows in 2025 "were an absolute blast and I can't wait to see what's in store this coming year. My goal is to achieve the USDF bronze medal," which will have her enter the arenas at First, Second and Third level in 2026.

Kelly enjoys being part of the SBC-CDS community and she loves giving back to the equestrian community that has given her so much. She wants to thank Kate and Christi Sulzbach for being not only her mentors, but her heroes in life.