Education

Kristi Wysocki’s deepest passion is horses. She loves sharing her knowledge with others, no matter their experience. Her understanding of and dedication to dressage are unparalleled. Kristi left her engineering career in the oil industry over 25 years ago to pursue her passion as a dressage rider. She is an international FEI 4* dressage judge and FEI 5* para dressage judge. She is also a USEF licensed Dressage Sport Horse Breed Judge.  She has a reputation as being both empathetic and fair when judging at any level. She has been appointed to the 2024 Paris Para Olympic Dressage Judge’s Panel. She has judged CDIs and CPEDs in the U.S., Europe, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, India, Mexico, Canada, and Central/South America. This includes two World Championships for para dressage. She has judged the U.S. Dressage Festival, Young Horse Championships and USDF National Championships on numerous occasions along with many USDF Regional Championships over the years. She has officiated at many of the USDF Breeder Series Finals including Devon since 2002.

She has trained and taught dressage since 1989. For several years she also ran an equine rehabilitation center for horses recovering from injuries. Kristi teaches clinics, symposiums, and seminars both in the U.S. and internationally. She also teaches both lessons and seminars via virtual options. She has a passion for education for herself, her students, and horses.

Kristi has ridden since she was 5. She evented as a teenager and then shifted focus to Dressage after graduating from engineering school. As a rider, Kristi has been very successful through the Grand Prix Level. She has vast experience training young horses, “reject” horses and FEI horses. She has won many championships at all levels. Her successes also include competing in CDI competitions. She has her bronze, silver medals and gold medal of distinction.

Her engineering background, sport horse breeding and equine rehabilitation experience make her uniquely qualified to analyze training, soundness and developmental issues related to the horse’s individual conformation and movement. She can help riders work through otherwise limiting factors to excel in the sport.

She also specializes in helping riders work through fear, self-confidence and self-doubt issues that often arise in riding. Through her extensive training in this area, she is better able to help her students in the “heat of the moment”. One of her students recently stated “She doesn’t just teach me how, she also teaches me Why!”

Over the past few years, Kristi has expanded her local training program, by developing routine day clinics where she works with riders and trainers as a team. Through this ongoing training program, Kristi works in partnership with these teams so they can reinforce the lessons between training sessions. The program has been extremely well received by both riders and trainers in her area.

Recently, Kristi has developed a comprehensive online education platform that is geared to provide dressage and equine enthusiasts with greater access to education from their own homes at their own convenience. With her wealth of expertise and experience, she enhances her students’ abilities to give them greater insights with their equine partners. Her first online course “Why Conformation and Movement Matter when Buying, Breeding and Training Dressage Horses” has been a huge success. This on-line course will be available again for new students in June 2024. She has also presented a Master Class on the Training Scale, and interviews with Stephen Clarke, Sabine Schut-Kery and Hilda Gurney.  Her fun, short training videos on Facebook have been a big hit for entertainment, but more importantly – education.

Kristi is also very involved as a volunteer with the USEF/USDF organizations. She has served as the Chair of the USDF Sport Horse Committee for several years. She has worked on the New Test Committee for over 10 years, helping to update and revise the official USEF/USDF tests each cycle.  She serves on the USDF Proposed Rules Working Group, USDF Judge’s Committee and USDF Licensed Officials Task Force. She has taught many judge’s programs for both dressage and dressage sport horse judges. She is currently working as a member of the USDF Para Affiliate Assimilation Task Force to integrate para dressage into the USDF system.

Kristi’s biggest focus is to help the horse and rider become dance partners, having fun along the way.