About Us

Jess grew up in Perth, Western Australia, finding a passion for horses almost at birth when inheriting her Mothers God-daughters pony and moving next door to a riding school. It all began with ‘Blaze’, a 34 year old welsh cob that had two riding options, he bolts and you stay on, or he bolts and you fall off. Jess learnt pretty quickly to hold on. Then spending most days at the riding school, learning all about riding and schooling the naughty ponies in exchange for lessons. It was pretty safe to say, she was hooked.

Her Mum, Neene opened up an agistment center, where Jess rode more types of different horses for clients before joining ponyclub at the age of 9 in Orange Grove. Through Ponyclub, Jess competed in eventing, showjumping, dressage and mounted games - going to state levels at 11, and thanks to the support of her family & coaches, was competing at National level in 2007, and on the BEATS squad at 12 years old, and continued upto old 1* level (new 2*) at the age of 15.

Jess’s family moved to QLD in 2009, where her riding journey continued, and she began to take an interest in coaching & training horses, and through year 11 & 12, coached most days after school, and had a few horses to train in the backyard. Although Jess had actually always dreamed of riding at the top level, her intention was to have a full time job outside of horses - and was offered a scholarship of Engineering at Sydney University, but realising this wasnt her passion; began a Business/Law degree. During her first year, she was swamped with lessons, training and took her first OTT Thoroughbred ‘Wildfires revenge’ to 3* level (now 4*) competing at Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Jess decided to defer university to enjoy the riding, and promises to ‘come back to her studies’ when she can no longer ride, or when no-one wants her lessons 10 years later, she’s not sure she will ever finish that degree.

Upon meeting her partner, Lachlan Kelso, Jess pursued the riding further, taking the ride on head stallions for two studs, Ottaba Warmbloods & Sharellen Warmbloods; stepping up her riding to the next level and beginning to move from completing events, to winning them.

Upon winning her first old 2* (3*) event in QLD, Lachlan & Jess travelled to NSW to compete, and realised how incredible the standard and competitions were -and began to travel interstate most months to better their experience. In 2015, the opportunity came up to move to NSW, to be able to access these competitions and amazing riders further, and after 18 months in Mudgee NSW, Lachlan & Jess Purchased their very own farm in 2017, 110acres in Denman NSW, to build and develop into an equestrian facility (and room for a motorcross track for Lachlan)

Since then, Wildfire has grown into a full time larger scale business, slowly adding more facilities each year, into a paradise training & coaching center. Jess has continued to grow her team, producing many young horses through to FEI level, including multiple 2/3* 3 day event winners