Krystal Kelly trains horses internationally. And when your favorite place is the middle east that means you're dodging bullets, entering car rallies across the Mongolian tundra, and just basically living life to the fullest. Krystal Kelly has done more by the time she’s 31 than your whole family has done in a lifetime. And the most beautiful thing… It’s all done with love. You will learn something of humanity. (Let me just say that the stories get wilder and wilder and more and more poignant throughout the whole conversation…)
Krystal Kelly trains horses internationally. And when your favorite place is the middle east that means you're dodging bullets, entering car rallies across the Mongolian tundra, and just basically living life to the fullest. Krystal Kelly has done more by the time she’s 31 than your whole family has done in a lifetime. And the most beautiful thing… It’s all done with love. You will learn something of humanity. (Let me just say that the stories get wilder and wilder and more and more poignant throughout the whole conversation.)
You can catch all of Krystals adventures here:
Episode notes:
I catch her in Germany, during the Covid, where there is a lockdown, and where she is trapped with her horses. And what do you do with your horses when you're trapped in a foreign country? You knock on doors till you find someone who will let you use their yard!
And that’s how they got across Ireland. Riding everyday and knocking on people’s doors, those with a field that is, and see if you can spend the night!
From her current window she can see “The Wall”… The Berlin wall. Where she is trapped during the covid. She is isolated in isolation in an old communist village, with her two horses.
Questions:
How do you eat when you’re trekking across Ireland on a horses?
Where do you stay?
How does it work? When you’re carrying everything you have in saddle bags?
You’ve got to hear how this works!
…She left America about 10 years ago.
They finish their trek across Ireland in November 2020. Park their horses in stables with an ocean view. Then in feb pandemic hits… as the horses are in transport, they make it to Germany and the boarders closed! The horses (and her) are trapped in Germany.
How does she pay for this? She is a professional horse trainer and coach and she travels the world developing riding clubs, giving lessons, clinics, and things like that.
In Ireland as she was riding around she would give lessons along the way.
And she has https://equestrianadventuresses.com/ which is for women love horses, travel and adventure. They filmed their Ireland adventure and it is now on Amazon Prime.
Her and I meet in the 2CCX and she is a key cog to the naming of “Bitch Slap …the accelerated path to peace” podcast…
It turns out she’s traveled all over the world… Her personal goal is to visit every country in the world. So far it’s “only “60” out of 193. She lived in Egypt for 2 years, India for 2 years. Living there starting from 22yrs old.
Iraq for a week. Yemen for a week. Yemen when the boarders weren’t open for tourists. She loves the Arabic countries. There are questions that she has that she wants answers to.
She’s seen the things that you haven’t seen on the news… She’s lived in, been locked down in, and trapped in middle eastern countries where it is not a good place to be a white women.
in 2011… In Egypt, they are protesting and rioting, and the police are on stand down. Looting. Kids with guns directing traffic. At this point she’s been to so many countries as a solo blond girl… But the local’s will protect you. There are kind people everywhere.
The first thing she does is asks the taxi driver “what are the local scams that I need to know about?” And they like to tell her and befriend her.
What’s the heaviest situation where the auntie comes to your rescue? Yemen definitely was one of those intense places because it was at war… quite a few scary things happened there. In India every single day was a battle for me in India.
Things that I tried that kept me safe in the Middle East did not work in India. …Men tried to attack me. I’m not in a touristy place in India, working on a big project. The word spread like wild fire that there was a white women there… 50 Indian men were searching for me and they were intent on finding me. I could see it in there eyes and I knew exactly what they were there for. All the local men who were working with her gathered arms and protected her.
Those aunties serving you tea in the cafes… She will chase the men away for you. She had to learn to allow her self to be helped by others. Set my ego aside “they know better than me”.
How about a scary safety wise issue? …so in Cambodia… There’s the skooty bike scam.
And then the real danger is Yemen. I speak Egyptian Arabic… and when I decide to go to Yemen mom comes along. I needed a “fixer” to get across the boarder… You cannot be found out that you are American. There is 50 - 60 military checkpoints as we drive across 400 miles. “You cannot be found out.” “I am trusting my life with this man that I have just known for like 12 seconds.” LIke the Indiana Jones Fixer.
In Yemen we couldn’t really leave the vehicle… and the one of the men they are interacting with knows where the “terrorists are”. Al Qaeda and Isis. It was definitely very scary. We had gone through a checkpoint… the fixer had arranged that we should change vehicles every couple of hours so the terrorists wouldn’t find us. Trucks and guns, and AK 47’s and the big guns. “…all of the sudden we hear machine gun fire”. And we are in this “bowl” this canyon. And it is loud. “Just act normal, we are a family having lunch.” She tells the fixer “I want the truth, what happened at that checkpoint…” “It was attached by terrorists, and several people were killed…” His family is there every single day. They live there. “This is their normal”.
Why were you there? “I wanted to have questions answered…” because I do live the middle east. When 9/11 happened my dad was deployed, and my brother was deployed, and my whole family has been deployed… “Unfortunately, we have this negative view of Muslims and Islam and all this stuff…” For my self I wanted to know about the religion and about the culture. “Why are Americans there dropping bombs? I need to know.” I don’t know why I’m so fascinated by the Arabic culture. Every time I’m there I find the answers I’m looking for…
I as able to send the fixers daughter to college. If I hadn’t gone she wouldn’t have been able to go to college. “I can’t help everyone but maybe I helped her, I helped this family… at least”. Sometimes you can’t really help. “…But sometimes just listening.” I feel like somehow “It was healing for them to share.”
My questions and level of understanding has evolved. Example she fasted for Ramadan. I want to know about the people who are living there.
I went to Vietnam and the museum is called the “American War Museum”. It’s so crazy… I’m 20 some years old (when I was there) and Never did it occur to me there side of the story… “Why did I not learn this when I was growing up”. I want to hear the peoples life story, “What was it life for you… while I was at WallMart… bitching about a FaceBook post”. It’s a very humbling experience.
It’s bringing you this connectedness yes? “Yes”. She’s got no agenda to promote, it is just providing her peace for herself. There are members of my own family I won’t share this too. The would judge. “It’s a heavy burden to carry, to see some of the things and to not be able to help.” I cannot help everyone I mean I’ve been homeless for the last two years.
So it shifted to I’ve got to start helping myself.
Do you consider yourself a spiritual person? Yes. I like to learn about all the religions in an intelligent way. She wants to learn these things real time.
How do you meet the husband… Is he along for the ride or? I met him in Azerbaijan… There was this car rally I had to do. I did it solo, which has not been done before. In a hot pink car… Driving through all the “stans” Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan. The more east I go the more game face I become. I’m going through police crossings, boarder checks, in a hot pink car…
I’m sleeping in my car at the port for cargo ships for 5 days… no place to go to the bathroom lol. My husband pulls up and beelines for me all smily faces and sunshine, “Hey is there a ferryboat?”. “He was chasing me for like 20 countries”. But he didn’t give up… (Mischa is thinking here. OMG the story just gets better!!! It dosen’t stop.) “He had done something sweet for me while I was in Mongolia.”
Good news “You’ve got to be in Greece for two weeks”. Then to Belgium… where it’s a 6 hour drive for Christian (her husband) who surprises her… It’s a very sweet story :).
Born and Bread California? Yes, I left (California) when I was 16 to go to Horsey school in Oklahoma. My first international job in Belgium when I was 21.
I wanted to be a top rider in the Olympics… I picked stalls to help pay for lessons. I knew since I was very little that I would work with horses. I’ve worked with horses since I was 15 yrs old.
Family, cousins, uncles, everyone was military… She was the loan wolf. She may have had a broader richer experience then she would have if she had joined the military? Yes.
You can not know me and not Egyptian food and see Egypt.
Clearly your families military experience groomed you for your travels. Yes, I grew up in that environment and learn these things. I’m very observant and aware. It’s defiantly helped me stay out of danger a few times. Because I was aware and mindful I got out of there. I got of there safe.
“My Halloweens were probably a bit more careful.” As a kid you don’t really know but you pick up on some things. As I kid I was learning how to get out of a choke hold. ‘Daaad, when is this gonna happen?”
You’d be surprised what people tell you if they’re asked.
My brother and I are a little different. “Perhaps he’s been brainwashed by the military.”
“You don’t have to do what I do, but there’s so many people in America that you could connect with and meet just because you’ve heard of their country or you know how to say hello in their language”.
(Mischa’s thought) …the awareness of how diverse America is and the illusion that it’s not.
Now you’re trapped in Germany in the eastern wall… She’s only 31 and just getting started.
They can find me on youtube. and books ect. She taps into the humanity. Every time I watch one of her videos I cry.
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