14 SIDELINES DECEMBER 2012
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
By Dani Moritz
From polo to miniature horses, homes to ranches, East coast
to West coast, Kathy Courtney’s life has been full of changes.
But she has ridden through each change happily because, to her,
that’s what life’s about.
Kathy’s equestrian career began in second grade. She wanted
a new Barbie for her birthday; but her parents purchased her riding
lessons instead. “I thought it was the stupidest birthday present
ever,” she said, “but I rode and I loved it.”
From there on, Kathy was hooked. “Once I started, I would do
anything to ride,” she said. “I mowed lawns and worked at the
local stable so I could get extra lessons.”
In high school, she was introduced to Wellington, Florida -
following her high school boyfriend whose father was Bill Ylvisaker,
the founder of Palm Beach Polo and Country Club. She moved
there full time in 1989. In Wellington, she was heavily involved
with polo and owned horses through college.
Her equestrian career came to a temporary halt, however,
when she found her calling as a realtor. Kathy’s success quickly
escalated and before she knew it she was a top realtor in
Wellington. Today, she has more than 1,000 closed real estate
transactions and is a national speaker and trainer on real estate
sales and marketing.
But about fves years ago, life presented Kathy with an
opportunity she couldn’t resist and Kathy braced for change once
again. She was headed to Reno, Nevada. Before heading west,
she was reunited with horses thanks to pushy girlfriends and
an Off-The-Track Thoroughbred she couldn’t resist. So, Kathy
eagerly traded in her English tack for Western and took up a new
kind of life entirely.
She bought a ranch and teamed up with her current business
partner, Pete Nevin. Together, they operate FarWest Real Estate
– where Kathy combines her passion for real estate with her love
of beautiful land. Kathy jokes that “nobody needs a ranch like we
sell, but everybody wants one.”
“What I enjoy most about it [FarWest Real Estate] is the people
you get to meet,” she said. “The sellers are generally people who
have owned ranches for generations and tend to be characters
and the buyers are people who really enjoy properties of that
Driving
type.” Recently, Kathy and Pete
sold a 21,000 acre property to a
client that was completely off the
grid. According to Kathy, the owner
was quite the character, very rarely
having been off the property for over
40 years.
And as if moving across the country
wasn’t enough, Kathy found herself
doing more than changing tack
with the horses. She found herself
involved with a strange creature
she was quite unfamiliar with – The
American Miniature Horse.
“We had a pony [named Martini]
that my daughter, Anna, had outgrown, but she didn’t want to sell
the pony so we decided to drive it,” she said. “We asked around
town to fnd someone to teach us how to drive.” The woman they
found to teach them had one condition. They would have to learn
with minis. “I didn’t even know what a mini horse was,” Kathy
laughed.
But she learned quickly and, just a few years later, Kathy and
Anna now have 17 miniature horses. They even have two separate
barns - one for the “big horses” and another for the miniatures.
Despite two separate barns, however, Kathy says miniature
horses aren’t too different from other horses. “Imagine riding a
horse but not being able to use your legs” is how she explains
working with them. “Even though they’re small, you get the same
mojo from the large horses; but it doesn’t hurt as much when they
step on your toes,” she said.
Kathy and her daughter primarily compete the mini horses in
driving. They just recently competed at the Miniature Horse World
Show in Forth Worth, Texas and came back with a much coveted
championship. Needless to say, they love every second of it. But,
they never would have known about it had they avoided change.
For Kathy, change has been an instrumental part of her life. It
has provided her opportunities like showing beautiful real estate
properties on horseback and working with animals she now loves
but once didn’t know much about.
Sometimes, change isn’t so bad after all.
Kathy driving Quiz
this year at the 2012
Western Championship
Show in Eugene,
Oregon.
Photo by Gold Horse
Productions
Anna holding Noodles,
who was only a few hours
old when this picture was
taken.
Photo by Kathy Courtney
Miss
Kathy