By Laura Scaletti
Portraits by Kacy Brown
Longevity: That’s the hallmark of husband-and-wife duo Ken and Jen Krome’s K2 Show Stables in Westminster, Maryland. Based out of Ken’s mother, Carolyn Krome’s Persimmon Tree Farm, K2 has become more than just a training facility for their customers—it’s become a second family.
As Ken is following in his mother’s equestrian footsteps, it’s fitting other riders have made K2 Show Stables a family tradition. “Some of our students have been in the barn as long as I can remember. We now have the kids of parents who rode with us themselves riding with us. It’s really neat how throughout all their life changes—going to school, getting married, having kids—they’ve never lost their interest in horses and are still with us,” Ken said. “We’re lucky; Maryland is sort of famous for their hunter-jumper family-run businesses and their longevity.”
A huge part of K2 herself, Jen admits some of the customers predate her arrival to the farm in 2009. Jen was immediately drawn to the farm’s close-knit barn family. “At K2, we are more hands-on than your typical show barn. As a result, the customers not only take care of their own horses, but they jump in to help each other,” Jen said. “I think being at the barn more naturally makes our riders bond and become friends.”
Riding Roots
Growing up on his grandmother’s farm in Owings Mills, Maryland, which she bought during the Great Depression, Ken spent his days riding his ponies through the woods playing “cowboys and Indians.” To add a little more structure to his horsing around, he began doing Pony Club and evented, eventually making his way to horse shows.
“My mom was really good about having me work with some of the best trainers of the day—Joe Fargis, Conrad Homfeld, Patty Heuckeroth and more. I think that really cast the die and influenced me to stay interested in the sport and see where it could take me,” Ken said.
When he could, Ken competed in the hunters, jumpers and equitation throughout his Junior days. “We never had a lot of money to travel to a lot of shows, so to supplement that experience I took good lessons with good trainers. We’d then find whatever horses we could find and try to make them go as well as they could,” he said.
Jen was also lucky enough to have a horse-loving mother. However, her family experience was more casual than at the Kromes’. “Both my parents grew up in New York City. My mom always loved horses and once a week she would rent a horse to ride in Central Park. She wanted to spread her love of horses to me, as her only daughter,” Jen said.
As a young rider, Jen took the requisite lessons and eventually found her way to Pony Club too. “It was never about competitions for us, it was just about riding and developing a relationship with the horse. I never had a competition lifestyle until I graduated from college,” she said.
When Jen went to college, the thought of being a professional horsewoman never crossed her mind. Rather, she went to George Mason University, got a psychology degree and planned on making a career helping others with their mental health. “I did an internship that was quite serious at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in D.C., which provides residential treatment to people with serious mental illnesses. I quickly realized this work wasn’t for me,” Jen said.
Looking for a new path, a friend suggested Jen connect with Virginia trainer Peter Foley. Peter was looking for someone to travel to Ocala to work during the winter circuit. “I thought, This is great, the corporate world isn’t for me, and I get to go down to Florida and work with horses for a few months. I was completely green; I’d only been to one rated show before, so Peter and his business partner, Dale Crittenberger, had to teach me about preparing show horses,” Jen said. “I didn’t know horses wore earplugs or got lunged, but Peter and Dale taught me everything. I loved my time working with horses in Florida and never looked back.”
While Jen didn’t get her first competition exposure to horses until after graduation, Ken couldn’t stop thinking about horses while he was at the University of Wyoming. In fact, he went to school on a rodeo scholarship. On weekends when he wasn’t competing in the hunter and jumper rings, you could find Ken riding saddle broncs and bulls at the rodeo.
“I graduated with a degree in computer science and had no interest in being indoors. So, I decided to return to where I felt most comfortable, which was around horse people. I just melted right into being a professional horseman,” he said.
Professional Paths
As Ken was ready to make his mark as a professional, Carolyn relocated Persimmon Tree Farm to its current location in Westminster, Maryland. “I started by running my own adjunct thing out of my mom’s barn—riding, training, going to shows. Eventually, the more I went to the horse shows, my mom was very content to stay home and teach and train the riders there,” Ken said. “She stepped away from shows, but still maintains a full barn, active with many riders.”
Jen got her first “professional gig” with Georgeann Powers at her Foxwood Farm thanks to an introduction from Jen Miller, who was riding for Woodhall at the time. “Jen rode with Georgeann when she was younger, so she got me hooked up with her. It was through that job and traveling around that I met Scot Hofstetter and began working for him. He was one of the best riders and horsemen we’ll probably ever see, so working alongside him was a huge bump to my horse career,” Jen said. “He was the rider, and I was the ‘everything else’ girl. I learned how to do everything at a top level.”
After being at the top of the hunter-jumper world, Jen went to work for the University of Georgia as an assistant coach for their jumping seat team. In the early 2000s, collegiate riding was starting to move from a club sport to the NCAA level sport it is today. “We literally wrote the rulebook, and the caliber of collegiate riders significantly changed. Through my contacts in the regular horse show world, we were able to recruit some really good riders. It was really fun to experience the sport from that perspective,” she said. “I absolutely loved my time there.”
Jen made her way back to the “regular horse show world” in 2009. Working on a freelance basis in Florida, Jen began working with Ken when he traveled south to show. “There were several shows where I brought my people, and he brought his people and we worked really well together. Once we started dating, I decided to move to Maryland and it was a pretty easy transition because I had met a lot of his clients when they showed in Florida,” she said.
Ken and Jen had actually met the year prior when the two Jens—Newman and Miller—initiated “prank wars” against K2. “We were J2, so we would sneak over to his barn at night and duct tape J2s all over his K2s. One time we even labeled his horse trailer J2,” Jen chuckled. “It was a lot of fun, but today as a person responsible for things like the trailer, I can’t fathom pulling that prank now. What if I peeled paint off the trailer?”
Adding another professional to the mix helped ease the workload at K2. “Jen was looking for something to do and we needed her help. She can step in for me and do everything I do—ride, teach, drive the big truck to shows and all that stuff,” Ken said. “Having Jen as part of the team frees me up a bit to go judge horse shows and course design.”
Working together not only helps distribute the workload at K2, but it also gives customers double the training power. “They get four eyes and two brains looking at each ‘problem’ to come up with solutions. I think you get better results with collaboration. Sometimes I’ll say something one way and the student doesn’t quite get it, but Jen will ask for the same end result in a slightly different way and a lightbulb will go on,” Ken said. “I think that helps us with the longevity of customers, because no one gets tired of working with one of us; they always have the option of working with me, Jen or my mom.”
Ken and Jen excel at working together to bring young horses along for their Junior and Amateur clients. “We buy a lot of younger, less-experienced horses for our clients because that’s a more affordable way to get a quality horse. We try to make them up and turn them into something they can show in the Amateur Owner Hunter or Amateur Jumper rings,” Ken said. “My strong point is competing and developing the horses, so my focus is doing everything I can to be the best rider I can be.”
“In my mind, my job is to make sure the only thing Ken has to worry about is riding. Walking into the ring is the pinnacle of what we do,” Jen said. “If he walks into the ring worried about something else, I haven’t done my job.”
While Ken walks into the ring to give his horses good experiences and tries to produce the best results, the achievement Jen is most proud of is the longevity of the horses at K2. “We have some horses that have been with us since they were 4 or 5 years old and they are still showing at age 19 or 20. I feel like that is such an amazing achievement, to be able to train them to do their job and as the years go by, they are still sound, happy and making our customers happy,” Jen said.
Diversified Horseman
In a typical month, Ken spends two weeks taking K2 clients to shows and the other two weeks either judging or course designing for hunters and jumpers. “The judging just always interested me as a rider. You always wonder how things got pinned and why they got pinned that way. So, even in college, I would judge local shows. As the years went on, I got my USEF judge’s license,” he said. “I think judging really fits in well with riding and training as you can see what others are doing in the ring.”
Ken’s interest in course designing began when he was showing as a teenager. “You could really tell the good courses from the bad courses and there were a lot of bad courses back then, especially in the jumper ring,” he said.
When Ken won his first Grand Prix, he was the only clean round over a Richard Jeffrey-designed course. “That got me thinking, Why are his courses so much better than everyone else’s? A good friend, Scott Evans, introduced me to Richard, and I became his assistant and went through a whole mentorship process with him,” Ken said. “In the horse world, you don’t get anywhere without help from other people. I’ve been really lucky in that regard.”
Ken has had the opportunity to judge and design courses at shows from the local level to the top of the sport. For him, it doesn’t matter if he’s designing a course for riders at the beginning of their equestrian journey or those in the FEI ranks; he just likes giving the riders a course where they can demonstrate their partnership with their horse.
“I honestly like designing for all levels, for both hunters and jumpers. I think designing courses for the jumpers is much more challenging. You never wake up the day you are designing a jumper course and feel like you have everything under control. There is always a feeling that you need to push yourself to be just a little bit better,” Ken said.
Equestrian Lifestyle
When you’re in the horse business, horses aren’t just a day job; they are a way of life. Working in the horse business as a couple means Ken and Jen are both thinking about horses 24/7. “We are constantly bringing our work home with us. I don’t think most couples are talking at dinner about things like, ‘I can’t believe you didn’t scrub that manure stain off that horse,’” Jen laughed. “It’s definitely nice to have a partner who understands your passion, but there’s no break from K2 discussions in our house.”
When it comes to their time away from the barn, Ken and Jen each have their own separate interests. Ken can be found doing practically any outdoor sport. “Right now, I’m doing a lot of cycling and I like to do a bit of rock climbing. Those are the two things I do as my little escape from the horses,” Ken said.
While Ken is hitting the pavement and scaling rocks, Jen can be found in the ocean. “My favorite thing to do is to swim with whales. I will fly halfway around the world to do it. Ken has gone with me, but it’s not really his thing and I respect that because I don’t really want to go rock climbing. After being together 24/7 working on all things K2, I think it’s important we have our own outside activities,” Jen said.
Having that work/life balance is what helps Ken and Jen have a successful partnership in and out of the barn. Together they are hoping to continue to expand the business, while also producing quality horses. “I’d really like to have one more good Grand Prix horse for myself. I’m 63 years old now, so it would be pretty amazing to have another one to campaign. Other than that, I’d love to just keep having nice horses to ride,” Ken said.
It’s developing young horses and being with them throughout their careers that brings Ken and Jen the most joy. “I love seeing horses learn and progress and come into themselves. When you work with them, you’re trying to reveal their strengths. While it can be frustrating and challenging at times, riding young horses around the ring is just so rewarding,” Ken said. “After all my years in the sport, young horses still bring me so much pleasure.”
Follow Ken and Jen on Instagram @K2ShowStables
Photos by Kacy Brown, kacybrownphotography.com
