Gringotts and Kelly Campbell after winning a blue ribbon for first place at the Tryon International Equestrian Center.

Gringotts and Kelly Campbell winning Champion at the Tryon International Equestrian Center.

Kelly Campbell and Gringotts warm up prior to a competition.

Four-year-old Kelly Campbell tagged along when her older sister went to a summer riding camp in Voorheesville at Two Bits Farm in 1994.

The now 35-year-old horse lover took to the reins and has never looked back, crafting an education and career training horses, coaching riders and collecting ribbons.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Prosoccer wire: USWNT announces three matches, including one in nearby Hartford.

This column is sponsored by Times Union Women@Work, the Capital Region’s network of business and professional women. Join today at: https://womenatworkny.com

She’s competing in North Carolina with her horse Oso, who shows as Gringotts, the name withdrawn from the pages of a Harry Potter novel, a bank founded by wizards. She works at two barns in the Winston Salem area, Cloud's Harbor Farm, in Clemmons, and the nearby Dream Haven Farm, in Mooresville.

Her time competing and working summers at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs in the Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association prepared her well for her career. Skidmore has won nine IHSA National Championships, most recently in 2023. She was part of the Skidmore team that won the IHSA National Championship title in 2010 and was the Reserve National Champion in the Cacchione Cup herself in 2012. She competed in nationals in each of her four years at Skidmore, from 2008-2012.

“In the summers at Skidmore, I used to help them to work off my show bills. They let me show a horse of theirs, and they........

© Times Union