Who am I?

I'm one of those little girls that borders on horse crazy. I don't know when or how it started, because I was never around horses as a kid. But there was something about them that I was drawn to. Since my folks didn't indulge me in my obsession, I started drawing them. THAT they encouraged, although I would hear a lot of "Draw something else besides horses!"

But it was no good. I couldn't stop drawing horses. Teachers and family told me what a great artist I was, so they nurtured that part of me. My friends told me that if I didn't do something with my great talent, they'd kill me. Fortunately, they didn't.

I rode my first horse when I was 13 (not counting some vauge memory of getting on one or two of those pony-go-rounds). By the time I was 20, I'd done a bit more riding, always at rental stables. I never had any friends that had horses, except one winter a girl who had a friend with a horse and we rode around the pasture one afternoon. In my 20's, I did some more riding, mostly at the rental stables, a few times with aquaintenances. I took riding lessons for about 2 months.

I kept drawing. Somewhere around 13 I discovered boys and I drew less and less often.

After high school, I followed the advice (or threat?) of my friends and went to a vocational school for commercial art. After all, everyone told me, you can't make a living as a fine artist. If you want to make a living drawing, you have to be a commercial graphic artist. Only THEN maybe I could afford to draw for my own pleasure on the side. I had no idea what I was doing. Mind you, this was many years before computer graphics came on the scene. I graduated and never went anywhere with it. After a couple of odd jobs here and there I found myself in common, unskilled jobs going nowhere fast. After a few years, I fell into a job with my other passion - genealogy. I got to work for The Clayton Library - Center for Genealogical Research in Houston, Texas. I totally loved that job, but horses were never far from my mind. They just didn't fit into my city life, and no one I knew - friends or family - had any horses.

Eventually, I left The Clayton Library to persue a more 'artistic' journey - working as a leather artist at renaissance festivals. I hooked up with Bald Mountain Moccasins and learned to make artistic leather footwear. Finally! I was surrounded by people who wallow in art!

That has been a long road, one that is too long to expound on here and one that I am still traveling. I ended up making jewelry and incense and good smelly things, and I met my soulmate. Turns out that he, too, loves horses. But Larry hasn't been on a horse since 1978. His life also took him away from horses. Somewhere, several years ago, we both realized that we needed horses back in our lives again.

That realization came to me one afternoon sitting in our Sky Chairs on the side of a mountain in Colorado. I had just be diognosed with breast cancer and we were pondering the roads that life's journey take you. I told Larry that if our traveling and lifestyle wasn't conductive to owning (pardon the term) horses, then I was going to spend the rest of my life drawing horses again so as to be able to hang out with people who do have horses. I wasn't going to quit our buisness, I was just going to indulge in my old passion of drawing horses.

And so horses entered my life. I came out of the closet. My sister had had a couple of horses for several years, having indulged herself in her love of horses because she could simply afford to do so. After I finished my chemo treatments, Larry decided that the best healing power in the world is in being around horses (it's true! they are so theraputic!). So that December Larry decided we would buy a pony.

A PONY?

What am I suppose to do with a pony? Never mind. It was a member of the Equus callabus species so I'll figure out how it works later. "It" was a beautiful little black bay Shetland mare named Two Step Harmony.

Mares are so cool.

A year later, Tobi entered our lives. What a dude, he is such a characture! And Larry and I have realized that there will be more horses joining our family in the years to come. Now adays I get to spend my time drawing, painting, sculpting horses in all sorts of media. Pencil is my original and favorite medium, and someday I'll get some more oil pastels like I had as a kid. I try my hand at acrylics from time to time, and from my jewelry making background I enjoy creating unquily horsey necklaces. Sculpting, woodworking, textiles, oh my gosh! There are so many different materials to use!

And best of all, I get to sit out in the pasture and watch the ponies.


That's me. Kerry Kelly.

Contact me at
sabinomesteno@nickersandsnorts.com or find me on FaceBook at There's Harmony in Hoofbeats


Kerry and Harmony
Kerry and Harmony