2025 OFFICERS
All positions terminate in January of assigned year.
President
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Current Kentucky Hunter Jumper Association board president Ashley Watts is a native of Seattle, WA. She attended Cazenovia College in upstate New York, where she rode on the Varsity Huntseat Team and received a degree in Business Management with a specialization in Equine Studies. She later earned her Masters in Business and Marketing from the University of Phoenix. Soon after moving to Kentucky in 2006, Ashley officially launched Liftoff Equestrian, LLC, a boarding and lesson facility in Versailles. Under the banner of Liftoff Equestrian, Ashley and her students are active on both the local and A-rated show circuit shows throughout the region.
Ashley has been involved with KHJA for years, first as a member, then as a board member; she was named KHJA president in 2021. Ashley founded the KHJA newsletter to help communicate current happenings within the equine community. As President, she hopes to continue encouraging KHJA members to actively participate in the association and help the junior membership grow. Ashley and her assistant Kalena Richards are the trainers for CANTER KY, a nonprofit organization that rehabilitates and retrains off-track Thoroughbreds to be adopted into second careers. Ashley is married to Justin Watts, a Major in the Army National Guard. They have a son named Hunter. |
Vice President
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Liz Barcomb grew up in Upstate New York, where her family had a successful horse boarding and training facility called Holladay Hills Stable. Liz comes from a family of horse enthusiasts with experience in hunter/jumpers, eventing, fox hunting, racing and even polo. In 2006, Liz and her husband relocated the farm to Lexington, Kentucky, where she now teaches, trains and boards horses. Liz has a bachelor’s in business administration and is a veterinary technician who has work experience in animal shelters.
Liz enjoys teaching students and helping them achieve their goals, whether they are competition-driven or simply enjoy their equine partners. Liz believes it’s important to grow the sport locally, nationally and globally despite people’s financial status, age or abilities; she believes KHJA is a great platform and organization to help achieve that goal. |
Secretary
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Sarah Coleman moved to the Bluegrass in 2004 to write and edit for multiple equine and agricultural magazines based in Lexington; she has also spent time as the Executive Director for the Equine Scholars Program and Georgetown College and Director of the Equine Academy at Lexington Catholic High School. She then spent six years as the Director of Education and Development for New Vocations Racehorse Adoption Program, where she built the New Vocations at Mereworth Farm facility and ran the New Vocations All-Thoroughbred Charity Horse Show.
Sarah is now the Executive Director of the Kentucky Horse Council; she also co-owns Topline Communications and continues to freelance for multiple regional and national equine and farming publications and websites. Sarah is deeply passionate about off-track Thoroughbreds, and sits on multiple boards and committees in Lexington, including the Blue Grass Community College Equine Advisory Board and the Kentucky Horse Breeders' Incentive Fund Advisory Committee, among others. |
Point Secretary
MARK LLEWELLYN
[email protected] |
Mark Llewellyn has been a resident of Kentucky for more than 25 years, first arriving in 1990 to attend the University of Kentucky. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural communications. After graduation, Mark accepted a position at Kentucky Equine Research, an international equine nutrition and exercise physiology company with headquarters in Versailles. He serves as the technical writer and editor for the company. Since childhood, Mark has maintained an unwavering enthusiasm for show-ring hunters and hunter seat equitation. Though he has shown sporadically through the years, Mark has recently focused on breeding show hunters. Aside from horses, he enjoys mock trials, livestock evaluation, state fairs, needlepoint, and books from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.
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President
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Joyce currently owns and trains from her Ballyhigh Show Stable, Ltd. located on her family’s Brinsfield Farm, LLC, in Versailles, KY. She has coached numerous winners in the KHJA Medal as well as to year-end awards in the Association. She has had riders compete and place at the Pennsylvania National, the Washington International and USEF Pony Finals, as well as qualify for Maclay regionals. She has won the KHJA Medal Leading Trainer award. She currently coaches an IEA team and the University of Kentucky IHSA team. Additionally, she frequently judges local KHJA shows. She is originally from Cumberland, MD. She graduated from the University of Kentucky with a B.S. in agriculture, with a major in agricultural communications and a minor in agricultural economics. She was a member of the University of Kentucky Equestrian Team, UK Horse Judging Team and the UK Agribusiness Club. Her son, Travis Rogers, is currently serving in the U.S. Navy.
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