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March 2026 | SIDELINESMAGAZINE
TERRY KONKLE
& JIM WELSH
A TALE OF TWO SHIPPERS
By Diana Bezdedeanu
Portraits by Kacy Brown
n paper, Terry Konkle of Light Star Horse
Transportation and Jim Welsh of Elite
Horse Transport are a stark contrast: two
men living on opposite coasts of the United States,
separated by age and vastly different origins. Terry
is a seasoned professional with five decades of
equestrian experience who co-manages a sprawling
60-acre ranch in Gilroy, California, with his wife,
Tina. Jim utilizes his four decades of equestrian
experience to manage a 30-acre equine retirement
and breeding farm in Lexington, Kentucky.
Yet for nearly two decades, Terry and
Jim have formed a reliable alliance in the
horse shipping industry. In a business where
‘competitor’ is often the default label, these
two have chosen to use the word ‘collaborator’
instead. Their partnership is built on a
foundation of shared values: uncompromising
horse sense, constant communication and the
notion that you can’t transport a horse unless
you know how to properly handle one and care
deeply for their safety.
“I believe that if you’re truly secure in what
you do, you can easily work alongside other
professionals,” Terry said. “In my experience,
it’s usually the up-and-comers who feel like they
need to knock someone else down to climb the
next rung.”
California Innovation
For Terry, horses are a multi-generational
legacy. His lineage traces back to a great-
grandfather who raised Arabians in Finland—
once famously photographed with the Czar of
Russia—before the family fled communism. “My
grandfather was whisked out of the country at
midnight with just the shirt on his back,” Terry
recalled. “He wound up a carpenter here in the
U.S. and my mom grew up hearing his horse
stories. She had ‘horse fever,’ and the only way
for her to be around them was to take me to
riding lessons when I was 4 years old.”
Terry’s equestrian career skyrocketed early;
he tried everything from eventing to show
jumping and had more than a dozen national
champions before he was 18 years old. In his
20s, he earned four ‘R’ judging cards for the
American Horse Shows Association (now US
Equestrian). Additionally, he was elected to
be the Chapter One (California, Arizona and
Nevada) chairman of the United Professional
Horseman’s Association (UPHA) and wound
up being elected the second vice president on
the UPHA national board. His expertise led
him to Woodside, California, where he became
the assistant trainer for Robert Lewis and later
the last colt trainer for Mrs. William P. Roth.
SIDELINES SUCCESS
Jim Welsh of Elite Horse Transport, left,
and Terry Konkle of Light Star Horse
Transportation with Levante, owned by
Courtney Crane and Sue Flockhart.