REINS Leadership

Founder, Kris Getzie, has had a deep connection with equines since she was young.  During a tough childhood, they gave her a grounded structure, focus, and meaning to life.  

As a teenager, she was involved in the economic side of horses; buying/selling, and working at a high end show barn, as a way to financially provide for herself.  Nowadays, Kris owns and operates 8D Ranch, a Quarter Horse breeding operation.

Aside from horses, Kris had a successful business career (operations & analytics, Fortune 100 corporations) and as an entrepreneur.  She has a BS in Economics and a MA in International Leadership... she's a giant nerd, loves her spreadsheets, and was 1st in her graduate school class.

Both the therapeutic impact she felt with horses growing up, and her working experiences, have inspired her vision of REINS.  Her goal is to expand the equine therapy model, to where Humans & Horses actually help each other... not just one, benefiting from the other, as a "tool".

"The horse is a mirror to your soul.  Sometimes you might not like what you see.  Sometimes you will."  Buck Brannaman

Alejandra Lara- Certified Equine Specialist (ESMHL)- is our Program Director and co-founder of programs.  She a native of the mountains of Chile, where her lifelong partnership with horses began. She brings seventeen years of experience in the equine based learning field in the United States, combining an eclectic bag of tools from different horse inspired modalities.

She is founder and owner of Park City Horse Experience LLC, as well as the founder and Coordinator of the Equine Assisted Learning Program {EAL} with the NAC, in Park City, Utah for the last 13 years. Alejandra trains practitioners internationally and consults with organizations that want to offer Equine Facilitated based programs.

Alejandra is a credentialed Therapeutic Riding Instructor and an Equine Specialist in Mental Health and Learning (ESMHL) from PATH International, an Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association (EAGALA) certified Equine Specialist with a special distinction to work with military populations, certified Equine Facilitated Learning Coach Level One and Two through- the Academy for Coaching with Horses and trained in Natural Lifemanship a Trauma Informed Equine Assisted Learning approach.

She was the Award Winner of the 2018 Credentialed Practitioner of the Year through the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International (PATH Intl.). She has presented in conferences and symposiums, been featured on the news, podcasts and radio shows.

Rob Lynch is a seasoned omni-channel retail/consumer products executive with over 25 years of best-in-class industry experience as a senior executive, CEO and Board member of both public and private (Private Equity) backed companies.  

He brings to REINS excellent strategy, business development and structured problem-solving skills coupled with a proven urgency to deliver results beyond expectations as a successful turnaround CEO.  Rob is a true change agent with a high capacity for generating new value from ambiguity and managing multiple, complex functions and initiatives.  

Rob is 1 of 3 boys, raised by a single mom in the Bronx, NY.  He inherited his mother's work ethic watching her work 3 jobs his entire childhood, to make ends meet.  He is self made.  His childhood dream was to one day own a ranch, where he could help rescue at risk animals and give back to the community, through volunteerism and a charity he helped develop.    

He has been a genuine animal lover his entire life and enjoys working with, and caring for, our growing brood of critters! 

Ali Widdison is a Utah native raised in Draper, Utah she now lives in Park City, Utah with her Husband Nick, daughter Sage & two french bulldogs Maple & Frank.  Ali is new to the equine world and has been attending horsemanship lessons with her daughter for the past 2 years.  

She is a philanthropist and volunteer within her community. Most recently working with The Peace House, a local Domestic Violence Shelter. Ali joined REINS to learn more about the relationship between Horses & Humans and the impact it has in our current Mental Health crisis. Ali is creative, hard working and not afraid to get dirty. 

Kristin moved to Utah in 2018 and has been close friends with Kris for almost 30 years!  Kristin is a trained and certified Trauma Informed Breathwork Facilitator, which is an incredible tool that will be woven into the programming at Reins.  In addition to breathwork, Kristin is also a certified coach, specializing in self love, emotional healing, food and body issues, and upleveling to the highest version of yourself.  

Outside of breathwork and coaching Kristin loves to ski in the winter and golf in the summer and is a total foodie.  Kristin currently lives in Salt Lake with her dog Izzy who loves the mountains and being out at the ranch. 

Danielle Kuykendall is a psychiatric nurse and graduate student in the Psych/Mental Health Nurse Practitioner program at the University of Utah. Her career interests lie in rural, mental health and geriatric mental health. 

Danielle became involved in Reins when doing research for a school project on equine therapy. She is excited to volunteer with Reins while also becoming a part of the community’s mental health programs. 

Outside of nursing and mental health, Danielle works as an adaptive ski instructor and owns a small art business. She is originally from Georgia and moved to Utah in 2013.  Danielle currently lives with her significant other and two dogs up Weber Canyon in Oakley, Utah.