Kayla Stra, is one of those extremely remarkable and inspirational women who really can do it all: she’s a successful jockey, yoga instructor and mom.
Kayla Stra was born in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, where she launched her career in horseracing prior to moving to California in Late 2007. From a very young age, Kayla has been interested in horses, having talked her parents into buying her a pony when she was eight years old. When she was young, Kayla worked at racing stables and eventually bought her first horse—a Thoroughbred named Gurtie, which she trained on her own for picnic races (unregistered race horses) before getting her certificate in racing.
Kayla racked up approximately 500 victories in her native country and became the “poster girl” for Australian horseracing. Now, she continues that success in the much larger US market (only taking a little break to have her son and returning to the US racing circuit in 2013). Racing in California, Kayla had won many prominent races like the notable victory at Santa Anita on 49–1 longshot Paddin’ Mud. In addition, Kayla scored an opening day victory at Del Mar with King Ledley, and then scored another victory with the same horse within three weeks.
During 2009-2010 Kayla was featured on Animal planets’ reality TV show Jockeys .
In 2010 she found Hot Yoga while racing in San Francisco, which was a life changing experience: she was able to give up medication and found pain relief through yoga for a sciatic nerve coming from her L5 disc from years of riding. She felt the needed for more knowledge of the practice and wanted to share it with others, that’s why she completed a certification to teach yoga in 2014.
The Stylish Equestrian 