Hi! I’m Katie and am super excited that my horse River and I have been chosen to be Amateur Rider ambassadors for Balanced Horse Feeds.
Riding has been a long time passion of mine, my mum plonked me on a pony before I could walk and the rest, as they say, is history!
I got my first horse Oskar when I was 13, he was a just backed, very scrawny 4 year old whom I had intended on competing in riding horse classes with. It was one lesson with a dressage judge that had me hooked and from then on my focus turned as I loved the feeling of learning something new every time I rode.
I produced Oskar up to Advanced level, he was my best friend throughout school, university and into my first job. Sadly he sustained a major injury in 2013 which was a turning point for me. I had gained my dream job working in motorsport and loved engineering the cars trackside, but the role had me travelling a lot and left me with very little time to ride. I realised that I had spent too much time trying to afford having my horse but hadn’t left the time to enjoy him!
With a slight change in direction with my career, I looked to find my new dancing partner. In the most unconventional manner, I purchased River, over the phone, from a video, on my credit card, whoops! I still vow to this day, if I had seen her in the flesh, I don’t think I would have said yes – when she arrived she looked like two different horses put together. However, I could not have found a more perfect friend.
This was almost 3 years ago, she was a just backed 4 year old and I have really enjoyed producing her under the watchful eye of my trainer. We are qualified for the elementary regionals this year, hoping to qualify for medium and we might dabble with and Advanced Medium area festival classes too.
Alongside this, I recently relocated to Northampton to start a new job as a Programme Manger on Project One, Mercedes’ Hyper Car which will be the first ever road car to run a Formula 1 power unit. It’s pretty manic, I am in for a 0730 meeting every day and don’t leave before 6pm. River has got quite used to being ridden at all sorts of times, I am lucky she is so chilled out!
I am really looking forward to working with Balanced this year, River absolutely loves their feed and thrives on it. It will make such a difference to our journey together, which is logged on our page Deciphering Dressage, where I will be keeping a diary of our progress and how Balanced is helping us.
Thank you for your support,
Katie & River x