at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games
3 x World Cup Champion show jumper
courtesy of Robin Bell
Kate’s lifelong involvement with horses is largely thanks to her late grandparents who lived on a farm. As a child her equestrian education was completely informal, often tearing around ‘the bush’ bareback on naughty ponies with no brakes!
At age 18, with an offer from Murdoch University Veterinary School in one hand and La Trobe University Physiotherapy School in the other, Kate took a gamble and chose to pursue physiotherapy with a view to one day practising on horses.
During her university years she did a stint as a ‘jillaroo’, mustering cattle on horseback in the outback region of the Kimberley on a million-acre station. Regardless of formal riding lessons since, Kate still insists her most valuable horsemanship skills were gleaned from the stockmen of Meda (cattle) Station. (see Media & Published Material)
Nowadays Kate happily splits her time between her racehorse physiotherapy practice, PhysiOptima in Newmarket, and her role as an officer in the Army Reserve.