SPOTLIGHT Katie Preston and Templar Justice competing at Burghley 2018
Katie Preston
Katie Preston lives every day to the full, riding and competing three horses whilst working as a Veterinary Surgeon at Milbourn Equine Vets. This year has seen her complete both Luhmuhlen and Burghley four-star events with results that even professional riders would be proud of. Katie likes to produce her horses herself, buying them from the field when they are young, or as in the case of Dreams Come True aka Tia, breeding them herself. Fiona Rafferty spent a wonderful evening in the late summer sun meeting Katie and her horses to find out more about this inspirational rider and her home produced horses. espite having non-horsey parents, Katie developed a passion Right: Katie and Dreams Come True competing in the CIC* at Firle International Horse Trials Below: Katie and her promising fouryear-old Templar Juno won an Arena Eventing competition at Petley Wood
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for riding from a young age, when she discovered a Shetland living in the field next to her parents’ house. Rides around the paddock led to her parents enrolling Katie at the local riding school and lessons continued when her family moved to Holland with her father’s work, before eventually returning to live in Cranbrook, Kent. When Katie was 10 she had her first pony on loan, before her family later bought one of Debbie Strang’s homebreds. Despite being only four-years-old, Debbie reassured Katie it was quiet and would be perfect for her. Debbie’s words proved true and Katie had great fun attending the Romney Marsh Pony Club rallies and camp.
Having discovered her love of eventing a schoolmistress called Balaness arrived, who Katie competed up to Novice level and also in Pony Club competitions, qualifying for the Pony Club Championships. Katie said: “We had a really good group who qualified for the Champs including Georgie Strang.” During her A’ level years Katie competed a horse called Playboy Prince, taking him from Novice to two-star level. He also joined her on her gap year at Lucinda and Clayton Fredericks’ yard in Wiltshire. A year during which Clayton won a silver medal at the World Equestrian Games with Ben Along Time and Lucinda won Burghley with Headley Britannia. Katie admits to learning a lot during this time, adding: “It made me realise what to look for in a young horse and the quality of horses that are out there. Lucinda recommended selling Playboy Prince and using the money to buy a nice young horse.” Whilst Katie didn’t act directly on Lucinda’s words she did discover that the first year of vet school and keeping an event horse fit weren’t entirely compatible and she sold Playboy Prince the following year.
Qualifying as a vet Katie graduated from the University of Liverpool School of Veterinary Science seven years ago, following five years of studies,
Pics by Nigel Goddard and Spidge Photography
Love of eventing
10 Localrider NOVEMBER 2018
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23/10/18 15:05:07