Kate Hart
Hometown: Englewood, Colorado

Biography
By Christine DeHerrera

Kate Hart has had quite a year. She won the $25,000 Hunter Classic at High Prairie Farms this summer, beating professional trainers, serious amateurs and other junior riders. She is nationally ranked in the top five in the large junior hunters. And she qualified for the AHSA Medal, Maclay, Washington International Equitation, and USET finals. What makes this amazing is that she did it all on one horse. Piper.

Piper is a nine-year-old Dutch gelding who was purchased to be an equitation mount for the 16-year-old Englewood, Colorado resident. But Piper has taken up double duty in the equitation and the hunter classes. Piper and Hart have been a team for almost two years, but 2001 has been their breakthrough year at the national level.

Stepping up to the big shows makes Hart ride better. "The more nervous I get, the more I focus," she says. She probably learned this strategy from her dad, a golf pro.

Randy Henry, Hart's trainer, keeps her prepared for the big classes by devising various drills that keep Hart sharp and increase Piper's rideability. One of Hart's least favorite exercises develops the rider's eye and the horse's adjustability. Poles on the ground are set five strides apart, but the rider can vary the number of strides ridden between the poles from four strides up to seven or eight strides. "I ride ten times better after this exercise, but I hate it," Hart jokes.

Hart works hard at her passion, although she is the only one in her family that rides horses. "My mom took me to a barn when I was little to see some horses and I never left. It was probably her worst mistake ever," Hart says.

Although she still has two additional years of juniors, Hart is already planning her future. She might like to be a professional instructor and trainer, but not until she has a lot more experience. "It's so hard to go from being a junior to the professional ranks," she says.

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