Kaitie Patty

“From the time I could walk, I had an innate drawing to horses. Throughout my life with horses, I have loved, cared for, owned and ridden, trained and competed and ultimately was guided to pursue a career in equine veterinary medicine. With horses, I have always had that “feel”. The best way I can describe what I mean by “feel” is being next to a 1000lb animal and knowing that they are about to move before they even do so, even if it’s just to lift a foot. It’s the energy that’s there and it’s a feeling that surrounds it.

Growing up riding and competing, I never wanted to know the rules, I just wanted to do it. I was more interested in learning from the horse than what my instructor was telling me to do. I just wanted to be around horses and feel that feeling. The energy, the connection. That’s what kept me coming back, that’s where my love grew.

Horses are keenly aware of emotional energies and they sense what we’re feeling, sometimes better than we do. With a few well-chosen words and a forced smile, we may be able to hide our real feelings from another person. We may even hide our own deeper feelings from ourselves, but we cannot fool a horse. Horses can sense emotions that lurk beneath the surface of our awareness and mirror them back to us, showing us what we have been avoiding. Horses are honest and present, responding openly without pretense. You know where you stand with a horse. Building trust with such a sensitive animal takes time, time that can become a healing and empowering process.

Over the past year, I have had the absolute pleasure of training under Robbie Potter. Everything I have ever learned about riding was thrown out the window. It’s like I was 5 years old again riding in my first lesson. Now, instead of the rules that I never wanted to follow anyway and how I just wanted to be with the horse, he has taught me to ride from that feeling. From that, I have become a better, more confident horsewoman and rider, and for that, I will ever be grateful and thankful for him.”