As a little girl, Katie asked her parents for horseback riding lessons. Being good parents and wishing to make their child happy, the girl was enrolled in a horseback riding camp in Tiverton, Rhode Island. Her parents never thought for a moment back then that this love of horses was anything more than a passing fancy. That was 21 years ago. That little girl is now a woman, a professional trainer and coach who made a career out of her passion for horses.
Katherine Bobola is a 2005 ORRHS graduate and Mattapoisett resident who, by the age of 18, had become a professional equestrian and coach with a client base of her own.
“I fell in love with riding at that summer camp … I begged my mother to drop me off at the barn!” The excitement she feels about the profession that she has chosen, or seemingly the fates chose for her, electrifies her speech.
Katie knew at an early age that all she wanted in life was to be around horses and to help others. Between the ages of 10 and 13, she honed her training skills as a junior counselor helping new riders at the summer camp program.
Roseland Acres in Tiverton was her first home away from home where riding coach Debbie Hoyt Banfield conducted those camps. That experience so galvanized Katie’s love for riding and all aspects of equine sciences that when Banfield moved to another stable, Katie followed.
“She was my mentor,” Katie recalled.
When she was 13, Katie had been working for Banfield getting horses ready for competitions and making sure that their clients, the humans, had everything they needed for the shows.
After graduating from high school, Katie enrolled in Johnson & Wales University and selected a very specific course of study – equestrian business management and equine studies – her passions in academic form.
“I thought it was important to learn the technical science aspects and the business end as well,” she said, adding, “It’s a high stakes, high rewards business. You can go broke quickly.”
“As the years went by, I became more affirmed that this was what I wanted to do as a career,” Katie shared. She said she enjoyed coaching others, helping them achieve their personal best in the saddle. It all came very naturally to her, but it was also hard work.
Throughout her young riding career, Katie said that she did not own her own horse; instead, she rode just about any horse that was available regardless of the horse’s temperament or capabilities. She credits those horses with helping her grow in her understanding and ability to handle any horse, while growing in her wisdom of horses and how to develop the animals’ skills.
“You are dealing with a living, thinking, breathing being with individual talents and needs,” she said of the horses.
Several years ago, Katie met another coach, Dani White of Holliston, who invited Katie to join her in partnership at her stables and riding school. This was the pivotal opportunity that has allowed Katie to become an independent businesswoman in the equestrian world.
Often times getting up as early as 3:00 am to drive to Holliston and prepare for a day of competition, Katie thinks nothing of that, and even on days when everything might go wrong she believes, “I am so blessed to wake up and do what I love everyday and be able to make a living!”
Katie’s clients, again, the human ones, range in age from 8 to 60 and are primarily female.
“In the U.S., the majority of people involved in riding are women. It is completely the other way round internationally.” Although she has seen an increase in the number of males joining the ranks, it is still predominately girls and women.
And the work isn’t easy and isn’t for the faint of heart. It requires a full commitment, said Katie, of body and soul. For Katie, her hard work has earned her the esteemed position of being the coach for the Brandeis Equestrian Team. The team consists of 15 to 20 students in any given year. Into that mix, add her private clients and you have what, for Katie, is the culmination of all her efforts.
“My focus is ensuring that the horses and my clients are successful in the ring,” she said, adding, “It can be emotional when a client wins.”
Yet, for Katie, she knows it’s the small victories that also matter.
“Whether my clients show or not, helping them achieve their best with their horse is what’s important.” Katie knows she is in the right place doing the work she was meant to do.
“I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
By Marilou Newell
