Katie has a good grounding in the disciplines of dressage, show jumping and eventing, before gaining a passion for racing, In 2003, she went to Aberystwyth University in Wales to study a Higher National Diploma in Equine Studies and followed this up in 2006 with a degree in Equine and Human Sports Science with a dissertation in ‘A comparison of stem cell and firing treatments on the healing rate of the Superficial Digital Flexor Tendon injuries in the thoroughbred racehorse’. 

Having worked under some of the great trainers such as Martin Pipe CBE, Jonjo O’Neill, Chris Down and Robin Dickin, Katie was given the role as Head Girl at Giles Smyly’s yard, Point to Point and National Hunt for 4 years before moving back to Leicestershire. Katie has gained extensive knowledge, working on both small and large National Hunt, Point to Point and Flat Racing yards. Having spent years in the racing industry and a life time around horses, Katie moved back to her home village of Burbage, Leicestershire in 2014 where she set up her own training establishment which focused upon training point to point horses and hunter chasers. In her first season training she achieved an ambition of hers, which was to have a runner at Cheltenham Racecourse before she was 30 years old, unfortunately the horse injured himself during the race.. Katie rehabilitated him back to health after the vets had given the horse a very slim chance of recovery. Tarquinius was the first injured horse to be rehabilitated by Katie in Burbage, which lead to Katie taking in horses for rehabilitation and box rest.  Since then, Starlette, Carumba and Culverwell (Lewis) joined the yard for The Stars and Diamonds Racing club to go point to pointing and then raced under rules. Katie realised from very early in her training years that she was never going to make a good trainer because she cared far too much about the horses that raced for her, she was always going to keep them even after injury or if they lost the drive to race.  “They tried their very best in training and on the track for the racing club, they deserved care and a home for their retirement”

In 2018, While Culverwell (Lewis) was in training, he had a few breathing issues that effected his performance, Katie is very open minded into the holistic approach when no vet could find the answers. Katie heard about Dry Salt Therapy, when enquiring there were 4 machines in the country. Lewis and Carumba had the initial 3 sessions and by day 2, Lewis was a changed horse he could breathe in his work and the oxygen was going in. A few weeks later Katie felt that Lewis could do with a top up salt session but with the nearest therapist and machine 2 hours away, Katie made the decisions to get Lewis his own dry salt machine. To get Lewis to the racecourse his breathing needed regular salt sessions, so it made sense to have our own machine for the horses on the yard. A brilliant asset for Katie’s horses Carumba (Hay fever) Tarquinius (Sinus issues) and now Elara who has Hypersensitive to air quality and breathing allergies. This led Katie to travel the midlands since 2019, treating horses with breathing conditions, skin conditions, sinus infections and many more conditions that dry salt therapy can help with, having gained all the knowledge through her own horses and her degree.

In 2024, the same thing happened with 3 year old, Elara. She was showing a weakness on one side of her body, she had a very strong side and petite side even though she has had regular physio sessions throughout her young life. It was also found that she had hyperflexion of the joints which is linked to her allergies. Her ligaments and tendons in her legs are weak, but due to weakness all the tendons and ligament contract tighter than a normal horse. Katie needed to do something to help her for the future of her racing career. When Elara’s issues were highlighted, Carumba had just started 4 months of box rest due to a hock injury and there was massive concern that if Carumba was going to lose any more muscle mass while on box rest it would be detriment to him.  Katie had heard about Theraplate before but never had any dealings with them and was very sceptical of how they work but it was Carumba’s last chance to be able to improve his hindquarters to help stabilise the hock injury and to help Elara’s legs, with no Theraplate therapist in the area or returning Katie’s messages, she managed to hire one for 4 months from Yorkshire.