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Meet Me - Kay

kaynmillie3

Hi everyone, I want my first blog to be about me so readers, clients and people following can get to know who I am, what I do and about my background with horses. I want to pack in as much detail as I can so I apologise if this is a long one. I have been meaning to start my blog on my website for over a year now but have not got into it. If you’d like to read on, I'll get started.




About me


My name is Kay, I run/own KAJ Equine, I’m 25 years old and have been involved with horses pretty much my whole life. I started my business in 2022 when I qualified as an Equine Sport Massage Therapist. I will get more into my experience of working in the equine industry in this blog so keep reading. I own four horses, well three ponies and a horse who I will talk about more in the next few paragraphs. All have or are still competing in a mix of local unaffiliated show jumping, dressage, working hunter, showing and arena eventing. I would say show jumping is my favourite discipline out of them all and want to get back into doing more competitions again but I find it good to mix things up and let them have fun.


I started riding at the age of seven but was obsessed with horses way before this. I was desperate to start riding lessons but couldn't start till I was seven due to the policy at the local riding school. Before this our neighbour that lived across the road had a couple of horses, two were Shetland ponies which I would get to ride around the field.



Once I started I didn’t look back! After a lot of begging I finally got my own pony at the age of ten who I still have now. He is a black Welsh section B called Basil who was only three when I got him. We learnt together and despite his young age he was the perfect first pony for me. His cheeky attitude definitely helped to make me into the rider I am today. He loved show jumping and would be out competing in local equestrian centres every weekend nearly. He could turn his hoof to pretty much anything working hunter and pony club games were something else he enjoyed.


Not long after I got Basil I ended up with another pony on loan (who I now own), called Millie. She is a 13.2hh skewbald mare with trotter x cob breeding. I also still own Millie…can you see a pattern here! She was a tricky mare, she was only four when I got her but had only been backed and by backed I think it meant had had a saddle on and a bridle on so she did not understand simple ques which would become frustrating at times. She was happy to follow or be led by my mum while I was riding her so we slowly worked on this and she got better and better. It wasn’t till years after getting Millie the man who I got her forms partner said you did really well with that pony cause she had literally done nothing. This confirmed what me and my mum had thought and why she had been so difficult to train. I wish someone had told me at the time so I could have started from scratch breaking her in. She was never perfect but she came a long way, her wobbly, scuttle like canter always got a lot of looks and comments when we were out show jumping but she could jump as good as any other pony and was always good against the clock.



A few years later I got Maisie who at the time was three years old and pretty much a blank canvas. She was the first pony I broke in and was self produced from there like Basil and Millie. She is Welsh cob and we have been successful in low level, show jumping, working hunter and British dressage. She hasn’t been an easy ride, in fact for a long time I spent a lot of time getting bucked off until I learnt to sit her bucks. I finally found my stick ability and she got going and learnt a lot from owning her. This tricky little mare is part of the reason I wanted to get into the equine physio type of industry.




As I mentioned before her bucking was always a concern that there was something pain related causing this so she’d have regular visits from different physios but other than the odd tight spot she was fine. We also had everything else checked regularly like saddle and apart from the initial appointment there was really no cause to pin it to. The professionals we have had to her have all said she needs to realise she is no longer in pain and that's the only thing stopping her.


My final horse to meet is Dino. He is around 16.2hh, a thoroughbred who never made it in racing but is a superstar nonetheless. Like the others I bought him at the age of three and have produced him from there. He has been a dream to work with in all ways and loves being made a fuss of. He has managed to successfully turn his hoof to a number of different disciplines including show jumping, arena eventing, showing and working hunter. We did try a walk and trot dressage which turned into a bit of freestyle and spook so we haven't tried that again.

I have really loved retraining him, which like with any horse is a continuous work in progress as there is always something that can be worked on. I’ve learnt a lot from him which has allowed us to both progress well together.





My Experience in the Industry


From a young age I was helping out at the local riding school on weekends and getting experience from other yards I could help out on. I studied a Level 3 Extended Diploma in Equine Studies at Newton Rigg College passing with a distinction and was awarded Equine Student of the Year.


While I was at college I sat my British Horse Society (BHS) Stage One exam which I passed and went on to do my BHS Ride Safe and Stage Two exam a couple of years later. My progression with these exams has come to a halt but I want to continue them so I have my Stage Two coaching and Stage Three.




After graduating college I found my first job in the equine industry a couple of months later. It was nice and local so I didn’t have to leave my horses or move myself and them. I loved this job, getting to be a show groom for event horses was a great learning curve as I hadn’t had much experience in eventing so I got to gain knowledge on the discipline. It really was my dream job. I was the only groom on the yard with around ten to fifteen horses depending on where they were as some would be with other riders at certain times. Most of them lived outside with up to six being in stables at a time. They ranged from the cutest Shetland pony to the event horses to youngsters and broodmares so there was a nice mix of horses to work with of all different stages in life. Being the only groom I did pretty much everything from daily stable duties, exercising and riding, show prep, going to shows, getting the horses ready for hunting, helping the children with their ponies, I even got to make one of the ponies into a unicorn for a birthday party which was different!

Unfortunately due to Covid and being on furlough for a while I was made redundant after working for the family for two years.




I then went on to work on another local family yard with hunt horses on a self employed basis. I worked here for around two years, again I was the only full time groom with another groom who helped a couple of mornings each week. It was a lovely yard again with a mix of horses from foals to ex-showjumpers and race horses who were all good to work with. I did daily yard duties you’d do on any yard, getting the horses ready for hunting, clipping, exercising, riding which included getting to take them to the beach which was a lot of fun, working with the foals, house sitting while the owner were away and anything else that would need done while I was there. As they owned racehorses there were a couple of them which had been retired and retrained who I loved to work with. In general I love working with ex racers, not only because I own one but they are lovely kind horses who want to please.


It was while I was working on this yard I decided to enrol on an intensive equine sport massage course run by The College of Animal Physiotherapy. I had thought about doing it for a couple of years and one day finally decided to go for it as I had the time and money to do so. The course was in the Sheffield area so I stayed the week in a hotel and travelled to the yard that the course was based on from there.


The course was a full seven days of learning with the seventh day being the exam day which included a three hour written exam followed by the practical exam. Each day we would do a bit of theory in the class room then go outside and do some practical on the horses and then break for lunch and then a bit more theory, then practical and then do a recap of the day before finishing for the day. The days followed a similar pattern each day maybe we’d switch around if we’d do massage or theory first depending on what was happening on the yard as it was a busy riding school. The lady who was lecturing us and training us was fantastic and had so much knowledge and experience to pass on to us. She also let us find our own way of massaging, she’d show us massage techniques but not a routine so we had to find our own routine which was a great way to do it as all our ways of massaging were different and not just copied and then slightly modified. It also actually made us have to think about what were those problem areas because we had to find it to be able to do our routine and not just do the routine we had been shown so it looked like we knew what we were doing and actually not being effective.


Most nights I would spend my evenings reviewing theory work and reading books that were recommended while I was sitting in my hotel room with nothing else to do. It was more difficult to practise practical massage skills but I did manage to use my arm, leg or a pillow to get the idea. When it came to exam day the thought of the written exam was a bit daunting but once the paper was open and I got going with it it wasn’t that bad and actually three hours flew by! The practical was pretty easy as it was just a demonstration of what we had been doing all week. Once the exam was done we were free to go home so I made the journey back home that afternoon and by the time I was back I had the results back from the exam. I couldn't believe it when I read the email which said I had passed getting a score of 93%! I wasn't expecting a mark as high as that, so I celebrated with a glass of prosecco. Once my certificates came though I was able to get my insurance to be able to get out and about massaging and building a client base.


I continued to work on the same yard I was previously at while also offering my new service to other clients for a few months. Unfortunately I had to stop my self employed groom job as it was just financially a bit of a struggle and realistically I needed to find a more secure source of income which would still allow me to do my equine sports massage. So I ended up with an office job which I am currently doing and fitting clients in around my day job. I hope to build up a client base that is enough to give up the day job eventually so I can go back to working in the equine industry full time, that's the dream!


With every horse I find I am learning something new while massaging and gaining so much experience, which is what I love about it. Even regular massage clients and my own horses are constantly teaching me something. It's definitely a subject of once you start you are totally hooked in every way. I completely geek out over anatomy now and CPD courses are something I do for fun really!



I hope you have enjoyed reading this and now know a bit more about me and my experience. My next blogs will be all things equine sports massage and cover things like anatomy, exercises, ways to improve your horse, common issues and management type of topics so keep a look out for those.

If you don’t already follow my social media pages they are linked below.

Keep an eye on those as I plan to run some competitions to win some horsey goodies there soon!


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