Kate Vane was like many ambitious young riders during high school—intense in the pursuit of her dream to get to a CCI* and the North American Junior and Young Riders Championships. But when it didn’t work out and she headed off to college, she put a pause on her competitive endeavors.

Now 30, married and with a job she loves teaching middle school, Vane finally has the funds and the time to try again and she’s enjoying every minute of it with her horse Louie—without the stress.

“I have a new perspective on how I ride and competitions and what I can take away from my lessons,” she said. “I think just having Louie and working with him from when he was young and couldn’t do anything and us growing together has really made me see that oh, maybe I can take him to a one-star. But with this new perspective, if we don’t make it this year, there’s always next year. If we mess up at a show, it’s OK. He’s a baby. We’re learning. Now if I have a mess up, I take it in stride and see it as a ‘teaching moment’ and go from there. It’s not like you’re a failure if you had a bad show.”

Vane grew up eventing in Ann Arbor, Mich., and attended the University of Michigan where she earned her undergraduate degree in German and Art History. She rode a bit on the University’s equestrian team, but decided to stop riding when she got burned out.

“I needed some time to reflect on why I do horses and what I love about it,” she said. “When I got back into it after college, it felt good, like, ‘OK, I can enjoy the sport of riding, competing is fun too, but I can have a good time doing it.’”

After graduating, Vane realized she didn’t know what she was going to do with her degree, so she got her Masters and certification to teach.

After getting a job with a steady income, Vane was lured back to horses when the owner of a farm where she’d worked in high school offered her the ride on a then 4-year-old Louie, who had been sitting in a field.

The gelding, who’s a half Thoroughbred/quarter Percheron/quarter Quarter Horse, was meant to be a fun project, but he showed he had the talent for eventing early on.

“When I started with him, he couldn’t trot a straight line and all four feet were detached from themselves!” she said. “I often said he was a yard sale—everything was spread out all over the place. He’s got a really good mind and he learns things really quick. I’ve never had a horse that picked up on things so quickly. It’s been fun. There are definitely a lot of new things I’ve learned training him up. One of the big things I’ve learned this year is that I’m too nice to him. I need to push him a little to make him better.”

The pair moved up the levels steadily and have a solid record at training level. Vane received the 2015 U.S. Eventing Association Worth The Trust Adult Amateur Scholarship that gives her $2,000 to put towards her education.

She’s been taking lessons from several instructors, including Phillip Dutton and Susan Harris, as she works on moving up to preliminary this season.

The 17-hand blue roan gelding is bold and brave on cross-country according to Vane, but show jumping is their weak point, so the lessons have been invaluable this year.

“He wants to make sure he’s the center of attention. This has been a good thing and a bad thing on cross-country because he likes to look around like, ‘Are people watching me? OK, so long as they’re watching me I can do this.’ And that’s been an issue at the water complexes where people will gather and watch. He’ll look around and at times, he’s been surprised by the jump. He’ll do it though because he’s super bold and brave and doesn’t care about anything,” she said. “He [show] jumps using Braille. We’ve been doing stadium boot camp for the last couple of months.”

Vane enjoys her job and sees several parallels between her 7th and 8th grade students and eventing.

“I think [my passion for teaching] stemmed from being around horses because I would teach little kids lessons when I was in middle school and high school,” she said. “I liked helping others. I love at the barn I’m at now there are a lot of young kids in Pony Club and I love helping out with that and showing them the ropes. I kind of feel that I’m a teacher in every aspect of my life.”

Vane finds that balance, perseverance and resourcefulness are great skills that every student and rider should have.

“They’re still kids, so I want to ensure they find a balance—academics and being curious about school, but also being curious about life and involving themselves in things like sports and finding commitments in both so they can be well-rounded individuals,” she said. “With horses I need to make sure I have a balance as well so I’m not hyperfocused on one thing. I think I’ve been able to find that, being involved in different organizations and volunteering and having my horse and figuring out times to ride my horse and doing everything else!

“With perseverance, with my kids, when they hit a bump in the road and find that something’s difficult, I try and encourage them to work to get over the bump and figure out how to make things work and push through and to embrace the challenge. I think a lot of that goes with horses as well,” she continued. “A couple of weeks ago, we had an issue in stadium. Had I been in high school, I probably would have freaked out and started crying that it happened, now I’m just like, ‘OK, we know what we need to work on. That’s a challenge area. How are we going to overcome this?’ Resourcefulness is a great life skill and I try and teach my kids, ‘Well, the answer is not right in front of your face. How are you going to find it?’ And that’s the same thing with horses—how to make things work. If you get into trouble on cross-country, what are you going to do?”

A typical day for Vane starts with work from 7 until about 4:30. She makes a quick stop at home to pick up the dog, then heads to the barn for a couple of hours and then back home to spend time with her husband, Andrew.

“Basically I don’t see my husband during the week!” she joked. “I figured out a pretty good system. I have to be hyper-organized. I go to work, I go to school, I make sure I handle all my school stuff while I’m at school and I allow myself a couple hours after school to go to the barn and play with Louie. Finding time for my husband and our new puppy at home, I just have a really rigid schedule. I plan out my show season based off of when we have long weekends from school and try and put things in during summer break. Lots of planning!”

Vane also finds time to volunteer with the Cedar Ridge Pony Club and a local equestrian team and serve on the Eventing Association of Michigan board.

“It’s allowed me to kind of see the other side of eventing,” she said. “I never really had much experience with the people who organize everything and make sure everything runs. It’s made me realize that volunteers are important, so I’ve been volunteering a lot more at horse shows I’m not riding in to give back in that way.”