Home on the Florida Range
- Details
-
Published on Saturday, 29 November 2008 15:08
Having grown up on a beef ranch in Ignacio, Colorado, Katie O'Hare found her adjustment to life on the Vineyards campus a hard one. She was homesick - and without a horse. But all that has changed for her now that she's running a stable located between Middlebrooke Townhomes and Camp Keais Road. There she rides her horses - Rascal, Tari, Diamond and Hunter - gives lessons and boards Khalif, who belongs to her friend Claire Guerrero. (Above, Katie pauses during a lesson with Jailynn Howard, 6, of Immokalee. Jailynn, who attends the Grammar and Prep school, is aboard Hunter.)
Katie, who first got on a horse's back when she was nine months old, says life without her horses around was difficult. "So I started a horse club on the old campus," she says, and according to Katie, it was very popular. But not having a place to board horses was a big problem.
Once on the new campus, Katie says she was approached by University Chancellor Tom Monaghan with the good news that Ave Maria Development Company had found the spot for a stable, in structures once used to house farming equipment. The stable will hold up to twenty-two horses, and fencing has been provided to enclose seven-and-a-half acres. "Eventually I want to have other trail rides," Katie explains. "I've been looking into ways to have rides on the beaches too," adding that she hopes to work out an arrangement where that will be permitted.
Now, on average, Katie gives about 30 lessons a week, many of them in exchange for the work students give at the stable. "I often ride Western, and my emphasis is on rodeo, says Katie, who plans to graduate this December. "I want to start a rodeo equestrian club, but that's two to three years away."
In the summer, Katie brings her horses home to Colorado to escape the heat, but they will all be back on the palm-fringed ranges of Ave Maria next fall. "This is going to be my work," says Katie, "It's how I'm going to pay my bills."
Stable Life at Ave Maria provides lessons, trail rides and other horse outings. Click here for contact information.
