Our Stable Manager – Kate Lane
Kate and her husband Kyle live at Hop Hill with their two small children. Kate knew from a young age that horses were going to always be a part of her life. It started as a 2 year old when her aunt took her in her first lead line class. From there Kate started her lessons at a family friends farm and spent her summers on her aunt’s farm doing pony club events with her cousin. Kate eventually found a barn that she could take lessons at all year round. This is where Kate met “Smithers”. Smithers was an OTTB (off the track Thoroughbred) who raced a few races but retired do to an injury. After many struggles Kate finally convinced her mom that Smithers needed to be part of the family. After more then a year of rehabilitation and more struggles, Kate and Smithers where finally on the right path.
Kate and Smithers started showing on the A circuit competing in the hunter and equitation rings. She then found a trainer that helped improve Kate and Smithers as a team and helped as they qualified for the Royal Winter Fair in the Amateur owner division. After that, Kate decided she needed to have the “college experience” but she only wanted to work with horses. So she decided to attend University of Guelph /Kemptville College and graduated with an Equine Science diploma. During her time there she met many influential people including Kyle who was there doing a welding program.
She also met Barb Mitchell who recruited Kate to go to Wellington, Florida with her to groom and ride. During her time with Barb, Kate was still able to continue with her studies and earned a credit for her experience. Barb must have seen something in Kate because half way through her time in Florida Barb offered Kate a coaching job at Cornerstone Farms, one of Ontario’s biggest riding schools at the time. About a year later the farm was sold to John and Mary Skey of York Equestrian Riding School where Kate took a lead role in the daily operations.
Kate started training with John and soon became his coaching assistant for the horse show clients. During this time Kate and Kyle got their first dog Duke, got married and were given the opportunity to move into the apartment at Hop Hill. After 8 years at York they decided to start a family. Aurora came in the late summer of 2011. After a year of maternity leave Kate had gotten to know the “Hop Hill Family” and decided that taking on the role as manager would be a great change.