View from The Farm at Tralee

Your Future Awaits

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Equestrian Center Staff at The Farm at Tralee

Trainer/Manager: Katie Settlage

[katie@thefarmattralee.com]

Katie SettlageKatie Settlage was born and raised outside San Francisco where she began her life-long passion for horses. As a small child she rode and competed in the pony divisions, but by age 11 she was actively retraining ex-racehorses for the Jumper ring. Her eye for raw talent in green horses was put to further use after her family relocated to a 400-acre farm in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. Here, Katie worked with young horses that were rejected by the Western disciplines, transforming them into capable and competitive Hunter/Jumpers. Her horse Burke was one of these Arkansas "finds", and the pair took home many blue ribbons in the Adult Amateur and Amateur Owner hunter divisions in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri. In Arkansas, Katie also developed her philosophy of horsemanship, and she strives to instill in her students the qualities not just of good riding, but of good horsemanship. A true horseperson is one who is knowledgeable and involved with all aspects of horse ownership, and Katie strives to continually study topics such as shoeing, vet care, lameness, nutrition, equipment, training techniques and more. Her thorough knowledge has served her well as assistant trainer at various barns in the area, most recently as Manager of the Maryville College Equestrian Center. Her personal riding philosophy involves a multi-disciplinary approach to English riding, using a strong background in Dressage to prepare horses and riders for Hunters, Jumpers, Eventing and Foxhunting.

Katie's passion outside of horses has always been for the environment and ecology. She completed her B.S. in Biology at The University of Arkansas in 2001. She chose to pursue her M.S. in Wildlife Biology, was accepted into the prestigious large carnivore research lab at The University of Tennessee and completed her degree in 2005. Her research focused on long-term population monitoring techniques for black bears in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the greater southern Appalachians. She and her husband spend free time exploring country roads and hiking in the mountains.