We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kate Roosa. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kate below.
Kate, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
I think I was drawn to horses for the same reason most kids are: they embody strength, power, speed, freedom, and beauty with so many stories of unlikely heroes being able to connect with and borrow those attributes. I’ve never been a particularly brave person. When I was carseat sized, we would stop on the side of the road to look at Ruby the horse on the way to the transfer station in my little village in Vermont. I would refuse to get anywhere near her. She was an old, slow, somewhat ragged creature if my memory serves me. I was entranced and terrified. Horses were big and loud up close but the idea of horses pulled me in anyways. I had my first lesson when I was 11 and just never stopped.
The barn was a consistent refuge from the fluctuations the pre-teen and teen years. It gave me the space outside of home that every young person needs to build a young adult identity. More than most other things I encountered, it shaped my world view. Horses are authentic by nature and respond honestly to everything you bring into the relationship. They taught me to be aware of the physicality and the energetics of my body and how they influence those around me. It motivated me to learn how to face my fears but also to value my natural tendency towards caution. They have been a vehicle for that deep need for connection: to the horses, to the environment, to my mentors, to my students, to my community at every level. And even now they challenge me every day to grow into a more balanced human being so that I can bring my best self to them and to every other relationship.
This is what I have to bring to humanity. This understanding that those almost magical qualities that we see in horses live in the very concrete day-to-day habits of caring for and connecting with each other and the world around us. That practicing self-care is the first responsibility of selflessness. That clarity is kindness. My purpose is two-fold: to grow my skill as an equestrian myself in order to protect and support the well-being of the horses we take into our lives and to offer others a space with horses to build the skills that allow them to safely explore and develop their own patterns in the web of connection.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I own a 68 acre farm in rural Maine where I care for 30 horses and offer both horse and rider training. My approach is heavily rooted in my academic background in psychology and neuroscience and especially the idea of Flow. Flow is the optimal state of engagement where your skill matches the challenge you are facing. If the challenge is too far beyond your skill level, you experience fear and anxiety. If your skill is too far beyond the challenge, you experience boredom and apathy. In my role as an instructor, coach and trainer is to help identify the exercises and activities that will bring both the horse and rider into a Flow state. I draw from the Harmony Horsemanship understanding of equine psychology and communication, the Ride With Your Method of teaching rider biomechanics and the Classical Dressage philosophy of equine development.
My goal is to not only teach horsemanship and riding skills but to also facilitate the development of each riders framework for understanding themselves, their horse, and their relationship. This focus allows me to support riders at any level and in almost any discipline. I am based out of my regular home training program in Maine, but I am also available to travel throughout the US for clinics.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
No matter how much passion you have and how much you are willing to sacrifice for your mission, the two most important resources you have are yourself and, unfortunately, your finances.
1. Invest from day one on making sure you don’t lose yourself to your mission. Put limits on how much of your own life force you are willing to put into what you are trying to achieve. Self-care is also selfless. You cannot pour from empty cup. Put your own oxygen mask on first. Whatever you are doing is NOT sustainable if it does not sustain YOU: financially and spiritually.
2. Spend money on people who have the skills and knowledge to help manage your money: a bookkeeper, an accountant, a business advisor. Delegate. You CAN do ANYTHING. You CANNOT do EVERYTHING. Just because you CAN doesn’t mean you SHOULD. Set yourself to be able to DIY in pinch, but offload as many tasks as you can to people who are better at them than you are. Focus your time where you are most skilled and most passionate. Set your rates so this is possible.
3. Continue your own education. Invest in yourself and what inspires you.
Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?
I realize now how extremely lucky I am to have been raised in a safe and stable home. While I am by nature a fairly introverted and cautious person, I also grew up with an unquestionable belief that I can do anything and a deep value for personal responsibility. I did not have much TV or media access during my childhood, but instead spent my time consuming novels, building small structures out of scrap wood in the basement, and constructing forts out of stumps in the woods out back. I learned to figure things out for myself, to make the most out of the tools and materials around me, and to love that process.
I was also never allowed to blame anyone else for anything. If I came home complaining about a grade or a teacher or a friend I was asked “what could you have done differently?” I was never permitted to avoid responsibility by casting myself as a victim. Of course your greatest strength is often also your greatest weakness and I have had to fight to know when to delegate and avoid overcommitting myself, but nonetheless these two principles are probably the primary driving force of my success.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.hideawayacres.org
- Instagram: hideawayacreshorsefarm
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hideawayacreshorsefarm/
- Other: kate@hideawayacres.org
Image Credits
Winston Wu Photography
