Twenty-year-old Australian dressage rider Kate Kyros has had a huge year in the saddle, to date competing in seven CDIs across two continents. Based abroad with her two stallions Chemistry and Intro K, it’s been an intensive learning experience that she’s taken in her stride – all while continuing her university education.
Growing up in South Australia, Kate began riding at the age of 10 after attending a pony camp on a family holiday overseas. Hooked from the outset, Kate was desperate for riding lessons on returning home; her parents took some convincing, but eventually, it was off to Megan Jones’ riding school in the Adelaide Hills. While there were no horses in Kate’s life prior to that moment, her mother Heather could be to blame for the “horse gene”, having ridden as a child through to the age of 16.
Kate’s first pony came along in 2014 and was a show hunter named Sienna Journeey, purchased from Future Farms in Victoria, and formerly ridden and shown by Jessica Dertell. Sienna Journeey kicked off Kate’s success by winning her first Open EA National Championship just seven months after beginning to ride.
Training with Chris and Vicky Lawrie early on, Kate enjoyed success in the show horse world and won countless EA National and Grand National titles. In addition to the Lawries, Kate also trained with Adam Oliver in Queensland, often basing horses there over the winter so she could continue showing when competition ceased over the cooler months down south.
It was the warmblood Courtlands Cadman (BJ Kaneto Casanova x Donegal Y2K) who introduced Kate to dressage. Caddie was purchased from Steffi Stevens on the recommendation of Adam Oliver and Rebecca Crane in 2019, and he took Kate to her first FEI level event at the Boneo Summer Championships in 2021 where they successfully contested the CDI-J Junior classes.
From there, Kate really hasn’t looked back. Stallions Chemistry and Intro K joined team Kyros in the last couple of years, and you could say it has escalated from there!
TWO STALLIONS
Chemistry was purchased from John Thompson by the Kyros family in 2021, however John retained the ride to continue his campaign to represent New Zealand on the world stage. Together, John and Chemistry qualified and competed at the 2022 FEI World Championships in Herning, Denmark, after which Kate took over the reins. Chemistry has since been her Grand Prix horse, playing the role of schoolmaster at a young age and allowing her to step up to CDI-U25 Big Tour level. The pair hit the competition arena towards the end of 2023, and Kate is loving the ride with ‘Tommy’.
“He tries so, so hard,” says Kate of the 12-year-old stallion. “We have to set a timer every time we ride him, otherwise you’ll go for far too long as he’ll keep going and going, he won’t say no. He has such an engine; he’s a really powerful horse but has such a kind heart”.
Intro K (Apache x Zastrade) was imported from the Netherlands and arrived in Australia at the end of 2022. Trained to Prix St Georges level by Femke De Laat, he had competed at stallion shows as a licensed KWPN stallion. Kate began competing with Intro in early 2023 and has mostly focused on CDI-Y Young Rider classes.
“After months of searching Europe for the right horse, we spoke to Bennet Conn to help us in the great search. It was Benn who directed us to Femke De Laat. Femke is well known in the Netherlands for the harmony she produces in horses, which was evident in our perfect Intro. I am so grateful to Benn for all his help; the love we have for Intro is endless,” says Kate.
“Every time we get into the ring, it’s amazing, he goes in there and knows his job. It’s such a great feeling of confidence to ride him,” she says of the 11-year-old stallion. “He has such great paces. It has been a learning curve for me to ride a horse with such super talent for the sport.”
At the Australian Dressage Championship at Boneo Park in October 2023, Kate won the CDI-U25 Grand Prix with Chemistry and the CDI-Y Championship with Intro K after placing second in the Team test and winning the Individual and Freestyle tests. Preparations were then made to kick off 2024 in Wellington, Florida.
“The idea of competing in Wellington, Florida was originally planted by Benn. He believed it was a great step towards international competition in a friendly and fun environment before heading to Europe. After a super year of results in 2023, we felt our team was ready to set off on another adventure,” explains Kate.
DISNEYLAND FOR HORSE LOVERS
“We took both horses to the US this year and based in Florida,” explains Kate. “Basing in Florida for four months was the perfect experience for me a as young rider. We were able to compete in a total of six CDIs, competing in 33 tests with 25 wins, five seconds and three thirds. I was able to learn so much in such a short amount of time.
“It was also really easy for us to compete over in Florida, because every CDI was held at the same grounds only a five-minute drive from the barn where we were staying. We were based at Carben Farms with US dressage rider Caroline Roffman and her partner, Australian show jumper Ben Meredith. We were so fortunate to base there with such amazing facilities and a super friendly environment to train in each day.”
Kate says that her time in Florida with the two stallions has seen both partnerships develop. “The trust between myself and my horses has really continued to grow. Competing in larger competitions with more atmosphere and pressure has pushed us out of our comfort zones.
“I’ve learnt so much about my horses and what they individually need to thrive at competitions. For instance, Intro loves new arenas and big atmospheres; I’ve learnt that he doesn’t need a lot of arena familiarisation. But on the other hand, Chemistry really gains confidence each time he enters an arena, so for him we try and get in as much practice as possible. Both horses, they are quite opposite, what works for one might not work for the other.
“I think knowing all the little things is so important for competing and it takes at least 12 months to truly get to know a horse before you can begin to form a confident partnership.”
Kate learnt a lot during her time in Florida, in particular the finer details of competing due to the fact she attended more CDIs in Florida in three months than she would have in Australia over two years. “There are so many little things that you learn from competition experience. Even things such as the warm-up before a test; it’s so specific to each horse and every minute counts, so timing is really important. You can be one minute too long, or one minute too short. Once you’ve entered the warm-up arena, it’s too late to train; you need to focus on making the most of the skills you have at that moment and ensuring your horse is fit to compete to the best of their ability.”
She says taking part in mounted presentations has also been a learning experience. “After every class, there was a mounted presentation as well, which was a very new experience for me and my horses, as we don’t often do that in Australia. This can be daunting and scary, but by making sure each presentation was a safe and happy experience for the horses, their confidence really grew. Now it’s super fun to attend at each show. Mounted presentations are a really common occurrence overseas, so it was really important to gain this experience while we could.
“Wellington is really like Disneyland for horse lovers,” says Kate of the overall experience. “Every week was just so much fun. On Friday nights we’d head to the showgrounds, and we’d get to watch the Grand Prix Freestyles under the lights; on Saturday nights we’d watch world-class show jumping followed by an after-party with a DJ and dancefloor, which was super fun; and on Sundays, we were able to get dressed up and go to the polo, and that was all just in Wellington!
“I made so many amazing friends, including a lot of the American young riders, who were so welcoming. I still keep in touch with a lot of them and I’m super excited to reunite with them as a lot of them are now also over here in Europe.”
LIFE IN AACHEN
With the winter season in Wellington wrapping up, the next step on Kate’s international journey was to relocate to Europe for the summer.
“We are now in Germany with both horses. We’re living in Aachen, which is super cool as we get to experience a lot of the German culture here; it’s a very historical town with a lot of beautiful buildings,” explains Kate.
“The horses are based 20 minutes away over the border in Belgium, at the de Ridder’s barn, Gestüt Moosbend. We travel across the border multiple times each day, which is very strange coming from a country like Australia.
“We’re so fortunate to be based at their barn; there is just so much history to it. The walls are covered with plaques from CDIs dating back to the 1970s, not to mention the frames of ribbons and medals around the barn from prestigious competitions such as the European Championships and the Sydney Olympics. It’s so inspiring to see.
“I’m currently enjoying training each day with Ton de Ridder. He has a wealth of experience over many years of training countless European Championship medallists and successful riders, including his two daughters who are incredible to train around. It’s so motivating each day to not only learn so much from Ton but to also witness such great training in the arena around me.”
Ton’s father-in-law has carriage-driving horses, and Kate says they are also beautiful to watch being driven around the property each morning.
Prior to heading overseas, Kate was training with Jenny Gehrke in Australia. “I really enjoyed my time training with Jenny throughout 2023, both in Queensland where we are based and also at competitions around Australia. I was very lucky that Jenny was able to find time in her very busy life to join us in Wellington for the first couple of CDIs. It was really important to us to have continuity in our training, and it was also so great to have a familiar face when we were so far from home.
ONE COMPETITION AT A TIME
Kate recently completed her first European competition at Olomouc CDI in the Czech Republic, enjoying success with both stallions. Chemistry finished with a win and two seconds in the CDI-U25 Big Tour, while Intro K had a second and two thirds with very consistent scores.
“At the moment, we’re competing one competition at a time under the expert guidance of Ton de Ridder,” explains Kate. “He understands the ins and outs of competing and travelling in Europe far better than most. Every weekend there are so many CDIs on offer, so we have a lot to choose from. Some competitions are invitation-only based on scores and World Rankings, so we’re focused on improving these in the hopes of attending some larger competitions in Europe.
Just prior to the release of this June edition of Equestrian Life, Kate received the exciting news that she and Intro K are invited to join an elite field of twelve combinations for the Young Rider classes at CHIO Aachen (28 June – 7 July).
Each year, CHIO Aachen invites twelve of the best young riders in the world to contest the event, with six spots reserved for German riders and six spots for the rest of the world. No Australian young rider has been invited to compete in this particular class at CHIO Aachen previously.
“It is unbelievable to have the opportunity to represent Australia on the world stage. I am so grateful to my team that supports me, including my mum, groom Nicola [Smith] and of course my best friend Intro K,” says Kate.
SOAKING UP KNOWLEDGE
“Similar to Florida, our goal is to soak up as much knowledge as we can with so many great eyes on the ground here and different perspectives, I just want to continue to train and improve.”
Kate is also hopeful that Intro K may soon have his Grand Prix debut. “He’s such a special horse to have on my team. At only 11 years old he is already training all the Grand Prix movements, while we currently compete in the Young Rider classes [Small Tour level]. Hopefully in the near future we can take him to some national-level competitions to compete in Big Tour for the first time.
“It’s perfect for me that I have both horses, as I can learn the movements on Chemistry, who even though he’s only 12 years old is super solid in the Grand Prix; he’s teaching me skills that I can then pass on to Intro. Both horses have a super work ethic, and trainability, which makes my progression as a rider and my learning so much fun.”
Kate says that her stallions are the only horses in her stable at the moment, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. “By only having two horses, I can dedicate so much more time not just to training them but getting to know them on the ground and simply spending more time with them.”
At competitions, two horses are enough for Kate and her team – which includes her mother Heather Kyros and groom Nicola Smith. “The CDI-Y and CDI-U25 classes at shows are often timetabled close together. I compete six different tests just having two horses at each CDI, so for now that is enough for me to prepare for, remember, and complete well. They’re the best teammates and they get along so well considering they are both stallions.”
A student at Bond University, Kate has also continued her studies on a part-time basis while aboard and therefore needs time away from the horses to progress with her double degree in Business and Law.
“It was important for me to continue my degree online, so it doesn’t take me forever to complete. Now I’m in Germany, I will continue to keep studying. I’m really lucky because Bond University has made my travel as an athlete possible as a member of their elite athlete program… without them, none of this would be possible. They just make it so easy to go away and come back to keep learning.
“I come from a very non-horsey family, so my education has always come first. Fortunately at the moment, the horses for me are at the forefront, which I am thoroughly enjoying!” EQ
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