To Go Pro or Stay Non-Pro? – Katie Mitchell

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230 – August/September, 2016

by Paige Morgan

Katie Mitchell is a woman who wears a variety of hats: property manager, insurance agent for Kaplow Insurance, virtual assistant, and most recently, despite her husband’s best efforts, equine professional. Having the ability to juggle a variety of tasks and schedules is something every great trainer must possess. Having been married to halter horse industry professional JT Mitchell for the past 16 years, Katie was well aware of the new tasks she would have to juggle when making the journey from nonpro to professional.

“I had a list of things I wanted to accomplish, and the very final thing was to win an AQHA World Championship in Amateur Halter. That, of course, took the longest of all of them.”

Though her quest for a World Championship may have taken some time, Katie is no stranger to the winner’s circle. Her list of accomplishments spans several pages, stretches across numerous breed and color associations, and proves her to be an accomplished rider as well as leader. After achieving four World titles in 2012 at the NSBA World and a bronze trophy in 2014 in Performance Halter, 2015 was perhaps the most fruitful for Katie. She was named the AQHA Amateur World Champion in Weanling Colts with a horse she bred,raised, and prepared herself, Pistol Peete. The team was also the highest placing non-pro pair in the Breeder’s Halter Futurity Open Colt Class. In the same year, she rode A Catered Affair to a Reserve World Championship in the NSBA BCF 4-6-year-old Limited Non-Pro Western Pleasure.

“I don’t know if I was thinking how crazy this was at the time, until it all got over with. There are not very many women who can say that they have done all that in the same year. That’s when I knew,” she says with a smile.

For Katie, knowing she was ready to move on from the non-pro arena came after, in her words, accomplishing everything she wanted to accomplish and winning everything she wanted to win.

Click here to read the complete article
230 – August/September, 2016