My Best Friend Is Back...And I'm Telling Her EVERYTHING
From Katie Van Slyke - Katching Up With Katie by Katie Van Slyke
June 5, 2026 · 43 min · Season 1 · Episode 95
About this episode
Katie reunites with her best friend Dani to discuss their experiences at the Kentucky horse show and the intricacies of equestrian sports.
We just got back from Kentucky and I needed to debrief with my bestie so here we are 🐴 Dani has been behind the scenes at Running Springs for almost two years now and a lot of you have been asking about her so we figured it was time to bring her back on. We talk through how we met back when I was 16 through my old show horse Kalvin, how she ended up moving to Tennessee, and what she actually does to keep this whole operation from falling apart. Then we get into the Kentucky horse show deep dive because there was a lot to unpack. I showed three completely different horses in the same show and we break down what that is actually like, how Denver's first western pleasure class went, what Aaron discovered about Kennedy that kind of changed everything for us, and the very real differences between riding Hollywood, Denver, and Kennedy back to back. Piaffe in a western pleasure warm up pen. We did that. We also get into why western pleasure is actually a fantastic entry level discipline, and I break down the new AQHA level system for anyone who has been confused by the shift from novice to levels one, two, and three. If you have more questions about the horse show world or anything…
People in this episode
Host: Katie Van Slyke
Guest: Dani
Topics covered
- horse shows
- friendship
- western pleasure
- equestrian sports
- Kentucky horse show
- behind the scenes
Keywords
- horse shows
- western pleasure
- Kentucky
- equestrian
- AQHA
- friendship
- Kalvin
- Denver
- Kennedy
- Dani
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: AQHA
Places: Kentucky, Tennessee
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