Katy Robinson returned to Galway Downs three years ago as a competitor and trainer, aligning her training business, Outrageous Equestrian, closely with that of her friend Emilee Libby.
But Robert Kellerhouse had other ideas.
“He knew I was sort of looking for a side gig at the time and he asked me to come into the Galway Downs office and help out a couple of times a week.”
Today, Katy is Galway Downs’ Sponsorship and Vendor coordinator. The broad role puts her in the middle of everything to do with staging events — from the Galway Downs fundraiser in January to the season finalé, the Eventing Championships.
Contracts for the venue’s use and with vendors, sponsors and associations are part of her realm. “It’s a lot of keeping paperwork organized, meeting deadlines and following up on emails and phone calls.”
“People-ing,” Katy calls it. And she wasn’t sure that aspect of the job would suit her strengths. Horses, conversely, “come easy to me!”
Growing Into The Role
“Robert was always big on putting me into the sponsorship role, even though it was out of my comfort zone and I didn’t think it was up my alley. He is insistent in his special way. I shadowed him on a bunch of calls. I learned from him and stopped being self-conscious about starting conversations about money with people.”
Her more experienced Kellerhouse Presents and Galway Downs teammates were tremendously helpful from the get-go and still are. “A lot of people preceded me and I’m learning from them continuously. It’s a big team effort to run these events and there’s no way one single person can do everything or know all the details involved.”
Building on the strong foundation of her predecessors, Katy has helped Galway Downs deliver the benefits needed to grow its base of sponsors and supporters. The unprecedented $100,000 in prize money at the Eventing Championships reflects remarkable growth in Galway’s ability to market itself as a venue, its competitions and equestrian sports in general.
Continual facility and competition improvements spur a snowball effect in securing the attention of prospective supporters. “A lot of credit is due to Galway Downs’ owner Ken Smith and to Ali and Francie Nilforushan, who host hunter/jumper competitions here. Their investments have helped us run very high-profile events and that is so helpful in showing Galway Downs off to our sponsors and the community. We’ve become very valuable to the local economy and we enjoy working with the Visit Temecula Valley tourism efforts.”
Lots To Learn
There’s still lots to learn. “It’s a job you grow into,” Katy stresses. “Nobody can hand you a book on how to do it. Experience is critical and you just have to do it a bunch of times and learn from every iteration.”
The 4* competitor admits to having little idea the scope of logistics that go into staging an FEI event before she joined the organizing effort. “I was surprised how far in advance some of the planning happens. Even things like talking about preparing the grounds and the course, the terrain and the overall vision for the event can happen even a year ahead of time.
“Now as a competitor, when I see the entry and stabling fees, I have a lot more respect for why those fees are what they are. There are a lot of out-of-pocket costs for the organizer and the facility. I give Robert a lot of credit. He’s committed to riders like no other. Even during the COVID and EHV-1 issues, he was committed to putting on a great event with all the bells and whistles – no matter what.”
Keep The Caffeine Coming!
As busy as Katy’s management position keeps her, she is still very much a competitor and trainer. “I still introduce myself as a trainer.”
Juggling both roles can be chaotic, she confesses. “Outrageously so, sometimes. There’s a lot of caffeine involved!” That reality partly explains her choice of “Outrageous Equestrian” for her Galway Downs-based training program’s name. It’s inspired by her current 4* horse, Outrageous Dance, and is “sort of a metaphorical rebranding.”
“I had upper-level horses in the past, but I had a different identity. I rode Anglo-Arabs and was known as a dressage queen.” Outrageous Dance, aka “Jimmy,” changed all that. “Since having him I became known for riding crazy, outrageous OTTBs. The name is kind of a joking nod to this horse and also to the fact that, generally, my friends and clients see ourselves as feeling a bit off the beaten path.”
For Fun & Show
Outrageous Equestrian’s motto explains it another way – “sport horse training for fun and show.”
At heart, it’s about having fun while remaining rooted in horsemanship that Katy imbued in her youth. She’s the daughter of two professionals – Teresa Groesbeck of Cedarhaven Performance Horses and Jim Groesbeck of JWG Training. Under their watch, she grew up in the Sacramento area’s Wilton working with horses of all ages, breeds and disciplines.
The “trickle-down” influence of several noted horsemen also made an indelible impression. They include Ray Hunt, Eike Von Velthein, Jack LeGoff, Bobby Ingersoll and Becky Hart.
As a young professional, Katy first came to Temecula to work for Canadian Olympian Hawley Bennett-Awad. She later spent a year working with World Equestrian Games US team member Buck Davidson on the East Coast.
At press time, Katy had five horses entered in the Eventing Championships at Galway Downs, including Teki To The Limit in the Adequan® CCI3*-L and Bubbles and Bourbon in the Modified-Training Challenge.
After a few weeks of double-time on event management tasks, Katy hopes to be “almost exclusively wearing my trainer’s hat” by Monday of show week. “It’s very important that I get my side of the event management things in order very early so I can basically hand things off to my team. I am available by phone, but not so much a boots on the ground role in terms of show management at that time.”
“Everybody is great to work with and Robert is really good about letting me focus on riding during the show.”
It’s from that rider’s perspective that Katy has her best gauge of an event’s success. “If the competitors roll in and they know where they’re supposed to go and what they’re supposed to be doing, that’s a good indicator. If competitors are happy, if they feel the event is running smoothly and the footing is prepared properly, those are the big metrics for success.”
“We ask ourselves, ‘Did they go home thinking it was a good, fun event?’”