BY CHRIS GOULD / CWHBA
PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY KATEY VAN DEN BOSCH
Congratulations to Katey van den Bosch for her 9th place finish in vaulting pairs at the Aachen World Equestrian Games. Along with her partner Megan Leeper they fulfilled a dream to compete on the world stage.
Of course it requires an amazing horse so a special shout out to their horse Zorro and owners Angelique Vick, who lunged and coach Jeanine van der Sluijs.
Katey, daughter of Katrina and Hans van den Bosch, has been connected to the CWHBA all her life. The van den Bosch’s Old Gate Farm has been host to many CWHBA events including an SPT, sale presentation days, and clinics . And Katey, since early childood, has been a valuable volunteer. As well as breeders of top Warmblood horses, the van den Bosch’s have clearly inspired and supported their horse-centered daughters: Ruby, whom we previously featured as a next generation breeder and, of course, Katey.
I had the chance to sit down with Katey at the most recent auction sale presentation days. Here is part of our conversation. “ I started when I was seven, so 10 years ago, and I was attracted to it because I liked the fact that it was with horses, but it had more dance and artistic points.”
◆ You are very young to be on an international team how did you accomplish that?
I train at Meadow Creek Vaulting Club which is just 10 minutes from our farm. I went to Junior World Championships in 2023 in Sweden and then in 2025 I was in Austria for the Junior World Championships. Megan (her vaulting partner) is 23 so she qualifies as a senior, and that allowed me at 17 to be part of the Canadian team.
◆ What are your plans from here? Are you going to continue vaulting and riding?
I’m stopping vaulting for now while I go to school for my animal science degree in Saskatoon and then, if I enjoy it, I’ll go further to become a vet. I think, on the side or after, I’d like to continue in the vaulting world, but with more focus on the horses, maybe developing some vaulting horses and maybe some coaching training, but mostly the horses.
“I’ve always liked the breeding here at our farm. I think it’s very interesting so I think for sure I will definitely look into it and of course I’d probably do it for my mom.
◆ What were your impressions of the World Equestrian Games?
It was very cool because of all the different disciplines that were there. So it was dressage and eventing during the week we were there. The opening ceremony was super cool because we were in the big Grand Prix ring where the showjumping took place. The 64 stallion quadrille from the German state studs was amazing.
Over the course of a week we had our vet check, our official training for arena familiarization, and then we started to compete. Megan competed as an individual on three of the days and then we did our pas de deux on the rest of the days...
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