Meet the Trainer
Heather McKay - Head Trainer
Owner and head trainer at Narrowgate Sport Horses, Heather McKay has been teaching and instructing for over 30 years. Heather grew up riding horses in various disciplines at the Pinto Ranch in southern California.
Heather spent her teen years working with OTTBs, Warmbloods, Arabians, Quarter Horses, and the many other breeds that came through the ranch's training facility. There she experienced everything from team penning to vaulting, and from polo to eventing. During the summers she was involved in working equestrian camps and competing at local horse shows. During the school year her extracurricular activities consisted of giving children and adults riding lessons and exercising and training young horses.
From there, she went on to attend college in West Virginia, with a goal to major in Equine studies. She has worked with top riders and trainers in multiple disciplines and enjoys combining techniques to find the best methods of communication between instructor, student, and horse.
This diverse equestrian background built the foundation that enables her to communicate effectively with a wide variety of horses, particularly those with quirky personalities and troubled backgrounds.
Heather has made a career of working with young horses, and horses that have had rocky starts, and she enjoys helping horses gain or regain trust in their riders while developing confidence in their own abilities. Her career has been as diverse and the horses she has worked with.
Heather is passionate about furthering her equine education, teaching and helping people ( both young, old, and anywhere in between) develop skills and techniques to communicate with their horse. She enjoys encouraging her students and watching them grow in their confidence and abilities. Heather is a firm believer that experience is the best teacher, she takes every opportunity to acquire knowledge that can only come from those with a lifetime of experience in their respective disciplines. However, Heather will argue that the finest teacher... and the only one without an agenda... is the horse.
A sampling of her experience includes:
Coaching and choreographing for Peppertree Vaulters, wrangling dudes and breaking colts at Red Rock Ramch in Wyoming, eventing client horses at USEA 3-day events, training National and World Champion Morgans from the ground up, working with Arabian sport horses to achieve their Legion of Honor (+) and Legion of Merit (++) awards, and training Clydesdales for barrel racing and H/J classes for the 2018 Clydesdale World Show.