Did you know that the first ever motion picture featured a horse and rider? In 1873, Leland Stanford, horse breeder and founder of Stanford University, commissioned Eadweard Muybridge to photograph his prized trotter, Occident. In doing so, Stanford wanted to settle a long-disputed question: does a horse have all four hooves off the ground at […]

I am a horse mad person; it doesn’t matter what I am doing, it always has something to do with horses, ponies and everything in between. When I was little (and still to this day) I LOVED to watch horsey movies. We all have our favourites that we know every single word to and these […]

 The first female jockey to win the iconic Melbourne Cup was the talented Michelle Payne back in 2015. Her trusty steed, Prince of Penzance, won by half a length to make Michelle the first female to ride the winning horse in the 155-year history of the Melbourne Cup! But her road to the top […]

Happy Monday globetrotters! I love this quote. This image was captured on our honeymoon (six years ago now) on the Namib Desert Safari in Namibia. To ride across one of the oldest desert’s in the world is a phenomenal experience. Keep in mind, it’s not for the faint-hearted it is the toughest, endurance ride on […]

A beautiful quote spoken by a man I have HUGE respect for. This image was captured on our remote ride in British Columbia, Canada with enormous skies and majestic mountain ranges.

I have a tribe of globetrotters travelling to Mongolia in August, some have been before and others it’s their first time. Safe to say, I love organising their trips and I would be lying if I didn’t mention I’m a shade of green that I’m not accompanying them – especially in my rotund state! They […]

Generally when we travel we don’t stick around in cities long enough to get to know them on a first name basis. It’s more of a brief air kiss on both cheeks and we head straight out of town in search of the wilderness and horses. However, in September last year Buster and I checked […]

A lovely client of mine recently shared a moving and powerful video of a young Maasai lady by the name of Kakenya Ntaiya. Kakenya with dogged determination well beyond her teenage years had a dream of becoming a teacher. Persistent as she was to the buck the trend of becoming a child bride, she cleverly […]

In these bleak winter months where night overshadows day and the rain seems endless I find myself daydreaming of tobasco-hot beach rides. Memories of lazy seaside canters where the salt water licks your skin,  after a day’s ride quenching your thirst with a crushingly sweet cider and sultry summer evenings where the  sea breeze tickles […]

The man’s face is worn and tanned like a well-loved leather boot. He sits deep in his rustic sheepskin saddle, his feet pushed out to the sides, his stirrups positioned near his heels. Spare spurs attached to the saddle chink in rhythm with the clip of his horse’s shoes on the rocks. A rawhide lasso […]

Each year with my Globetrotting  clients in tow we make our annual pilgrimage to Kenya for the Maasai Mara guided ride. Before we embark on our riding adventure through the pancake-flat plains of the Maasai Mara, we spend a day playing tourists exploring the dusty streets of Nairobi. The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust situated in the […]

Argentina I was lucky enough to be taken to an amateur race meet known as a ‘Cuadrera’ in the province of Corrientes, which lies in the north of Argentina. Most of Corrientes is swathed in knee-deep water meadows with sandy, white bottoms and paddocks rich with grass. Corrientes has over 350 species of birds, which […]

Mobile Menders This article appeared in salt magazine, a Sunshine Coast lifestyle publication.  words & photos kate johns The screaming child clings protectively to his mother’s back, wrapped in a dirty patterned shuka. The child’s hair is dreaded together with ochre-coloured mud. He wears no clothes except for a red beaded necklace below his belly button […]

My incredibly talented husband, Steven, took this profile shot of a Mongolian man smoking his hand-made rollie (tobacco and newspaper) while watching a wrestling match as part of the Naadam Festivities in Khatgal, Mongolia. I love this photo – it gives me tingles every time I see it! This Masai mzee (mzee is a swahili […]

We went to the Sanyu Babies Home today in the heart of chaotic Kampala. Before we arrived we stopped at Nakumat to buy some baby supplies including nappies, wet wipes and formula before reaching the home at 4pm. At the orphanage they have fifty one orphans ranging in ages three months to four years of age. […]

  We were fortunate to travel to Mongolia in August 2010 with two of our very best friends to trial a ride in the remote Darhat Valley. A year on and we’ve compiled a video of our wayward travels from the land with the vodka swigging Mongols, wild-eyed ponies and never ending steppe. Watch it […]

  It’s night time but you could be tricked into believing it’s daytime for the sky is illuminated by a full yellow moon that is suspended low on the horizon. I’m loping along a winding sandy track that ducks and weaves like a serpent across the earth through a grass paddock. My mount is a […]

This is an article that I wrote for a African Lifestyle, Travel magazine on a riding safari in Botswana.  Riding high in the Okavango I wake to a grumbling, whirring noise within breathing distance of my head. A flimsy tent sheet lies between me and this “thing” which sounds like a contented cat purring although […]

I lean into my horse’s neck as her gallop quickens. The herd swerves to the left as my mare expertly follows, gaining ground on a couple of tail-end zebras. My hands tighten on the reins as I encourage her deep into the stampeding herd of zebra. Stripes of black and white move in a cryptic […]