14-YEAR-OLD St Catherine’s Catholic College student Katie Maund is making her mark on the world and in her sport, horseball.
Katie is travelling the globe to showcase the unique game.
She began her horseball journey with simple riding lessons at Handz on Horses, as a child.
Then, after learning horseball, she joined six other teenagers across the country and formed an Australian team.
In August 2022, Katie and her team were invited to compete in the World Cup Horseball Championships 2022, in France.
The team came away placing seventh and won ‘Best and Fairest’ team for the competition.
“That’s the biggest competition she’s participated in,” said Katie’s mum Helen Maund.
“On the back of that, we were then invited to showcase horseball in Equitana, in Melbourne, in November 2022.”
Katie was overjoyed with the invite.
“When I was first told, I was just over the moon, like so excited because we’d been putting in so much training,” Miss Maund said.
“We were a little bit weary because we didn’t know if it was going to go ahead because of COVID.”
Once she had arrived in France, Katie said having familiar faces around calmed her nerves.
“It was pretty overwhelming, but we had so many friends there, people that we knew and could talk to, and that settled our nerves a lot after the first game.”
Katie has dual citizenship between Australia and Britain and, while in France, was given the opportunity to also play for the British team.
“One of the big reasons I went to the World Cup, apart from the experience of it, was that I wanted to branch out my opportunities,” she said.
“It worked! I’ve got many opportunities, in many different countries, so it’s something I can really see myself doing in the future.”
Katie and her team will be traveling to Argentina for the next World Cup, in 2024.
