Life started for Katie-Jane in North Devon. By the age of 10 she had become a keen horsewoman and showed a natural talent for the sport, eventually specialising in the multi-disciplined sport of Eventing. The family moved to the Blackdown Hills on the border of Devon and Somerset when Katie-Jane was 14, and it’s here that she finished her schooling at Wellington School.
The school was very pro-horse riding and was flexible with competition days, and at the age of 17 she went on to win the Individual National Schools Eventing Championships. In 1997 Katie took 2nd in the National PC Eventing Championships, runner-up to Zara Philips, who has since gone on to be World Champion.
After school Katie-Jane gained a BSc Hons Degree in Rural Estate Management at Seale-Hayne Agricultural College on the edge of the Dartmoor National Park but regularly returned home for long weekends in order to continue Eventing competitively. It was during the last couple of years of her degree that she developed a huge interest in travel, and decided to continue her studies at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, where she gained an MSc in Rural Tourism. With this, the decision was made to no longer pursue a career as a professional event rider, but to pursue her new found interest in travel.
After finishing university in 2003 Katie-Jane funded her travel by using her tall athletic figure to her advantage by developing a career as a commercial model. Katie-Jane has been involved in fashion shows for household names such as Marks and Spencer’s, TIGI and Alexander McQueen, as well as photographic stills for clients specialising in the equestrian and country market, Ludlow of London, Oliver Brown and Sarm Hippique to name a few. She has also worked on a small number of Films/TV, including having doubled as Cameron Diaz in her film ‘The Holiday’.
In 2005 Katie-Jane met Tarka, and they were quick to find they had little in common. Tarka was less than impressed with her manicured nails and face full of makeup, Likewise Katie-Jane did not see Tarka as the ‘all action hero’ that his accolades suggest, more a really ‘odd’ Frenchman who seemed to find enjoyment in throwing himself into frozen lakes! It wasn’t long before the facades were broken and by 2006 Katie had left behind her glamorous world of modelling and made the gigantic leap to expeditionist.
In 2007, after 167 days and 4500km Katie-Jane and Tarka became the first recognised people to walk the entire length of the wall from its western most terminus to its eastern most.
Having discovered newfound inner strength, in 2008 Katie-Jane embarked on her first journey to the Arctic. With a 2 week man hauling expedition in temperature as low as -50°C (with windchill) to Svalbard, with Tarka as her guide.
In 2008 she embarked on an 8000km cycle through Africa on a 30 year old heavy steel bicycle with no brakes or gears, to produce a short documentary and promote the use of bicycles in Africa.
Early this year Katie-Jane spent 2 months working on the Arctic Ocean as part of the Catlin Arctic Survey. Whilst floating around on an ice block, sat in tent at -45°C, the idea of Rivers of Ice was born.
