June 8, 2026 
New Zealand rider Katie Laurie knows a thing or two about straddling different worlds—not to mention different continents.
The daughter of show jumping parents from New Zealand and Australia, Laurie was raised in Oxford, New Zealand, where she took home most of the country’s top show jumping trophies, including Lady Rider of the Year, which she won five times.
In 2008, at the age of 22, Laurie became the youngest show jumper from New Zealand to compete in the Beijing Olympic Games aboard the Belgian-bred Forrest. Two years later, Laurie made the jump to team Australia just in time to compete aboard Delphi at the 2010 World Equestrian Games in Lexington.
By 2014, Laurie had met and married Australian rodeo rider Jackson Laurie, and the couple gave birth to their daughter, Grace, later that same year. After their son Royce was born two years later, the Lauries decided to buy a farm in Jackson’s native Australia. But life on the road, trying to compete with two young children in tow, proved difficult.
In 2017, Laurie—who had previously spent time working in Canada under Eric Lamaze and also rode young horses for the Asselin family—decided to pull up roots, buying a 40-acre property in Okotoks, Alberta, just outside Spruce Meadows. “We can show from February [to] October in Alberta and 90% of the time be home every night, which, having a young family and with the kids starting school, is going to be amazing,” Laurie told Australian Jumping in 2019.
“There are not many places in the world where we could live and have shows from the low level up to the biggest show in the world on our doorstep, produce [and] compete horses, and live the lifestyle we have always dreamed of.”
Nearly a decade into their Canadian adventure, it’s clear Laurie has made many of those dreams come true. Her Instagram is filled with images of the family trail riding in the mountains, enjoying the Northern Lights, and watching her daughter Grace competing in barrel racing and show jumping competitions, alike.
And, this weekend, Laurie herself earned a major career milestone: her 5* Grand Prix first win in the 1.60m 5* Akita Drilling Grand Prix, presented by Rolex, on Sunday, June 7th during the Spruce Meadows ‘Continental’ Tournament. Appropriately, the rider from New Zealand did so on a horse close to her heart: Django II, a homebred gelding out of her family’s own homebred thoroughbred mare, Flower Power.
Twelfth to go on the startlist on Sunday, the pair was one of only two combinations alongside Egypt’s Sameh El Dahan to jump clear on Course Designer Tom Holden’s (IRL) challenging first round track—especially impressive given that it was their first 1.60m class of the year. First to return for the shortened course, Laurie and Django logged another conservative clear, stopping the clock at 46.28 seconds.
And while, early in his own round, it appeared a speedier El Dahan was poised to snatch victory, an unexpected misstep aboard WKD Balou Breeze parted horse from rider, dropping EL Dahan into second place and assuring Laurie the win.
“Everyone that knows [Django II] knows it has not been easy but it’s been worth it!” Laurie wrote of the 15-year-old gelding on Instagram in February of 2024. (Even if, so many years later, the gelding appears to have made a full 180—at least where small children are concerned.)
“If they start jumping here [at Spruce Meadows] as a young horse, it makes it easier for them as they get older,” she said on Sunday.
In other words, though they indeed may be far from home, it’s clear Laurie and Django II are just where they’re supposed to be.
