{"id":6270,"date":"2025-10-22T15:54:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T14:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/?p=6270"},"modified":"2025-10-22T15:54:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T14:54:12","slug":"aberdeen-student-opens-aberdeens-only-vaulting-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/sport\/2025\/10\/22\/aberdeen-student-opens-aberdeens-only-vaulting-club\/","title":{"rendered":"Aberdeen Student Opens Aberdeen\u2019s Only Vaulting Club"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aberdeen University Psychology student Katie Henderson is an ex-international level vaulter. Last year, she started her own vaulting club. This week, the Gaudie talked to her about the sport of vaulting, coaching, and how the first year of her club has been.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gaudie: Can you tell me a bit about vaulting?<\/span><\/p>\n

Katie: I think vaulting is best described as gymnastics on horses. It started with cavalry officers; they would train by vaulting over the horse to develop a bond with the horse, as well as their balance and strength. It developed through the circus, and now it\u2019s an international FEI recognised sport.<\/span><\/p>\n

G: Could you tell us a bit about your career?<\/span><\/p>\n

K: I started vaulting when I was six years old. I saw a display of it at the Drymen Show and I was obsessed with it until my parents got me a lesson for my birthday. Since then, I have been hooked. I vaulted competitively for twelve years, I was a team GBR athlete, and I came fourth at the European Championships.<\/span><\/p>\n

G: What does it take to compete at a high level of sport?<\/span><\/p>\n

K: I think love of the sport, mostly. You can\u2019t spend your life doing something that you don\u2019t love fully, vaulting has always been the thing I love most in the world. I loved it so much I was happy to commit to whatever I needed to. Having a good support network is important too, I had supportive people and great friends at my club.<\/span><\/p>\n

G: How has the club been going so far?<\/span><\/p>\n

K: It\u2019s been good, but it\u2019s definitely been difficult. I\u2019ve never run a club this big before. I really love teaching and seeing how excited and passionate the kids are. There\u2019s definitely been teething issues and it\u2019s a big commitment.<\/span><\/p>\n

G: How have the kids taken to it?<\/span><\/p>\n

K: They love it. We do a lot of taster days, and they get so many great kids coming to give it a go. Some of them have never touched a horse before, some of them are very keen horse riders and gymnasts – which is also how I started. They love what they do, and I really love seeing that.<\/span><\/p>\n

G: How has returning to the sport been?<\/span><\/p>\n

K: I\u2019ve loved it. Leaving vaulting wasn\u2019t my choice, I\u2019ve really missed it so much. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s been a day in my life since I first saw vaulting that I haven\u2019t thought about it. I\u2019m not even exaggerating! So it feels like this is a culmination of a lot of hard work, it\u2019s something I\u2019ve wanted since I was fourteen. It\u2019s like being back where I\u2019m meant to be.<\/span><\/p>\n

G: What is it you love so much about coaching?<\/span><\/p>\n

K: I love working with kids, they\u2019re so funny. I see how they feel about vaulting, and it\u2019s how I felt about it at their age. Everything is so exciting, I get on the horse, and they go, \u201cWow, I want to try that!\u201d It\u2019s so nice seeing passion from the kids, all they want to do is vault. I remember being that kid.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aberdeen University Psychology student Katie Henderson is an ex-international level vaulter. Last year, she started her own vaulting club. This week, the Gaudie talked to her about the sport of vaulting, coaching, and how the first year of her club has been. \u00a0 Gaudie: Can you tell me a bit about vaulting? Katie: I think […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":97,"featured_media":6272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","iawp_total_views":15,"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[1473,1471,1472,214,1470],"wf_post_folders":[175],"class_list":{"0":"post-6270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sport","8":"tag-equestrian","9":"tag-horse","10":"tag-horse-sport","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-vaulting"},"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Cameron Collie","author_link":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/author\/cameron-collie\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/WhatsApp-Image-2025-10-01-at-17.48.05-200x300.jpeg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Sports<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Sports<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["equestrian<\/a>","horse<\/a>","horse sport<\/a>","Sports<\/a>","Vaulting<\/a>"],"unlinked":["equestrian<\/span>","horse<\/span>","horse sport<\/span>","Sports<\/span>","Vaulting<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 10 months ago","modified":"Updated 10 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on 22 October 2025","modified":"Updated on 22 October 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on 22 October 2025 15:54","modified":"Updated on 22 October 2025 15:54"},"featured_img_caption":"Credit - Katie Henderson","series_order":"","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/97"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6270"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6273,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6270\/revisions\/6273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6270"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=6270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}