Catch up TV

Series 10: Workhorse

This short documentary follows Kate Mobbs-Morgan and her trusty team of working horses. For centuries, horses formed an integral part of our working landscape. Kate is passionate about working horses and believes they still have a key role to play in today’s environment.\n\nKate trained in horticulture and always loved working with animals. In her late thirties, she was diagnosed with a rare cancer and had to undergo radical surgery. This prompted Kate to pursue a new career, combining her passion for working outdoors with her interest in working horses.\n\nAlmost two decades later, she has built her own working-horses business, specialising in forestry work and land management. She and her horses are brought in to work on sites where large machines cannot gain access or are not wanted, such as locations that are environmentally sensitive, steep terrain and wet ground.\n\nHer horse-logging team is made up of: Kipp, the herd leader whom Kate has known since the day he was born but is now approaching retirement; Quinlan, who is powerful but suffers with anxiety; and Garth, a relatively new member of the team who has yet to start working full-time.\n\nThere was a fourth member of the team, Sol, who passed away suddenly last year, leaving Kate heartbroken and the herd out of balance. To restore the herd to full strength, Kate has just brought in a young mare named Brigid, but she is quite feisty, and it will take several years of patient training before she is ready to join the other working horses.\n\nKate knows that if there is to be a future for working horses, there needs to be people with the knowledge and skills to do the job. Alongside other professional horse loggers, Kate has started training new entrants into the industry.\n\nThe working-horse community is relatively small and is spread out across the country. Once a year, though, horse loggers come together to compete. In 2026, the competition is being held in Yorkshire. An obstacle course will test both horse and handler, with contests for single horses and pairs.\n\nKate takes her trusty steed Kipp and his anxious but sturdy companion Quinlan along to compete, but can she keep her own anxiety in check?

Source: BBC 2