A Little History...

Meet The Coaches

Born in 1995, Rae Becke began riding in 2007 when her family purchased their family farm - now known as Venturing Hills Equestrian Farm (VHF). Homeschooling and a lot of hard work allowed Rae to move from never having been on a horse, to competing at the acclaimed international young riders event (NAJYRC) in 2013 (placing 8th individually, accompanied by her horse Merry), and the Richland CCI3***S that same year. She became a carded athlete, and was named Quebec’s top Preliminary Eventer for the year.

Rae started her coaching career at 15, when she co-founded and developed the Venturing Hills Equestrian Summer Camp Program. These camps were tremendously successful, doubling in size every year, and leading to the implementation of a  permanent recreational riding program at VHF. Furthering this success, she founded an “Introduction to Competition” program, and set up the Equine Canada Rider Level Certification program at the farm, to help, teach and support more young riders interested in entering into the horse world.

Recognizing the value of education and professional development for all, Rae stepped back from the International stage of competition in 2013 to begin her degree. In 2017 she graduated from St. Francis Xavier University with a BBA, specializing in Marketing. Upon graduation and returning home, Rae jumped back into her beloved horse world and took over the reigns as Managing Director and Head Trainer at the Venturing Hills Equestrian Farm.

Rae is constantly working towards her own international riding goals with Eventing coach Selena O'Hanlon, and Dressage coach John Macpherson. In February 2019 she upgraded her mount, "Hold Your Hat" to the Preliminary level, and finished the season completing Foshay International CCI2**L with a personal best in Dressage. With high hopes for the 2020 season, the year fell drastically short. The winter season ended early with an abrupt return home due to COVID19, and Armani unexpectedly passed away in the fall from a heart attack. Trying to reset her goals, and take a minute to recover Rae has reinvested herself in two young horses with big hopeful futures. A 3 year old Westfalion mare, and a 2 year old TB colt... it will be an exciting journey, and long climb to the top.

Rae is also presently working on her Competition Coach Specialist certification for Eventing through Equine Canada, and her Cross Country Course Building certification. Rae brings a broad perspective to the sport she loves, and sees it as a conduit for young riders to develop into strong, confident, proactive, can-do adults.

Rae is determined to make a future for herself in this sport, and to make a lasting impact on those that she guides along their ‘ride’.

VHF is proud to introduce you to our coach Emilie Piche.  

Émilie was born in 1995, she is the oldest of a family of 4 children and the only girl. She started riding at the age of 9. While she has done many different sports, like figure skating, classical ballet, soccer, cheerleading and horseback riding, to name a few, horses and riding were her ultimate passion. This sport has never left her side since 2004. Emilie completed her undergrad studies at the University of Ottawa in psychology and linguistics, graduating in 2017 Summa Cum Laude. She continued her studies and completed her Master’s in Health Science – Speech-Language Pathology in 2019.  During all of her studies and the hectic schedules, riding and caring for her horses was never optional. She was also part of the University of Ottawa Equestrian team.

Emilie’s passion for horses go beyond riding, she completed her rider level 8, learning stable management and horse care, and now takes care of her horses and 2 boarded horses at her family Farm in Luskville, QC. Emilie bought her first horse, Arthur and I, a 10 yo Appendix gelding in December 2013. She added a second horse to her family, Dahlia, a 2 yo Canadian Sport Horse – Hanovarian, in 2015. She has worked with different coaches and clinicians over the years to acquire as much knowledge as she could. This enabled her to be the one to start Dahlia and train her to this day, under the supervision of different coaches. She has started a few 3 yo ever the years, 2 of which stand out, Dahlia and a Canadian Mare named UneChance. She has shown in the Hunter and the Jumper rings as well as Dressage. She believes in continuous education and will be working towards obtaining further coaching certification.

Emilie loves to work with kids as she does in her every day full time job as a speech-language pathologist. She officially started coaching when she was 17yo. She has coached many kids, from 3 years old to teenagers and adults and was responsible for summer day camps. She did take a break from coaching during her University years. Just recently, she realized how much she missed coaching and was happy to join VHF’s team as a bilingual coach. Emilie’s love for the sport and horses is easy to see and hear, she smiles a lot when around the horses and her giggles are contagious. She displays a « joie de vivre » that makes her lessons pleasant and instructive while always keeping the fun factor present.