Kate Pilcher (6:02)

Thanks for having me, Warwick.

Warwick Schiller (6:04)

Oh, you're welcome. You know, you're one of those perfect podcast guests because you, I think you started out initially, you know, going through life thinking that it's going to be marriage, you know, job, marriage, house, kids, dead. And then you ended up doing something that most people don't. You know, you have an occupation or you have a thing you do in life is something that there's not a college course for. Like, it's one of those things you, you end up doing. So on that subject, why don't you explain to the listeners what exactly you do?

Kate Pilcher (6:41)

I have a company called Globetrotting and I am a Pathfinder. So I look for rides all around the world and guide people that want to come with me, which is pretty cool that people have the same appetite for horse travel. And so we've been growing this business, it's a family run business, but we've been growing it since I was 25. The numbers are skewed. Don't ever ask me about what year, what happened, like, it's all a blur. But I've been doing it since my mid-20s and I'm 43 now, knocking on the door of 44. So I get to ride all around the world and then I get to share those experiences and invite people to come along. I'm not necessarily on every ride, but it's an amazing community where people are just as addicted to I am as with horse travel, which is, you know, opens the mind and body to the most phenomenal, transformational experiences you could ever, ever imagine.

Warwick Schiller (7:40)

Yeah, most certainly does. Before we started recording here, you and I were talking about my adventures on the Gaucho Derby and I did a whole podcast on it. And before my preparation for the Gaucho Derby, I'd never ridden any distances on horses. So I went to some boot camps and rode endurance horse at 2, 3 different boot camps before, you know, in the couple years leading up to the Gaucho Derby and then two weeks before the Gaucho Derby actually went and did a, an endurance race at 30 and a 50. Yeah. And yeah, there is something about traveling on horseback. Yeah. That this does something for you that I kind of haven't probably experienced anywhere else.

Kate Pilcher (8:24)

Yeah. When you, when you open that Pandora's box, or, you know, it's. It's a portal for me. I think you just are addicted. I can't. My husband gets annoyed with me, but not. But I can't go to a new country, a new landscape without seeking out a horse and riding. Like, I just feel like you delve beneath the skin of a country horse. People are all cut from the same cloth, and whether you speak their language or not, you share this unspoken language of horse. And so when you get to ride shoulder to shoulder with gauchos or bacchiano's in Chile or, you know, the Mongolian horsemen, it just, it. It just does something. It elevates a country to the next level. And then you, you know, share a meal with them around a fire. Like, it just. You. You really feel like you get to know that country on a deeper level. It's like going to Australia, right. If you went to Australia and you never, you know, sat alongside a ringer or a jackaroo or a jillaroo and went out and rode in the Kimberley, you just. You wouldn't get a sense of a country without being able to ride their horses in their traditional tack, which is a horse culture to me, is what makes my heart beat faster. I just, you know, can't get enough of it.

Warwick Schiller (9:41)

You know, I feel riding horses through country is. Is different than walking and different than driving because I find that when I'm. If I'm hiking, you're not taking the scenery in as much because you're always worried about where you're putting your feet. So you're kind of looking down a lot. If you're driving in a car, everything's going by really fast, but on a horse, the horses take care. The. Yeah, they put their feet and. But you're. You're not necessarily moving fast, so you're taking in.

Kate Pilcher (10:07)

Yeah, I agree.

Warwick Schiller (10:08)

Everything, whether it's the little rocks on the ground, a little blade of grass, or the big picture. You come over horizon and there's this huge, big vista, but you. But you're. Yeah, you're moving slowly enough to take things in, but you're not having to focus on not twisting your ankle. Unless, of course, you have to get off and lead him, which we had to do in the goat show a lot.

Kate Pilcher (10:28)

Yeah, yeah, it's that slow reveal. Like it's. It is. And also you're on. You're just a little bit higher, and everything's framed better through the ears of a horse. And I agree, it is. You're right. And I mean, for example, you were talking that you'd love to ride in Africa when you, you know, you can bump around in Kenya in a safari vehicle, and, you know, you've had way too much to eat for breakfast because they feed you like stuffed pigs. But if you're on a horse and you're literally seeing a zebra for the first time on an animal, or seeing a family of elephants, you know, where their trunks are weaving and grabbing acacia branches, it is like. Well, that's where it all started for me. But that is where your spine literally tingles from the bottom to the top. That's the stuff, you know, that's. That's where you. You reach that alchemy for sure.

Warwick Schiller (11:15)

Yeah, most certainly. So you just mentioned different countries. Where. What countries do you guys conduct rides in?

Kate Pilcher (11:21)

Well, we have a ride in every continent, I'm told. We. We did an April Fool's joke to our beautiful globetrotters where we said we were releasing a ride in Antarctica. And Laura, my colleague, literally had phone calls that day. I mean, all the photos were aied, but people were like, all right, I'm gonna try and go to Antarctica. But we have rides. Yeah. Everywhere except for Antarctica. For us, we need to road test a ride before we consider putting it in our portfolio of rides, just because horse welfare, especially in developing countries, is 100% paramount to us. So we need to make sure that it has the, you know, change of sceneries, guides that are from that local area that know the region and know the history, the flora, the fauna, and that it's all matches up before we consider putting it in our portfolio. So we road test them all. And that takes time before we release it. But, yeah, from the tippy top of Iceland, which you're going to, down to Tasmania, across to Mongolia, to India, we're putting a new ride on in Japan soon. It's. Yeah, it's pretty much where we want to ride. We look for. We're looking at another ride. Well, a first ever ride in Alaska, which has been on our Globetrotters bucket list forever.

Warwick Schiller (12:41)

Alaska is beautiful.

Kate Pilcher (12:43)

Is it? Yeah. I really want to go so that.

Warwick Schiller (12:45)

It is really. It is. It is. I've done some. Several clinics up there, and it's like the last frontier. And Alaskans. Alaskans are different people. Like, you know, they don't. I'm not saying it's uncivilized up there.

Kate Pilcher (13:00)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (13:00)

I don't want to give the wrong impression, but there's a rawness to Africa. I mean, Africa to Alaska. Like, it's. I tell you what, I I. Years ago, and I've told this story in the podcast before, but you haven't heard it. I did a clinic in Australia, and there's a lady from South Africa in the clinic. And that night we had dinner, and I actually sat down next to her, and I said, how long you been in Australia? And she says, you know, like, seven years or ten years or something. And I said, so, how do you like it? And she goes, well, you know, the energy's different here. And I thought she meant it's better because it's, you know, this was in Kabulcha, you know, so, like, cool, beachy vibe. You know what I mean? And I said, what do you mean? And she goes, well, when I go back to South Africa and I get off the plane, there's an energy in the air that I can feel it. And I said. I said, so what? Do you know what that is? She goes, oh, yeah, I know exactly what it is. She goes, in South Africa, every man and animal wakes up in the morning knowing today's the day I could die.

Kate Pilcher (14:01)

So true. Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (14:03)

Alaska is a little bit that way.

Kate Pilcher (14:05)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (14:06)

There's, you know, there's no guarantees in Alaska. I feel like that there's a. I just feel like the people there understand that, like, there's all sorts of, you know, if the weather.

Kate Pilcher (14:20)

Yeah, that's gonna kill you.

Warwick Schiller (14:21)

The weather's not going to kill you. There might be an animal that might do it, you know.

Kate Pilcher (14:24)

Yeah, that's cool.

Warwick Schiller (14:26)

Yeah, it's rugged, and I think that'd be a perfect place for.

Kate Pilcher (14:29)

Yeah, we're excited. We might have to send you and Robin there, too.

Warwick Schiller (14:33)

So my list here, because you just mentioned India, but my list here says Mongolia, Kenya, Botswana, Namibia, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Japan, New Zealand, Canada, and Australia. So you've got India, I've got Mongolia.

Kate Pilcher (14:49)

Okay. India, India. Yeah. Oh, in Rajasthan. And the horses, the Marwari horses. It's so beautiful. So I didn't know if I would. India is. Obviously, it's. It is. Some people love it and some people don't. I traveled and lived in Africa, so I'm very used to busyness and chaos, like an ant's nest with lots of people. But I had low expectations of India just because. And it blew me away. Like, the. The color and the vibe and energy and the spiritualness, the Hindu religion. I just loved love, love, love. And we rode through villages. So that's where the sort of the atmosphere and the theater is. Is riding through the villages. And, you know, you have a cricket team of kids following you. Behind you and like, you know, tractors with tech techno music blaring like everything is dazzly and glittery. Mother India is just, she's, you know. Yeah, she's layered, but just. I absolutely loved it. And we went through the Thai desert and yeah, I mean, I don't like spicy food, so I ate cheese naan for the whole entire time. But I rode an amazing Moiri stallion. And yeah, it was just, it's a very special place to ride. And again, there's, there's a lot of, you know, we're staying in beautiful tents and there's a lot of poverty. But I feel like that, you know, opening your eyes to that and sitting down cross legged with these beautiful people and the caste system was really tricky to get my head around. But again, that's travel and that's you, you know, But I mean, I meet people heart to heart, so I, you know, any person that I meet, I consider them the same. So yeah, it was, it's a really special experience. I would go back in a heartbeat.

Warwick Schiller (16:44)

Yeah, India's on my, on my list for those re. For those reasons. You know, like you said, there's the, the, the colors and that. I've heard that, you know, the, the sound and the smell and the busyness and the. Just the everything and the. But you mentioned the poverty too. I mean, and I know you've been to Kenya and spent quite a bit of time with the Masai and I've been to Kenya and spent some time with the Masai too. It seems like around the world, the people who have the least seem to be the happiest people you've ever met.

Kate Pilcher (17:19)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (17:20)

And so you kind of look at them, you think, oh, you poor people, you don't have whatever. But they don't seem to act like they don't have whatever they have. They have something we don't have in, in industrialized nations that they, they have a level of peace or. I'm not sure what it is, but.

Kate Pilcher (17:38)

Yeah, I think in. I agree. When I was 25 and I was guiding over in Kenya and I was sitting at this, you know, because it's very colonial, as you'd know, like sitting around a dinner table with white napkins and, and my friends, the Kenyans are serving us and sitting around a table with people from all over the world. It was the people serving us that were the happiest. And I feel like they have a firm belief in God, obviously, and spirituality, but it is arrogant to think that we would live a better life like that's. Just they live off the start of a day when the sun comes up and when the, you know, the sun goes to bed. And that I just. And family is everything. And the way I make sense of it that, you know, with Globetrotting is that pay it forward belief that, you know, our beautiful clients that pay for a ride, that dollar then goes to our ride partner, and then it goes to Nettie, the Masai warrior. And then he's supporting this whole village at home that no one ever sees. And that just makes me like that that's what keeps, you know, the sort of. Yeah. The good thing about Globetrotting going is that it's supporting all these other families that might necessarily be able to send their kids to school or. Same in India, same in any of those developing countries. There's obviously a family member that's out working and then obviously it all trickles down. And, you know, I just think that Venn diagram is something that I just love that we can help all the way from our clients in Australia or America or England, where their dollars are going, which is spectacular.

Warwick Schiller (19:09)

Yeah. So awesome. So why don't we. Why don't we get into the story of how all this came about? I read somewhere that you said you had a quarter life crisis, which is not as late on in life as a midlife crisis. Tell us about. Well, where did you. Where'd you grow up? You grew up on a cotton farm in.

Kate Pilcher (19:27)

Yeah, in Dolby. Yeah, I did. My father was a horse rider, an amateur racehorse trainer. And so I was plopped on a big chestnut thoroughbred, I think, when I was 2. And, you know, where you. You would see it where some kids, you know, find it terrifying to be on a horse. I just, you know, felt that I could fly and then went to boarding school. So that was. Horses weren't really a massive part of my life when I went to boarding school for my high school years. And then, you know, travel did the whole European gap year, you know, pathway that a lot of Australians, as you know, do. And then. So that was just. I was drunk the whole time, and I didn't really think about, like, which.

Warwick Schiller (20:09)

You know, which countries were you. Which countries were you drunk in?

Kate Pilcher (20:12)

Drunk in? Well, all of Europe it was. But I lived in Edinburgh, Scotland, which is also one of my favorite countries.

Warwick Schiller (20:18)

And then that's a very, very.

Kate Pilcher (20:19)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (20:20)

Cool city.

Kate Pilcher (20:20)

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And then you do Contiki tours on weekends and things like that. So, you know, it was what I call now conveyor belt travel. Like, where it was. It Was just superficial, which is fine. That's what you have to do because you got to do that to know what you want, like what you don't want. And then I went home and I, you know, my career was a photojournalist. So I started a magazine here on the Sunshine Coast. It was a quarterly lifestyle magazine. And did that was with my boyfriend Stephen, who was at it, if you Americans can pronounce this, Nindy Gully he lived out at. Out near St George in Queensland. Yeah, so we'd been together since we were 20. I don't know if you want to know the whole story, but yeah, so I was doing that. And as a photojournalist, I was pitching to national magazines and I got an opportunity with my father, who I've always ridden with and was also business partner with me in the magazine. We went to Masai Mara in Kenya to do a story on that. So there was only four guests and one guide. And yeah, we crossed the Mara in peak migration. I remember riding. I still remember my horse. She was a chestnut mare called Witch and she was an ex polo pony. And she was like a cat. Like she was just. Would fly across the plains. And over that seven days, I just completely, again, my first time ever in a developing country, I just. My whole sort of mind got blown in terms of a country that just completely took me by my heart. And I was proposed to by a Maasai warrior, which was. My father was very happy to negotiate. Negotiate a dowry at that stage. Probably because I put him through so much heartache as a teenager.

Warwick Schiller (22:14)

And how many cattle did he negotiate?

Kate Pilcher (22:18)

Yeah, it was. I think it was one mombuzi, which is a goat and two cows. And then I had to make my own cow dung hut. And I was just like, this is not gonna happen, dad on my watch. But it was just like nighttime, you know, you'd be sitting around a campfire and the hurricane lamps would be out and then you'd hear the. This heaving. It was never structured or orchestrated. And then you. The Masai warriors would come in and dance and it just.

Warwick Schiller (22:46)

So the heaving. Is that them singing?

Kate Pilcher (22:48)

Yeah, the reticulated breathing. And so then the higher they jumping, isn't it? Yeah, the higher they jump, then obviously that's, you know. Yeah. Considered where. I mean, that the women would, you know, the higher the jumper, the better, I guess. And then the, you know, the night noises. I mean, I didn't sleep a wink. I was just totally, you know, throbbing with adrenaline and swimming, the. Swimming the horses across the Mara river where, you know, you're on crock watch and the hippos and the guide has to crack a stock whip to get the hippos to move downstream. And you're literally like, yeah. Everything. Every sense is just, you know, throbbing with, you know, pure fear. And I don't like, I, you know, thrive on being scared. And I love adrenaline, so it just spoke to me on every level. But coming home from that experience, it sort of just. I was looking down the barrel of a white picket fence, you know, had a mortgage, had a boyfriend. I was like, waiting for Steve to propose. I was like. Kept sort of, you know, saying, this ring looks nice. And he was just like. And my parents got divorced. Not by any reason, but they fell out of love. But that was sort of my pedestal of marriage and relationships. And so when that sort of slipped away and poor Steve thought that because prior to that trip, I was desperate for him to propose. And so we went on a ski trip and walked to the top of a hill and he proposed. And it was the complete wrong timing. And so I just said no. He had a ring and everything. Poor guy. Is it? And, you know, there was him for a ring.

Warwick Schiller (24:32)

Yeah. Finally pulls it out. You're like, nah.

Kate Pilcher (24:35)

Yeah. I just said, look, sorry. Like everything feels upside down at the moment. I just don't feel myself. I don't understand what. Why I'm here. We would.

Warwick Schiller (24:45)

It.

Kate Pilcher (24:45)

It was. Wasn't anything to do with him. And he sort of knew that innately, which is amazing. He just said, like, he was not angry. He just said, next time it's your turn.

Warwick Schiller (24:55)

Is this the same Steve you're married to currently?

Kate Pilcher (24:57)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (24:58)

Yeah. Let's give a little round of applause. Steve sticking it out after that and.

Kate Pilcher (25:05)

A father of three girls. Like, you know, he's a. He's a. Yeah. So I said no. And then I said, I need some time to. Just. So I went over. I poor press pause on the magazine. Dad took over the magazine and I went over to Patagonia, Argentina, and found myself on a hundred thousand acres stance here on the Andes border, where you have to only ride in and just lived and breathed.

Warwick Schiller (25:36)

So you can't drive in there.

Kate Pilcher (25:37)

No, no, it's. And very remote. Like they were milking cows still for like, it was all hydroelectricity. Like there was. It's very, very, very remote. Like, you know, horses king in Argentina, as you know. And back then when I was there, you know, and still is, like, it's, you know, Australia 100 years ago, I would imagine, where everything is done by horse. So I, Yeah, I pretty much slept under the stars for six months and had no Internet WI fi access and just sort of journaled and photographed and journaled and photographed and. Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (26:11)

What, you. You hadn't been to Patagonia before? What. What was it about Patagonia that. That drew you there?

Kate Pilcher (26:19)

I think that it was because of the culture that I'd heard, like the gaucho culture, the horse culture, that there was an opportunity to go over there. I. Prior to that, Astancia, I went down to Toro Still Pine in Chile and had done an article on. On a ride through there, and that was exceptional. And then I just bumped. I found out about this in a stance here through another traveler. And then I just, you know, leapfrogged there. And I think I was away for about nine months, just jumping from saddle to saddle, finding, trying to scratch an itch. I didn't know. I just every. I just wanted to be anonymous. Just needed to. I'd never done solo travel, and then once I had, this sort of whole world of these other countries became available to me and I just couldn't get enough of it, really.

Warwick Schiller (27:11)

So do you feel like, you know, your parents divorcing, so you'd. You'd had this. This, you know, you'd had your parents as role models and, like, this is how life goes and it's all good and, and. And it's very solid and it's predictable and all that. And then when they divorce, did that kind of shatter that illusion and you're like, you kind of unsure who you were and the ground you're standing on is a little shaky. Like, you. You weren't really sure that the future you had planned out.

Kate Pilcher (27:43)

Absolutely.

Warwick Schiller (27:44)

You know, you saw that that future you had planned out was. Was fallible. Like, it wasn't infallible.

Kate Pilcher (27:51)

Yeah, I just. Yeah, I felt like this was it. This is exactly what it was going to be for the next. I was going to run a magazine. I was going to have 2.5 children. I was going to be folding my husband's socks for the rest of my life. It just. It felt too rushed. I felt like there was more to life. It was like sort of on your knees moment where it's just like, I. I can't keep doing this. And again, it was nothing with Stephen. It was just an inner calling that I just didn't. I felt like a gypsy. I felt like I had, you know, I don't know, I just couldn't figure out if that I had to choose that Life. And I didn't feel like I was choosing it, I was just running into it because that's just how you're supposed to do things. And I, you know, always at school and things would always swim upstream when everyone's swimming downstream. So it was always just. I always had this urge to have an extraordinary life. Like a. A life that. And now looking back on that, I feel like what is extraordinary now? I just want ordinary. So it's funny how you shift and. And move, but there was a pull of something. There was something more and. Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (29:04)

Are you saying that you want ordinary, or are you saying what you used to consider extraordinary, you now just consider ordinary?

Kate Pilcher (29:14)

Good question. I don't know. I think. Yes. I think my. I feel my life. Well, ordinary is a weird word now I look at it. But I. I feel like what, you know, my life is now is ordinary because I've been doing it for a long time. And ordinary isn't boring. It's just that it's. It's our lifestyle and our, you know, the term.

Warwick Schiller (29:38)

The better term might be normal.

Kate Pilcher (29:40)

That's what I think.

Warwick Schiller (29:41)

Yes. It's. It's not ordinary, but it's normal.

Kate Pilcher (29:43)

Exactly. And I think for my kids, I have to make sure that they find the beauty in normal, because I feel like actually my hurriedness and my. I sometimes don't like that about myself, that I can't sit still and that I am always pushing and hustling. And now getting older, I realize that you don't need to hustle, that things are actually just going to fall in place if you take your hands off the steering wheel of life. And that's. But that's. That's been. Fast forward to fit till I get to that. I've.

Warwick Schiller (30:14)

That is the secret right there. You've just got to give up control.

Kate Pilcher (30:19)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (30:20)

And detachment if you're. Yeah. If you're. Yeah. Your dharma, you know, you. You just got control and what's supposed to happen. Supposed to happen. And, you know, normally I wait till the end of the. The podcast to ask the questions, but I usually, by the time we get to the questions, you've answered them. So I'm going to go with the first question you chose now because it's kind of relative to this. What do you feel your true purpose in the world is?

Kate Pilcher (30:47)

Well, my true purpose in the world, I thought originally was to share my love of horse riding, holidays, or horse travel. I've always felt that. But I keep coming back to my true purpose is to bring up three resilient gritty, strong, thinking girls. And. Yeah, that's only come to me again through meditation and breath work. I've actually realized that that is my purpose, and that's the hardest thing to do at the moment in. I'm finding it's. Yeah, it's. It's hard. So that is my purpose. I'll let you know how I go.

Warwick Schiller (31:28)

But, but don't you feel that, you know, that because they, you know, the girls go on some of these rides with you and stuff? Like, don't you feel that globetrotting is like the vehicle to raise those resilient, strong, independent women?

Kate Pilcher (31:47)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (31:48)

You know what I mean? Like, you know, it's almost like if your true purpose is to raise those three girls to be those qualities, your whole quarter life crisis that led you to do the things you did and start the company you started and do the work you're doing was basically the. The. The groundwork.

Kate Pilcher (32:08)

Absolutely.

Warwick Schiller (32:09)

Yeah.

Kate Pilcher (32:09)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (32:09)

Because I can't imagine what your kids are going to be like when they're 20, you know what I mean? Well, thanks. You know.

Kate Pilcher (32:15)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (32:15)

Just having those experiences and not. Not just being in. Not just being a cog in the machine sort of thing, and, you know, get in that hole, stuck in that, get up, go to work till you die sort of thing, you know. I agree.

Kate Pilcher (32:29)

I hope they choose a. A life, you know, that serves their dharma. I really do. And we can only, as parents, as, you know, lead by example. And so I hope that. I firmly believe in world schooling. Not that that's a concept that's been created, but I. Steve and I sort of sometimes at different pages, because he does feel like they should go to school, which I do, too. School has a purpose. But I feel Finn going to Namibia with me and crossing the desert for 10 days is much more of a, you know, help in her personality and her development than sitting in a classroom for 10 days learning algebra. That's just me. Like, that's, you know, and to share that experience and ride shoulder to shoulder with your daughter is. And see her struggle and have to go through it, or to see the elation where she beats me in a race, you know, which. That never happens, but it may one day. Well, it's. That's cool. That's. That is very, very cool to be able to do.

Warwick Schiller (33:32)

Yeah, it's almost. It's almost like you're almost educating her soul. You know what I mean? Like, not too many people. You know, most people and those kids go to school or whatever, you know, you don't Even consider the word soul until you having your midlife.

Kate Pilcher (33:51)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (33:52)

Crisis. You know what I mean?

Kate Pilcher (33:54)

Yeah, I agree.

Warwick Schiller (33:56)

Yeah, I think that's, I think that's amazing.

Kate Pilcher (33:58)

It's pretty.

Warwick Schiller (33:58)

So let's back up to your story here. So you, you went to, went to Torres del Paine.

Kate Pilcher (34:05)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (34:05)

He's absolutely beautiful. If you guys at home don't know what that is, just look up Torres del Pantio. R R E S del Paine. P A I N E I think.

Kate Pilcher (34:16)

Yeah. In Chile.

Warwick Schiller (34:17)

It's in Chile. It's absolutely beautiful. When I went and did the Gaucho Derby Academy a couple of years ago, my son came with me.

Kate Pilcher (34:26)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (34:27)

And he went hiking in Torres del Pain whilst doing the academy. And so I've seen lots of pictures from it. Yeah, it was, it's amazing. So then you're. You're on this estancia in Patagonia. You're there for like nine months. So Steve waits at home for nine months.

Kate Pilcher (34:41)

I wrote into a dial up Internet cafe because I didn't want him to wait because that's not fair on him and just said that I think we should break up. And then that was really hard. But I didn't want to hold the keys to his life and him moving forward even though he had our mortgage and our dog. But I needed. I just felt really guilty about that because he was, he is and was just the most honest, amazing human being. And he traveled a lot too, don't get me wrong. Like he wasn't a country bumpkin for Nindy Gully that hadn't traveled. But he, he also hadn't done this type of travel. And then from there I got an opportunity to be a backup guide in Kenya. So not on the ride outfit that I, I went to in the Masai Mara, but a stationary ride outfit up near l'occipia in Kenya. And so I worked as a backup guide there for like four months. And that's where I brushed shoulders with guests. And they were coming from all over the world. And it was just started that seed that they were coming from agencies, you know that and what they were looking for in a ride and just why they were riding. Some had gotten a divorce or some needed a break from their everyday life. And so it was sort of like a focus group constantly. And I just love meeting people and I love talking to people. And that sort of germinated that seed of that there wasn't an agency in Australia doing what people don't. If people don't understand what an agency is we just introduce people to, to rides and we take a 20 commission but the client pays the same price. So the 20 goes off. You know, if it's $3,000, we, you know, they pay us and then we pay the ride partner and we take the 20. So that was, you know, Kenya was where it all began. So I had done a full circle and when I got home back to Australia, I was playing polo and all of my polo friends, which were, they were sort of in their 50s, wanted to do what I did. But in. They didn't want the quarter life crisis. No one can afford to do that. So they wanted. I guided a trip back to Kenya where I was working and Steve came and saw the world that I got completely bewildered by. And. Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (37:09)

And so can we get back to Steve?

Kate Pilcher (37:13)

Yeah, can we get.

Warwick Schiller (37:15)

Can we go back all the way back to.

Kate Pilcher (37:16)

He needs his own podc Us? Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (37:18)

No, no. And this is not so much Steve, but so you got, you know, you guys have a commitment, you have a mortgage, you have a dog. You've taken this time to, to go off on your own to Argentina. But then you said you rode a horse to town to a dial up in that cafe to break up with him. How was that? Right? I mean, you know, what was your mindset like that led actually to that point? I've got to go into town. I've got to tell Steve. Was this. Was it really hard? Was it a weight off your chest when you finally did that?

Kate Pilcher (37:57)

It was both. It was like it was one of the hardest conversations I had. And you imagine like scratchy phone line. Like he would have been excited to hear from me. You know, when you, then when you say it, it's sort of. So it was, it was a combination. But I just, I didn't think I could really experience being there by myself. Knowing that I had. Yeah. That Steve was there at home adulting and I was not. But it was, it was hard. Yeah, it was. And hard for him. Like that's, that's break your heart material. Stuff like that's fucked. I didn't. It wasn't like, it wasn't something that looking back, it hasn't happened ending. But at the time it was, you know, I just, it was something I had to do. But it was. Yeah, I think heart shattering for both of us.

Warwick Schiller (38:51)

I just feel like that was a, a very brave move. Like you're, you're isolated, you're in the middle of nowhere. There is no reason to expect a phone call from you. You're, you know, you're at the middle of nowhere, whatever, but you decide to get. I just feel like that's a. It's a. It's a very brave move, and it kind of a. You know, even though it seems like it's selfish, it's a very selfless act to, like, do that. And, yeah, I imagine that was really hard.

Kate Pilcher (39:22)

It was. Yeah, it was. Yeah. All of that time was really hard. Like, it sounds all lovely and romantic, but it was actually doing the work. Like, I was doing the work. I didn't really realize what I was doing, but it was just like I had to become hopelessly lost. And then there was a point when I was in Kenya where my dad rang and said, you need to come home and play some music. You have a business and a mortgage. Stop running away. Because I would have just. I would have run away, you know, I. So I had to come. And that was good. Like, he was like, you. You need to come home. You know, because Steve is still really good friends and my parents and all my family, because we all live up here on the Sunshine coast, and he had been part of my family for. You know, he'd asked my dad for my hand in marriage. Like, you know, he. He'd known them since, you know, for six years. He was at my 21st, like. And this is the thing. I wasn't. That I wasn't in love with him, and it wasn't that, but I just had to. I could not be married to a man when I didn't even know myself. I did not know.

Warwick Schiller (40:27)

It's all about finding you.

Kate Pilcher (40:28)

Yeah, exactly. And, you know, and he just had a. Even, I think probably when I broke up with him on that scratchy phone line. I don't know. You'd have to ask him. But I think he just had this innate belief that we'd be back. That we'd get back together. Strange. I don't know.

Warwick Schiller (40:45)

Yeah, so that was in Patagonia. And. But then the next thing you said, you ended up in Kenya. And the reason I'm asking this question is because I feel like listeners listening to people's stories on the podcast, you. You. You get. You get glimpses into how some of the magic's created. And I want to know what was the. How did you get from Patagonia to Kenya? Who did you meet? What conversation did you hear? What opportunity arose that you seized upon? Because I really feel like people like you, and I mean, people like you, like most podcast guests, people who are doing something in the world that everybody else goes they're quite envious of you. And most of the time, people get there through, number one, giving up control, like you said, taking hands off the steering wheel. But the other thing is seizing the opportunities that are dangled in front of you instead of ignoring them. So what was the opportunity that got dangled in front of you to go to Kenya from. From Patagonia, Because Patagonia, you're still not thinking about creating globetrotting yet? No, no, just doing your thing. But you said it was in Kenya where you got to meet guests, hang out with guests, find out what they're looking for, that it kind of. You start to hatch this idea. What was your Patagonia to Kenya introduction?

Kate Pilcher (42:05)

Well, when I came back from the horse riding safari that I'd written about, I then wanted to go straight back to Kenya, but there was no opportunity there. And then my mum, school friend had connections in Kenya. She'd gone, she goes every year. And so that seed had so germinated in terms of. She spoke to her. And then it took six months for that to drop that there was a property called Barana where they, because they knew a mutual friend that they would take me on because they, those are, those things are like hen's teeth. Like you can't just go look for backup horse riding guide in Kenya. And yeah, so that's. And so I needed, but I needed to go now because I just had to go. I had that feeling of getting on a plane. And so it, yeah, it wasn't, it, it. They weren't able to take me for a certain time. So that's when I went to Patagonia instead and then dropped back into Kenya after that. When I was in Patagonia, I was journaling all the time and trying to find what drove me, what was my true north. And it was like writing and horse riding. Riding and horse riding or photographing so that the horse riding was a new thing that came in to. That I was always writing and photographing and like Steve gave me my first ever journal. He bought me my first ever camera. Like, it's just such a enabler and saw me, he always has seen me. Like, that's, that's really cool to, to meet your true love at 19. You're like, I used to always think that was, you know, a gift, but it also, like you're still growing up. Like you're still, you're still trying to find yourself. And I mean people, I say you're like a butterfly. And it's so true. Like we would always move in different directions, but still be together. And that, you know, was lovely that we could still grow up and, you know, still, you know, be together. Now is cool. I digress. I don't know what you asked me.

Warwick Schiller (44:01)

Oh, it was about, how did you get from Patagonia to Kenya? What was the introduction. But you were. You were playing. Not. You're waiting around for Kenya.

Kate Pilcher (44:08)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (44:08)

When you went to Pagan. It's just so fascinating that you happen to choose Patagonia because, I mean, that's. That's. That's, you know, that's part of the globetrotting thing now. Your experience there would have cemented, like, oh, this is a place that.

Kate Pilcher (44:23)

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That's right. Because Kenya, it's the animals, it's the X factor, But Argentina, it's just, you live and breathe horses. Horses king. Like, it's just, you know. And what was really nice, that particular estancia did the demar rationale, which is the soft touch. So, as you know, they break in horses very differently in Argentina, and there's two ways. Like, they can tie them up to Palenque all day and they learn, you know, how to release. But this particular stance, he was very cutting edge in terms of having that soft touch with horses, which was. I've never. I'd never seen a horse handled like that before. So that was. And so we all got young cults and could. We had time with the facilitator to learn to. Yeah. To train them, which was spectacular. I saw lots of not great things as well, but, you know, that was special.

Warwick Schiller (45:17)

Yeah. So then you spent time in. In Kenya. Was that when you. When is that when you learned to speak Swahili?

Kate Pilcher (45:25)

Yeah, with all the guides at the back. Yeah. Which was really cool. It's very phonetic. I was really annoyed with myself that I didn't speak that. My Spanish wasn't as good. They didn't have duolingo back then. As good as it was when I left. Because there was a lot of backpackers on the stancia that I stayed at, like. But then when I got to Kenya, I really wanted to speak to the people on their terms rather than speaking in English. And so I just would stay at the back and just practice and practice and had my little Swahili phrase book. And it was. Yeah, I'd spent a lot of time in the staff quarters with the. Yeah. A lot of very good friends that I had there.

Warwick Schiller (46:05)

Swahili's very melodic, isn't it?

Kate Pilcher (46:09)

Yeah, yeah. And the verb conjugations, like, it's all It's. It makes more sense than the feminine and masculine and. Yeah. And it's just like, takataka is rubbish. Barra butter is road. Like, it's just cool.

Warwick Schiller (46:22)

You wrote your Buddha. Buddha down the butter.

Kate Pilcher (46:25)

Butter. Exactly. Pretty much exactly. Farasi is horse. Actually, your podcast journey is safari, which is one of my most favorite words in the Swahili language.

Warwick Schiller (46:36)

Safari mean. Actually means journey.

Kate Pilcher (46:38)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (46:39)

Which I just didn't know that.

Kate Pilcher (46:40)

Yeah. So I was going to tell you that at the start. Yeah. Which I just love. So, you know, and that's what, you know, globetrating is this too, as a constant journey. So that's. Yeah, I. It's a very, very special place. When I land in Argentina or Kenya, I feel like I've come home. Like, it's a second home. Whether that's been another life that I've had spent there, it just feels like home.

Warwick Schiller (47:10)

So you went. You're in Kenya, then you go back to Australia. Dad says you got to come home. You've got. You can't run away forever. What. What turns does your life take then?

Kate Pilcher (47:22)

I was really depressed. I was really like. I came back to. My mum was still missing my father immeasurably and sadly, we were so close that she felt she could confide in me as a best friend. But, you know, it's just. I love my dad too. So it was really hard situation. I felt like I was in the middle and my. My sister and brother weren't at, you know, they weren't in that area at that time stage. So that it was just a very hard situation because Mum didn't obviously was still, you know, in love with dad when he broke up. And that was really hard. So I came back to obviously just life and, you know what. And the sort of layers that. In that was involved. And I guess Stephen said to me, can I just have dinner with you when you come home? You know, just one dinner. Because I didn't again, we still had stuff. We had a mortgage and a dog and all of those things. So, yeah, we had dinner and it sort of. Yeah. Picked up from there. Can you say it like that? I don't know. Like, it was just we. He then. Well, and then I did that trip to Kenya and he came with me. I was like. I just asked him if he would come because he's a rider, but not like he rode as a kid in Indigiri. But he wasn't a huge, you know, love of horses.

Warwick Schiller (48:44)

Right.

Kate Pilcher (48:44)

But, yeah, we took 10 guests over to Kenya where I started where I guided. Not the Masai Mara one, the one at in L'Occipia. And yeah, I was, like, seeing him there and loving it as much as I did and meeting the people face to face, because, again, you see lots of different types of people that come on those riding safaris. And I don't know, it cringes me to think that you would ever speak down to people that. Anyway, he just was completely the same as, you know, it was. Yeah, he met those people with. Met the wonderful Kenyan people, you know, heart to heart. And there was a moment when I was literally having a camp shower. So, you know, those safari canvas tent showers, and we just had the most remarkable riding day. And like a bolt of lightning, I was like, you need to propose to Steve. Like, it was just an instant, like, shower thought. Yeah. Yeah. How good are shower thoughts? I get my best ideas in the shower.

Warwick Schiller (49:51)

Oh, yeah.

Kate Pilcher (49:52)

Yeah. So I, before I, you know, lost the guts, I literally put a towel on and went and sat next to him on. Sat on his lap. And he was, you know, out near our tent and said, I have to ask you something. And he's like, okay. I was like, no, no, don't worry about it. And I literally. And he goes, no, no, you asked me what you were about to ask me. And I. Yeah, I said, will you marry me? He's like, I really want to say no to you, Kate.

Warwick Schiller (50:17)

But yes, he really wanted to say no. So, ladies, if you're going to propose, I would suggest the best way to do it is while wearing a towel, sitting on a block. Okay.

Kate Pilcher (50:29)

Yeah. Moment of weakness right there. I'm not silly. That's premeditated.

Warwick Schiller (50:36)

No, feminine, wild.

Kate Pilcher (50:38)

Exactly. And you was having a beer, too, so it's the perfect, perfect situation. Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Warwick Schiller (50:47)

So that this is before you actually started globetrotting as a business, or was that your. So. But that was the introduction to it. So how did you find these 10 people?

Kate Pilcher (50:58)

So I was playing polo with them. So they knew me. They knew I'd run away. They knew I'd been gone. And then when they came back, they're like, we. We saw your photos. You know, I spoke to them what happened. And this particular amazing place that I worked at, and they're like, hook us up. And so I was like, that could be like my first exploratory ride. I know the ride. I know, you know, the ride partners are amazing and the horses. And so, yeah, we went over there and that. I think at that same start, same time, I registered globetrotting and Websites were big then, so it was actually www.globetrain.com. and that. Yeah, that was my first official sort of foray into guiding and taking a group of guests to Kenya. And.

Warwick Schiller (51:46)

Yeah, so I want to, I want to talk about the timeline here, because this is, this is. This is where the magic of the universe happens. You had decided when you're in Kenya that that's what you want to do, that you were going to do that. And then you just had me playing polo. And these people say, hey, Kate, would you take us on a ride in Kenya? Okay, so who, who, who else does that happen to have a business idea and then have a group without telling this group of people you have a business idea, have them come to you and want to be clients of your business that you haven't even announced yet? Like. Yeah, think about the magic to that right there. I just, I just believe, like, the universe has a magic to it when you can surrender to it. And you're absolutely. And you're. You're living your karma sort of thing. You're like, you're in. Yeah. You're doing what you're supposed to be doing. Those opposite. Like, think about that opportunity. Right.

Kate Pilcher (52:41)

Yeah, it just radiates it, doesn't it? Like, it does.

Warwick Schiller (52:44)

I mean. Yeah, you just. You've got to be open to that stuff.

Kate Pilcher (52:47)

Yeah, that's.

Warwick Schiller (52:47)

You could. And you could have said, oh, no, I don't do that.

Kate Pilcher (52:50)

No, that's right.

Warwick Schiller (52:51)

I'm not ready. I'm not ready yet.

Kate Pilcher (52:52)

Yeah, I haven't got my business plan and I haven't.

Warwick Schiller (52:55)

Blah, blah, blah.

Kate Pilcher (52:56)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (52:56)

Yes.

Kate Pilcher (52:57)

No, it's true. Yeah. Very cool.

Warwick Schiller (53:00)

And so that. That was your. Your foray into it, then you got the whole website, all that sort of stuff. Where was your first ever Globetrotting? Right.

Kate Pilcher (53:08)

Oh, well, apart from that one.

Warwick Schiller (53:11)

Oh, I don't know.

Kate Pilcher (53:12)

I think then I started because I still had the magazine and that was being released every quarter. So every time I would publish, and I was the editor of that, and it was a very successful magazine. So every time I would publish an edition, I would then travel, you know, in the downtime and find and road test a new ride. And where that. Yeah, I went. I did road test a lot of rides in Australia. So I think it would have actually been in this. In the high country in Victoria, because I knew my guests wanted to also ride within Australia. So I road tested one there. Would have probably been my first. Yeah. And then I think Mongolia after that. Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (53:55)

And was that your first trip to Mongolia?

Kate Pilcher (53:58)

Yeah, oh, we went with that. Two of our best friends and we rode up with the Tatzan people, the nomadic rain people. So. Right.

Warwick Schiller (54:05)

Oh, the reindeer people way at the top.

Kate Pilcher (54:07)

Yeah. So beautiful. And that was. Yeah, that was really cool, her hearing the wolves howl at night and just. Yeah. I mean, it was diggy dive. We talk about final frontiers. That was. Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (54:20)

Cool. Yeah, they still. They, you know, they're still quite shamanic in the way they go about things and very, very, very in touch with nature and the seasons and. And haven't forgot. And we're talking before about third world country sort of people. And you said how they. How they. How they. Their family life is important and all that sort of stuff. It's almost like they live closer to how we're supposed to be living, which is why they don't have the mental health crisis we have. You know, they don't have all that. All the depression and all that sort of stuff going on because they're. They're still living. They're not hunter gatherers, but they're living closer to how we have evolved to live.

Kate Pilcher (55:08)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (55:08)

Then. Yeah. And I imagine the reindeer people are very much that way.

Kate Pilcher (55:12)

Oh, they're so cool. I mean, it was. Yeah. When we fight. Because you don't know where they are. Right. So your guy doesn't. Because they're moving all the time. So when we did, you know, stumble upon them because they're in the teepees rather than the girls. So that was that. When we saw it on the horizon, you could see that we'd found them. And then just also, like hanging out with the reindeers was just that this. I. I've never seen one in my life. So that was, you know, amazing as well. And that the Mongols love to sing. So it's just. And then they have the holy cheese that they milk from the reindeers, you know, so there's just. It's. It was. Yeah. The choir.

Warwick Schiller (55:52)

Tell me about the holy cheese.

Kate Pilcher (55:53)

Well, they. So the white reindeer, which is also the. The holy reindeer, which is the one that they.

Warwick Schiller (55:59)

The women that so holy, as in spiritual, religious. Swiss cheese. They make holy cheese.

Kate Pilcher (56:09)

And because reindeers, they must step. They're more even than a horse. Do they step. Anyway, so that when the women are pregnant, they always go in the holy reindeer down to birth. And because they're so. And they obviously ride the reindeers when it's. When it's full snow. But yeah, we got to eat some of the holy cheese. So now my complexion is amazing.

Warwick Schiller (56:31)

Yeah, I remember. I don't know if you know Chloe Phillips Harris from New Zealand. You know Chloe. When I went to Mongolia and rode the camels across the Gobi Desert in the wintertime, it was a ride that she'd organized. Chloe. Chloe did the, the Mongol Derby and fell in love with Mongolia. Now she goes back every year and yeah, she goes up, she has a ride with the reindeer people, whatever.

Kate Pilcher (56:56)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (56:56)

But I remember when I first met her, she, I was asking her all sorts of questions about the things that she'd seen and she said the most surreal thing I've ever seen was she was staying with the reindeer people. And she said she got up early one morning and came outside the teepee and the sun was just kind of peepee starting to come over the Horizon. And this 10 year old boy walked out of the pee pee at the pee pee, the teepee. I was gonna say he was getting outside to pee. I'm getting my pee pees and my teepees. He walked out of the teepee, had a big old stretch and a yawn, ran over, jumped on the back of the nearest reindeer and rode over the hill into the rising sun. So like he's silhouetted in the reindeer horns are silhouetted by the rising sun. And she said that's the most surreal scene I've ever seen. Like, wow. Yes, I, yes, I, I, that would.

Kate Pilcher (57:47)

Burn on my memory forever too, for sure. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's, it's cool.

Warwick Schiller (57:54)

So your first ones are in Australia and then Mongolia. What about bots? So you'd ridden in Kenya. What about Botswana and Namibia? What was your introduction to those?

Kate Pilcher (58:06)

Oh yeah, good question. So when I was in Kenya, my, because I obviously didn't get paid when I was working over there at my beautiful ride, partners who I was working with sent me to the Okavango Delta as a, as a presentation. So I rode there. And that was, you know, it's a water delta, so you're, you know, constantly cantering through ankle deep water and then you're in mokoros, which are dugout canoes and seeing elephants from the water, which was phenomenal. And then, oh for Steve and my honeymoon, we went to Namibia. We did the Namib desert ride. So again, work but play. But we needed to road test that ride. My father was with us. Everyone's like, you took your father on your honeymoon. But we were there with 10 guests. So, you know, there was one night actually that we got into camp because you just have camp stretches in Namibia because there's no, you know, predators like in the particular Namib desert ride, and we were attacked by corn crickets, which are these massive crickets. And when.

Warwick Schiller (59:08)

So for you people at home, you can't see Kate, she's holding her fingers up.

Kate Pilcher (59:13)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (59:13)

And her fingertips are six inches apart, so she's not talking about a cricket that's an inch long. Like, this is like the. If you spread your hand wide from the end of your pinky to the end of your thumbs up.

Kate Pilcher (59:23)

Exactly. It was a swarm. And so we put our fly nets over our canvas camp stretches, and when you would, like. If you would, like, stomp on one, then they would swarm because they're cannibals, so they'd eat each other. So it was like a horror movie. It was just, you know, happy honeymoon. But it was very cool. It's a really cool ride, actually. Stephen's horse got bitten by a scorpion that was in the hay and had this massive fat lip. And then the spare horse, when he was cantering along, kicked up at his horse and he brought, like. He kicked his. He, like, put his hand up to guard him. His face, luckily. And it. Yeah, he got this massive hematoma on his arm. But it was. Yeah, it was a very, very, very cool ride. And that's.

Warwick Schiller (60:07)

Yeah, I've heard. I haven't been in Namibia, but I've heard from people down there that Namibia is, you know, they said it's less touristy. There's just as many. There's just as much wildlife.

Kate Pilcher (60:17)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (60:18)

As beautiful as anywhere else.

Kate Pilcher (60:20)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (60:21)

What about Brazil? Where do you write in Brazil?

Kate Pilcher (60:25)

I was invited to as part of a Brazil tourism junket that they were really trying to get horse tourism up, equine tourism. So I went over with other riding agents and I rode in the Pantanal, which was like, macaw's, capybaras. Like, the wildlife is off the Richter scale and the pantaneros are the equivalent of a gaucho. So the cowboys were like, their horse culture is phenomenal.

Warwick Schiller (60:53)

Yes. I was going to say it's very much, at least on par with the gauchos down there. Yeah.

Kate Pilcher (60:59)

And then I rode in Bahia, which is the beach near Tranoso, and that was just like the land of milk and honey. Like, every tree was, like, laden with fruit. Like, you'd be picking mangoes and you'd be cracking open coconuts. Like, it was like. Yeah, it was just. It was very cool place to be, that. And just, you know, wild, salty canters along the beach line. It was amazing. And the. The. Yeah, the seafood, everything was just like, Perfect.

Warwick Schiller (61:29)

Sounds like it. So let's go back to your journey here. So you've started. You started Globetrotting. Is Steve. Does Steve join you in Globetrotting? Like, you guys are running it together?

Kate Pilcher (61:44)

No, no, no. So I wrote it, and I. I obviously ran it parallel with Salt magazine. With the magazine. It's a globe trotting in salt. And then my father, who's been a mentor to me for a long time, said, when you want to do globetrotting more than salt, then that'd be the time to sell the magazine. And I remember, like, sitting on a Friday afternoon with Steve. He was an electrician, so he was a farmer, and then did a degree and then came back as a mature age electrician. So he was doing solar in the height of solar over here in Australia. So he was really busy doing that. And I said to him, I think it's time I sell the magazine. And literally, the phone rang, and there was a lady that said, I want to buy your magazine. Like, literally, it was at. It was like, Steve and I were just laughing, and so she bought the magazine because. Globetron.

Warwick Schiller (62:35)

There we go. The universe at work.

Kate Pilcher (62:38)

I know.

Warwick Schiller (62:39)

Again, I did a podcast with a. With a. Oh, what would you call Peter Crane? I don't know if you knew who Peter Crone is. He's a spiritual advisor. Personal growth dude, whatever. Like, guys. The guys, just. When he's. He can say one sentence, and you got to stop and stare at the wall. He told a story on the podcast that he'd broken up with this girl. And, like, he was. Spent six months, like, moping and whining, and I wish. And finally he. He was like, you know what? I'm just gonna let it go. And then the phone rang, and it was her. She goes, I miss you. So it's exactly. Exactly the same thing. Like, when you have that. Yeah. When you. You know, when you. When you finally let go and you allow the universe to guide you, things like that happen. So, yeah, I'm gonna sell the magazine. Someone calls, and, yeah, it was wild.

Kate Pilcher (63:41)

It was like, literally to the. To the minute of that. That statement. So it goes. Just goes to show how aligned I was or whatever was happening. That it was just like, yeah, this is the decision. And then it was probably. I was running Globetrotting by myself for. Again, time. Time is smushed for my brain. I don't really. But I was running Globetrotting maybe for five to six years. And then Stephen came in as the cfo because we work in so many different currencies. And so now. Yes, yes, he does work in the business, but he's sort of lead parent a lot of the time because I travel. So, yeah, it works well. We've got. Yeah, a phenomenal team with us, so it's. It's good.

Warwick Schiller (64:25)

So you mentioned earlier on meditation and breath work, and you also mentioned journaling. How long have you been interested in those things?

Kate Pilcher (64:38)

I was grow. I grew up very spiritual. So my grandmother and my mother did Ouija boards when I was like, eight at Christmas, like, with seances, I don't know what people call them now. So. Always spoke about angels to me. And just like, there was a spiritual undertone in my upbringing and not necessarily, like, I went to a Christian school, but it wasn't God, as we, you know, what. What, you know, a Christian God. It was just that there was a spirituality and that, you know, karma and belief in something above and beyond us. And then I, you know, in my 20s, interviewed a Buddhist nun because there's a institute here, Chen Rezik, and that sort of interested me. So I started doing meditation then, especially in times of where I, you know, really felt out of place. And then I've been probably meditating. So when I. Between. So I've got three girls. Finn is my eldest, Birdie's my middle. And then Poppy, who came in before, is my youngest. And in between Birdie and Poppy, I had a lot of infertility issues, a lot of miscarriages. And that's where I discovered breath work or meditation, because obviously that's a really tricky time for any woman or, I mean, husband as well. But to. That was the only salve that I could get with my brain to be able to make sense of any of it and know that. That, you know, that they're.

Warwick Schiller (66:08)

Yeah.

Kate Pilcher (66:09)

That I'm okay. I guess. So that's been a huge. Yeah. Bookend of my day, or at the start of a day, I will meditate or do breath work just to calm my brain because it's busy.

Warwick Schiller (66:22)

And what sort of breath work do you do?

Kate Pilcher (66:25)

I don't know the name of it. It's like Pranayama, I think it's called. Yeah, but it just. Yeah, it's pretty much tapping into your pineal gland. So you obviously breathe through your mouth, in and out at quick succession. And I do that for, like 45 minutes. And then you do a breath hold, and then it's like you're touching God.

Warwick Schiller (66:52)

Oh, it sounds a bit tumor breath. Like. Have you ever heard of holotropic breath work?

Kate Pilcher (66:58)

No. But it could be that.

Warwick Schiller (67:01)

So holotropic breath work was invented by a guy named Stan Graff. So Stan Graff was a. I think he was a therapist who was doing a lot of experimenting in the 80s, I think with LSD. LSD in a therapeutic type session.

Kate Pilcher (67:15)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (67:15)

When LSD became illegal, he said, well, we've got to be able to do this somehow. And he. This thing called holotropic breath work, which is. I think it's based on a. An ancient Indian breath work. I think it might be referred to as tummo breathing. But it's, it's in, out, in. It's like forced in and out with no pauses between the in and the out. And it's extended in your breath work. Did you ever get your hands kind of all curled up like that?

Kate Pilcher (67:45)

I feel like I levitate my hands in my. I just feel like I'm in a different realm.

Warwick Schiller (67:50)

It's in the, in the. This holotropic breath work, you'll get to where your hands will go into what they call T Rex hands and you get like T Rex arms. But then at the end of it. Yeah. There's. Yes. And you do that. You do that regularly? 45 minutes. That's a long time.

Kate Pilcher (68:05)

Yeah. Well, I would do one of those, like I've got a breath work coach that I have that we have a session every Thursday and then I will do top ups throughout the week if I feel. And that will be like 20 or 30 minutes. And then I free write. So I just let my hand write and just sweat it. Yeah, right. It sounds a bit. Woo. Yeah. Afterwards.

Warwick Schiller (68:27)

But it's no, the free writing. I've heard that's. Heard. That's cool. Yeah. Even if it's scribble.

Kate Pilcher (68:34)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (68:34)

I've heard you just let it do whatever it's going to do.

Kate Pilcher (68:36)

Yeah, it's very, very cool.

Warwick Schiller (68:40)

And what sort of meditation practice is it?

Kate Pilcher (68:43)

Well, the meditation I used to do. What's it called? Transcendental meditation. Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (68:49)

Okay. Just focus on a mantra.

Kate Pilcher (68:51)

Yeah, exactly. And that mantra. So I do breath work now more because it just is. I get into a state a lot quicker and it serves me better. Like I just go there really quickly. And we did our first breathwork ride in Mexico in December, which was. Bree Milanson has been following. So she came and rode and then we breath worked in the morning and afternoon and it was just.

Warwick Schiller (69:18)

Yeah, now you're getting somewhere. Yeah. Yes. Like think about the experience of riding horses through a new country with spectacular scenery and breath work.

Kate Pilcher (69:30)

I know two of my favorite things, and you know what Warwick was amazing is I had my two girls beside me, like palms up, breathing with me, and I just had like, happy tears. Like this tool for my girls to be able to have that in their pocket for when they go through adolescence in life is like, what a gift. And then I'm riding with them, you know, in. During the day in Mexico on these beautiful horses that looked after them like, yeah, it. That is like probably one of my most favorite favorite moments. Or there was another moment too. But yeah, that's like lots of those layered moments that I can share with them.

Warwick Schiller (70:08)

I take screenshots of memes on my phone a lot, and one I took a screenshot of the other day was, what if we taught meditation to children in school?

Kate Pilcher (70:20)

Powerful.

Warwick Schiller (70:21)

Hey, how different could the world be?

Kate Pilcher (70:24)

So, so much so. That's why I feel grateful that I can. That the girls have that tapping as well. I used to do a lot of tapping. That's another amazing tool. And that actually just came intuitively to me when I was meditating. And then I googled it and realized that it was a thing.

Warwick Schiller (70:41)

It's a thing.

Kate Pilcher (70:42)

Yeah, it's a thing. Yeah, exactly. Eft so that the girls do that a lot. And they do. My. My girl Finn was told to tap at school, which is cool. And she's like, I already do that. So I think that there are schools that are doing a lot more of that, which is nice because the busier the world gets, they need a tool like that rather than swiping right.

Warwick Schiller (71:08)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The world will be a different place. It's almost like, think about. Those things are now becoming a bit more mainstream. So we've almost. We're almost going backwards to go forwards, going back to more of our, you know, you think about, you know, you would have been the same as me. When you're a baby, you sleep in another room and you cry yourself to sleep sort of thing. Whereas. Whereas, you know, nowadays they're talking about co sleeping and how, you know, we're not supposed to have our kids sleep in another room and. Yeah, all of that.

Kate Pilcher (71:40)

Yeah, there's so much education out there, for sure.

Warwick Schiller (71:43)

And imagine you would. I want to talk about. I'll have you talk a bit about some of the things you've seen in other cultures that just make you kind of go, wow, these guys have got it going on.

Kate Pilcher (71:58)

Well, I guess the main thing is, is what we touched on his family. Like they live and breathe. They're not just their immediate Family, their extended family, like, and that elders are cherished. Like, that's just, you know, that that is so important and missed in, I think, you know, our society. I don't want to get so boxy, but it's just like that's what I find, you know, and their daily rhythm is outside, you know, like, I just love to be able to see the night sky. Like, can you speak to many people nowadays if you were to like that, have looked up at the stars or sat around a campfire? Like, that stuff is, is so important. And that's what I, you know, I love, love, love that, you know, I try and take that home also. Just sometimes the way we pamper our horses, I kind of like that horses are kept in herds and they are, you know, like, I love that part as well. Because we can, I think we can over pamper our horses here. And you know, and so I love, you know, we sport horses. We keep them in separate paddocks in case they, you know, hurt themselves when, you know, in Argentina or any Mongolia, they run as a herd, they move as a herd. You'll see them in Iceland and you'll go through that herd when they're feeding in Iceland, the hay, they're not kicking, they're not putting their ears back, like, right. It is wild to see. And so I always come back and you know, check myself. You know, I've got dressage boots, I've got show jump boots. You know, you just have to constantly keep checking yourself and going, what the hell am I doing? Like that as well is a big. Yeah thing for me. And that, you know, horses can go anywhere. Like they, you know, there's no. Yeah. Anyway, you would have seen, you know, when I was.

Warwick Schiller (73:45)

Exactly a year ago right now, when I was in Argentina in the Gacha Derby, you know, every day you'd kind of. You get a new understanding of what sort of terrain horses can cross. And by, you know, by day five, you'd point your horse at something that on day one you'd like. We need to go around this.

Kate Pilcher (74:04)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Warwick Schiller (74:05)

And you start to understand how, how full will drive you those horses, the places they can cover even, you know, my Dan James. You know, a lot of Australians would know who Dan is. Dan was the, you know, he was the, the horse boss on a million acre station in the Kimberley. So he's seen some stuff, you know, it's not like he. Yeah, he's from the northern beaches of Sydney or something. Pony club. I mean, he's seen some stuff and, and he was just flabbergasted. He said, I just can believe the things these horses can do and the places they can. Can go. And every day we just got a new appreciation for it. And. And horses should never be lame or the horses shouldn't have stone bruises because there's nothing but a pile of rocks down there in some places. And they just.

Kate Pilcher (74:55)

Yeah, I know, that's right. I love it. Like, they are the pathfinders that. And especially that creoljo breed in Argentina. You face them at something, they just don't ask questions. Like, it's just.

Warwick Schiller (75:07)

Yeah, well, see, they grow up in it, too, like.

Kate Pilcher (75:10)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (75:11)

You know, when I went down there for the part of the gaucho Derby academy, which is usually they have it the week before, 10 days before the Gaucho Derby, and it's for people who want to do the gaucho Derby. And it's a bit of an introduction, but the last thing you do is you go out and you round up these horses that are going to come in and they're going to be the. The horses for the start of the Gaucho Derby.

Kate Pilcher (75:35)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (75:35)

And so you. You ride out one day, Right. All day. Then you camp that night. Then you go and find all these horses and gather them and bring them in closer to your camp that night, and then you bring them in the next day. But there's foals in there. Yes, they are keeping up with the herd and going up. I mean. Yeah, I'm talking, you know, like young weanling sort of thing, like little foals and they just keep up and go uphill down dale, cross rivers.

Kate Pilcher (76:00)

I love it.

Warwick Schiller (76:01)

Oh, my goodness. Yes.

Kate Pilcher (76:02)

So true. I remember seeing it when I was riding in Chile and one of the bacchianos had a foal tailing him the whole day. And so that foal is just. Yeah. Like a mountain goat by the end of it. It makes sense, doesn't it? It all makes so much sense.

Warwick Schiller (76:15)

Yeah. And if you think about the horses and you think about the people that. I think the closer you can get to the way we're supposed to live, the better things, you know?

Kate Pilcher (76:26)

That's right. That's why I seek out travel all the time. That's why I say so. The girls, like, I don't know, in Tanzania, last time the women were washing their clothes in this muddy creek. The girls and I went down with them and giggled and washed the clothes with them. Like, you know, this is so important. It's a tapestry that hopefully, you know, when they grow up, it's just imprinting them all the time. Is that, you know. Yeah. To be curious and, you know, judgment free thing.

Warwick Schiller (76:55)

Speaking of washing clothes, the thing I couldn't believe in Kenya, how clean their clothes are. Yes. Like they live in a dust. They live in a dust.

Kate Pilcher (77:05)

I know, I know. Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (77:07)

You know, when we were there, it was. It was pretty. This is five or six years ago. There's a pretty big drought going on, but there's just dust everywhere. But if they've got a white shirt on, it's white.

Kate Pilcher (77:18)

Yeah. And it.

Warwick Schiller (77:20)

Yeah, it's dark white, wild.

Kate Pilcher (77:24)

I know.

Warwick Schiller (77:24)

Yes, I know.

Kate Pilcher (77:25)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (77:26)

And the other thing is you would. You'd be driving along and you're 20Ks in the nearest town and there's a man in a suit.

Kate Pilcher (77:33)

Yeah, yeah.

Warwick Schiller (77:34)

Shiny shoes, carrying a briefcase. Just walk along. Or there's a lady in a white dress. Walk along. I don't know where they're walking to, where they're walking from. But they are clean.

Kate Pilcher (77:42)

Yep. Respectable. Absolutely. Like. Yeah, yeah, I know. It's so. I love that you see those things. Yeah, it's true. It's cool.

Warwick Schiller (77:51)

So, so many things just. Yeah. We've kind of touched on it, but just being exposed to other cultures, especially ones that are totally different.

Kate Pilcher (78:01)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (78:02)

Than what you used to. And especially the ones I think that are more impoverished. Well, what we would consider impoverished because they don't have all the stuff we have.

Kate Pilcher (78:11)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (78:13)

Like you said, like, you've got your show drumming boots. You've got your size boots. And you kind of look at him like, do I really need all this stuff?

Kate Pilcher (78:18)

Yeah, I know, I know. You can get just swept up in it, though. Like, it's a. Yeah, yeah, it's. Yeah, I agree. That's why it's really good to level and that's why, you know, our girls, you know, they event. So they have. We have lessons and la, la. But the whole point that I have to keep reminding myself is that is all. So that when I'm out in a trail with them, like now riding with the two older girls, girls in Corrientes, Argentina, which you have to go to. It's up in the north part, which is. It's phenomenal. Like cantering alongside them, I don't have to worry about them anymore because I've done all the foundational work, you know, that they are just. They can ride safely and they've just got these big grins on their faces and it's just the coolest, coolest thing in the world and poppy was on this beautiful 20 year old criollo mare called Rula and she was like the lead mare and she had two gauchos beside her and they ended up calling her the Gaucher at the end because she's just. And you know those big pajons, like the big sheepskin saddle cloth, her like leg got hidden in it. Ruler could not feel her legs on her body, whatever. But Pops is riding one handed like a gacha and just, just cruising through the water Meadows at 6 and they were just like. And that was a compliment because the Argentinians had, you know, popped on horses, you know, before they could walk. So it was very, very cool to see. That's like as a family being out of globetrot as a family. It makes, you know, all the training and the lessons worthwhile because you just. Yeah, that's their. That's the closest they can get to flying at that age is, you know that. So it's very, very cool.

Warwick Schiller (79:54)

You guys like the Swiss family Robinson on horseback. You're talking about cantering, right? Then I want to ask you, I know, know that for rides where there are like say in anywhere in Africa where there are elephants, lion, that sort of thing, people for those rides need to be able to be, need to be comfortable at a gallop because if you got to go, you got to go and you got to go now and we can't be worried about you falling off. What about is that a requirement for all the globetrotting rides or is there some more sedentary.

Kate Pilcher (80:29)

Yeah, no, there are. I mean, and that's the thing is because we firmly believe in trying to make sure that everyone has a doorway into globetrotting. So entry level rides, we have a lot of beginner to advanced rides. So beginner, what we call beginner is walk, trot, learning to canter outside of arena, that's a big thing. So yeah, we've got even a ride in South Africa that is for beginners so that you. There's no predators, there's no elephants. So yeah, so you've got your plains game and then you level up as you go. So there's. And then also you have a lot of partners where one's an advanced rider, one's a beginner like. And so then you can find rides that suit both of you. And then for the advanced like, so then the group that wants to canter will go in a separate, you know, way to the people that want to walk and then they join back together. So we're big believers and we're Not. We want everyone, color, culture, creed, to be able to love globetrotting. Like, we don't want. Want just advanced white female women riding. Like, it's just not what. It's not what I'm about. I want everyone to be able to ride and experience this. They just have to, you know, speak to our team to know which ride will suit them, because their first experience needs to be outstanding and extraordinary. Because holidays are like gold dust. We don't. Not everyone gets them. I know America. They get hardly any leave. So it's important when they do that they. And what I love. I have friends all around the world of every different generation because I've met them on globetrotting rides. And is that alchemy as a group that you start as literally strangers and then you. At the end, you are. They know all your secret or you're just best friends? Like, it sounds really cliche, but it's so true.

Warwick Schiller (82:10)

But it is, isn't it? Because. Yeah, you've been through an experience together.

Kate Pilcher (82:14)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (82:14)

I mean, I think it's. It's like you've been in the trenches together. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not like you live next door to someone for 10 years.

Kate Pilcher (82:21)

That's right.

Warwick Schiller (82:22)

You still don't know anything about each other. You can learn more about something in 10 days riding together than you can living next door for 10 years.

Kate Pilcher (82:27)

I agree. And what I love about riding is you can ride, you know, you can go together and talk about something, and then you can just ride off and, like, have your alone time and then ride back together or whatever it is. Like, it's. It's just magic. It's absolutely magic. And I think that a lot of people get in their own heads about fear. I'm not, you know, good enough, or I way too much. Or there's just. Just start, like, just ring and start the conversation. Because, you know, we have lots of people that say, are diagnosed with cancer, and they use this ride as their pinnacle to get through their treatment or, you know, these are really spectacular. And I don't know about you, but when you're riding in Patagonia or other places, when you take yourself out of your everyday life, you. You get to look at it with fresh eyes, and you come back to your life with vigor and zest. And you're like, I'm gonna make some changes. I'm gonna do this more. And you do. And it really does actually have, like, this amazing energy when you get home for your life as you know it, you appreciate it, and you.

Warwick Schiller (83:29)

Yeah.

Kate Pilcher (83:30)

It's. It's one of those trans. They're just very transformational. Like, I know that's a word, but it is.

Warwick Schiller (83:36)

No, they are. They are transformational. You know, like at the start of the. And I kind of knew the gaucho debut was going to be some sort of transformation. I wasn't sure. I thought it was going to go one way, but it went a different way. But at the start of the race, one of the crew, Stevie Delahunt. So she's the one who I actually did the boot camps with in Oregon.

Kate Pilcher (83:54)

Oh, yeah.

Warwick Schiller (83:54)

To get ready for the Gaucho, Stevie's raced the Mongol Derby. The Gaucho Derby. She's done that race, the Wild coast in.

Kate Pilcher (84:00)

Wow. Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (84:01)

Crazy race. Yeah, she's quite the adventurous person. But she did this big speech the day before we started the race, and it was about. It's so interesting. It's going to be so interesting to see meet the post race you. After all, like, what are you talking about? It's just 10 days time. Like, it's. And you. You come out of there completely different than you did when in. But you're talking about the beginner rides. And it got me thinking that one of the boot camps I went to at Stevie's place, there was a girl who. She's a horse person. She's a veterinarian, but she's a horse person. And her husband, who's. He's not a horse person. Always a motorbike guy. And she signed up for the Gaucho Derby. And he said, I'm. And this is a year and a half out from the Gaucho Derby. He said, I'm going to learn to ride to do the gaucho dirty.

Kate Pilcher (84:52)

Ah, that's cool.

Warwick Schiller (84:53)

So he's never ridden before.

Kate Pilcher (84:54)

That's cool.

Warwick Schiller (84:56)

But he's a former Marine, so he's got some gumption about him. But when I went up to. Probably six months before the Gaucho Derby went up to Stevie's, they were both at the same boot camp I was at.

Kate Pilcher (85:07)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (85:07)

And if I didn't know this guy's only been riding for a year. Really, I wouldn't know. And I kept thinking about how. How did he get to ride so well so quickly? And. And after riding long distances, I realized that he learned to ride riding distances.

Kate Pilcher (85:28)

Yeah.

Warwick Schiller (85:30)

Kind of like the rides you're talking about.

Kate Pilcher (85:31)

That's exactly right.

Warwick Schiller (85:33)

And so you're not worried about left hand, right hand, correct diagonal. We've got to turn a corner. We've got to Stop, right. Like you can just get into a rhythm with a horse and before, before you, and, and you, you get to get into rhythm with them before something else happens. Whereas in an arena you're going to turn a corner, you gotta do something else.

Kate Pilcher (85:53)

I agree.

Warwick Schiller (85:53)

And, and I was like, I never thought about it before but if someone didn't ride terribly well, I hadn't ridden very much. I would say riding long distances, distances would be the best way to learn to ride because you, you learn to, you learn to just be with the horse and go with the horse. You can learn the other stuff later.

Kate Pilcher (86:13)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Warwick Schiller (86:14)

Just watching John is this guy's name and just watching him I'm like, I think that's probably a really good one.

Kate Pilcher (86:19)

And it's really immersive. And we say the same. Like imagine just having one lesson a week for six weeks compared to doing a five day ride, riding six hours a day on a, a school master horse, you know, where you can canter uphill. So you're learning like. Yeah, it is. That is going to fast track your way to an intermediate rider. 120%. Like it's just going to be.

Warwick Schiller (86:41)

Yeah.

Kate Pilcher (86:43)

I need to go soon, Warwick. Sorry, I've got to get the kids to school.

Warwick Schiller (86:46)

Oh, okay. Well, sorry, it's not. That's all right. How soon do you get again?

Kate Pilcher (86:53)

In like five minutes. Is that bad?

Warwick Schiller (86:56)

Oh, okay. No, that's not bad. That's not bad. I was going to ask you some questions, but. Okay, we can wrap this up. It's been.

Kate Pilcher (87:01)

Are you sure?

Warwick Schiller (87:03)

Yeah, no, it's, it's. We're all good. What? I'm going to stop your kids from going to school. Well, you know, so before we finish up, Kate, can you tell us how people can find out more about Globetrotting? Yeah, all your social media handles websites, all that stuff.

Kate Pilcher (87:17)

Yeah, well, they can find us on the websites globetrotting.com au and they can take a fun pop quiz which is pretty much. It'll find you your perfect ride based on your ability and you know, how, what your budget is and how long you want to travel for. So that I urge to do or Instagram. If you just search Globetrotting and Facebook, we're there on all channels covered. And YouTube as well.

Warwick Schiller (87:42)

Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining me. And you know, I love what you guys are doing because you are, you know, it's, it's, it's very thinly veiled transformational experience. People think they're going for holiday, but.

Kate Pilcher (87:54)

Yes, it's so true. I agree.

Warwick Schiller (87:56)

I love that you're in the, you're in the, you're in the, the personal growth mental health business, but you just got a disguise as something else, which.

Kate Pilcher (88:02)

Is something even funner.

Warwick Schiller (88:04)

Yes. Which is super cool. Thank you so much for joining me and sharing your, your story.

Kate Pilcher (88:10)

It's, thank you for having me.

Warwick Schiller (88:12)

It's quite the inspiration to a lot of people to, to, you know, inspiring them to actually follow their dreams and, and if you can be open to the universe, it will bring you amazing gifts.

Kate Pilcher (88:23)

Absolutely. I can't wait to hear about your story and Robin's. When you go to Iceland, it's, there'll.

Warwick Schiller (88:29)

Be a whole podcast on that. Don't you worry.

Kate Pilcher (88:31)

One of many, I hope. I really hope so.

Warwick Schiller (88:33)

Yes. Yes. First of many. Thank you so much. And for you guys at home, thanks for joining us and we'll catch you on the next episode of the Journey on podcast.

Warwick Schiller (88:43)

Thanks for being a part of the Journey on Podcast with Warwick Schiller. Warwick has over 850 full length training videos on his online video library@videos.warickschiller.com Be sure to follow Warrick on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram to see his latest training advice and insights.