Kathleen “Kay” Hayes
Class of 1997
Kay Hayes moved to Huntsville as a toddler and grew up with a rider’s focus and fearlessness. By age seven she was training in earnest at Helen Mason Hill’s Huntsville Equitation School, and by 1971 she had won her first championship at Nashville’s Vacation’s End Horse Show on Timberess. Soon she graduated to Amen Corner, a mount that matched her ambition. Across the next three years they swept championships in Alabama and Tennessee, earning respect for polish and pace as much as ribbons.
In 1975 Hayes became one of only seventeen riders from Alabama to hold a coveted “B” rating, an early marker of technical command. After graduating from Lee High that spring, she spent a formative year riding the circuit with Rodney Jenkins, then the nation’s leading rider, learning the rhythms of elite barns, long hauls, and pressure classes up and down the East Coast. Her improvement was unmistakable; in 1977 she turned professional, buying and selling horses while training both animals and riders from her Virginia base.
A career pivot came in 1989, when she left the show world and moved into sports marketing and promotions. Hayes brought the same poise to new arenas—the NHL’s Minnesota North Stars, Major League Baseball’s Minnesota Twins, the NCAA Final Four, and the International Special Olympics—translating equestrian discipline into event precision and hospitality.
Now an entrepreneur in Los Angeles with a feature film production company, Hayes remains a vivid example of how early excellence can become a lifelong toolkit. The horse world taught balance, timing, and courage; business rewarded preparation and rapport. From county rings to national arenas, she carried Huntsville with her—and showed young riders back home that you can begin in a local schooling barn and gallop toward any finish you choose with grit and grace. Always.
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