Nominated! You might have seen that the Wonderful Watt and me have been nominatively entered for the European Championships 2021 in Ermelo The Netherlands! We have worked hard for it, and even though the preparation did not all quite go as planned, but I am proud to be on that list. Even more exciting as it is in our home country and it would ...
I have done Windsor twice now, both with experienced horses coming back to a big ride after a competing break. And both times not with good results. Of course, there is always some (bad) luck involved in bit rides, but most of the time there are lessons to be learned from mistakes. They are lessons, not nit-picking or putting myself down. We a...
This picture (photo by Ruud Overes) is so very special to me. It is the finish of my 1st 160 km ride in 2013. I was the only one to finish, we were 6 combinations starting out and I just had a few minutes of the maximum time allowed left to finish.The horse is Shadiya, a Russian bred power mare with plenty of stamina, but not a great recovery in he...
Can't say I am particularly fond of gravy really (something to do with not wanting different foods on my plate to touch each other...) but I know a lot of people like the stuff, especially here in the UK. Though I'm pretty sure nobody likes cold gravy. ?Cold gravy is stagnant, it smells iffy, it tastes crap, and it looks disgusting... (and it ...
I can tell you: there is no shortage of passion in Aqui and a lot of power as well. Though maybe that's not really passion but just testosterone, him being a young virile male.The passion I'm talking about is the passion for our horses. That truly is a powerful thing! What is it about these animals that make us love them so? We spent loads of money...
I am not riding at the moment. I am not (yet) on my self-set minimum rider weight. In 2009 I decided that if I wanted to keep riding Arabs in long-distance and progress to FEI, I needed to lose weight, and I should weigh a minimum of 75 kg to be allowed to ride FEI, preferably less. I was over 85 kg at that time, so it was not only good for m...
Do you know the expression "having a monkey on your back"? It means you have an addiction. Well, I wish it was just a monkey on my back. Suffering from multiple horse syndrome, I have horses on my back. And they are bloody heavy! Horses get a lot heavier on your back in the winter months... especially long tough winters like this one and last winte...
2020 was the weirdest year (so far ;) ) ... No competing in my case, not only because of Covid, but mostly because I had no means of transport for a good part of the year..). Not much IRL coaching because of Covid... Several horses with little health scares (colic mostly due to the weird temperature ch...
Now and then people ask me to help them find a horse for endurance. It can be daunting because there are so many horses out there and they want THAT special one. Which of course then puts the pressure on us all ;) . I'll do some blogs to hopefully help you think about the options when you want to buy a horse (and it really...
In this week of mental health awareness, I felt like writing a little piece to share some of my thoughts and experience about this. What we all see on the outside is not necessarily what is going on on the inside. We try to look our best, act confident and pretend all is well. Social media is aiding that: don't we all select th...
As an equestrian sports coach (focusing on endurance) it is always interesting to visit rides without taking part as a competitor. My previous blog (Exercise physiology 1: the importance of warming up for our energy stores) was about my experiences at a ride I was helping out at. I talked about the importance of a proper warming up by comparing our...
Hi! Welcome to my very first blog on my new website. I am so proud to show you everything I have been working on for the last few months. It was a challenge getting all the content for the website. As English is not my native language, it was a good exercise in writing. I realised that speaking English is quite different from writing it! I'm ...
Where should we place the saddle? When I am meeting clients for saddle fitting, I always let them place the saddle on the horses back. It is valuable information for me to see where they put it, as a lot of people put the saddle too far forward or too far back. And of course, that will influence the fit of the saddle, and therefore the comfor...
As an equestrian sports coach (focusing on endurance) it is always interesting to visit rides without taking part as a competitor. Crewing or volunteering can give fascinating insights into what some endurance riders get up to. It helps me finding issues people might need help with, and I can give something back to the ride organisers that ar...
