I'll let you think on that question for a moment, and while you are thinking about the type of equestrian you are, also think on whether you are happy being that type or if you perhaps want to be different? Many of you will be the "Passenger type" maybe even without realising you are...Or perhaps you know you are the passenger type a...
What was your first thought seeing this picture of Watt and me cantering on these gallops?Most thoughts will have been positive: a lovely bit of cantering, "oh I would love that", and some of you can nearly feel the air passing their face because you know how it feels to have a nice canter on a good surface.Snapshots like these: of a rider doing th...
This is an old piece (4 years ago to be precise) I wrote after being part of the Dutch team for the 2019 European Championships. It still resonates very much with me, especially now I have taken a little break from endurance until the youngsters are old enough to start. Watt and me will be doing other fun stuff in the mean time. Have a read, s...
In the previous article, I told you about the fuel efficiency of our horses, using a hybrid car analogy. Unfortunately, I won't be as anecdotal in this article but I'll try to illustrate where I can. So last time we learned that higher intensity work will use more of our horse's petrol: glycogen. And that glycogen is a depletable fuel source that c...
Do you want a structured approach to doing endurance in a happy and healthy way? Every year I run an online endurance coaching program and with the new section on the website it is now possible to run the online endurance coaching on the website. The online coaching program has existed for about 10 years now. First in D...
You can have the best training schedule in the world, but things can still go wrong if we do not take into account any weak links we might have in our horse. This is why we start the "Endurance: Step by Step" endurance coaching course with evaluations and assessments, to have an idea of what we need to be careful of, and what we need to i...
You can have the best training schedule in the world, but things can still go wrong if we do not take into account any weak links we might have in our horse. This is why we start the "Endurance: Step by Step" endurance coaching course with evaluations and assessments, to have an idea of what we need to be careful of, and what we need to i...
We endurance riders focus a lot on our training, how much we do, at what speed and how often… Are we doing enough, or not enough, or perhaps even too much. All focussed on the quantity of work we do. And of course this is important to get our horse fit. But… If we do our quantitative training completely spot on we might still run into problems...
We endurance riders focus a lot on our training, how much we do, at what speed and how often… Are we doing enough, or not enough, or perhaps even too much. All focussed on the quantity of work we do. And of course this is important to get our horse fit. But… If we do our quantitative training completely spot on we might still run into problems...
Have you ever heard of the term "Social Licence"? I came across the term recently and I realised improving our social licence, as equestrians, but also as endurance riders is for a large part why I do what I do: I want riders to learn and know more, so they can become better ambassadors for our sport each day. But what is a "Social...
Thunderbirds are go! Yes! It is finally time to launch the online endurance coaching course on the website!An all-new and innovative formula to help everyone wanting to do or doing endurance with loads of tutorials AND personal help. Suitable for anyone, anywhere in the world, with any type of horse and any type of experience or am...
There is no such thing as "one size fits all" in endurance. But strangely enough a lot of standard training schedules are shared on the internet. It can actually be harmful to your horse to follow an unsuitable training plan, because every horse is different (in much more ways than you think, I will explain that in this tutorial but much more...
There is no such thing as "one size fits all" in endurance. But strangely enough a lot of standard training schedules are shared on the internet. It can actually be harmful to your horse to follow an unsuitable training plan, because every horse is different (in much more ways than you think, I will explain that in this tutorial but much more...
A while ago I turned 50... And I took stock of my body and how it is doing, looks and wear-and-tear wise. And I must say, I have seen a lot of 50 year olds that look a lot worse (and a good few who look better 😂), but overall I'm not too bad. Wear-and-tear wise it's probably a little less, I am getting more and more aches and pains, but t...
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...
