Food for thought

Everything happens for a reason…

I often think about my situation. How did I become so lucky to be in the position I am today. Yes of course I have the greatest Team, the most supportive parents and incredible horses but why do I get to ride in some of the most prestigious classes? In arenas mini me would have always dreamed about?

I started riding in the most basic riding club, with no goal in mind of wanting to achieve what are now my dreams, but simply loved the horses, loved spending time with them, just being fascinated by the communication between this incredible animal and how we could make them understand us and trust us.

I was just like everyone else there, never in a million years did I ever think of doing this semi-professionally.

Once I got a bit older and we started doing smaller shows the competitive spirit in me started to arise and I wanted to improve and do bigger shows and higher classes.

But I wasn’t the only one – a lot of my friends started to take the sport more seriously and we watched many World, Nation Cups and Championships together dreaming of being able to compete there ourselves one day.

We were all lucky enough to have similar possibilities regarding financial support, emotional support and training. But somehow most of them gave up along the way or have not yet had that breakthrough they were hoping for, competing at lower levels.

So how come I got so lucky in receiving the right horses at the right time and somehow managing to fulfill so many of mini me’s wildest dreams? I think about this a lot, there are so so many riders at 2* and 3* level, where I am in awe of their skills, their style, their ability to make it look so effortless, though they have never been able to compete at a 5* show…

My riding skills are to be brutally honest mediocre; I work relatively hard (I mean what is hard work in our sport), I take my job seriously, I try to do the horses justice in trying to let them be horses and never take anything for granted but I would not say that I am more talented or necessarily more deserving than others and somehow, I’ve still been able to compete at these great events and sometimes even getting half decent results. This sport is very much fast pace and if you don’t keep up its so difficult to catch up.

Now that I have been able to compete at some of these great venues it obviously intensifies that want to continue riding there, among all of my heroes.

Maybe I will never be able to answer that question of how I became so lucky, but there is one thing that’s for sure: I will never not be appreciative of these experiences may they be good or bad.

“We have to remember these days, because there’s no guarantee that they will last forever. Enjoy them as long as they last.”