As always taking the horses back over to Europe is a bit of a project, a lot of packing and organizing. This year we made it even more complicated for ourselves when we decided to bring one horse to Mexico for the Nations Cup in CSIO San Miguel. Trying to separate the packing, as well as having all the correct paperwork in order (and I promise there is way more paperwork than you can imagine) can be difficult. I am lucky that I am surrounded by people with a lot of knowledge and together with my manager, Dutta Corp, and the vet, we got everything sorted in time.
That same day, we flew the five horses to Amsterdam and the one horse to Mexico City. Small hiccups occurred along the way as always, but all in all, everything went well. The horses are professionals now when it comes to air travel so they were all perfectly behaved.
Back in Belgium for the summer at Stephen Stables, we managed to quickly settle back into our normal routine. It starts to be easy to pack and unpack when you have the same stable year after year, even though it seems like we have more and more stuff to put away each year haha. I’ve learned after doing this for years now that it is better to get our stable and tack room organized as soon as possible because the moment we get over to Europe, we hit the ground running.
We started the European season with heading to a show in Peelbergen, Holland. Four of our younger horses got the chance to get back in the ring after the season in WEF. All horses were fresh and happy with the colder weather. I was less happy about that part but very excited to see all my European friends again. I ended up staying in the US for 6 months this time around so I had some catching up to do. I also got the chance to present Yehaww in person to the European market and talk to a lot of people at the show.
I was very happy to yet again get a lot of positive feedback from everyone around me about creating Yehaww. Everyone agrees that the platform is something that the industry could really benefit from and people are excited to try it out.
After Peelbergen, we manage to fit in the national show in Azelhof and in Sentower Park before it was time to head to Rome. That is one great thing with being stabled in the area we are in Europe, there is a lot of training shows and national shows close by to make sure the horses gets the best possible build up before a show; or in our case, they get to let all their extra energy out before they head to the real show.
I love coming to Europe and really get all the horses to the show but it means a busy season with a lot of traveling. Different countries every week, new cities to see, no courses to concur. And although our European season has just started we are already going full speed. Our younger horses are stepping up more and more, which makes me very proud as a groom and our older horses are happy and fresh to be on this side of the pond for a while. Let's see what the rest of the season brings.
Have to go, I am late for the next show!
This content was provided by Yehaww. The views and opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Wellington International.
