Horse 'overdose' week

In this blog post I will let you ‘follow me’ into the “secretive” part of my “student life” (it is not so much of a secret, but I’m just trying to make it a little bit more interesting for you to read). This is (…I guess I could call it): “My horse-life”… [What?!] Yes, my horse-life: 

I don’t turn into a horse by midnight or anything, I just work with horses. Now it's been 16 years since I started doing this as a sport. It is one of the main reasons I left home and also one of the reasons that brought me to The Netherlands.

Lately I have been ‘adapting’ to this new stable. It was a very 'unexpected door' that opened after I stopped riding for another stable which had to close.  

It is a bit far away, located near a city called ‘S-Hertogenbosch (2 hours away from Venlo); and it requires me to use four different 'transportation means’ to get there: Bike, train, bus and, my loyal companions which never ever fail, my “BM‘double-foot’”… Yes, no BMW for me, just my feet (haha… Bad joke!). 

If I could add 'helicopter' to my list things would get easier! But, for now a couple of good books to read during the  long 'journey' and a 'non-complaining attitude' do the trick!

So, what exactly goes on in this stable?
Well, most of the horses that are there are bred by the same owners. In general, this is done by selective breeding, to try to pass ‘winning genes’ from parents to offspring. Some horses are owned by other people, and are just placed there for training.
(You can think of it like a factory for making 'super horses')
Then, these horses are sold to many different countries like some here in Europe, in the USA, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Arab Emirats, Canada… Many destinations.

So in the stable, horses are ridden/trained, especially for show jumping competitions that take place almost every weekend, in different places here in The Netherlands.
This weekend for example was Eindhoven; and in this case horses are prepared, put in a truck and then ready to ‘hit the road’.

What do I do there?  

I basically just ride the horses and train there… So, I go round and round and round like a carrousel! (just kidding!) [But for some reason everyone thinks it’s something like that (…the reputation of lazy riders, and the horses who do everything)].  

No.. It is working around 4 horses per day; usually different ones every time; and when riding you do exercises that develop the horse’s muscles that are needed for jumping, develop their flexibility, make them psychologically calm...Then, you jump whenever the horse’s ‘jumping day’ is.     

100% of patience needed, sometimes they can squeeze it up to 150%... 

(I'm trying to stop while writing, because I could write a 50 page an essay on this and bore you to death!).   

To end things up: Why/for what do I do this?   

Of course all of this is leading somewhere. I’ve got some goals set for some years from now. But, in reality it is all about waiting to see what happens, because things also change. 

..You know, just “go with the flow”.   

Then for now, I have eyes set in competing for my country in my first big championship, a few weeks right before having to go to India (which will change the ‘adventurous route’ a bit). This is recent information so my brain is still in the "process of processing things out"... Controlling the nerves.

So, in between ups, downs, turns and all the 'chaos', things start to work out and  'dreams start to come true'; and the cool thing is that it pretty much applies to everyone's situation  ;) (uu how romantic.. I guess it's time for me to quit with the blogging and turn into a poet!).