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Showing posts from November, 2013

A Few Tips for Competing at Dressage Shows in Europe

Here's your horse. Here's your groom. All the gear you need is neatly packed and organized. All you have to do is show up. Well - not quite. Riding and competing in Europe with my Swiss coach and her elite team from her private yard has been a blast. There have been many ups and downs over the years for sure. Mostly ups. I'm not going to focus on the time my groom forgot my entire wardrobe trunk, or the time my horses arrived just 40 minutes before my first class ( actually I will later), or the time the airline somehow managed to lose one of two boots that were packed in the same boot bag ( most useful one boot), or me running flat-out through the terminal in riding boots and breeches carrying a shadbelly (that, thankfully, only happened once). Not the most comfortable footwear to travel in. But I did make the gate. Travel between European countries is easy enough but driving takes a lot of time due to the traffic and travel from the USA to Europe is expensive. I alway