It is a wonderful tournament, well organised, but it is also a real challenge. The weather outside is of no importance; it is all literally under a single roof. The hall is partitioned in the middle: on one side we find the cooling-off area, on the other the jumping courses.

This makes it all a bit crowded, and the horses have to be really agile and willing. They also have to be able to cope with all the ado, which is what both our eight-year-old Affäre v. Kashmir van´t Schuttershof and our nine-year-old Artestiek v. Air Jordan did. It was only the second time that I had taken Artestiek to a tournament and he did a double clear right away! Great! With Affäre, I also did the Z event (which is roughly what the German S event is).

We incurred a rather silly fault, but otherwise she also jumped very well. I am very satisfied with both of them. Gert-Jan had taken a few youngsters as well. And while he was also very happy with their performance, he too incurred this one silly fault we all love so much...