Hi there,
I saw that you're an equestrian journalist - what kinds of stories/events do you cover? I'm interested in possibly entering into that field myself, so any advice would be great!
Thanks!

Nice to read that! I can't wait until my ducth is good enough to register for CAP. It's such a pity that this country is so separated just because of the language.

It's also my feeling since I came back that riders in Belgium are very suspicious about other pro (actually I would say that they ar like that about everybody...) and doing their stuff alone. When I was living in Portugal it was just incredible how everybody knew each other and how they just call everybody they know when a customer is looking for a horse. Of course there is competition between them and "shit talking" in the back like everywhere but it seemed that they knew they HAD to work toghether to evoluate. I believe if we were not loosing so much time critizising all the other pro, we would already be much more advanced internationaly. There is no secret, and for me Spain is the best example, if a country wants to evoluate, it must be all the aspect of the "industry" working toghether (riders, breeders, federation, trainers,...) and when I know that the small Belgium has one stud book for the french speaking and one stud book for the dutch speaking, it makes me really ashame. I really hope one day to be successful enough to try to make the mentalities to evolve. Let's dream...

Could you send me the address of the stables you were talking about? I never really looked around Leuven, and from what you tell me, it sounds like a dream. I'll maybe have soon a fantastic horse coming for training with me so I'm really looking urgently for a very good place to ride without crazy prices.

You can send it by mail if you prefer:
pierrebeaupere@hotmail.com

Thanks a lot already. I'll have my car next month, would be nice to meet and have a talk.

Regards,

Pierre.

Yes It's Mon Souhait, it was sold some weeks ago. It was for sale from a long time now. So hard in this part of Belgium to find good looking and functionnal installations.

And yes, I know CAP, I'm working on my flemmish now that I'm back in Belgium and I was planning to register to have it. Vlanderen is much more "dressage oriented" and (in my opinion) much more professional and I hate not to be abble to speak fluently dutch with my contacts there. And I think it's a great idea to write articles on the successful riders here in Belgium, we really miss this "glamour" thing and this recognizment that the top rider should have because I believe that is what can bring the dressage up. If people can read the story of these riders, "identify" to them and know the way they went to the top, it can be an inspiration. We still miss in Belgium this kind of "charismatic" riders who could make the Federation to invest money on the formation of the youngs or the team (like they did in Spain or like Jan in Sweden where he is almost considered as a pop star!). Just my little opinion that nobody asked...

Your horse looks really good. He seems to have a really nice canter.

Regards,

Pierre.

ur horse is awesome!! wats its name and wat bred is it

Actually I came back from Sweden some month ago (I was working student for Jan Brink) so I'm just starting my own career here in Belgium. I'm riding three horses in a stable close to my home and have the horses in training there but I'm planning to move them soon to have better conditions. I'm in discussion at the moment with the new owner of a very big beautiful stable in Braine l'Alleud to see if it would be possible for me to rent some boxes there and doing all the stable work of my horses myself (in order to reduce the price). So as you can see, I'm just installing myself still.

I'm not from a very rich family so don't have my own stable yet...

Would be interesting to see some pictures of your horse.

Pierre.

What kind of horse do you have?