I’m writing from the plane flying home from Amsterdam after spending four days at the horse show in Aachen, Germany! What an incredible experience. We saw some of the top horses and riders in the world. A few of the rides brought tears to my eyes and gave me goosebumps. The partnership and harmony between the riders and their horses is incredible. The horses tried so hard and the riders made the complicated movements look easy and effortless. The crowd in the stadium was incredible. The clapping was insane and whenever a rider made a mistake, you could hear the entire audience gasp!
I thought I would share with you some of the highlights from the show. We also got some wonderful video footage of the horses and I’ve put together a video so that you can see some clips from the show!
Glamordale and Lottie Fry I was so excited to see this combination in person and they did not disappoint! Glamordale is seriously a unicorn. He’s flawless. The flying changes and extended canter are breathtaking. The reach is incredible. The the partnership between him and Lottie Fry is wonderful. I love watching Lottie ride. Her hands are quiet and in front of the saddle. And her seat stays in perfect harmony with his movement. And this beautiful black stallion tries his heart out for her!
Jovian and Patrick Kittle This is another combination that I was really excited to see in person. Jovian is an enormous horse, and he has an incredible extended trot. The freedom and the swing through the hind leg and the shoulder is unreal. Patrick has not been riding him for long and I think that he’s doing a really wonderful job of building his confidence and developing the Piaffe (which is more difficult for Jovian). One thing that I really enjoyed watching with Patrick is his rider position. He’s a big and tall man, but he looks so elegant and supple in his body. If you watch you can really see his arms follow the movement of the horse.
Maxima Bella and Sandra Sysojeva from Poland This mare had the most incredible passage, and she’s only 8 years old! We saw her in the freestyle and it was just beautiful to watch. The passage looks so natural for her, and yet it is incredibly powerful and correct. She had a beautiful freestyle with the most wonderful music that suited her perfectly.
Isabelle Werth and Wendy Wow! Isabelle is just such an incredible and effective rider! With 12 Olympic medals, Isabelle knows how to show off her horse. She put in a wonderful performance with Wendy to win the 5* freestyle on Sunday. On the final centerline, doing her piaffe, the horse was so much on the aids, that Isabelle just looked up at the crowd and smiled while her horse was dancing underneath her and the crowd went wild! It was amazing to see this!
Dinja van Liere and Vita de Lusso This was another rider that I really liked watching. Her position and seat were just incredible. I watched her warm up for the freestyle on Sunday and it was really interesting to watch how she used her legs. She took her leg off and away from the horse all the time! Even in the piaffe to really get him doing the movements on his own. Without her needing to remind him and keep him going every step. Her seat stayed perfectly connected and her hands were together and in front. It was really wonderful to see!
Overall, my biggest advice from watching all of these incredible riders is work on your position and your seat. All of these riders had an incredible independent seat that followed and allowed incredible movement in their horse.
We also had a chance to see some of the other equestrian events at Aachen which was really wonderful! We saw the quadrille competition which is where four riders ride together to music in a pattern. We saw carriage driving which was done in a giant Dressage arena on the grass. In this event, all four of the horses had to perform a rein back together!! I have a hard enough time getting one horse to back up, I can’t imagine getting four to do it at the same time! And we saw a jumping derby too!
The shopping at the show was amazing too! I have never seen so many horse shops in one place. There were so many people, you could barely get from one shop to the next but I did find some great deals on breeches and gloves!
We stayed at a lovely Air BnB in Belgium, near a beautiful church, ate some incredible food, and survived getting stopped my the German Police for crossing the border without our passports! Oh, and did I mention we looked at some amazing young horses!
Overall this was just an incredible show to see in person. I would highly recommend, if you have the chance to come! It is worth it! The horses and riders are even better in person!
