History as a rider

In 1981, when I was 7 years old, I started riding horses in a riding school. At the age of 11 my parents bought me my first pony and from that moment riding became a very important part of my life. Jo Willems, who later became the coach of the National Team, became my trainer and started developing my riding skills. at 15 years of age I was selected for the Dutch team and we won a gold medal at the European Championships. (Later my sister competed at the European championships with the same pony and won medals, too.)
I loved the sport of dressage. The opportunity came for me to pursue improving my skill with the arrival of Controversy [KWPN, father: Pretendent]. He was a big chestnut with a lot of fire and talent, and only 5 years old. he was not trained yet so I had a lot of work to do with him. In 1992, 3 years later, Controversy and I competed at the European Championship Young Riders for the first time. We won a silver and a bronze medal. In 1994 and 1995 we competed again where my dreams came true: We won the gold medal. A year later we started competing at Grand Prix. During our first competition season we were already scoring around 65%.

I found a new talented horse in Galliano (KWPN, father: Aktion). His former owner had a lot of trouble with him. Galliano was at second level when I purchased him. After giving him proper training we started our competition career at Grand Prix level. In 2000 we qualified for the World Cup Finals and we reached 8th place. The Dutch coach invited us to join the Dutch A team and we were placed reserve for the Olympic Games in Sydney!

In 2002 I started competing succesfully with another horse but abruptly ended my career that year because of tragic family circumstances. I hope to start competing again in 2009.