Everyone who knows me understands,
but for those of you visiting my website
you have to understand that anything to do with computers scares me
and I usually run screaming in the opposite direction!!
But I have now decided that I need to take action and face my fear,
that and the fact that everyone is complaining that my website is so out of date!!

So here goes:

Welcome to the my site.
I can hopefully promise you that with the help
of my dearest friends Els & Tomas
we will try keep the site more updated
so that each and every one of you can see what is happening in my life
with my very special horses.

2012

 


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Can you believe it, London 2012 has come and gone.

It was a very disappointing Games for me but we knew we were taking a risk
taking Louis but both Chris and I stand behind our decision.
It was a fantastic experience for him and I am super proud of him,
he improved every day!

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The first day of the Team Test we went into the arena which in itself is
very impressive but then the crowd of 10 000 people started clapping & cheering.
This was just a little to much for Louis and created a lot of tension before
we had even entered the ring.
That combined with a lot of mistakes cost us a lot of points, he scored 63,12%.
On our second competition day, the Individual Championships, we had it announced that the crowd was to hold the applause until after the test,
this made a big difference but Louis was still very aware of the atmosphere and
I'm sorry to say that it wasn't just Louis affected by the atmosphere,
after the first day I was super aware of every little noise which didn't help.
He did a much better test but still to many mistakes 65,77%.

The day of our Freestyle we were both far more focused!
As we started the test Louis got a little fright as the music changed
but this time we got back to each other straight away and for
the first time in the Games took hold of the test.
Still not good enough but at least we rode OUR test,
again he improved his score to 67,20%.
As I said it was an incredible experience for him and the
judges were very positive about him!!
Everyone who saw him made the same comment,
"Fantastic horse, just needs time!"
and that is now what we have, time!! So onwards and upwards from here.
And a big thank you to my family and friends for all their love and support through
a very long and difficult 4 years.

 

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On the 19th of August I left together with my SA-team Grade II member Wendy Moller
and her horse "First Lady" to England.
We are going to meet the rest of the SA-dressage team there for a trainingcamp.
At 7 o'clock in the morning the transport for the horses
arrived at the stables in Belgium.
We loaded everything and off we went.

heusden-web-philippa-johnsonphilippa-johnson-verdi-meerdonk
2012
RSA - South Africa