2002 World Equestrian Games

Journals from the WEG
By Astrid Appels

Saturday September 7, 2002: Reinstating the Online Diary

Total request live. Due to popular demand, I welcome you again on the other side of the scene. For more than 5 years, Horsesdaily.com has brought you coverage of every major equestrian event in the United States and the world, featuring articles, scores and photos of the all happenings at a show. For more than 4 years I had the privilege of being part of Mary Phelps' and JJ Hathaway's journeys which resulted in the top quality reports at www.horsesdaily.com. However, there is more to online coverage than html files and .jpgs

Behind each photo, behind each article, behind each score hides a dedicated person who infiltrates into the show scene and extracts the essence from it. Coverage of a horse show is not just one to five pages of texts and pictures, but is a human life that sacrificed time, money and effort in order to cast his "equine fixed" perspective on what he considers to be essential to share with an audience.

There is more to show coverage than articles. The whole journey to a horse show starts by making the decision to go, booking the plane ticket, packing suitcases and mentally preparing to leave that safe haven of home for a unknown world in which horses are the only binding, comforting and soothing factor. Some people are already so much blend in into the horse world that the trip to a show is no effort whatsoever. Others know that being sucked up into one week of competition is an exciting prospective that, unfortunately, requires a mental effort to get pepped up for it.

I have been reporting on shows for Mary and JJ since the 1998 North American Young Riders' Championships and have contributed to the website journals of my travels with them since then. Four years have passed and my priorities have slightly changed into the direction of an academic, university life and career. Yet, the passion for horses has not died and I never expect it to. I still ride and care for my own two horses, I actively manage my own websites (Eurodressage and Junior Riders), I am the managing editor for Horsesdaily and Dressagedaily and make myself available about three times a year to spend some "real life" action with my dearest American friends, Mary and JJ.

It has been since 2001 Dressage at Devon that I covered a horse show live with them. We were together at the 2001 USDF Dressage Convention and in July 2002, Mary and JJ drove to Mol, Belgium, for my graduation party from college. It was there that I again made the decision to embark on a journey, which would lead me this time to Jerez de la Frontera, Spain.