Between the ages of 6 – 8, I had horseriding lessons. I loved to sit on a horse and to talk with my trainers. But I could not deal with the pressure of letting the horse do what the trainer wanted me to do with the horse. I just wanted to be with the horse. So I stopped riding horses.

In March 2017 I decided to start horseriding again because I wanted to become a horseback archer. We found Speedy and his owner Veronique. She taught me things about natural horsemanship. 

I also started riding at Hoeve Romantico in March 2017. I stopped there in March 2020 but I still miss Chiron, the pony who taught me so much and was always prepared to work with me.

This picture is from when I just started riding, with Chiron

I trained vaulting with Koen Akkerman. He taught me how to feel more free on a horse

Training vaulting with Koen on Chester

In January 2020 I started riding with Jannet van Wijk on her Arabian horses trained for endurance. She helped me a lot changing my automatic reaction when a horse does something unexpected or when I have the feeling I cannot control the horse anymore. I feel a lot more in control now, while I still know that a horse can always do something unexpected. And of course we sometimes trained horseback archery.

Many very valuable hours I have made on her beautiful horses. 

I also trained at the Magnolia Ranch, owned by Ed Gosen and Christa Roderkerken. They have several horses that we used for horseback archery. Ed also taught me some western riding.

At the moment I have a few privately owned horses that I ride. They are all at stables nearby my house. You can read more about that in my blog, for example here: https://siemhorsebackarchery.com/2021/07/27/an-update/