The sun was shining on the beautiful outdoor ménage on the first day of dressage. In the first round we saw some lovely team tests produced by the riders on the equally lovely horses that had been provided to them. After the first round of team tests, 15 riders made it through to the second round of dressage which was ridden after lunch.

The Friday night was a Wild West fancy dress party where we saw a range of outfits. There were cowboys, saloon girls, robbers and even some horses. During the party, there was a very important competition which the teams had to participate in to gain points towards the survivors cup. The competition was a team line dance where we saw some interesting interpretations about what line dancing involves but by far the best and funniest line dance was performed by the British girls wearing their horse outfits!!

Despite a big party on the Friday night, we saw everyone up early for the breakfast and the draw for first round showjumping. The first round was mostly uneventful with lots of lovely rounds. A certain Irish lady was nearly eliminated at the first fence on a young horse who had decided that it had done enough jumping for the day; fortunately she made it over the first fence and around the rest of the course safely. We then saw 15 riders go round the second round successfully. The highlight of Saturday was without a doubt the Oldies event where we saw the return of a few of our past student riders. To name a few, we saw Peter Fell, Stephan Munk, Tanguy Debiesse, Kama Godek and Kristf Verlinden. Little did they know when they entered the riding arena that they would in fact be competing in jousting on big Belgian horses, blindfolded cake eating and a 4 person sack race! As always, the Oldies were very competitive, I am unsure who won in the end, but it was a great event to watch.

The Saturday night saw the Gala dinner. The dress code was white tie and we saw some very dapper gentlemen in penguin suits and some beautiful floor length dresses on the girls, everyone had made a real effort to look the part. We went out to a lovely restaurant where the food was delicious, a certain young lady was so happy with the large selection of desserts that she went up with her spoon at the end to eat more! We were seated with people of different countries and it was great to get to know people at our tables who we had not spent time with before. At the dinner, it was announced who had got through to the third rounds for dressage and showjumping. The dressage the next day was to dominated by the Germans who had 3 riders though and the British with 2, the showjumping saw 5 different nations through.

On Sunday, we saw a very competitive semi final and final of the showjumping. Through to the final were Becky Woolven from Great Britain and Ellen Pasteels from Belgium. Both riders jumped two great rounds, with only 1 fence to separate them, it was Becky Woolven at her first SRNC who was victorious. In the afternoon, the heavens opened and it started to rain, so we moved inside for the dressage semi-final and final. The final saw Alexandra Schwegmann and Viktoria Berlepp, both from the great dressage nation of Germany contesting for the title. Both girls rode great technical and freestyle to music tests. The eventual winner of the dressage was Viktoria. The overall individual combined winner was Becky Woolven from Great Britain. For the team awards, the showjumping winners were Belgium. Great Britain scooped the rest of the awards, winning both team dressage and team combined and also, the all important survivors cup, well done girls! Overall, it was a fantastic competition and a huge thank you must go to the Dutch OC for hosting this great event in particular to Dominique Buck for all of your time and efforts and also to the beautiful venue for allowing us to stay.