Blog - Viva Verden 2026 - Let's Stay Young Forever!

- Text © Eurodressage (this article expresses Eurodressage's' eye-witness account and opinion about the competition)  
-- Photos © Astrid Appels/Eurodressage - No reproduction allowed - NO SCREENSHOTS!

Howdy people,  I have arrived in Verden for the 2026 World Young Horse Championships, one of my favourite shows of the year. This is probably the 22th edition of the WCYH I covered for Eurodressage (I missed four since it started in 1999) and I'm thrilled to be back.

I have fond memories of major horses making their mark here in Verden. We all remember Poetin, Florencio, Woodlander Farouche, and Damon Hill shining bright "in the Verden old days." Since 2025 the capital of the Hanoverian horse holds the rights to hosting a three-year cycle of the event. Last year was a smashing edition with gorgeous weather and improved facilities. This year Wilken Treu's team stepped it up and made it even bigger and better.

Arriving in Verden for the final summer marathon of 2026 with the World Championships in Aachen back-to-back feels a bit daunting, I must admit. I'm bracing myself for the work load that lies ahead.. but it also pushed me into taking a moment to reflect on the past year...

A Moment of Reflection

2026 has been a strange, professional year. With each new year I try to make a resolution to try new things, continue to work hard, but also enjoy life a little bit more. The year kicked off great in February with a wonderful, inspiring trip to Wellington, Florida, and then there was a fabulous, busy month in April with Fontainebleau, Hagen and followed by Lier in May.

June, on the other hand, brought its challenges with the trials for the Asian Games creating so many bumps in the road and anomalies in team announcements that I felt I was riding the cakewalk at a carnival. I had to write about eye-brow raising team announcements for the Indians, Thais and Emiratis, while at the same time I had to seek legal representation for a matter in Sweden (more about it later). That month was far from pleasant and it sucked a bit more joy out of me, like the Dark Crystal draining  a gelfing podling in the scary Jim Henson movie. I'm sure I have already deleted a few more "critical moments" or nasty emails that I vertically organized into the dustbin of my memory.

I have been running Eurodressage for 27 years now (albeit on a real professional scale slowly since 2009) and this one-woman company relies on my, myself, and I to get everything done. I started when I was 16 with Belgian Junior Riders Online, Eurodressage began when I was 19 and I am 45 now going on 93. Each year I rethink my strategy, what goes well, what doesn't, and I try to recalibrate some settings. This course correction not always goes fast. 

This year I decided to work a little less, particularly in the evenings instead of being tied to the computer 16 hours each day, seven days a week. I have gone into full escapism mode by reading romantasy books at night to restore my work-life balance and it's been a life saver and an inspiration, strangely enough. Those books (Acator as a matter of fact) pushed me to go back to the gym after a 6-year blockage from working out.

So 2026 brought quite a bit of change and major challenges. Tt will prompt me to re-define my goals and targets for 2027. But enough "journalling" for now.. let's get back on topic and stop the stream of consciousness.

Bermuda Triangle

Since 2021 I have been collaborating more closely with Spanish photographer and journalist Lily Forado from which a true friendship grew; one defined by help, support, and tons of laughter and banter. In 2022 Austrian photographer Petra Kerschbaum joined the "double trouble" duo and we converged into what colleagues call "the Bermuda Triangle". We share the experience of going to horse shows together, combatting the incredible loneliness journalists experience in their profession and readers are simply not aware of. We each "do our own thing" but we often hang out together. 

And hanging out is what we certainly did the past two days. I picked up Lily yesterday at the airport in Eindhoven and we spent the afternoon and evening chilling in my house. This means working on the computer while playing cheesy romantic movies such as The Idea of You (a 45-year old woman crushing on a 25-year old world famous pop star. Yes we (or I) have sunk that low), followed by giggling over a re-watch of Off Campus. No I'm not ashamed to admit I am part of the millions of women who think Garrett Graham is hot, while friends prefer Dean or Allie as their imaginary Hollywood crush. Let's stay teenagers forever! 

Sweltering Hot in Verden

On Tuesday morning 5 August 2026 Lily and I took off from the Eurodressage headquarters in Belgium for the four-hour drive to Verden, Germany. We had a smooth trip with only 10 minutes of traffic jam near Bremen, so no complaints here. Once arrived, we met up with Petra who had picked up our press and parking passes and walked over to the stable area for the horse inspection of the 6-year olds, which started at 14h00.

With a high humidity and temperatures of 32 C° it was sweltering hot today and we sought out the shade. While waiting for the jog to start we ate our first candy of probably one more kilo of Haribo to come in the next few days. Horse shows are an absolute killer for the dieti and clean eating and resisting the temptation for sweets, pommes mit wurst, or any other food truck crap is as difficult as trying to keep water in a sieve.

The trot-up went well for all 45 six-year olds with only the PRE stallion Utopia KP suffering a hairy moment when he needed to trot up a few times before hearing the relief-bringing "accepted".  After the jog there was a two-hour break in the programme and we watched some training, before going for a soul-nurturing, overpriced 4 euro machine brewed cappuccino near the warm-up ring. Then we explored the trade fair being set up and chatted a little more, before the arena familiarisation started.

Cooked to Perfection

I'm sorry to write that the training of the 6-year olds was not the prettiest picture to watch. Many were ridden in a squeezed frame, being prodded with spurs, and pulled tight in front into a supposedly "Grand Prix horse frame" (albeit it a frame you don't even want to see at Grand Prix) with passagey steps in trot, too much floating in the gait, jaws often crossing and mouth opening. Many of the polls were ultra-high and the throat latch too closed. Any classical dressage purist would turn in his grave. It was baffling to see many young horses being "cooked" today and ridden so hard. I did not see a steward intervene once.

The quality of the 6-year olds was really high though and I bet you tomorrow most will paint a totally different picture: one of not disturbing the horse so much. Let's see if the judges can see through the sham and properly reward the horses that are trained correctly and presented in a correct young-horse-frame.  Maybe it was my brain that was overcooked and I saw the horses through a negative filter today. I'm not sure. I'll give them all the benefit of the doubt.

What stood out was how little colour is being bred into modern dressage sport horses: it was all black and dark bay today with a few grey PRE's, and a sprinkle of chestnut here and there.  My mind jumped to the famous Graham Norton show; the episode with Jamie Foxx talking about how the pale, ginger Ed Sheeran convinced a whole club of black men to fall in love with his songs while playing a ukelele. Sheeran stole the hearts and changed the atmosphere, which was all "Blackady-black". Let's hope  tomorrow an Ed Sheeran horse surfaces with beautiful classical dressage riding bringing light to the scene.

Hipster Hotel

After the training Lily and I drove to the hotel to check in. Our usual hotel in Verden is getting refurbished into more of a hipster joint with trendy furniture. The problem is that no more tables and chairs are in the room, so there is nowhere to put our computers. Mine is now placed on the corner of the sink base cabinet while I sit on a low Japanese style designer chair with my legs spread and the cross legged like a yogi in full meditation. Lily has hers squeezed on a shelf against the wall. We fetched a chair in the breakfast room for her to sit on.

Oh and the Germans seems to think that privacy is no longer hip. The shower and bathroom have no door because it's all "open planning" now. You have to be very comfortable with nudity and exposure around whomever you bring into the room because there is no way of shielding your physique from prying eyes.

I knew butchering my body in the gym for the last ten months was for a reason.

OK. Signing off for now. The competition starts on Wednesday at 9 AM.

-- Photos © Astrid Appels/Eurodressage - No reproduction allowed - NO SCREENSHOTS!

Related Link
Eurodressage Coverage of the World Championships for Young Dressage Horses