Growing up an Equestrian in London

My equestrian journey started when I was around 3 years old, and it was all thanks to my mum! A keen equestrian follower herself, she would often take me to riding schools in France in my school summer holidays and as the cliche goes, the rest was history! I was totally hooked on everything equestrian, but my real love for Eventing started a little later on. My first real experience of the sport was when my cousin was competing and I went along to help. I’m not sure at that young age that I was much help at all, but you couldn’t fault my enthusiasm!

When I was 13 I took my very first horse to a BE100 at Tweseldown. Looking back on it now, there’s so much that I didn’t understand about the sport. I had no idea if my dressage score was good or bad! But ultimately, it was such a fun day and it was the beginning of many more Eventing experiences for me.

Fast forward a few years and my teens came with lots more time pressures. Trying to balance school and riding was a big juggling act that required a lot of dedication from both me and my mum! Living in London, the stable was at least a 45 minute drive away (on a good day) from both school and home. Luckily for me, my school were really understanding, and I even got one afternoon a week free to go riding when others did school sport. All of this massively helped me to focus as much attention as I could to riding. Now, I’m spending my time travelling all over Europe with my mum and my lovely horses competing, and although I’m spending most of my time training in Germany, I still call London my home and love coming back as often as I can.

Sofia x

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