Dutch Sunset
I have either been riding or working and haven’t taken much time to enjoy the sunsets here in The Netherlands. I was working by a window this afternoon and happened to notice the pretty site. Here’s a Dutch sunset!



Beautiful Arena!!!
This is one of the most beautiful arenas I’ve seen. I just love the efficient roof!



This is the outside of the arena lined with lovely trees and hanging baskets. Even in the fall in The Netherlands it looks pretty!

Autographs from Anky van Grunsven
I was pondering last night if I should feel guilty or not and after talking with several folks about it the answer is definitely not.

You see, even before I left the states to train in Holland with Anky van Grunsven, I had parents, kids, and businesses asking me to bring them back this or that autographed by Anky. My first reaction was sure, that’s something neat I could do for people. But then I realized it’s fair to ask Anky for a maximum of two autographs, so then how would I decide who would get them and under what conditions, who were the most needy or deserving, and was that even for me to decide? I even had a couple of parents email me requesting autographs for their children as Christmas presents. Then there was the online horse website, which wanted me to get an autograph they could raffle to their members. Wow! Now, as far as the kids and Christmas, well, that would be a great Christmas present for sure! But I contemplated was it my place to provide this Christmas present for these parents? I liked the idea of getting a really nice autographed photo, framing it, and auctioning it off so the money could go to a not-for-profit organization, like I did with my boots and the Wounded Warrior Project.

I guess the long and the short of it is that I decided not to get anything autographed, except I did ask Anky to autograph my dress boots since I’d ridden in them many hours with her and it just seemed fitting.

So my thought was there has to be an autograph session at WEG with Anky and perhaps we could focus on that? Another thought was, hey, just ask her directly, as she’s quite approachable. Maybe email the anky.com website and inquire if you were to send a photo with postage paid both ways could they ask Anky to autograph it?

So I’m sorry to all the folks who requested autographs, but figuring out who, which, and why just doesn’t seem fair and I hope everyone understands. It would definitely be an honor to have Anky’s autograph, but I think the real honor would be in asking her directly and watching her actually sign it. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, and I’ve completely proven that with my training here abroad!

Happy day to you all!

Find out more about Angelea's adventure at http://www.horsegirltv.com