Follow the day by day experiences of the four American young riders selected for the education program in Europe. Ryan Hites, Kirstin Wasemiller, Jennifer Roth and Katherine Poulin flew to Dusseldorf, Germany, on August 18th, where they would meet Jean and Nicole Bemelmans. After a two day visit at Bemelmans’ barn, the foursome travelled to Judy De Winter’s stable in Holland. Supervised by Beth Baumert and Michael Poulin, the team is currently in Hickstead, England, to get an inside scope on the European Young Riders Championships going on this week. Kristin Wasemiller was amazed by Bemelmans’ training methods and horses. A small extract of her diary: "After watching the horses both yesterday and today, all I can say without doing them an injustice, is WOW! All of the horses truly enjoy the work that they are doing. They are willing and content with both the basic work and the upper level and more difficult movements. To me, this says a lot about the training as well as the riders and their abilities. When the horses are pushed out of their comfort zone and into new territorial training, the riders do not force the movements. Instead, they come to a compromise to allow the horse to become comfortable with the movements and then slowly ask for more. Everyone is loving it here and having a great time and learning more in one day than could ever be learned from reading a hundred magazines. " Read the diaries of the four American Young Riders on their Grand (Equestrian) Tour through Germany, the Netherlands and England. Website: Young Riders European Training Diary Text by Astrid Appels