Fred Deburghgraeve, a 27 year old Belgian native computer scientist, is the world recorder holder and World, Olympic and European Champion in swimming 100 m breaststroke. While his body was still in excellent shape, his mind was not set on the Sydney Games. Although Fred has no hard feelings with the Belgian Olympic Committee and Belgian Swimming Federation, their financial support was too small for him to keep on swimming to a new Olympic title. Even in a sports disciplines like swimming in which Belgium can raise true champions, the financial support is so low that no professional athlete can survive. Last sunday I was at a regional show here in the neighbourhood and for the first time, it really came to my mind what the actual difference is between regional and national shows.
Regional shows show less quality horses and more amateur riders.
I mean, the regional participants are more horse lovers who see a show as a mean to spend their Sundays on a pleasant way. There isn't any trainer there giving last minute tips National shows have more professional riders who come to compete to give their horses more ring experience and who want to show off so they could sell their mounts. Horses are mostly nice in their fur, are ridden with clean tack. Even a horse with less quality is still elegant. This is just a statement.