I have organized shows in many countries, but the most challenges we have faced in Italy. For example, we once came to a large riding school where we had sold 2000 tickets and there appeared to be only 1300 seats… In other locations, there suddenly appeared to be no sound, or there was a sound engineer who had stated in his contract that he only had to work for two hours and he just wanted to get up and walk away halfway through the show. There were orders that did not arrive, horses that did not show up; it was something new at each demonstration. In short, a real challenge to arrange everything and above all remain calm. 

I will never forget a demonstration in Milan in 2005. We always have local organizers who ensure that all facilities at the location are in order. They provide the right footing, light, sound, seats, et cetera. We take the other equipment that has to do with the training of the horses with us. We want to make sure that this is in order, and our own material just works best for us. 

In Milan, the local organizer Pedro assured us that we didn’t have to bring our riding dummy. He trained horses himself and had made one that he used and that worked well. Well, it does save space in the car if we don’t have to take the dummy (a doll of about 1,50m). We have always transported the dummy without contents and filled it up on the spot, but it is still a huge thing. Okay, so we wouldn’t have to take our dummy on this trip. 

As always, once on site, the location of the round pen was first selected and together we discussed where the seats and the shop were going to be. Dan Wilson had already started preparing our training material. After fifteen minutes he approached me, doubled over with laughter. “Hey Annemarie, do you have a minute to come with me, I have something I would like to show you!” I walked back with him and found the dummy… It turned out to be a black inflatable sex doll! Pedro really didn’t understand why we decided to make a new one. He saw no problem in us using his sex doll. We chose not to do it anyway…