"As member of the KWPN board I am looking forward to meeting as many breeders, riders and people interested in dressage horses as I can," she says. "And I hope to be able to answer any questions breeders or riders may have concerning KWPN horses, mares or approved stallions."

De Jeu has a strong association with New Zealand through Bridgitt Barclay who is starting a boutique KWPN breeding business and has already imported a dressage horse from De Jeu.

De Jeu jokes they are international members of the Desperate Horse Wives.

But on a more serious note, the two have talked a lot about HOY.

"It looks very impressive to me," says De Jeu. "We don't have those kinds of big shows in Europe where all the different disciplines are together on such a huge scale."

She is particularly looking forward to seeing the breeding aspects of the show, the level of riding, the young horse classes . . . and her list goes on.

"I want to see everything around dressage sport and breeding! This gives me a good view of the breeding standard in New Zealand."

Meanwhile back home, there has been great excitement at the De Jeu stud with the arrival of Jubilee De Jeu, the first foal out of grand prix mare Sisther De Jeu. With Gal, Sisther (owned by De Jeu) won many top awards, including representing The Netherlands at the 2006 World Young Horse Championships and were part of the bronze medal-winning team at the 2011 European Championships. She was retired in 2013.

The stud has 12 mares in the KWPN top 200 list, and continues to sell horses around the world.