Competing on the east coast and west coast can be vastly different as young professional, olivia miller recently found out. After relocating from the west coast to become a working student for Sharon white, we sat down with her to learn about the biggest differences that she found in her experiences on both coasts.

1.      Terrain

The first thing that I noticed when I competed in a show on the west coast is how different the terrain is compared to the east coast. The terrain on the east coast has more hills as opposed to the west coast which is a bit flatter.

2.      The atmosphere

There are a greater number of impressive venues with big atmospheres on the east coast versus the couple of venues with impressive atmospheres on the west coast.

3.      The Trailers

It is very common to see 3 or 4 horse trailers with living quarters on the west coast. On the east coast, you will find a lot of 2+1 or 4 horse head to heads and very few living quarters.

4.      The amount of shows

There are far more horse trials and FEIs as well as one days on the east coast in comparison to the west coast.

5.      The amount of upper level professionals

On the west coast, there are a small handful of upper-level professionals. The east coast however has an environment that is more conducive to hosting a large volume of events and easily maintaining healthy horses thus attracting more upper-level professionals.