Marten Luiten | Faces of FEB

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The Faculty of Economics and Business is a faculty with a great diversity of people who all have an impact, big or small, on science and society. But who are these people? Within ‘Faces of FEB’ we connect with different students, staff members and researchers of the faculty and give a little peek into their world. This week: Marten Luiten, a Bedrijfskunde student who is also riding horses at an international level.

1. Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

My name is Marten Luiten, I am 20 years old and I am currently in my third year of the bachelor Bedrijfskunde. I live in Winschoten and next to my study, I am riding horses at international level. At the moment, there are 4 horses at my stables at home. Last year, I competed at my fourth European youth championship with my best horse Fynona and we won our three golden medals.

2. How do you combine horse riding with your studies at FEB?

To be honest, it is quite a challenge. I spend about 3 to 4 hours a day on regular training at home. In addition to that, about every week I train with one of my trainers. Some of them live quite nearby (Groningen, Winschoten), but sometimes I have to drive three hours to get there. International competitions are very time-consuming (at least four days) and my weekends are normally also filled with horse riding. This means that studying is challenging, but (so far) I found enough time to study in between. I normally train before going to the faculty or when I come back from Groningen. In the afternoon I train some more horses and give some horse riding lessons. In the evening, it is time to get back to school stuff again. So, not much time for other things, but it is worth it since I enjoy training horses very much.

3. Do you think it is possible to still enjoy the student life while being a topsporter?

For me, not really. Horses are not like a football or a tennis racket, they need for example food, care and training every single day. Maybe if I would be doing a different sport or/and live in Groningen, it would have been easier to combine. There is never a day off and because competitions are mainly during the weekends, going out to party is not that easy to plan. Sometimes I feel that I am missing out a bit on the student life, but I really enjoy working with the horses and spending time with friends on other moments.

4. What are your plans for the future? Do you want to pursue a career in horse riding or business?

I would love to combine both horse riding and business. I enjoy both things and I think it is good to develop myself in a broader way rather than just horse riding. So far, I do not have experience with a part-time job, but due to sports I developed skills and competences like discipline, motivation and planning that could also be useful when working for or running a business.