Mary Anne came over to look for a horse but she is missing in action and was last seen in the dairy aisle of the supermarket looking for Landliebe Blackberry Yogurt. She can't seem to get her spoon out of the jar......You know, the language barrier can work as a great deterrent to keep you out of the bakery. You really have to get up your bravado to go up and ask for something in a language that you don't speak well. Even if you manage to ask for what you want successfully, just as you're congratulating yourself, they ask you a question back and if you didn't want that piece of cake so badly, you would just as soon turn and run from embarrassment. But somehow, with a combination of very basic German and some finger pointing thrown in, you manage to get your point across. It's pretty humbling to think that even the dogs around here understand German better than you do. But, for those of you who are wondering what I do in my spare time, I am studying Baron's "Mastering German" course which is the same one that is used to teach US diplomats a foreign language. I am at the stage where I can understand much better than I can speak, but I am gaining on it. Speaking of gaining on it, Dolly really turned the corner this week and finished out the week with some trot and canter halfpasses that even Hubertus had to say were very good. Her trot has become so much more engaged and her canter stride has opened up to cover more ground when she is collected. Donneur and Hubertus had a meeting of the minds today and when the dust settled, we'll call it a draw. Both of them were equally wet and tired. But, you should have seen the beautiful one time changes and canter pirouettes that came out of today's work. The discussion always gets a little tougher when Hubertus wants another degree of collection, but Donneur always comes through in the end and has beautiful gaits in ANY company! Tomorrow is a well deserved day off for the horses, they will go for a nice long walk and afterwards, we are off for some more horse hunting. Anyone want to put in an order? Caroline and her daughter, Christine have been here for 3 days exploring the old city of Paderborn after watching the horses each day. She said the cathedral is especially noteworthy since it was built in the time of Charlemagne (1500's?) They left to go back to Amsterdam today and will fly back to the States on Monday. The picture is of Caroline and her daughter with Donneur and Mary Anne hard at work. It has been such a treat to have Mary Anne here to help me with the horses. You never know when your lesson will be and the time is subject to change on a moments notice. So it is best to have them groomed and ready for anything. And, by the time you have cleaned the stalls, fed and watered and picked out 3 times/day, hand grazed them each and cleaned them up after they dry off, the day is pretty much done. The chestnut horse is a 4yr. old we found that we think is pretty special, his name is "Lacord".