This is a photo from the inside of the plane that we flew over on. The other photo is of the container that Donneur and Dolly were transported in.........Imagine my surprise when I went to a local show here in Paderborn and saw the likes of Isabelle Werth, Monica Theodorescu, Rudolph Zeilinger and Hubertus compete. There were 31 horses in the Grand Prix. It was very interesting to see so many top riders in the same place and watch their warm-up routine. Hubertus followed his exact program that he uses at home. What a tremendously accurate test rider! Half passes that were huge and flowing and absolute straight changes on Private Dancer. He placed 3rd in the horse's 4th time at GP with a 68+%. Isabelle won with Satchmo, with 72%. Wonderful halfpasses, excellent piaffe and passage, whole test seemed so easy for the horse. Her warm up was very short, maybe 20 min. Start long and deep at trot and canter, then pirouette and walk. Pick up the reins, few steps of piaffe, walk. Canter and do a few two tempis, then walk. Very low key. Monica Theodorescu had a very nice horse but her style is to put a lot of pressure on the horse in the warm up. Not the same fluidity as Hubertus and Isabelle but the horse actually looked better in the test, maybe because she had to be more tactful. Rudolph Zeilinger rode the horses very uphill but so tight in the neck compared to Hubertus and Isabelle. I think what is boils down to is you have to pick a style of riding that suits you and your horse. It is great to know that after seeing some other top riders that I am most pleased with my choice for my horses... Interesting to see how Donneur would be like to ride after Hubertus had been on him for 3 days. Like getting on a Ferrari, so much power but loose and light! The horse is very happy to get into that groove each day for me now, it is so much nicer for him because he has more freedom to move, even in collection because he is in more self carriage. Unbelievable how sensitive he is in the changes! Almost no leg, only seat and amazing how much straighter they are because he isn't against one rein or the other. I am sure everyone will be interested in the stable management compared to how we keep our horses. Suffice to say that ours are so spoiled! The theory here is that they can take care of themselves and the more you pamper them, the more they need. Every horse is on the same diet of crimped oats, 3 times each day, the same amount, one big scoop. Even on days off and bran mash never happens. They get silage (their version of hay) once each day, in the middle of the afternoon, a lot of it. Little to no turnout and they stand on their days off or they are ridden long and low. It's amazing what they get used to and they work very hard and seem to thrive just fine. I will say one thing that almost every barn has is a solarium to dry them off in the winter, pretty nice. They bed on straw mostly and use a deep litter method adding more each day and then about every 4 weeks, they strip the barn. Basically one guy does the feeding and stall cleaning for close to 50 horses. German people work as hard as their horses!