Well, it's been a fast and furious pace since my last posting on the blog. Mary Anne Milleman and Caroline Ashton(owner of Donneur and Dolly) are here visiting and taking in the whole German experience. It certainly is nice to see some faces from home! Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. It's amazing that you have to go to Germany to find out what you can do on the Internet. Since I have been here, I have had more time to explore the Internet and enjoyed listening to XM Satellite radio, CNN and Fox news on the computer. I have also been able to phone home for a much better rate than the cell phone by using Skype.com on the computer. We have been out looking for a horse for Mary Anne to take home and it has been quite the experience. I have to say, she was rather shocked at the rate of speed our driver maintained on the Autobahn, well over 100 mph. Not much fun to be a passenger in that situation if you are a cautious driver! We have seen mostly young horses, 3 and 4 years old, however, here in Germany, they are well accomplished at that age and have already been to a few shows. Many times not only do they walk, trot, and canter on the bit, they are already trying a few changes. Certainly not what we are used to at home. You really get a feel for their temperament since they have no problem showing you a horse that hasn't been ridden in a week or a 3 year old that was broke, turned out for a month and then ridden for 2 days before you came to see it. You also ride these horses in a busy arena and you find that they are quite used to the confusion and oncoming traffic. I have to say it is much more pleasant than trying a 4 year old that has barely cantered and only been ridden at home with no company. Back at our own stable, the lessons with Hubertus continue to go well. He has ridden Dolly 3 more times and made great progress with getting her more through and engaged. After he has ridden your horse, they are significantly more on the aids and better balanced, which makes riding the movements sooooo much easier. Well, it took 5 weeks, but yesterday Donneur and I finally graduated to being able to ride competition size pirouettes. Hubertus insisted that we ride only working canter pirouettes until I had complete control of all 8 strides during the exercise. We also finally got his blessing on our trot and canter half passes. Talk about not cutting you any slack! Caroline has enjoyed seeing her horses and thinks they have improved tremendously in just a few weeks. It has been entertaining for she and Mary Anne to see the dynamics of 8 horses in a 20 X 50 arena. Especially when Donneur and the 3 year old spook at the same time and just about take out Hubertus in the process. We would have certainly got sent back home for that! The horses are more like a school of fish, when one goes in close quarters like that, they all go. But, 3 seconds later, everyone regroups and resumes their tempi changes or whatever. Mary Anne Ann tells me there is a word for that, "hoick" , which means an immediate, unplanned change of direction. All I can say is, there can be a hoick at any time around this place!