Training in Germany with Hubertus Schmidt

2007-12-18T10:27:00.000-08:00

On the evening before our last lesson with Hubertus on this trip, I am reflecting on what has taken place over the last three months. What a roller coaster of emotions. I made the decision to come back to Germany and get the horses finished to Grand Prix and that is exactly what has transpired. It was not without good days and difficult days, one step forward and two steps back days, but experiencing all of that is what makes the end result so sweet. It is so important to work with a trainer that you have complete trust and faith in because sometimes, you have to go completely on faith that you are on the right path and it will take you to your goal. I am so proud of the horses because they really had to get out of their comfort zone to get into their achievement zone. They certainly did and came out on the other side healthy and confident in themselves and their new level of work. Now when I ask for the one time changes or the piaffe/passage, they know exactly what is expected. Over the next year, they will refine their skills at GP and we can work on the details of the level. The hardest part is past us now, they know how to do everything that they will ever have to learn, now we can work on expressing it more beautifully and with greater ease each day. That is the goal, it must become easy for the horse and the rider and be a pleasure to watch. We must create the desire in the spectator to want to ride such a horse. I am blessed to have the opportunity to work with these horses and for the three of us to grow together to become the greatest version of the grandest vision that I have for us.
The horse transport will pick us up day after tomorrow at 4:30 a.m. and we will drive 5 hours to the Amsterdam airport. The flight leaves at 3:00 p.m. and arrives in Miami at 6:50 p.m. (your time is 6 hours behind ours so it will be 1:50 a.m. for us). Thank you for joining us on this leg of our journey. I hope you will continue to follow our progress as the Winter Show season begins in FL. Please check our website, www.equisentialinc.com for updates.

2007-12-10T11:17:00.000-08:00

For those of you that are wondering, I am still among the living. I have had trouble accessing my blog site to post a new one, but at last, I am online. Mary Anne made the trip over without a hitch and from the time I picked her up at the airport until the time I dropped her off to go home, we moved at a fast pace. It was much easier getting ready for the second horse show with her help. The show was in Appelhulsen, which is normally a one and 1/2 hour drive. We schooled at home on Friday morning and did not get to leave for the show until 4:30 that afternoon which made the drive take three hours between the traffic, darkness, rain and a 10k traffic jam. We had a pleasant surprise when we finally did arrive at the show, we were in huge permanent stalls in the same building as the warm up and competition arena. By the time we got unloaded and the horses settled in, it was 10:00p.m. The secretary's office was still open so we went in to get our ride times (they are never available until after 6:00p.m. the night before you ride) and wouldn't you know, there were 53 horses in the PSG and the class started at 6:15 A.M.!!!!!! Of course, my ride time on Dolly was 6:40A.M. It is now 10:00P.M. the night before, we have had no dinner and have no idea where the hotel is. The secretary was kind enough to give us directions in GERMAN!!!!! I certainly am glad this wasn't my first week in Germany. I smiled and told Mary Anne with all confidence, No Problem. Miraculously, we found the hotel and were looking forward to a quick meal and some sleep. We got the sleep, but not the meal, there was nothing open in the village and the hotel restaurant was closed. At least the beds were clean and comfortable but Mary Anne could not get over the governor on the hot water that didn't allow it to get warmer than 75 degrees. We slept fast and were back at the showgrounds at 5:00 on Sat. morning. Hubertus was going to come to the show to school us but even he declined the 6:40 ride time. He did come for Donneur at 1:30. In spite of the unusual conditions, both horses performed better than at the Paderborn show and scored 61 for Dolly and 64 for Donneur. Dolly had a couple of mistakes and Donneur was spooky at the 3 judges boxes on the C end of the arena, but both horses performed with more expression than the first show and Hubertus was pleased. It is really interesting to note that our horses and 5 others were the only ones to stay on the grounds. Everyone else trailered in and out. They arrive in the trailer tacked up, breeze in and do the test and go home tacked up. These horses do this weekend after weekend and have developed a tolerance for almost anything. It was also fun to see the FEI ponies, of which there were 35. They looked like miniature Dressage horses doing half passes and changes. I did get chosen with Donneur for a random vet inspection. After my class the vet had me take the saddle off and he walked around the horse, felt his back, made a cursory inspection of his legs and said OK. No blood samples or urine samples. When you go to these shows, you really need an advocate. There is no ring steward, the numbers are written on a blackboard for the order of go and you have to figure the rest out yourself. You are allowed to carry a whip of 120cm for national competitions(longer than we allow in the US) but I never had anyone check that or my bits. Mary Anne was particularly fascinated by the person using a can of spray foam to make the horses mouth look wet....... We did not make the top 12 cut to go on to the Intermediare 1 the next day with the likes of Michael and Ingrid Klimke. Klaus Balkenhol's daughter won the class. We packed up and drove back home that night. By the time we got back to our house at 9:00P.M. on Saturday night, we felt like we had run a marathon. But what a great surprise was waiting for us. Josef and Hildegard had put up a Christmas tree with lights on my terrace and made cookies for us. We fell into bed and slept hard and I am sure the horses did as well. Sunday we did all the horse laundry and got everything organized again for the coming week. Did I mention to you that we have an industrial size washer at the barn this year and a dryer? The dryer is more like a de-humidifier with a bigger motor. It extracts the water out of the laundry and you have to empty the water container afterwards. Mary Anne did get to see Hubertus ride the last day she was here. He has been off a horse for 5 weeks because of 2 cracked vertebrae, but after watching all the horses in the barn the week before with their normal riders and then seeing Hubertus on them, you thought it was a different horse! One last thing to add, on one of our trips into Paderborn, the road crew was washing the guardrails! Only in Germany!!!! We are starting the process for coming home, we fly on the 20th to Miami. The horses and I will stay in Wellington until the second week of Jan. while Dolly completes her CEM quarantine. The good news is that both horses are coming home with a good working understanding of everything from the Grand Prix. Mission Accomplished!!!!!!!!!

2007-11-21T10:25:00.000-08:00

I won't be having a Thanksgiving dinner this year but I will be giving thanks that Donneur has had an epiphany about how to do the one tempi changes! Once he figured out how to manage that big canter of his in this new situation, he has never looked back. In fact, the miraculous thing is that he does the ones easier than the twos and threes. What a thrill to have been there every step of the way of his journey from a five year old to a Grand Prix horse. Mary Anne will tell you that I lamented over every new movement worrying that it would be possible from leg yields to piaffe. But one thing I have to say for Donneur, even though it has been a big job for him to get control over his big gaits, once he understands what to do, he owns it for life.
It is a long and difficult journey from the lower levels to Grand Prix and it is different for each horse. It is important to remember that all the 90% of perspiration and 10% inspiration that it takes to get to Grand Prix with a horse makes it oh so sweet in the end. I am so looking forward to making it official by riding him down the centerline in his first Grand Prix test. I had hoped to be able to do that next week at the show we are going to, but the Grand Prix test for young horses is not being offered at that show. So, we will go PSG and INT 1 for the last time.
My horses get a gold star for being able to function in a 20 x 50 arena with 8 other horses. There are 3 tracks happening at any one time. The track closest to the middle is for handwalking horses, the 2nd track is for riders that are only walking and the rail is for horses moving at a faster pace. It requires as much attention as driving on the Autobahn, if fact, I could have used a rear view mirror on the pommel on more than one occasion. When you are in a lesson with Hubertus and he tells you to do a pirouette on the diagonal, it doesn't matter if you are within inches of another horse, you go on about your business. And just because there might be someone bearing down on you from the opposite direction on the diagonal, don't leave your line when you are doing the tempi changes. I have to say when we were at the show in Paderborn, being in a 20 x 60 arena for my test felt like I had a whole football field. I think it is much easier to go from a small ring to a larger one instead of the other way around.
Next weekend we get to try our hand in the competition arena again and we are looking forward to another successful show. Stay tuned for the results!

2007-11-11T08:13:00.000-08:00

After having a couple of days off, we are back to work after the horse show. We have our sights set on another show Dec. 1,2 and will be very happy to have Mary Anne here visiting at the time and helping us out. This week of training we have gotten back to working on piaffe, passage and one time changes since we had put these things on the back burner 10 days before the last show. Both horses are doing well on the piaffe and passage, starting to make transitions between the two. The highlight of the week was on Saturday for me when I made 8 beautiful ones on Donneur. How sweet it is!
We are going to have to get the ark out soon, we have had rain every day and night for about a week now, with only short periods of sunshine. The horses have not been able to get outside since the horse show and I am sure they are missing their turnout time.
It is so nice to be at a stable where no matter what country you are from, we are all there for the same reason. My Japanese friend, Mieko, gave my horses an interesting compliment. She said that she likes the way they trot, they have a lot of expression, like Michael Jackson doing the Moon Walk. Could that be a new way to describe horses that move with more cadence?
It must be Saturday morning because there is a man that comes to the barn each weekend in his motorized wheel chair, even on rainy days, he gets suited up in rain gear. He must be really a dedicated dressage enthusiast. NOT!!! He is coming to get a beer out of the vending machine. I wonder if his wife knows what he is up to? With all of this wet weather, it is hard to get the horses cooled off and their coats dried after work. Even after being clipped 3 weeks ago, they have grown back quite a bit of hair. I have been changing their coolers for a few hours afterwards trying to get them dry but now I have discovered the wonders of the Solarium. The only problem is that my horses are a little afraid of it because they have to stand in a very narrow space and it makes quite a bit of noise blowing warm air on them. Dolly took to it faster than Donneur because I told her it was a beauty treatment and we all know how women like to go to the spa. Next, she'll be asking to get her feet done while she is in the Solarium. Donneur on the other hand, has different ideas. I turned the Solarium on first and tried to back him in, to no avail. He came out rather forcefully and of course hit the Emergency Off Switch with his nose in the process. Are we surprised by that? But you know what? Now that he is doing his one time changes, he can have anything he wants! I feel a Grand Prix test just around the corner. Hopefully, we can do our first one soon. They have a wonderful Grand Prix test for 8,9 and 10 year old horses here in Germany that is very user friendly that we hope to try soon. The only bad news is that Hubertus cracked a vertebrae in his back and is not allowed on a horse for 8 weeks. His wife, Doris, has a big job ahead of her keeping him under wraps until he gets the all clear from his doctor.......

2007-11-04T03:55:00.000-08:00

What a horse show it was! First I would like to thank all of you that sent e-mails to cheer us on, it was greatly appreciated. The horse show was located in Paderborn, only about 30 minutes away, so that meant that we trailered the horses back and forth each day. It was a good size show, with participants from 9 countries and 48 horses entered in my first class. We trailered over on Thursday to school and imagine my surprise to be stabled next to 2 other Americans that were showing there, Sue Blinks and Jan Ebeling. It was really nice to have other American riders there and I must say everyone was very good about supporting each other.
The competition was indoors with the arena beautifully decorated with plants, flowers and many banners. My class had 3 judges sitting at H, C and M. Dolly was my first ride and she put in a good solid test with no mistakes and handled the 20 x 40 warm up area with no problem. We just put our elbows out and went for it. Donneur was also quite comfortable in the warm up, we even had our best pirouettes since we have been in Germany, according to Hubertus. I had a head set on which made the warm up alot easier. Donneur also put in a good solid test, no major mistakes. Over all, I was well pleased with the horses. Hubertus was also complimentary and said that the tests were well ridden technically and that the horses did a good job. Klaus Balkenhol was also there and watched both horses perform and spoke to me afterwards about the rides. Here comes the reality check. Dolly scored a 60% and Donneur 61% which placed them in the middle of the pack. Hubertus and Klaus thought that the judges were too tough on us and that each horse should have been 4 or 5 % higher. But here is the thing: 1) I am an auslander (foreign rider) that they do not know and 2) the Germans have an incredibly high standard for what they want to see. It is assumed that you will do a clean test and then the marks go up from there. They are judging on all of the fine points, is the neck too short, the walk active enough, was the horse crooked. In America, if the horse does the flying change we give a 7, here it would be a 5 for doing it and it would have to be big, expressive and straight to get a 7. But after all, that is why we are here! I want to be measured by the strictest standard and I am willing to knock on the door until they know who I am!
Since I was one of the top 20 riders in the S3 test( equivilent to PSG), I qualified for the Prix St. George Special the next day and had to choose which horse to ride. I rode Donneur and again, he had a good test, very consistent, no major mistakes, and placed 10th, tying with Jan Ebeling. So, we did get to participate in the prize giving and the victory gallop and will bring back a ribbon from Germany!
I was really impressed that my horses could trailer back and forth each day in a van that was a slant load and the spot where Donneur had to ride was about the size of the back seat of a VW. We didn't get back to our stable until 10:00 Friday night and had to leave early the next morning to go back over for our other class. They did tests that they have never ridden before( I only got a copy 4 days before the show) and they had to warm up in a small area. The horse shows here are so different, you don't know until 6:30 the night before you ride what time your test will be the following day. No one checks your tack or the length of your whip, etc. It was kind of like going to a horse show for the first time because you don't know the protocol and it is hard to find out when you aren't fluent in German! I almost missed the prize giving because the class before they placed to 8th but for some reason that I still don't know, the Prix St. George Special placed to 10th. Thank you Sue Blinks for tacking Donneur up while I quickly changed back into my show clothes. We made it with not a moment to spare! The good news is we won a little cash to help cover the entries and now I know that if you can survive a show in Germany, you can do anything! Other results from Americans, Sue Blinks 63% in GP, Jan Ebeling 57 and 59% in S3, Todd Flettrich 60% at GP. It was a great experience and I look forward to uping my game to be able to score the way I know my horses are capable of in the future.

2007-10-21T05:09:00.000-07:00

Can you remember back to a time when Sunday was a day reserved for resting and family visits? That is what Sundays still are in Etteln. I just finished a wonderful Sunday dinner with the family that I live with. We had a beef roast with mushroom gravy, potatoes, and red cabbage. For dessert, we had kiwi fruit, pineapples and the most delicious vanilla joghurt. Hildegard, my mother thanks you for taking such good care of me! Sundays are a day off for the horses and unfortunately it is raining here this morning so no turn out, just hand walking. On the way to the barn I stop at the backeri and get fresh brotchen, my special Sunday treat. The horses are enjoying their 40 pound bag of carrots each week, and I am sure a quiet day is appreciated by them after such a busy week. Although this morning wasn't so quiet at the stable. There were 2 cows that got loose last night and were running around the barn area and Donneur found that quite stimulating. I was in cleaning his stall when the cows showed up and I had all the shavings pulled back to clean the wet spot when he decided to do 180's. Sparks were flying from his shoes on the concrete and I was impressed that he could stay on his feet in light of the fact that he was doing the splits behind. I was just trying to stay out of the way! Speaking of cows, a farmer had an interesting way of moving his cow. He had a corral on wheels that was just big enough to go around one cow and hook to his tractor. As the tractor moved along, so did the cow on foot inside the corral. The cow had no choice but to keep up with the tractor.

Yesterday when I came home for lunch, Josef asked if I wanted my car washed. Of course with the language barrier it took me a while to realize that he was offering to do it for me. His wife said,"My man always has to have the cars clean, a dirty car doesn't bother me so much" of course as she is washing the windows! After lunch, I was going back to clean my horses and my stalls so everyone was happy doing their favorite kind of cleaning.

The last couple of days were interesting for Donneur. We have been working on the one time changes with mixed success, some days ok and some days difficult and Hubertus hasn't been able to ride for the last week because he hurt his back. He suggested that his head bereiter, Hubsie, ride him and work on the ones. Hubertus said to me"99% of the time it is technique but sometimes it is just strength. Since Hubsie rides with his stirrups 5 holes longer than mine and he is probably 5 times more powerful than me, it is not so easy for Donneur to veto his suggestions. It is working beautifully, yesterday Hubsie did as many as 8 ones that were beautiful and straight. The great thing is, he is very judicious with his strength, makes a quick correction and then rides the horse normally. Even a small person can ride a horse with strength on every stride and cause a lot of damage to the horse's training. Dolly continues to excel in her half pass work and passage and is now doing better transitions from passage to piaffe and back to passage. Her ones are easier for me to work on because she doesn't get away from me as easily as Mighty Mouse does. We are on the count down now, 2 weeks until the show, things ought to get pretty interesting. I also had an opportunity to ride a really nice 3 year old they have here for training. Wonderful mind, good natural balance and easy in the hand. Nice ladies horse, perfect temperament for an amateur. Any takers?

2007-10-16T10:22:00.000-07:00

Today was an exciting day for me. Sometimes it seems that you wait all day to ride and then it happens so fast, it's over before you know it. True to form, I seldom know when my lessons will be ahead of time, but I am there for most of the day taking care of my horses. Today my lessons were in the afternoon which always makes for a long evening because it takes so long to cool them out and clean them up. Definitely time to clip. Even that is an adventure because our clippers don't work over here so I will have to borrow some.
I rode Donneur first and we had a wonderful ride. His pirouettes are becoming so steady and reliable, the passage is getting stronger every day and his piaffe is beautiful. The one time changes are the last piece of the puzzle for both horses and we will have those before we come back to the States. Dolly has turned out to be quite the Passage Queen. It's her favorite thing to do now. She also excels at the half pass and the zig zag. I also got to ride one of Hubertus' horses today to work on the one time changes on a horse that is confirmed. What a pleasure and how easy it is on a horse that knows it. So I am going to take that feeling back to my horses and they will be doing them that effortlessly before long. Had a nice phone call from Michael Poulin today, just checking in with me to see how the training is progressing. Very nice of him to keep up with our progress. I told him we will be ready to go Grand Prix when I get home! Off to dinner tonight with Todd and his groom, great to have another American here so cheer each other on!

2007-10-07T02:39:00.000-07:00

It was nice to have some company from home this week. Andrea and Marco drove down from Hamburg for the day to watch my lesson with Hubertus. Andrea had not seen Donneur go since he was at Third Level and she was really amazed at how much he has learned. Since the drive was so long(3 hours each way) they didn't get to stay and watch Dolly. We had a nice lunch together at the local Gasthof in our village. I must say, anywhere I have gone for a meal here in Germany, it has been very good. I have had dinner with friends from the stable in the nearby town of Paderborn several times and it is always very tasty.
Yesterday morning, I got up at 3:30 to take care of my horses and we left at 4:30 to drive 3 hours to Bremen to watch the Grand Prix. It was an International show in a large coliseum so the atmosphere was quite exciting. Hubertus rode Santos, an 8 year old horse in his first Grand Prix and was 4th with a 68.8%. Debbie McDonald was 3rd on Felix with a 69+% and a woman from Mexico won with a 73%. It was so nice because the scoreboard was computerized so that you could see the marks from all 5 judges immediately for each movement. To be successful, you have to have a horse that can score a 7 on everything. There were actually only a handful of 8's and the judging was very strict about mistakes, for instance a mistake in the counting of the tempi changes was automatically a 4. One thing that was different than I have experienced in the States is the piaffe scoring. At home, if the horse moves forward during the piaffe, frequently you are penalized heavily, even if the piaffe was ok. I never understood this. Yesterday, the quality of the piaffe was the most important issue and if the horse moved a bit forward, it was not automatically insufficient like at home. That is how it should be to promote the future training of the horse. Debbie McDonald is a great technical test rider, very accurate. There were a couple other Americans there, Heather Blitz being one of them and I was very proud that they held their own, scoring from 67 to 69%. The riding of the Americans is truly getting more respected over here. When Hubertus came into the arena, the announcer said"And here comes Hubertus Schmidt with yet another young GP horse". He seems to produce GP horses so easily and even with having a bad back pain from the day before, he rode a test without mistakes on a very green horse. We then drove 3 hours back home and I had 3 horses to ride so it was a late night at the stable but well worth the trip. I have been riding a 5 year old by Davingon, who is Donneur's grandfather, that belongs to Hubertus.
Today is the horses' day off so I went to the stable early and turned them out and they were quite fresh since we had our first frost last night. On the way back, I stopped at the backeri and bought some fresh whole grain brotchen for breakfast. When I got home, Hildegard asked if I wanted to have coffee with she and her grand daughter, Paula, who is 5. Pretty sad to say, Paula can speak German better than I can. She was working on some workbooks that teach children how to count, etc. and they were just my speed. I think I will have to get some of those to improve my German. So many of the young children do vaulting on horseback even at 5 years old! No wonder these kids grow up to be fearless on horses!
Michelle Gibson was supposed to come over but I heard that her horse had to have a month off so her trip is delayed. Meanwhile, Todd Flettrich, who has been here since the summer, went to a show this weekend in East Germany. It is about an 8 hour drive, thank goodness for a GPS in your car! It is very difficult to find your way around since the signs on the Autobahn don't designate which direction you are travelling, only the names of the towns. So if you don't know which towns are in which direction, you are in big trouble. Not to mention that he speaks ZERO German and in East Germany, they speak NO English. So I am sure he will find the weekend quite stressful. The other night, I found it quite challenging to drive on the Autobahn while my friend was talking to me in German. Too much to concentrate on at once. But then again, I don't get in the left lane too often in my Ford Fiesta. Do you know that you can lose you license here for 4 weeks for following too closely on the Autobahn? And passing someone on the right hand side is just as serious an offense as drinking and driving! No wonder even though they drive very fast, they don't have as many accidents as we do with people weaving in and out of traffic and tailgaiting.
So back to work with my horses tomorrow and I am greatly inspired after watching the horses at the Bremen show. We have alot of work to do. We are shooting for riding in a National show in Paderborn Nov. 3 and 4. It is taking almost one month to get through the paperwork to get my guest license so that I can show over here. The USEF has to send a letter to the German Federation giving you permission to compete and then you have to apply for a Guest License from Germany that is good for three or four shows, then you have to reapply for doing more than that. If you want to compete in an International show, it is even more complicated.

2007-09-30T01:32:00.000-07:00

I am sure that my dedicated readers are all eagerly awaiting the news of our first week of training. You certainly won't be disappointed! Hubertus was very happy with the progress of both horses since working with us last March in FL. The biggest compliment of all was that we got to run through the whole program including piaffe and passage from the first lesson onward. Just being back in Hubertus' arena makes me a better rider.
It is probably even more hectic than last year because at the moment, there are 3 Americans, 2 Japanese, a Swiss and a Swede all training here in addition to the normal horses that Hubertus rides and each of his 4 riders have 6 or 8 horses to ride each day. But somehow, it all works and when you are having your lesson, you are hardly aware of the other horses in the arena, your level of concentration is so high. The work this year is easier even though we are working at the Grand Prix level because we know the system and the horses are stronger and more supple than last year.
My German is getting better, especially since the family that I live with speaks NO English. Because of that, I am much more willing to give my German a try at the grocery store or the bakery. I am in the process of getting all the paperwork arranged so that I can show in Paderborn on Nov. 3 and 4. I will be showing PSG and INT 1 because I have to have scores to qualify to be accepted into the show. It will be a lot of fun, there are many riders from our stable that are going.
The horses have settled into a good rhythm, they seem to know right where they are. Dolly is especially fond of the silage, she highly recommends it, very worth the trip. Donneur loves it to but seems to be having an allergic reaction to it or something else. I am in the process of trying to get an alternate source of hay and/or silage for him. Try going to the feed store and in your limited German explain that your horse has an allergy and you want a particular kind of feed!
The thing that makes this time around easier is that instead of trying to learn a new program, I am riding from the position of KNOWING that the horses will do the movements as well as I have them pushed through. All problems that arise come from the horse not being accepting of the outside rein and being able to stay loose with flexion and bending on the inside. Then it is only a question of time for them to get stronger and more fluid with everything. It is quite amazing to see the progress of the horses that I knew from last year. Horses that were just learning a single flying change are now doing tempis and pirouettes and starting half steps. But it is all in a way that the horses are comfortable with because the preparation was so correct.
For as fabulous as the first week has gone, I am also filled with a tremendous sadness. On Friday, September 28th, I lost my wonderful companion, Montana. A couple of weeks before I left for Germany, she got a lump on her head. Her vet, Lauren Wade, was treating her with antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory and she seemed to be responding. Then things took a turn for the worse and it turned out to be a very aggressive tumor that affected her head and her left eye. On Friday morning she was in so much pain that I made the decision to have her put to sleep. I will be forever grateful to Mary Anne and Lauren for being with her and showing her love and compassion until the end when it was not possible for me the be there.
Montana was the epitome of everything that we hope to be as good human beings. She was always kind, even to those that weren't kind to her, loving unconditionally, loyal and she could put a smile on anyone's face. She was never demanding and endlessly patient and always accepting with no expectations. She lived life joyfully, always giving more than receiving. I am so thankful that she shared my life for the last 10 years and although I will always have her in my heart, it will be very difficult not to have her by my side. I know that her spirit is happy in it's freedom and that she will continue to bring joy to all those who come into contact with her.

2007-09-17T06:55:00.001-07:00

The horses and I had a great trip to Germany on KLM airlines out of New York. How could it have been any other way when the name of the animal flight attendant for our flight was "Gabriel"? The horses seemed to know where they were going and made the trip much easier than last year. I have to say, it was easier for me too because I knew the drill and what to expect as well as being familiar with our destination.

We arrived in the light of day this time and the horses settled into their stalls, glad to be somewhere that wasn't in motion. We are in the main barn this time which makes it nice and many of our friends from last year are here again as well as some other Americans, including Todd Flettrich and sponsor, Margaret, and Michelle Gibson is coming next week. Hubertus is on vacation and will return on the 22nd, so the horses and I have some time to catch our breath and get up to speed.

I have an apartment in a different home this time, although it is only one house down from where I stayed last year. Josef and Hildegarde Beine are the owners and have been very gracious, including feeding me when I first arrived and taking me to the airport to get my trusty Ford Fiesta rental car. I suppose by the time I get back my German will be greatly improved since the Beine Family doesn't speak English. What better way to learn than total immersion, right?

Some exciting news from Stephanie Chandler that came here last fall and bought Lacord, the chestnut horse that was on the blog last year. She just competed in the US Championships for 5 year old Dressage horses and was 3rd in the final standings! That is an amazing accomplishment for a horse that she only bought 8 months ago!

The weather has been perfect, 50's at night and 70's during the day. We are getting into a new rhythm and looking forward to Hubertus' return. We are ready for the challenge of bringing two Grand Prix horses back to the States!

2007-01-03T11:13:00.000-08:00

If you need a dedicated animal attendant who is certified in the safety procedures on an MD-11, I am your go to person. Now that I can add this to my resume' maybe I can moonlight flying with horses back and forth to Europe. You would be amazed how many horses fly. Martinair tells me that they fly about 2000 each year, mostly to and from Miami. We are scheduled to fly out on the 9th. The horse van will pick us up at the stable at 6:00a.m. and we have about a 5 hour drive to Amsterdam. The horses will start being loaded onto the containers at about 11:30a.m. and the flight departs at 2:30p.m. We arrive in Miami at 6:30 p.m. your time (12:30a.m. Germany time). The horses will be unloaded and vanned over to the quarantine facility where they will remain for 2 days. They will be released on the 11th and I will drive them up to our farm in Apopka. The State vet was at our farm this morning doing a final inspection so that we can be a certified CEM quarantine facility so that Dolly can finish her 21 day period at home. We passed inspection with flying colors, in fact the vet remarked that the preparations were the most thorough he has seen. Thank you Mary Anne!!!!!! I had a bit of fun on the drive to Amsterdam this morning to take the safety training course at Martinair. I must admit, I didn't see much scenery on the way there because it was dark for 2/3 of the trip and the rest of the time I spent looking at the map or checking my rearview mirror for speeding bullets in the left lane. I still think it is amazing that you can get to a totally new destination in a foreign country just by looking at a map. But, I guess Schipol airport in Amsterdam is a pretty big target. Just a word to the wise, make sure you carry coins with you when you travel on the highway because when you stop to use the restroom, it almost always costs money. Not the time you want to have to wait in line for change. This is a new one. One place that I stopped had a turnstile in front of the bathroom door that you had to put 50 cents in and it gave you a receipt back that was good for a 50cent discount on an instore purchase. And don't think about ducking under the turnstile in a moment of desperation, there is a uniformed attendant standing there watching the comings and goings. Do you know that Germany is the only country with no speed limit on the Autobahn? I find that curious since they are so conservative, yet think how much fuel they use traveling at warp speed! In Holland, the speed limit is 120 kph. I found Holland to be much more Americanized. I saw a lot of McDonald's along the highway and Burger King at the travel plazas. I have to admit, you do stay more alert driving in Germany because there is something happening all the time, whereas when most people are traveling at the same rate of speed, traffic backs up easily and you tend to get bored. One refreshing thing, there are virtually no billboards along the highway. Driving in Holland could have easily passed as Florida, very flat and lots of water. At least on the way home it was daylight so I could see a little of the countryside. We are coming down to our last few days of lessons, but you would never know it, Hubertus still has the discerning eye on us until the last moment. He has worked very hard to help us put our best foot forward for the Selection Trials and we are very anxious to put our new skills to work. A footnote for those of you interested, the Part 2 of The Road to Beijing article written about my Olympic journey is available online at www.corralonline.com

2006-12-29T10:02:00.000-08:00

Winter has arrived! We woke up to 19 degrees, frozen water pipes and ice in the water buckets. I think the horses were the only ones that didn't mind. Needless to say, they were all very fresh.The riding arena was full of squealing horses that day. These Germans are a hearty group, the windows in the barn are still open and on the way into town I saw women pushing their baby carriages and elderly women walking to church inspite of the below 20 degree temperature. The blacksmith was out to shoe my horses for the second time since I have been here and I have to say that the shoeing style is much different than what we have at home. The balance of the foot is good, but the toe is shorter than we usually do it. The biggest difference is that the shoe is set extremely full and very far back to give maximum support. I have come to the conclusion that they can get away with that style of shoeing because these horses are not getting turned out and almost all wear bell boots. I am sure when we get back to FL and Donneur and Dolly get turned out in that FL sand, we will be calling the blacksmith pretty quickly to replace the shoes they pull off. The good part about standing them up with a short toe is that they don't slip and slide so much on the bricks (which are everywhere they walk except the indoor arena). I am sure you all have heard by now that FL is experiencing an Equine Herpes breakout and it has caused a ripple effect through the horse community. Originally, Dolly was going to quarantine for 21 days at Highlife Farm in Orlando, and we just got a call the day before yesterday that they couldn't take her because they had horses from Wellington quarantined in their isolation barn. Plan B was to take her to Ocala, 80 miles from our farm, which would make a great hardship to try to ride her and keep her fit for the shows . We are now frantically working on Plan C, that is to make our farm in Apopka a state approved CEM quarantine facility. Thank you Dr. Jones, Mary Anne Milleman and Caroline Ashton for jumping through the hoops for the next 10 days to get the farm approved! It will certainly make life easier to have Dolly on the farm, even if she has to be kept separate from everyone else. Both horses are going through their lessons very smoothly now and we are able to polish and fine tune the movements from the PSG and INT 1 tests now because the quality of the gaits is well established and maintained during all of the exercises. A long way from where we started three months ago. It was definitely worth it to stay the extra few weeks to give the horses the chance to solidify their new routine. I am really looking forward to test ride (literally) my new horses at the shows this winter. I think the judges will really have to sit up and take notice of both horses because they will definitely be in the hunt for the top placings. This trip has been a great bonding experience for the three of us, we have been together every day from take off in New York to touch down in Miami and have faced many new challenges and a lot of hard work over the last 90 days. That bond will serve us well as we face the new challenge of the Selection Trials this winter. Regardless of which horse wins the blue ribbon, we all three will be winners because we are part of the Equisential Team, whose mission statement is the pursuit of excellence!

2006-12-25T10:37:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to everyone at home! I have spent a good part of this afternoon catching up with my family and wishing them a Merry Christmas. I have now experienced my first Christmas in Germany. It was really quite refreshing because the season is very understated compared to the States. They open their gifts on the evening of the 24th and have a quiet family gathering. I shared the evening with the family that owns the home where I am living, the Knaups. It was an interesting evening in many respects because there were several generations in the house, so the conversation spanned the time period before the 2nd world war to cell phones and modern technology. When talking about the war, today's generation said that the Germans as a community knew that something wasn't quite right with what Hitler was proposing to make Germany a world power, but he provided them with food and a decent lifestyle, even if it was under strict control of the government, so they just looked the other way during the time of the Holocaust. After the war, they said there was nothing left of Germany, not "any stone on stone" and the added dilemma of there being no men left. Millions of men had died fighting, consequently, it was the women who did a lot of the work to rebuild Germany. It was also sobering to hear that Hitler sacrificed men in his own army at one battle when they were surrounded by the Russians and he refused to let them retreat. 200,000 German men died as a result. Hitler viewed fighting in a war as a way to make the strongest men rise to the top and if they got killed, it was because they were weak and needed to be eliminated anyway. War to us in America is something that happens somewhere else, not on our home turf. It was very interesting to speak to people that had actually lived it. On the lighter side, at one point the conversation turned to Germany's obsession with separating the garbage and even they had to laugh at themselves when it came to the example of how to throw away a teabag. The paper tag went with the paper, the tea bag went into the organic container, the staple on the paper to the tin can container and the string to the household waste container. The population as a whole is much more well versed on world politics than the average American. I think that must be because in America we feel so removed from the rest of the world, it isn't that important. But when you live in the European community, you are very close to all the problems that we only read about. I can tell you that George Bush is VERY unpopular here in Germany. The time is going quickly now and I will be leaving for FL on Jan. 9. I have to go to Amsterdam for the day on Jan. 3 to take a safety course to get certified in precautions on a 747 and an MD-11 so that I can travel as part of the crew on the cargo plane that will take us to Miami. That will be something unusual to add to my resume'! We are looking forward to some FL sunshine, it has been hovering in the 30's here and very gray, no snow to speak of. The horses will be glad to get home so they can enjoy some turnout time. They are super fit, even after 7 days straight of work, today they were like kites on the end of the lead shank when I took them out to graze!

2006-12-17T05:40:00.000-08:00

Every day presents a new challenge here in Germany! Yesterday, it was my car. I am now driving a Renault Clio because Hertz called and said that I had to come get a car with snow tires. It was rather alarming when a message popped up on the instrument panel that I couldn't read because it was in German. Now the question, keep on driving or not? I parked the car and checked all the tires for a flat, there was nothing leaking out from underneath the car and there were no strange noises, no smoke coming from under the hood, so I opted to continue, how serious could it be? But how would I find out what the message meant? I decided to devote my lunch hour to looking at the owner's manual to try to sort things out. A lot of help that was, because it is in German also. Thank goodness for illustrations, under the section of On Board computer, there was a message similar to the one on my car. Come to find out, all that drama was a result of trying to use the windshield washer. The button on the windshield wiper control that usually washes the windshield on an American Car, activates the on Board computer. I still don't know what the message meant, but when I pushed the button and held it down, the message disappeared. Crisis averted! It's wonderful how the little things in life can make your day! The only car story that tops that one is when I was in Germany the first time in '94. I had flown to Donaueschingen to meet my horse to ride in a show there, so I was driving a rental car and trying to find my way to the showgrounds. I turned down a very narrow road, like so many others here in Germany, only to find out to my horror, I was on a bike path! So I quickly put the car in reverse to get out of there before anyone wondered what the stupid American was doing on a bike path with a car. Only problem was , no matter how hard I tried, the car would not go into reverse. Now what am I going to do? I'm not sure whether it was embarrassment or adrenaline, but I jumped out of that car and pushed it backwards off the path, which must have looked even more astonishing to any onlookers. It was only later that I realized that you had to push the gearshift down to get it into reverse! For those of you looking for some additional bedtime reading, Candy Lawrence from Chagrin Falls, OH has interviewed me to do a story about our Olympic Quest. The first installment is due out shortly in the December issue on www.corralonline.com with the second installment due in their January issue. Thank you Candy for helping me get the word out! We are on the countdown now, our flight home is on Jan. 9th. Since I will be flying home on Martinair on a cargo plane, I have to make a trip to Amsterdam to take a safety course so that I can be certified to travel as a member of the crew for the trip home. That should be interesting! Meanwhile, I am making the most of my last 3 weeks here, soaking up all the information I can in my lessons and keeping up my strength by eating lots of Weihnachts Stollen (Christmas fruitcake). Plans are in the works to have a homecoming of sorts in February for friends and supporters in FL to show slides and talk about the trip. Of course we will have something similar for our OH supporters when we go back in the Spring!

2006-12-11T10:59:00.000-08:00

Sunrise in Etteln, Germany. The days here are pretty short right now, sunrise is at 8:15 a.m. and sunset is at 4:15p.m. Christmas in Germany is much less commercial than it is at home. There are lots of celebrations, but all center around family and community. Most people in Germany are born and raised in the same village and very few leave. So when there is a gathering in the community, everyone knows everyone else. We had a Christmas program at Fleyenhof which was put on by the children from the local riding club (about 300 members). There was a quadrille of 12 children on horses and ponies ( which were all on the bit or if the children were too young to do that, they rode in sidereins). The picture of the pony at the top of the page was the angel who introduced each of the performances in the show. For the kids that were too young to ride, they had a quadrille of little girls on their stick horses. For the teenaged boys, they had a jumping contest, on foot, not horseback. It was quite entertaining. The boy that won jumped a fence that was set at the top of the jump standard. Impressive! And needless to say, the fellows were at the age that they loved being the center of attention. And for the grand finale, St. Nicklaus was scheduled to make a visit. They turned off all the lights in the indoor arena and all the children lined up on benches holding lit candles. It was all very formal and even a bit intimidating for the little ones. Santa arrived on foot, dressed in something that looked more like the Pope than our cheerful chubby Santa. By his side was another man dressed in a macabre black mask that is meant to punish the bad children. Now you know the secret of why Germans are so prone to following the rules. They start them out very young. The children were called up 3 at a time to be judged by Santa. He read out of a book comments on each child and their behavior (good and those needing improvement). I wonder if the parents were able to submit requests to St. Nicklaus for behavior modification prior to last night's ceremony? Fortunately, all the children received a gift at this ceremony which lasted at least 45 minutes. Christmas gifts are opened here on the evening of the 24th. Advent calendars with a piece of chocolate for each day of the month are very popular gifts for the children, as are chocolate santas the size of our Easter bunnies. Chocolate is HUGE in Germany, yet you very rarely see overweight people. I have yet to see an overweight child. The other thing that is so refreshing about Germany is that there is a wonderful sense of civility. Everyone is extremely courteous to each other, always saying please and thank you and addressing each other formally, unless invited to be on a first name basis. Everyone says hello to each other whether you know each other or not. Being punctual for an appointment is a must and German people are not rule breakers by nature. Although the interesting thing is that they can be very pushy when it comes to standing in line for something. They are not prone to chit chat or idle conversation and although you will see them smile for a reason, they view people that smile excessively as simple minded! Overall, they are very hard working, practical people that are still very steeped in tradition. It makes you realize how young and free wheeling our country is.

2006-12-10T10:19:00.000-08:00

Well, now I have witnessed stall cleaning the German way. As I mentioned earlier, the stalls are not cleaned on a daily basis when the horses are bedded on straw. Instead, they use the deep litter method, just adding more each day. After about 6 weeks, when all the horses look 18 hands in their stalls because there is so much bedding, it is time to strip the stalls. The horses are moved out of their stalls (turned out, put in another barn or just tied somewhere for a few hours) and the work begins. All the feed bins have to be unscrewed from the wall, and a bottom board that is on each stall divider is removed, then the walls can swing back flush against one side so the tractor can come in and start scraping out the straw. It still takes a couple of people with pitchforks to take the bedding away from the walls so the tractor can take it out. What a tremendous undertaking. All the bereiters and working students do this and it takes until about lunch time to get it put back together, then they still have to ride all their horses in the afternoon and into the evening. Needless to say, they dread having to do the stalls. The other photo is of a truly international dinner party. The US, Japan, Sweden, Germany and Holland were all represented the other evening at a restaurant in Paderborn. It was a real treat to listen to Hubertus talk about his experiences riding at Olympics and World Championships. We also had a lively discussion about the different methods of training horses by some of the top riders in the world. The nice thing about the system that Hubertus uses is that it can be used on any type of horse, energetic or lazy, super athletic or just an average mover and by riders of all levels, amateur or professional with good results. The basis of his system follows the classical training scale with the emphasis on the idea that the horse must be very loose, supple and easy on the contact, thereby allowing them to move with the most swing and cadence in all the movements. For those of you having trouble with your flying changes, remember that the horse has to be straight before the change and soft on the new inside rein. If that is the case, you can give the horse a very soft leg aid while you support him on the new outside rein. If he doesn't change correctly, it isn't really a question of needing to use a stronger leg aid, rather, he probably wasn't loose on the new inside rein. Take time to make him loose on the new inside rein before the next attempt and keep the leg aid soft. He is also very big on riding with the horse positioned or flexed at the jaw to the inside while keeping the horse's body absolutely straight. We ride a lot of shoulder fore, especially in the canter. The horses MUST go into and bend in EVERY corner. If you can do that, the half passes are so much easier. If the horse is loose on the inside rein, he can continue to swing at the trot during the lateral work also. Above all, the haunches must never lead in half pass, otherwise he loses his balance and is unable to keep swinging. It sounds very simple because in theory it is ,but it takes a lot of practice to do it reliably, day after day. I am quite sure Hubertus has never gotten the comment from the judge that there isn't enough bending in the half pass. All of the horses in his stable do exceptional half passes, again proving that his system can be used on all horses. The same goes for pirouettes in canter. If you can keep the horse's body straight on the line (diagonal) while you collect him and bend him, you can relax during the pirouette because the hard work is done before you ever start turning. The same with the piaffe. If the horse is loose in the hand and obedient to the leg before you ask, you can relax during the piaffe and it is much less stressful for the horse and he can stay even and swinging (in his back) during the piaffe and passage. Preparation before each movement is key and maintaining a high standard of how light the horse is on the reins between the movements determines your degree of success.

2006-12-05T12:02:00.000-08:00

Mary Anne left for the States this morning, where she is eagerly awaiting the arrival of Fidelity. For those of you wondering about his breeding, his sire is Falsterbo by Fidermark by Florestan. His dam's sire is Reggazoni, by Rubinstein. Meanwhile, back at Fleyenhof, Hubertus returned this afternoon from Arizona, where he was doing a clinic. I had a great lesson with Donneur and Hubertus was quite pleased with the progress we made in his absence. We are starting to ride the movements from the Int. 1 test on both horses, in preparation for the Pan Am selections. Hubertus is going to ride Dolly the next couple of days to get the canter work pushed through and the tempi changes straighter. On a sad note, Fuerst Fabio is now back in the USA. Originally, Cesar Parra, the owner had agreed to give Hubertus until the end of the year to find a sponsor to buy the horse for him to ride. But, apparently, Cesar has found someone that wants to buy the horse and let him continue to ride it, so he took the horse home. We can only imagine what Fuerst Fabio might have become under the tutelage of Hubertus. Even when you are one of the best riders in the world, it is hard to find the means for a great horse. But as one of the ladies in the stable so aptly put it, "Hubertus doesn't even need a great horse, he just needs a good one because under his riding, they all become great!" And on a lighter note, for those of you that are wondering why the wash machines take 1 and 1/2 hours to complete their cycle, it is because the washer heats its own water and the spin cycle is more intense. Therefore, the washers use only about 11 gallons per load, don't waste energy heating more water than necessary and save energy when the clothes go in the dryer because the spin cycle does a better job of wringing the water out. It is all about conservation over here! So when you set the washer to do a koche-wasch (literally, cook wash), who needs bleach when your clothes are washed in boiling water?

2006-12-02T10:34:00.000-08:00

The Christmas season has started in Germany! Our Swedish friend, Annele, cooked lunch for all of us on Friday at the stable. On the menu were authentic Swedish meatballs. She made 70 meatballs and suffice to say, they were awesome because there were no leftovers! In the city of Paderborn, one of the main shopping areas has been transformed into a Christmas market with every kind of food and drink available as well as some carnival rides for the children. It was packed on Saturday afternoon. Things at the barn have been a little more relaxed with Hubertus gone to Arizona to give a clinic. He asked me if they have dressage horses in AZ and I assured him they do and that they would not have horns on the saddles. He was hoping to meet an authentic American Cowboy since he was going to be in the West. I will be spending my first Christmas in Germany, since I have extended my stay until Jan. 10. The horses are making such good progress, I feel that we need to stay a little longer to solidify their training so that it becomes their normal way of going when we come home. We will be starting the Selection Trials for the Pan American Games in February on the FL circuit. The Trials will go on through May and the top 12 will go to Gladstone to compete head to head in June and the Team will be chosen at that competition. The Pan Am Games are in Brazil in July, 2007. We will be competing at Prix St. George and Intermediare 1 for the Trials and will also have to do a musical freestyle. So I guess we better get a move on! One more interesting fact about the difference between our culture and Germany's is that they value their free time so much more than we do. In fact, if you stay at work past quitting time, instead of being thought of as a "go getter", you are viewed as being inefficient because you are not able to get your work done during normal hours. They also get 6 weeks of vacation each year!

2006-11-28T09:21:00.000-08:00

CONGRATULATIONS, IT'S A BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mary Anne Milleman is the proud owner of "Fidelity", a four year old Hanoverian gelding, 16.3, liver chestnut. He is sure to keep her well occupied since he is a high energy horse with a Dennis the Menace personality. He has 3 beautiful gaits and a nice uphill conformation with a very elastic way of going. He has already been shown here in Germany with blue ribbon placings at First Level. His future looks very bright as an FEI prospect. He is due to arrive in Miami on Dec. 14. Now that's what I call a good Christmas present! There definitely is an advantage to shopping here for a horse since you can see literally hundreds of horses within a very small area. Kind of like going to the ice cream shop and trying to pick your favorite flavor. Speaking of flavor, as I have already mentioned, the food here is very good, however, ordering can be a challenge when you don't speak the language. Mary Anne and I wanted a taste of home, so we went to the Kentucky Fried Chicken place in Paderborn. Then, we realized that we couldn't go through the drive thru since we don't know what to say, so we opted to go inside. Mary Anne jokingly said, "I'll just order a Number 2 Meal". And lo and behold when we got inside, they did have a number 2 meal and that's just what she had since her German is limited to knowing how to count. It worked out great until we realized that we didn't have any silverware and no idea what the German translation would be. So, once again, sign language worked out well. Even at Kentucky Fried Chicken, your meal comes on a china plate with real silverware instead of throw away plates and utensils. No waste around here. The other cute story that happened was when some friends of ours were driving through the German countryside and decided to stop at a local place for a bite to eat. Not knowing any German, when they were asked what they wanted to order, they just repeated what they had heard the lady at the next table order. The only problem was, when it came, it was meatloaf and our friend was a vegetarian. But, by that time she was so hungry she ate it anyway and actually found it pretty tasty! On the home front, Donneur and Dolly both trained exceptionally well today. Dolly had her best day yet with wonderful halfpasses and predictable pirouettes. Her neck is growing larger by the day, she has really blossomed under this program. Donneur is really getting his canter under control and his piaffe is incredible. I think I got a back handed compliment from one of the Swedish girls here. She told Mary Anne that in Sweden, they don't think the Americans know how to ride and that every horse that gets exported to the US gets ruined with bad riding. Now she has seen that there is at least one good American rider........

2006-11-27T11:31:00.000-08:00

This photo is of
a 4yr old horse that we found and thought was pretty special, his name is Lacord. He was so much fun to ride, very forward and balanced and a great work ethic. He already has over 20 placings at horse shows at Training and First Level. The other picture is of a stable that we went to looking for horses. A real family operation. They breed horses and sell them, there are 4 children in the family ranging in age from 16 to 26 and they all work at the stable. It is still very much the tradition for the children to take over the family business. You almost never see houses for sale, they usually house multi-generations and the oldest son inherits the property. Most of the people live in the same town where they grew up. The unemployment rate here is about 13% and taxes can be as much as 50% of your gross pay. It is a very foriegn concept to the young people here to go away to college and possibly move to another state to take a job. They can't drive until they are 18. However, they can drive a tractor at 16. But there is a tremendous sense of dedication from some of the young people here. One of the Bereiters at Hubertus' stable, also named Hubertus but affectionately known as "Hoopsi", drove his tractor and pulled his horse trailer along the backroads at 25 KPH for 2 hours to take lessons with Hubertus. The young people that work in the barn are here hustling all day and then go home to their family's stable at night to ride and teach as well. Every three weeks, one of the working students has to do the barn work alone ( there are over 60 horses),over the weekend, meaning they don't get a day off that week and you never hear a complaint. That's life in Germany.

2006-11-25T10:27:00.000-08:00

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".

2006-11-23T22:23:00.000-08:00

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!

2006-11-15T11:23:00.000-08:00

Donneur and Dolly continue to benefit from Hubertus' expert riding. Their initial reactions have been quite different as you can imagine since they have different personalities. Donneur was a hard sell at first, simply because he has the strength to challenge Hubertus. Nothing dramatic, in fact he was very cooperative until he was asked for a new degree of collection and his answer was to simply get stronger to veto that idea. Hubertus was excellent at being able to dilute Donneur's ability to be in charge by pushing him sideways and just at the moment when the horse would give on the rein, he went after the hindlegs to drive them forward. It sounds very simple to do, but your timing has to be just right. He is also a master at rewarding the horse by riding him absolutely soft in the rein when the horse is soft. VERY IMPORTANT! As a result, the horse is taking more and more weight to his hind legs and when the corners are ridden in collection with good bending, the half passes are predictably good. If there is still a discussion going on in the corner (any at all), he goes on a 20 meter circle, works it through and then tries again. He just doesn't compromise on the basics because the horses will fall a little on the forehand or lose bending in the half pass as a rule, so you can't come into it with any problems and expect the half pass to be good. The other big influence that he has had on Donneur has been in the flying changes. He gets the horse so straight on the old outside rein and then makes him loose on the new inside rein, while supporting on the new outside rein, that he really only uses his seat to make the changes with a minimal amount of leg. The idea is to have the canter so settled before the change, that you don't have to put any pressure on the horse to make the change. Donneur had a few "Whose the man?" dicussions during the tempi changes, but, he has realized that Hubertus is calling the shots. Today, Hubertus said" Good thing he learns quickly and remembers well, because he can be so strong!" I'm thinking, I'm glad he's only 16.1, not 17 hands. Dolly's first reaction was disgust that someone was rocking her world! She went around the arena the first day puffing like a freight train and alot ot tail swishing commentary. She wanted to see Hubertus' permission slip to make her sweat! Alot of work has gone into Dolly over the last 4 weeks to get her really round and staying there in all situations. Hubertus took her to task about not wanting to let go of the left rein. Very important to remember when you are in the double bridle and trying to get the horse to bend more easily, it has to be done only with the snaffle on the inside while you maintain contact on the outside rein. And the hands must not exert more pressure than your legs can keep the horse forward. Speaking of forward, I have yet to see Hubertus stop a horse that was too stong and you don't see him rein back either, except if required in a test. Everything is corrected in a forward direction, although not allowing the horse to run on the forehand, that's the tricky part. This kind of training is the real deal and very demanding on the horses and the riders. Theoretically, it can be applied to all horses and riders, but in reality, few are up to the challenge of working at this level of intensity. Every horse and rider will have to find the level of intensity that matches their goals. The good news is, Dolly got over her initial shock and made great improvement, much straighter throughout her body, taking more contact on the right rein and staying rounder in all movements. She was much quicker to comply than you know who. She looks beautiful in her new frame!

2006-11-13T10:38:00.000-08:00

It has been very interesting to watch the young horses just starting under saddle and how it compares to what we do at home. Basically, lunging with sidereins is standard in a lunging arena but things take a whole new direction when it's time to get on. I have watched a young horse over a period of 3 days go from having someone lay over the saddle to cantering. What makes it so different is that all this takes place in a 20 X 50 meter arena while everyone else is riding. No concession is made for the horse being young, kind of like being thrown in the water, sink or swim. Quite a challenge to navigate in that space on a horse that doesn't know what the aids mean and if they are shy about oncoming horses, they have to get over that in a hurry! Once again, it appears that we baby our horses much more and shelter them compared to the German way. I think there is merit to both approaches, they just get the horses over the shock of riding in traffic over in the beginning, instead of at the horse show like we do. It was rather humerous today though. After lunch there were 5 of us in the arena and one of the working students was riding a very spooky horse. No special treatment here if the horse wants to look at something, just a good crack with the whip and forward they go. What would Linda Tellington Jones say???? Not going forward or hesitations of any kind are just not tolerated here. And there is no worry about how that affects the other riders in the arena. It's damn the torpedos and full steam ahead. Our horses looked more like a school of fish, when one spooked and changed direction, they all did. You had to laugh. I think horses invented Monkey See, Monkey Do. On the other hand, the young horses see all the other horses going round and round, do you think they get more confindence knowing that they are carrying humans around too????

2006-11-09T11:54:00.000-08:00

I am sure that some of you are wondering what daily life is like in a small village in Germany. I will say that overall, the country has more conveniences than it did when I was here in the early 90's. A few things of interest: All of your garbage has to be separated into paper, household waste and organic. All glass containers have to be recycled, there is a bottle deposit on every drink bottle, glass or plastic. The shopping carts are always returned to the store because you have to deposit a euro to use one and you get it back when you lock the cart to the other ones. You bag your own groceries, in fact, you must furnish your own bags, unless you want to pay for the plastic ones that we are familiar with. You can buy fresh milk that is good for about 5 days or you can buy ultra homoginized milk that can sit on the shelf unopened for weeks. The bread is to die for, baked fresh each day with no preservatives. Laundry is an adventure. The wash cycle takes 1 hour and 20 minutes and most people hang it out to dry, which is a challenge at this time of year because it rains so much, so most laundry dries in the basement in a few days. Plan accordingly! You can use an international ATM machine, but don't do it on a Friday afternoon because the computer is overwhelmed since banks aren't open on the weekend and everyone wants some cash. Many local shops close at lunch and nothing is open on Sunday. Driving can be a challenge on the AutoBahn with my Ford Fiesta. There is no speed limit, however, I don't dare get out in the left lane lest I be eaten alive by a BMW or AUDI doing 100+ MPH. Pedestrians and bicycles always have the right of way. The typical answer when you ask for directions is, "It's hard to explain". It's best if someone takes pity on you and lets you follow them. The road signs don't say east or west, so if you don't know the name of the town that is in the direction that you want to go, you are in deep trouble. Most of the cars are small, but I will say that the Germans take their tractors seriously! They are huge! I get one channel that is in English on the Satellite, CNN International. Thank goodness for the Internet so I can keep up with what is happening at home. Overall, the people are much more healthy here than the US. All ages do a lot of walking and bike riding. The vending machines have coke and beer in them....When you go to a restaurant, they are never in a hurry to serve you and turn the table around quickly like at home. In fact, if you don't ask for the check, you might not get it for several hours! The pace and the conveniences of home are not present here, but it is much more personable and safe to walk through the village at any time day or night. Soccer ( what they call football) is wildly popular here.

2006-11-07T12:29:00.000-08:00

I thought you might find these pictures of Fleyenhof (Hubertus' stable) interesting. Hubertus grew up in the village of Etteln and has lived here all of his life. His parents built the stable in the early 70's and Hubertus completed his Bereiter training and came home to work at his family's stable. There are about 50 horses on the property now, with some of the boarders having been here over 25 years. The village of Etteln is very proud of their favorite son, over 1000 people greeted him when he returned home from the Olympics in Athens. Not all of the horses here have Olympic aspirations, but Hubertus and his wife of 25 years, Doris, feel like they are family and don't have the heart to downsize the stable to only International Dressage Horses. You are just as likely to see Hubertus on a tractor dragging the arena as riding a horse with a price tag of 1 million euros. In fact, when I arrived at 11:00p.m., he was the one who helped me unload my horses and equipment. He handwalked one horse and I did the other before we settled in the first night. It is so refreshing to meet a man with so much talent as a rider and a teacher that is truly a nice and genuine person that really cares about his horses and loves what he does. He would have to in order to keep up his daily routine. He is in Australia this week doing a clinic and will return to work with us next Monday.
The girl on the chestnut horse is Anna-Katherine, a bereiter here hacking Wansuela Suerte, Hebertus' World Championship mount.

2006-11-06T06:02:00.000-08:00

Hubertus won the Grand Prix Special on Private Dancer with a 70+% at the Paderborn show. A couple of things that make shows here more interesting, they play music with each ride that coincides with the gait that the horse is in and begins and ends as the horse does. They also give each rider a glass of wine as they come out of the competition areana. The other thing is that NOBODY leaves before the prizegiving. They love to celebrate the winner. The pictures included today are: Hubertus receiving his 1st place on Private Dancer, Mieko Yagi from Japan with her horse Dow Jones( she commutes from Japan every few weeks to ride Dow Jones, who stays with Hubertus, Hubertus signing autographs after the Special, the view from my apartment window. We haven't seen the sun now for about 10 days and not expecting to in the near future. By the way, if you think you pay alot for gas, you should be here. It is 1.18 Euro per litre ( there are about 4 litres to a gallon and a Euro is worth about 1.28 US dollars or about 5.12 per gallon!)

2006-11-05T03:57:00.000-08:00

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!

2006-11-02T11:57:00.000-08:00

Today we woke up to 25 degrees and snow. As usual, it bothered the people more than the horses. Hubertus rode Donneur again today (the third time) and if it is possible for a horse to grow up in 3 days, he did. What a huge difference in the amount of throughness and submission. The half passes were good from the beginning. Even the canter pirouettes were more controlled stride by stride. Certainly wonderful to see such improvement in a short time. Hubertus was very pleased and Donneur certainly looked like he belonged in a world class stable. After Hubertus gets back from doing a clinic in Australia, it will be Dolly's turn. Meanwhile, Dolly and I have been making steady improvement in all of her work as well, most of all keeping her round through all of her movements. News flash from the stable****** Hubertus is selling all of his Grand Prix horses including his World Championship mount Wansela Suerte, aka Winnie, and looking for a sponsor to but Fuerst Fabio, a 7 year old horse owned by Cesar Parra for 1 million Euros (approx. 1,300,000 US) Any takers? There is a show in Paderborn this weekend, about 20 minutes from here. Hubertus will be showing 2 horses and coaching several people. I went over tonight to watch the schooling and imagine my surprise to see the likes of Karin Rehbein, Isabelle Werth and Monika Theodorescu. How's that for a local horse show? Will go back tomorrow afternoon to watch the Grand Prix. Even after watching those riders school their horses, I am very sure that I am in the right place for training. All of the horses from Hubertus' stable are easy in the hand and swinging in their gaits and even in their piaffe steps and doing pirouettes easily. A lot of the other horses that I saw were impressive movers, but there wasn't the same level of cooperation from the horse. It will be interesting to watch the warm up and the Grand Prix.

2006-10-31T13:12:00.000-08:00

Today Donneur was fortunate enough to have one of the top riders in the Dressage world ride him. Hubertus followed the same format that we use in the lessons, starting with long and low and progressing to the collected movements. The long and low trot was quite pleasant, with Hubertus commenting about how nice Donneur was in the contact. The first canter was a little exciting, with Donneur giving one of his signature moves of exploding and ducking to the left. Hubertus' comment: "Now I see why you wear the small spurs". But, it was over just as quickly and they continued on, alternating between trot and canter, each time the trot became more collected and more animated. Only forward riding, pushing Donneur through until the trot became more fluid, then he started with half passes. Each half pass on the long diagonal was bigger and looser with more bending than the last. By now, the horses' legs are up around his ears(or so it seemed) . Hubertus' comment, " I am 100 percent sure there is more trot in there when he relaxes more". How big do you think it can get???????? Canter half pass went well and the next discussion centered around the pirouettes, especially the right one. Donneur wants to slow down as he turns and resists flexing in the jaw and staying soft on the inside rein. After several attempts there was some improvement and then they took a walk break. Hubertus' comment,"One minute he is so light he is on two fingers, the next minute when you would like to ask for a little more, he is incredibly strong!" I just smiled and nodded in agreement. After the pirouettes, they did a few lines of 3 tempi changes and then called it a day. He will ride him again tomorrow. When I took Donneur back to the barn, the look on his face was "Who was that man and what just happened? " But the great thing is that in spite of the fact that Hubertus pushed him for more, it was in a way that the horse understood and was quick to reward him when he got it right. Donneur is making quite a good impression on these Germans. He has a good work ethic and he has the talent to become a very good FEI level horse. Hubertus said that his basic gaits are an 8 and he just needs to be developed. That's when you are reminded how far it is from Prix St. George to Grand Prix! But what an excellent project! Where else can you have this much fun?

2006-10-30T09:56:00.000-08:00

Hello from Germany! I have created this blog so that I can share some of my training experiences while at Hubertus' stable with all of you. The horses made the trip well and have settled in nicely and after only a week's worth of lessons, have showed tremendous improvement. The work is quite demanding, but the result is a horse that is loose and swinging in his back through all of his movements. Working on the acceptance of the outside rein and staying loose on the inside rein is stressed above all else. The horses have to start out their session with a low stretching neck and be able to maintain that at trot and canter before moving on to collection. Once the collection has started, shoulder in and half pass are the keys to engagement. The half pass must have good bending and the horse must be able to half halt on the outside rein within the half pass. This must happen at trot and canter. The gait must maintain the absolute same tempo within the lateral movement as in the collected trot or canter. When this is accomplished, we move on to canter pirouettes, then on to tempi changes and finally finish with piaffe, when the horse is the most through and relaxed. Quite a straight forward system, but the key is in not compromising on the correctness and throughness of the horse. Key point to remember in the lateral work, you can have flexion (in the jaw) without bending in the neck but you can not have bending without flexion. It is a big challenge to keep the horse on the outside rein during the half pass, but you can't maintain collection without it.