Another great day in Germany!!! Super relieved as well. Nina has not been eating very well lately and has been grumpier than usual. We just thought it was because she was still getting used to life in Germany and handling the trip. She is really hot horse to begin with and she has, in the past, taken a couple of days to settle in. However, to our great relief, we discovered that she doesn't like the food she has been getting from the barn. We fed her the last bag of grain brought from home and she HOOVERED IT! She literally licked the bucket clean and glared at us over top of the rim of her bucket. It was pretty funny. She was mad it took "the humans" two days to figure out what was going on. As soon as she ate she was all relaxed and settled, and was pretty much sticking out her tongue at us calling us bad horsey names. We had switched her feed over to what was available in Germany prior to the trip, and were told by the stable manager that they fed the same feed at the barn. The barn staff was feeding her from the feed that they give to all of their horses. The first day she ate it, and then went off her feed. This being a typically pattern for Nina, we didn't suspect the feed until today. By then she was just royally mad at us. So we are really glad we can make the princess feel happier starting tomorrow with new feed.
Today Nina went really well again. We schooled in the morning and then gave her a super short, light ride in the afternoon to let her stretch her legs. It went so well I was off and on in 10minutes. However, she had a really grumpy look on her face and it wasn't until before her dinner we figured out it was a feeding issue. So I'm looking forward to her being back to normal for our rides and happy again. She is super light horse in the contact, really quick off your leg, and usually LOVES to work and play with the movements. The last couple of days she hasn't been herself because she hasn't been eating so I am SUPER SUPER happy we can rectify this problem. She has been good but just hasn't felt the same to me because she has been so grumpy the last few days.
We went with the Davis' to see the castle in Kronberg. It is actually a fort that everyone calls the castle. It was built in the 1400 or 1500s to protect the town and is really cool to see! Meagan and I stood in the slits that housed the canons and climbed the tower. We took lots of pictures which I posted! We were able to see the Schafhof from the tower which was really cool! I love how accessible everything is in Europe. We have walked so much the last couple of days. We all went to the Christmas Market again and had lunch. We then walked back to the hotel roughly a 10 minute walk away.
To cap off the night, Tom and my family got together with the Davis' and Lendon Grey (Meagan's coach), and we all went out for dinner at a really nice restaurant in Kronberg. We walked as a big group to the restaurant, keeping with European culture, had an amazing dinner, and walked back. I'm now back in the room viewing the video of my ride from today and making little goals for my ride tomorrow. Tomorrow Matthias will be riding his horses and the younger horses will be back in work. Meagan and I are looking forward to watching some more rides! That is it from Germany today except for the fact that it is supposed to start getting cold again and snow a lot!
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