Yesterday afternoon and and night were amazing!!! We had some "minor" taxi issues though lol. We were late getting back from shopping yesterday afternoon and so we still had to go to the barn and feed Nina her dinner. She likes prompt room service ;). When we got to the barn she snickered at me and got really excited when I went to "her salad bar" (aka the stack of hay bales we have). We call it her salad bar because it used to be outside her stall and she would just pick away at the hay from every bale while I braided her. She likes to have choice. So anyways, we fed the princess her dinner and changed her blankets because she was really warm (they kept the doors closed all day so the barn area really heated up).
When we got back to the hotel, the shuttle bus had already left to go to the Romer (the historical city hall of Frankfurt). Tom, my parents, and I all did a speedy 5 second change and planned on just hopping in a cab and getting over there for shortly after 5pm. The Mayor's welcome speeches to us were supposed to start around 5pm as well. Well let me tell you, we weren't just "hopping" into any cab in a real hurry. The hotel called for a cab while the doorman was outside trying to wave down a cab for us just in case it was faster. 20 minutes later we are all sitting inside the hotel still waiting for a cab to just drive by the hotel. I guess Germany isn't used to the amount of snow they have received in the last little while, so everyone was concerned about the safety of the roads and all opted to take cab!!! When one cab finally showed up, we all hopped in and told the driver we wanted to go to city hall. He suddenly decided "he was done work for the night", gave us the boot, and drove off with his cab light on looking for new fare. About half an hour later, another cab showed up. We didn't even get the chance to get in this one before the driver, who was leaning over the driver seat to yell at us through the open passenger door, said he didn't want to go to city hall. He then took off while the doorman was holding onto the back door handle trying to get him to stop. When he stopped, a gentleman who was next in line for a cab said he needed to get to the airport. Apparently this was an alright destination and he got to hop in the cab ahead of us. Eventually we did find a cab driver to take us though, and we unfortunately only got there in time to see how beautiful the Christmas Market in Frankfurt was looking out the window at City Hall before we had to climb on the shuttle bus to go back to the hotel. I would have loved to have heard the speeches and been there for the draw for freestyle times. The City Hall in Frankfurt is stunning! There was one room that had paintings of all of the past Kings framed and it went around this entire room. There were wooden chairs that looked like thrones beneath them. The history in the City Hall was neat to see.
The dinner reception yesterday evening was a lot of fun. Schenker is the title sponsor of the Young Rider World Cup and so Josef Lederer was present for the dinner and reception along with all the judges, Ann Kathrin Linsenhoff, Klaus Rath, and all the riders and their support crew. To be able to get together with fellow riders your age from all over the world, especially in Europe which is beautiful, is such an incredible opportunity. You get to see what riders your age are doing, different training techniques, and most importantly of all you get to hang out with new friends and have some fun doing what you love. All of us (young riders) gave little thank you speeches to everyone who made it possible for this event to take place and who made it possible for us to come to Europe to be a part of it. This event really is an incredible experience. To get to see the quality of horses here and riders and experience it at this venue is amazing. Everyone who is part of making this show happen, is so welcoming. The dinner was also awesome last night and it was just generally a ton of fun to sit and chat with all the other riders. Victoria from Brazil speaks 5 languages!!! She was translating most of the evening! Mr. Lederer made the most hilarious speech. I think I speak on behalf of all the riders when I say that we are so grateful to him for dedicating his time and getting Schenker on board for sponsoring this event. Apparently we also have to thank his wife, who was responsible for getting him interested in dressage and helping the youth of the sport develop.
After dinner, I headed back to the barn with Meagan to do night check and get in some quality snuggle time with Nina. I may have snuck her a bunch of treats but whose counting. She likes to have minty fresh breath for her kisses! ;)
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