Sunday at the Schafhof and the Castle in Kronberg

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!

Saturday at the Schafhof

The Anglican Church Dating Back to the 1400s

Outside of the Anglican Church

Nina and I in the Arena at the Schafhof

The Main Cobblestone Street in Kronberg in the Christmas Market

The Old Town Hall Built in the Early 1500s After the Church was Built

Today was amazing! I went to the barn and road Nina earlier this morning. She was super and Tom was really happy with how things are going. Tomorrow we are going to start working a little harder, and then Monday give Nina a light day before heading to the YR World Cup in Frankfurt on Tuesday!!!!! :) SO excited!!! After the ride today my coach Tom, myself, and my mom and dad all went to the Christmas Market in Kronberg. It was unbelievable! So much delicious german food. I think we all had a couple glasses of "gluhwein" which is warm wine with spices. You add things like oranges and spices to the wine, and let it all sit for a couple of hours or days, and then you warm it up and drink it. SOOOO GOOD!!! They had red, white, and apple gluhwein. We returned after handwalking Nina in the early afternoon to eat dinner in the Christmas Market. We had things like this amazing Roasted Chestnut soup (which had bacon and potato), bratwursts, my dad had pickled herring on a bun, and these AMAZING cookies from this cookie place. You have NEVER had a cookie this good before. One of the types of cookies we got had almonds covering shortbread cookies covered in this delicious white chocolate - it was sooo good!

The Christmas Market is held in the tiny streets of Kronberg set amongst the houses and shops that date back to the 14 and 1500s!!!! We walked around the town a little bit in the afternoon and followed the old wall that used to enclose the town of Kronberg. We went in to the 2 churches in the town, which dated back to the 1400s, and had an amazing time walking around. The bells from the two churches were ringing on the hour while we were there and sounded so pretty chiming together. They could be heard all throughout the town. We followed a road called "horse road" in german, which is the old cobblestone road that wound its way through the town to the watering troughs in the 14 and 1500s. People would bring their horses down this road to give them water.

Tomorrow I am up early again to head to the barn and ride in the morning. So far the time change hasn't affected me at all and Nina seems to be adapting really really well as well. She is loving her stay in her new palace. She is the princess of the barn back home so she seems to be adjusting just fine to her new home on Ann Kathrin's estate. I wonder if we will be able to drag her back home!!!!

First Ride at Ann Kathrin Linsenhoff's!

Tom and I Outside the Barn at the Schafhof Where Nina is Staying

The Linsenhoff's Place on the Property

Inside the Barn Nina is Staying In - One of the Barns on the Property

One of the Offices on the Property to the Left, and the Linsenhoff's to the Right

The Outside of the Barn Nina is in on the Far Right

Office to the left, and Nina's New House to the Right

More Pictures of the Barn Nina is Staying In

The Bridge Connecting Where You Park Your Car to the Courtyard and

Main Barn Area + Fountain

Courtyard Area

Us Walking from the Car, Past one of the Barns Housing the Younger Horses to the Left

Hey Everyone! So today was awesome! We got to watch the apprentices at Ann Kathrin’s work the 3 year olds today. They would go in groups of 4 to 5, and work all through the morning. At one point, I made a comment to the effect of, “I can’t believe how well behaved these 3 yr old horses are!” IMMEDIATELY after that, 3 out of the 4 babies reared, leap out of the air, gave a HUGE buck and tried to take off galloping. Oops! Nina and I were hand walking around the arena at the time. She was not amused to have 3 babies flying down the long side coming up her butt. It was pretty funny. She was like, “Jaimie seriously...you stick me on a plane for over 30 hours and then this. You’re gonna get it.” Meagan and I also got to watch Mathias school two of his horses in between the groups of 3 and 4 year olds. SO AWESOME! You learn so much just by watching. Not being able to understand a lot of what was said by Claus as he was teaching Mathias was frustrating, but watching Mathias school his horses was a great learning opportunity in terms of watching the exercises he performed with the horses and watching his seat, hands, and body positioning for different movements. At lunch time, when everyone gets a 2 hour lunch break with a hot lunch served to them (this is a tradition Canada needs to pick up), Meagan and I got on our horses and rode for a little bit.

Nina was great! She was still mad at me from before, and saw this as a prime opportunity to let me know. But the good news was that she was feeling fresh and got it all out of her system. Over all, our light ride today ended up being awesome! After that, we put her in the drying stall. On the wall is a control board that allows you to move this thing that looks like a tanning bed, up and down. There are all different colored lights on it and you can turn on this air blower thing that shoots warm air down at you, and sucks it back up again. Nina was dry in 2s flat! I definitely need to get one of these for back home!

Tonight we walked to dinner through the town we are staying in, Kronberg. It has cobblestone roads that are one lane wide in between rows and rows of German houses, shops, and bakeries. There are white christmas lights strung from house to house and a foot of snow on the ground. The town also has bells that chime on the hour, and can be heard everywhere. It is also positioned on top of a large, steep, hill, and some of the views are gorgeous! I think I could definitely live here, learn German, ride, and have an amazing time.

That is it for me tonight. I am trying to get the videos of the horses to load but the internet is super slow in the hotel we are at! I will keep trying!

p.s. THANK YOU TOM AND ELLEN DVORAK FOR THE SURPRISE NEW QUARTER SHEET WITH NINA'S NAME ON IT!!!!

-As a side note...I was able to post one of the videos taken of the horses on the cargo plane to my facebook page, so you can check it out there. I am still trying to get the videos to upload to this blog but the internet is being very frustrating here!!

We Finally Made It! :)

What a process! So Nina and Bentley took off from JFK on wednesday morning around 7:30am set to land in Frankfurt wed. night around 10pm. Unfortunately, Frankfurt is a winter wonderland right now, and experienced really bad weather through the night. All flights into the Frankfurt airport ended up getting re-routed, and the horses were sent to Munich. They remained on the plane in Munich for 13 hours, waiting to take off to finish the journey to Frankfurt.

I arrived this morning on one of the last flights allowed to land into Frankfurt during the morning. My mom, Dad, Meagan Davis, and I have been working all day to get the horses into the Frankfurt airport, cleared through customs, and shipped to Ann Kathrin Linsenhoff’s place, “the schafhof”. We FINALLY got the horses out of “the animal lounge” at the airport (i.e. the part of the airport where the horses are held in quarantine until cleared by the vet and customs) by 9:30pm, a full 24hours later than anticipated. Aside from looking extremely tired, and a little dazed, the horses shipped really well and made it to Ann Kathrin’s in one piece with no troubles. WHAT A PLACE!

You drive into the estate through large, intricate, wrought iron gates into a driveway area where you park. The driveway was cobblestone with trees segregating parking spaces, each having pot lights illuminating every tree from below. There is shrubbery running all over the place, enclosing it, and making it very private. You walk through another set of wrought iron gates into a court yard area with a water fountain, and a bridge, all illuminated by pot lights again. You continue up the cobblestone driveway to the barn (i.e.: THE PALACE!!!) where Nina and Bentley are currently staying. It is such a stunning place!!! Nina has two neighbors she’s made friends with through the stall bars. It is just a beautiful place. I will post pictures of it hopefully tomorrow. For now, Meagan and I are going to bed so we can get up early tomorrow and look after our horses, watch some rides by Mathias Rath, and get on our horses for a bit depending on how tired they are! So far, all is well and Germany looks beautiful all covered in snow, lit up with christmas lights. I am so excited to finally get to ride Nina and watch some of the best riders in the world! I will also hopefully be able to post a video of the horses on the cargo plane tomorrow as well!! :)

One More Day Until Departure!

When I first got the news that I would be representing Canada at FEI Young Rider World Cup in Germany this December, I felt like jumping up and down like a little kid. Determining who would go to Germany as the Canadian representative for the YR World Cup basically came down to the North American Championships. Two of my fellow teammates, Amy Jager and Megan Lane, were also putting up consistently good scores throughout the summer, and Fleurina (aka "Nina") and I were constantly challenged to stay on our A-game. Luckily, our hard work and dedication paid off, and Nina and I came out of the North American Championships with a team silver, individual bronze, and individual freestyle gold medal, securing ourselves as Canada's World Cup representatives. Competing in the YR World Cup has been a goal of mine since I was a junior rider. When I found out Nina and I were ranked fourth overall going into this competition, I was shocked, ecstatic, and filled with a sense of purpose. This competition will be our first debut onto the international competition scene, and I couldn't be more thrilled with how things are starting off.

I have to give a big thank you to my mom and dad who have been organizing this whole trip, as I am still a full time university student at McMaster University. In addition to training full time with Nina and being enrolled in university, I am a student sport medicine therapist for the McMaster Men's Varsity Football team. Therefore, these last 3 months have been extremely chaotic, with not a lot of time left to plan this trip. So a big thank you mom and dad!

Unfortunately, I am unable to travel with Nina to Germany because I have to write a final exam on Wednesday morning. I am lucky that my coach, Tom Dvorak, is able to fly with her and make sure she gets to Germany safely. Nina will be shipping with Meagan Davis' horse, Bentley, on Tuesday. Meagan is the US representative. I will meet up with everyone in Frankfurt, Germany when I fly over Wednesday night after my final exam.

To prepare for this competition, I have been working with my personal trainer, Kendra Olsen, doing a lot of cross fit workouts to prepare physically. Additionally, I have been working with Sport Psychologist, Dana Sinclair, from Human Performance International since my first year at Juniors to make sure I am mentally prepared. With the help of my coach, Tom Dvorak, Nina and I have been riding through tests and working on tightening everything up. Nina has been amazing these last few weeks!!! It is really exciting knowing that going into this competition, Nina keeps giving me another level every day.

Okay, time to go back to studying :(. My next post will be from Frankfurt, Germany and I will hopefully have some pictures of Germany!!!! SO EXCITED!!!

Selected for the Young Riders' World Cup!!!

Here's a video of our Freestyle from the Wellington Dressage Classic. This freestyle helped us to be selected to be Canada's sole representative at the 2010 FEI Young Rider World Cup in Frankfurt, Germany. Enjoy!