The Auto Bahn

Today was my first driving experience on the auto bahn. I have never been known as a slow driver, but today I was the slowest person on the road!! I drove the lorry (the trailer) for the first time yesterday without any horses and today I drove to a horse show a few hours away! No time like the present to learn to drive in Germany. Drivers in general are insane here. When driving on the auto bahn there are some areas that are posted with speed limits, say 120km/hr, but then the majority of the road has these little while signs with a black line through them which designates a no speed limit area. Go as fast as you possibly can and try not to die! What were these people thinking? Then the whole road is plastered with white billboards that have sad stories of people that have died in terrible multi car accidents on the auto bahn. Completely insane if you ask me. Then to top it all off the country roads are really narrow and you just have to hope that there is enough room between you, the car next to you, and the large ditch on the edge of the road. Oh did I mention that all the stop signs in Germany are identically to the yield signs in America, talk about confusion. But least to say I didn't hit anyone and I stayed on the road and everyone made it safely to and from the horse show.

The lorry that I drove is like nothing I have see before, its awesome. It is very similar to a truck with a camper on the back but completely one unit, if that makes any sense. The horses ride backwards and have a shelf to eat hay from as well as a deep space for water. There is a ton of storage around the rest of the truck. There is a bed above the driver and passenger seat, as well as a large area behind the seats for either extra storage or more passenger seats. The box area where the horses are is great, there is plenty of room to groom and tack up the horse inside. It was also much easier to drive than any truck and trailer combination that I have driven. I don't know why we don't see these more in the states. This specific one was made by "BOJ" a Swedish company. I included a picture of it.
















The show that we went to was part of an indoor winter series of shows at this farm. There were two indoor halls, one for warm-up and one for showing. We had a horse go in the FEI 6 Year Old Test, or "M" Level. There were several talented young horses at the show. The riders really seemed to ride much more forward and in a much bigger trot and canter throughout the test than I have usually seen in the states. After the young horse classes the Prix St. George started and I got to see a minute of Heike Kemmer's warm up. It was pretty neat seeing a well known German rider at a much smaller show with some of her young prospects.

Thanks for reading...

Meaghan :-)