Hagen Show

Hi Everyone,

Here is another article I wrote for DressageDaily about the show in Hagen, Germany this past weekend. What a show. It was wild! There were so many people!

Hagen, Germany
By: Meaghan Byrne

The only way to describe the show this past weekend in Hagen, Germany is ‘standing room only.’ With over 2000 thousand horses and 50,000 spectators there was barely room to browse the enormous trade fair. This was an international event for both Dressage riders and Show Jumpers. The show was held at the Kasselman’s property. The Kasselmans are the owners of Professional Sales International (PSI).

Their property spans over several 100 acres in the rolling hills of Northern Germany. The grounds were immaculate, complete with two Dressage arenas and two showing jumping arenas. Every inch of the property was decorated with beautiful flowers and surrounded by stadium seating. The path to the Dressage arenas weaved its way through the private stables of the Kasselmans. There were several stables and various indoor riding halls that mimicked old European style cottages with white siding lined with natural wood trim.

Every year there is a different nationality that is deemed the theme for the show. Last year it was an American theme where the Beach Boys were the main entertainment, and this year it was an Italian theme. There was a huge tent set atop one of the hills that provided the space for this year’s entertainment. Each night, starting Wednesday and spanning through to Saturday there was a different Italian inspired event. There were opera singers, pianists, an Italian pop trio, and a DJ that provided all types of music for an enormous dance party. Riders, grooms, and spectators danced the night away.

As usual, I found myself draw to the warm-up arena rather than the competition arena. After the initial shock of seeing several top riders all in one place, I started to watch several riders over the 5 day period as the schooled and prepared their horses for the competition arena. As I saw in Den Bosch every rider has their own style of riding and in one way or another it is working, as they are competing at the top level. However, in Hagen I realized how concentrated some of riders were. Some riders came into the arena and put their game face on. They have such a look of concentration so as to feel every movement their horses make. Some riders rode around the arena as if no one else was there. Such concentration was both intimidating and magnificent. Other riders were not so concentrated, some were preoccupied with their surroundings such as other riders, spectators, photographers, dogs, and anything else you could possibly imagine. The level of concentration really set the competitors apart from the riders.

As the weekend came to a close with the Grand Prix Kur and the Show Jumping Finals several thousand people packed the stands for the final competition. Trying to maneuver through the crowds of people with a horse in hand was quite the adventure. As I continue my European experience, I am continually reminded how popular equestrian sports are here in Europe. A family outing on a Sunday afternoon would entail a trip the horse show to enjoy the competition along with great food and shopping. Families in Europe enjoy the weekend horse shows as American families enjoy basketball or baseball games. Hopefully, one day equestrian sports will be as widespread in America as they are here in Europe.

Trade Fair complete with Hot Tubs!!

Entertainment Tent

From the Warm Up looking out to the entrance of the trade fair

Warm-Up

Competition Arena

A pond in the middle of the trade fair

Italian Pop Trio

Mountains

Show Jumping warm-up and show office

Me and the horse statue made completely of horseshoes!

Shiny New Bike...

I am the proud owner of a new red Speedbike. I know by the name you think that my bike has several gears and goes extremely fast, but no! It is a city bike with one gear, a cute little bell, and a basket. Least to say I feel like a grandma riding around on my fancy new bike. Everyone here uses their bikes to go everyone, work, dinner, shopping, over a friend's house. Nearly everyplace we go we ride our bikes instead of driving. Europeans are very environmentally conscious and also strive to save a Euro or two. Gas prices are through the roof over here. It is 1.40 Euro a liter!

Needless to say, I felt like such a little kid going to the bike shop and trying out several bikes! It was fun though and now I have taken another step towards European living.

My New Bike:

Along with getting my new bike, this week has been filled with mixed emotions. First thing Tuesday morning the farm lost a dear friend. Kodie, a 12 year old chocolate lab owned by Casey (my roommate). It was a complete accident but the owner of the hof (stable) hit him with the tractor. He died instantly. So that put quite the damper on the rest of the week. Kodie had been with Casey here in Germany since he was 2 and gone everywhere with her. For Casey it was like losing a child. Here are a few pictures to remember our dear friend:

Kodie swimming with Mia, his younger sister (She misses him terribly)

Kodie was a great swimmer!

To cute for words!

The other crazy happening this week, the World Cup in Las Vegas! As I'm sure most of you know, everyone here at the hof was hoping Catherine would be granted a wildcard from the United States. Clearly that didn't happen for whatever reason, things happen. The US chose Jan Eibling and Leslie Morse as the wildcards. Of course we all watched the livestream of the Grand Prix on Thursday night and woke up at 4am this morning to watch the Kur. It was awful to see the Americans' performance. Of course, no one can dispute that Stephan and Ravel stole the show and were incredible! But Leslie brought a horse that had had several lameness issues leading up to Vegas and then was rung out within the first minute of her test. So awful!! Then Jan! Everyone has a bad day and I felt terrible for him, but at the World Cup Final you would think the horse and rider would be prepared for the electric atmosphere. It was hard to watch everything unfold knowing that a seasoned US competitor (Catherine) that has proven herself with a sound horse and was dying to compete was sitting at home.

Then again what do I know and who am I to judge others but it was just frustrating to watch. Of course I'm partial to Catherine! I work for her and I really wanted to do to Vegas myself.

But more exciting things are on the horizon for "Stall Haddad." Next weekend Catherine and I will be travelling to Haagen, Germany with three Grand Prix horses, two to compete and one to school. After Haagen there are 8 more weeks of intense shows. I will be on the road to everyone of them, Rotterdam and Aachen included where Catherine will represent the US as a team competitor and probably ride along side Stephan and Ravel. Most of the shows are in Germany, but there is also one in France and Hungry. It should be quite the adventure!

Thanks for reading!!

-Meaghan

Trip to Bremen

Bremen is a beautiful city just north of Vechta. I flew into Bremen when I first arrived here. Casey, Christoffer, and I took a day trip! The weather was perfect, and the city was incredible. It was just like all the pictures I had seen of the old European city with ancient churches, buildings, and streets. We went into St. Peitri's Church. It was huge! There were little rooms off of little rooms, the woodworking on the ceiling, walls and staircases was so intricate. There was grave stones inside the church. There were also several organs. Some where high on the walls behind the different alters and some where free standings. Everything was so old but beautifully preserved!

We also saw the Statue of Rolland. He is a the protector of the people of Bremen. If ever there is war again he will come to their rescue. We also saw the famous statue of the four animals from the fairtale, "The Musicians of Bremen." These four animals were a donkey, a cat, a dog and a rooster. They sought a better life for themselves and ended up singing their way through on into Bremen. It is said that it is lucky to rub the feet of the donkey on the statue. There have been so many people that have rubbed the statue that the dark coating of the metal has been rubbed off over the years and has left the donkey's feet gold!!

We walked around for a while and did some shopping. Of course there were some chain stores, but there were many more independently owned shops and boutiques. We had a lovely afternoon lunch on an old pirate ship that was transformed into a pancake house. There is a river that runs through the middle of Bremen. The restaurant floated in the river and several of the shops were right along side the river. It was just a beautiful day filled with lots of interesting culture. I think the pictures do it more justice than my writing!

Vechta Elite Auction

This past weekend was the Vechta Elite Auction. It was incredible, I have never seen anything so well run as this auction. There is nothing like this in the United States! It is such a great idea if run properly. Here in Germany, and Europe as a whole, horse auctions are thought of as prestigious and respectable, a stark contrast from the "one step from the slaughter house" type auctions held in the States.

The horses that are to be sold in the auction come to the auction hall three weeks prior to the main event. There are several riders employed by the auction hall that school the horses and prepare them for showing. I believe it is either a week or ten days prior to the auction that potential buyers are allowed to come and try the horses. There can be anywhere from 50 to 150 horses. In this specific auction there were 72 horses. Most of them are young horses ranging from 3 to 6 years old. There are several auctions that have foals, but this year's Vechta auction did not.

So the weekend of events started on Friday evening with the Gala Abend. This was a presentation of some of the best horses in the auction as well as some of the featured bloodlines. For this particular auction several Sandro Hit and Sir Donnerhall offspring were featured. So I got to see Sandro Hit and Sir Donnerhall in person, live! They were ridden by Eva Moller and Ulf Moller. They were beautiful! They came out together and did a Pax de Deux. Both stallions stand at stud here in the Vechta area! It was wild to see both of these well known stallions in person.

There were all sorts of interesting entertainment throughout the night. There were dancing lamas, 20+ racing ponies with dolls strapped on their backs that they let loose to race around the arena, and at the end of the evening the entire audience lite sparklers as Sandro Hit and Sir Donnerhall made their final laps of the arena. It was crazy!

Everything was decorated perfectly. There were flags flying from every country. A live orchestra sang the national anthem and provided music before and after the auction. There were dinner tables set up around the arena and a white picket fence that separated the arena from the tables. The auctioneer was at one end of the arena in a decorated podium. There were several men dressed in designer suits standing in the arena throughout the auction looking into the crowd for different bidders. It was live bidding so everything moved very quickly. The riders would come out and do a little walk, trot, canter and then some of the riders if they knew there was a bidding war or a silence of bidding they would ride over to a specific bidder and let the horse nuzzle them a bit. It really was a great show!

The second horse to be auctioned off was by Stedinger, a prestigious young stallion owned by Ann Kitchel of the United States, was sold for 160,000 Euro, which is just under $250,000. It was so intense to see the price board jump with each new bid. Everything went so fast! It was really an exciting event.

Of course all Germans love to drink, so as the auctioned wrapped up around 7pm and the real festivities began. There was a large party for all tickets holders complete with dance floor and DJ, and several different drink options. Lets just say that some people in Vechta can really throw a party because when my roommates and I left at 2am things were really just getting started!

Here are some pictures of the Gala Abend, and the Auction Hall. Enjoy!

Me at the Auction Hall on the day of the Auction

An auction rider smoozing a buyer (It worked!!!)

Orchestra playing before the auction began.

Stall Haddad having a drink after the auction.

Dancing lamas!

Racing Ponies- Video

Sir Donnerhall and Sandro Hit- Video

Den Bosch and The Saunas

Hello Everyone, as some of my readers have told me I have been a bit of a "blogging slacker" the past two weeks. So much has happened so this will be quite the post with a conglomeration of topics.

So remember the show I went to about 3 weekends ago now, in Den Bosch, The Netherlands? Well that was ridiculously amazing. I was stabled right next to Isabell Werth, I am supposed to be professional and all that but it was so cool! I felt like a little kid seeing s superstar. Anky van Grunsven and Kyra Kirkland were stabled just behind me. Isabell was really nice, I gave Satchmo a few carrots and even held her young horse for her to fix a wrap. Silly I know but still really neat.

Watching the warm-up was intense. Everyone was really nice to each other but there was this underlying sense of cut throat competition. I did not recognize Anky and Salinero when they came into the warm-up. The horse looked so different in person than in every photo I have ever seen. She definitely warms him up in Roll-Kur fashion but he is extremely slow and not at all expressive. The transformation that horse goes through from early morning warm up to show arena is incredible. He comes home fired up, electric, and forward as can be. I'm not sure how she does it, but I really saw two totally different horses.

The trade fair was amazing. You could buy anything there, and I mean anything! A new hoof pick, a new horse trailer, an entire new kitchen, or designer wardrobe. The path leading back from the main arena (there was only one arena, which was used for both show jumping and Dressage) weaved its way though the trade fair. I don't know one horse that I have ridden that would have made it safely through there. It was insane, but really neat. The whole show was a family affair, people came to this show just as Americans take their families to a baseball or football game. The arena was sold out both Friday and Saturday night.

Ok next wild adventure....

The Scandinavian Saunas

Catherine (my boss), Casey (barn manager and rider) and I went to the sauna a few days after coming back from the show. It was a spa type place with several different saunas. There was a steam sauna, an aromatic sauna, a extra hot sauna, and another outside sauna with a fireplace. We started in the steam sauna, then took a freezing cold shower then moved onto each different sauna, only staying in for 15 minutes each. Everyone had to be naked! It was a little strange at first but Europeans are much more comfortable with nudity then most Americans. So I have been in a few saunas before and these were so much hotter, it felt great. The freezing cold shower was a large wooden cast like bucket that filled with water and you stood underneath it and pulled a rope. Talk about shock!! In the extra hot sauna someone came in and heated the stones and used a towel to blow extra hot air toward each individual in the sauna, and you were meant to breath in. I'm pretty sure I singed everything in my nose. They also had a heated pool that was nice to swim a few laps in but it was pretty short. We were there for several hours. It was such a relaxing experience and my skin still feels amazing!