A Taste of Riding in Germany

Oh the challenges it presents. In the past week I have been put in the craziest situations. I rode one horse that is a big sweetheart but deathly afraid of other horses. First of all it was raining, no big surprise there since it rains at least once every day here in Germany, but that means that everyone rides inside the indoor. The indoor is beautiful with big windows, but it is exactly regulation size, there is no inch to spare! So, I had to ride my horse inside with two other horses longing, another horse hand walking, another horse schooling piaffe and passage with a ground person, AND another horse who just came in on the longe line that was rolling and enjoying himself! Ok, so trying to stay a safe distance away from each of the other horses was nearly impossible. I felt like a ping pong ball being bounced around the entire arena as my horse dodged each on coming horse. Of course, I wasn’t wearing a helmet and tried to keep a serious face so that everyone, especially Heike wouldn’t see how insane I thought the whole situation was. Thank goodness I lived till the next because the next day was even crazier.
As anyone who owns or manages a stable knows, it is a full time in and of itself to keep the grounds clean and presentable at all time. So this past week there was a bit of Spring cleaning going on. I know, it’s almost Winter, but you know the Germans clean clean, clean. They were cutting down 15 trees that surrounded the paddock, which is conveniently situated along the backside of the indoor riding arena. There were chainsaws, axes, and tractors going all day. Each horse was a little tense along that specific longside but eventually got over it and worked well. However, it wasn’t until I was attempting to mount a gorgeous 3yr. gelding from the ground, in my brand new Konigs (that I of course ordered was to tall, again) just how crazy this was! Again no helmet, and I was trying to keep him completely still while mounting, and had to keep the”oh this isn’t insane at all” look on my face!
Least to say it has been a challenging week, but I have survived and realized that if I don’t notice the million distractions during each of my rides then my horses will be less likely to react to them. Of course I have heard this several times and have even said this same exact thing to students but it’s always more difficult to put into practice!