1/17/11: Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

Today was my first day at Alois’s barn in Germany! Lena and Christoffer, Alois’s sixteen year old daughter and her Danish boyfriend, respectively, picked me up from the airport yesterday evening. After a sad goodbye to the Drea's- I am really going to miss them- I somehow managed to haul all of my suitcases through the airport and make my plane. I had to repack my overweight bag in the middle of the check-in line, exchange my Pounds for Euros, and then wait for about an hour to get on the flight. I sat down in the terminal and the first announcement I heard was, "last call for the British Airways flight to Atlanta." I almost went running through the terminal yelling, "LET ME ON THAT FLIGHT, I MISS HOME!" but i managed to restrain myself.

It was a quick flight to Dusseldorf and I got a little tour of the city before Lena, Christoffer, and I went to an Italian restaurant for dinner. We had to drive about an hour and a half to Warstein, where I settled into the Pollman-Schweckhorst's beautiful house, which is right across the street from the Warsteiner Brewery and the stable where Alois keeps his horses. Almost immediately after arriving at the house, a dressage horse at Alois's stable got cast in the stall and we had to rush to the barn to help it get up. Luckily, the barn is about 30 seconds away and, although the horse had clearly been struggling for quite a while to get up, it was able to scramble away from the wall and get to its feet with some encouragement. After this bit of drama, Alois showed the rest of the family (his lovely wife, Simone; eight year old daughter, Charlotte; Lena; and Simone's father), Christoffer, and I the video of a Grand Prix he jumped in last weekend. His horse jumped very well and he just had one unlucky rail in a combination.

Today, I got to see Alois ride in person. He is a beautiful, fluid rider, although he has a very German style. He sits very far back in the saddle and maintains a strong contact with the front end of the horse. I think it will take me a bit of time to get used to riding with such a deep seat and strong feel of the horse's mouth. If I want to survive in Germany, I will have to be tough!

I went to the barn at about 7:30 am this morning and met Derren, a British man who grooms for Alois (I am so grateful there is another native English speaker in the barn), and Sabi, a Hungarian man who grooms for Christoffer and speaks no English (maybe I can learn Hungarian as well as German while I'm here. Dream big). I started riding around 8:00, and rode a total of five horses. My favorite was a beautiful little bay gelding that Alois owns named Lord's Boy. He is a little fiery and sensitive, certainly not a typical German horse!

So far, I have learned only a few German terms. I can say, "guten morgen," which means, "good morning." I can almost remember how to count to ten: "ein, zwei, drei, vier, fünf, sechs, sieben, acht, neun, zehn." I can also say, "sieh sie morgen," meaning, "see you tomorrow." I definitely have a lot to learn!