2/15/11: Lupita Bonita.

Last night, after everyone finished riding, the whole barn crew went out to the ring and built a course that Alois designed. It started with an oxer on the diagonal; left hand turn to a five or six stride line by the rail; rollback on a vertical; bending five or six strides to an oxer-vertical one stride in-and-out; right hand turn to a triple bar; bending six or seven to a double vertical one stride in-and-out; left hand turn to an oxer by the rail; and a curving seven strides to the final fence, a white skinny vertical. After running this morning through the forest by the brewery (it is absolutely beautiful), I headed out to the barn with Alois. I jumped Lucy first. She jumped really well! She always started out very nicely and jumped the first few fences smoothly, but when I would ask her to move forward to a jump or come together in a turn, she got a little bratty. She definitely has an attitude, but she jumps great and I think she's learning! After finishing with Lucy and helping set some jumps for Alois and Christoffer, I got on Lord's Boy and flatted him. Alois jumped him because his owner is coming to ride on Thursday, and he wanted to make sure the horse was ready for her. Lord's Boy jumped great! He has a funny way of going to the jumps, tending to bounce a little at the canter in the corners and then make a bid two or three strides away from the jump. He needs the rider to stay soft and not push him at the jumps. Despite his little issues, he's really fun because he's quick, careful, and brave.

I got really spoiled today when Alois let me jump his best horse, Cessana, who is eight and already jumping meter 1.60 grand prixs clear. I love riding her because she is a light, sensitive horse (unlike many other giant German dinosaur beasts)! It was my first time jumping her and she was wonderful. She is really catty and careful, although her incredible sensitivity can be difficult because she loses focus easily and is tough to keep straight and in an even rhythm. She is gray and looks a lot like Lucy, so Alois said he's going to have to be careful that I don't "accidentally" put the wrong gray horse on the plane when I go home (he's right to be worried because I would take her in a heartbeat)!

After a long day of jumping, Alois and I finally went back to the house for lunch around 2:30. We watched a little German TV (Alois, Lena, and Christoffer always ask if I want to come watch TV but, as much as I want to spend quality time with them, watching daytime reality TV in German is never very interesting for someone who can barely say more than "danke schoen") and went back to the barn around 4:00. All I did in the afternoon was walk Quisel because he has a small strain in his leg and is not in regular work right now. I also met Moni's adorable new puppy, Lupita! She is a German shorthair pointer and is named after a little girl in a Denzel Washington movie. When I was a little kid, my family had a German shorthair pointer named Luke and he was one of my favorite dogs ever, so I'm really excited about spending time with Lupita. Her new nickname is Lupita Bonita! Clearly there aren't enough different languages being spoken at the barn, and we need to start speaking Spanish also just to mix things up.

Once we were all back in the house (everyone except Christoffer who got his driver's license taken away for a month because of a speeding ticket. Now he has to ride his bike everywhere, so he wanted to go ahead and get home before the roads were too dark!) we had dinner-yes, another meal in the space of four hours- and watched Good Times, Bad Times. It is still very dramatic! I love that every country seems to have its own classic teenage soap opera. The U.S. has Gossip Girl; England has East Enders; and Germany has Good Times, Bad Times. No matter where one goes, he or she cannot escape "emotional porn," as Christoffer calls it.