Pictures: 12/16/10

The lovely Jessie Drea!

The Drea's lorrie.

A fence being built at the Drea's yard.

Marcus Beerbaum and his daughter!

Gotta wear a hat, scarf, and at least six layers in Europe!

The barn at the Warsteiner Brewery in Germany where Alois Pollman-Schweckhorst keeps his horses. I will start riding there at the end of January!

Christoffer Lindenberg from Denmark.

Lena Pollman-Schweckhorst riding.

Frances and I with Ger Poels.

12/16/10: ZED?!

So sorry I have been MIA! Turns out my computer doesn't get along well with the internet in the lovely English house where I currently reside. After spending a few days driving around Germany and Holland last week with my Dad and my sister Frances, we bundled all my luggage into four bags weighing a total of 60 kilograms; hopped on a RyanAir flight (which was about an hour late as usual. I don't think RyanAir pilots pride themselves on punctuality); and flew to England.

My dad and Frances drove me to a horse show where they handed me off to my new British family, the Drea's. I met Jessie Drea, a successful British Young Rider, at the Olympia Horse Show in London last December and we quickly bonded over our shared love of the movie Mean Girls. I plan on riding with the Drea family at their "yard" in West Sussex for six weeks.

Upon my arrival at the show, Jessie introduced me to her dad and I stayed the night in their lorrie. After Jessie competed in and won the meter 1.40 classic (the "Silver Tour Grand Prix" in British terms), we drove back to the Drea's yard where I met Jessie's mom and her brother, Luke. Along the way we hatched a plan for me to pretend I thought Luke's name was Lucy and yell "TA!" after every sentence while speaking to Mrs. Drea. The plans worked splendidly and Luke looked horrified when I said, "Isn't Luke short for Lucy? Lucy is a boy's name in America." Mrs. Drea also thought I belonged in a mental institution, but after about ten minutes she realized what was going on and accused Jessie, Mr. Drea, and I of making jokes.

Monday the 13th of December was my first day at the yard. Jessie and I feed, water, and muck out the stalls ("boxes" in British terms) starting around 8:00 am each day. After finishing, we go inside for breakfast and then head back into the cold to ride the horses. The Drea's have a varied collection of horses, including foals; green hunters (for fox hunting, not American style hunter riding!); and experienced show jumpers. I have been riding four horses each day and my favorite is a gray four year old mare named Garner. She is about 15.3 hh and a lot of fun to ride! All the horses have been great so far, and my biggest challenge is understanding Mr. Drea when he instructs me in the ring (the "school" in British terms). He is Irish and I find his accent supremely confusing.

One of my and Jessie's favorite pastimes is comparing British and American words. When Jessie told me the password to the internet connection in her house, we discovered we say different alphabets! While reading off the password, she said a few normal American letters and then, out of the blue, the word "zed." I was baffled and kept saying, "zed? what?" After a minute, I realized she was saying the letter "Z." ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY and zed... That's the alphabet according to the British! Sadly, only last week I wouldn't have passed kindergarden in England because I couldn't recite the alphabet.

Tomorrow Jessie and I are heading off to London where she will compete at the Olympia Horse Show. I'm so excited about a weekend in London! Jessie is riding in a Young Rider class on Saturday afternoon. Wish her luck and I will send updates!

11/30/10: The Packing Scramble!

Terrified Taylor

There is a five day countdown until I leave for Europe and so far I have two empty suitcases and at least ten piles of clothes! My European adventure will start in Germany with my dad and sister Frances. I will spend a few days traveling with them before heading to England (along with at least a hundred pounds of clothes and shoes) to ride at Michael Drea's farm. I'm very excited, but the last weather report I heard announced that London is covered in snow and the current temperature is 10 degrees below zero. How will I survive that?! I am not an abominable snowman! My current plan is to buy a floor length North Face jacket and a pair of Dubarry boots before I leave, and live in them for the duration of my European adventure. Sadly, style is going to be very low on my priority list for the next few months. Wearing puffy clothes 24/7 is better than getting frostbite and having my toes fall off though!

Days 29 and 30: Goodbye Europe...

Days 29 and 30, 6/6/10-6/7/10:

Today everyone flew back to North America. The team split up in several directions: Jen flew home to Ohio, Michael went home to Florida, and Karl headed to California for a few days and will fly to Spruce Meadows this weekend where he will show along with Nick and I for the next five weeks. As if we haven't bonded enough already! Yesterday the horses headed to Germany with Claire, and she flew with the plane out of Luxembourg going to Spruce Meadows. After seeing the horses off, we all had a last hurrah in Amsterdam, exploring the city during the day and seeing the floating flower market, Van Gogh Museum, and even a beach volleyball game in the city center. Later, we checked out the Red Light District. I may be scarred for life! We all said sad goodbyes and went our separate ways. Luckily for me, both Nick and Adele were on the same flight today from Amsterdam to Spruce, so I didn't have to face leaving Europe behind alone. We got into Calgary at 3:30 pm, just an hour after we left Amsterdam. The time difference is very confusing! The horses arrive at 9:00 tonight and can't wait to show at Spruce this weekend. The Young Rider Tour was incredible and I will really miss the team and our new foreign friends! Go Team USA :)

Pictures from Days 27 and 28

Team dinner after the Nation's Cup victory ^

Setting jumps for Jen during the Nation's Cup ^

Nick chatting with a Norwegian rider ^

A picture with Jonas, the victor of the pony Grand Prix (seeing as we are the same size, maybe I should take up pony jumpers...)^

Jen and Ginny packing the lorrie ^

Chatting with a Dutch rider ^

Day 28: The Last Day.

Day 28, 6/5/10:

Today was the final day of the show in Wierden. The whole American team is both sad to be leaving Europe on Monday but also excited to see our families and friends again. It has been a long trip and we are all tired, but it has certainly been amazing and worth all the work! We have learned a lot about riding and competing in Europe and how it differs from American training and shows, met young riders from many other countries, and gotten the chance to prove our skills against top riders our own age.

Starting with the meter 1.35 at 8:30 am once again, Jen competed and won once again aboard Shakira, I made yet another mistake on Tusker (I HAVE to get it together one of these days!), and Nick rode Belly Button just to get one last practice round in before shipping to Spruce.

After this class, there was a lot of down time before the Grand Prix. The riders flatted their horses, took naps in the barn, and started packing up everything that was not needed for the afternoon. Finally, the 1:30 pm class time arrived and we walked the course of twelve jumps, including the open water to a quiet five stride line, a big oxer in a curving six strides to an airy triple combination (vertical-oxer-oxer), and a spooky wall as the final jump. Malcolm and Venturo both jumped in the Prix and it was very clear that they were tired from their two rounds and extra jump off in the Nation's Cup. Karl rode Toby and made a mistake to the trip combination, getting to the first element in six and a half strides from the oxer before it. Mike also made a mistake that caused him problems at the last jump with All Star. I rode Karonda too quietly to the first jump and had it down, then jumped the rest of the course clear. It was very frustrating!

Despite our issues in the Grand Prix, the Americans were still elated from the Nation's Cup win, and I think Karonda ended on a very good note and is ready for Spruce Meadows. This afternoon, we watched the pony jumper Grand Prix (it is massive! Big Tour ponies jump meter 1.30-.35 during the year and up to meter 1.40 at the European Championships in July). A really adorable little Belgian boy named Jonas who stabled his ponies across from my horses in the barn won the class after an intense jump off against ten other pony riders. Henk Nooren's youngest daughter, Lisa, also competed in the class but her pony misbehaved.

As the day drew to a close, we had to say goodbye to all the foreign riders and I must admit I was really sad. I am going to miss the foreigners and I am not looking forward to saying goodbye to my teammates, the grooms, and Michele tomorrow! Although I'm sure everyone would agree that team bonding got overwhelming at times, I think all the Americans really enjoyed this European adventure. Everyone on this tour was a blast to spend time with and I loved getting to know them all. I wish we could stay here longer!

Day 27: Team Gold!

Day 27, 6/4/10:

Today the team won gold in the Nation's Cup at Wierden! Jen, Michael, Nick, and Karl finished with a score of 21 faults and jumped off for gold with the Dutch team. By taking an incredibly tight cut to a vertical, both Jen and Michael posted incredibly fast times although they both had four faults. After the Dutch posted two slow but clear jump off rounds, the US team thought all hope was lost. However, Nick and Karl produced two clear rounds and the Dutch team cracked under pressure and had two rails, resulting in gold for the US! Everyone rode great and it was a wonderful day. The team won very Dutch prizes: bikes. The seats were so high poor Jen could not reach the pedals and the victory lap aboard the bikes proved to be quite a challenge! Michele was ecstatic with all the riders' performances and all the Americans felt very proud hearing the Star Spangled Banner. Tomorrow all five riders will compete in the Grand Prix.