My notes for Monday got erased accidentally, so I will summarize.  I was at the barn bright and early at 7:50am, since Olli told me to come at 8:00.  He was riding Floriscount, a famous breeding stallion, who has just returned in training after being away for lots of breeding this year.  He is just doing light work to get back into the swing of things.  

I got to ride two super nice horses.  Four Seasons is a 10 year old Fuerst Piccolo x Mon Cheri gelding, owned by some lucky person from Switzerland.  He does all of the GP and is very sensitive in a wonderful way.  He has a tricky neck, because it is not set up very well, and he sticks his tongue out occasionally when the contact is not good.  Olli is working hard at improving this, but it is a problem.  He said he rode an I2 with him recently and was around 73-74% until the canter work, when the tongue came out, everything went to 5, and then he finished on less than 68%.  While I would be thrilled with a 68%, they think of it as pretty much a disaster.  

Then I rode Salcido - an 8 year old Sir Donnerhall x Fidermark gelding owned by Paul Schockemoehle.  He does almost all the GP and is AMAZING!!  Olli helped me at the end from the ground for piaffe and passage, and I could just go home right now after feeling that.  But I won't.  Here are my notes from the day:

Quicker use of my leg in canter as the forehand is coming up. A quick double kick, sometimes with the inside, sometimes with the outside leg, depending on which hind leg I need to activate.  Not in the same rhythm as the canter!  Olli wanted me to activate the canter much more without letting him speed up in MPH.  

Olli is very focused on getting a quick, active, hard working hind leg and bringing the back up then pushing the horse into the contact.  A lot of contact, based on how I can barely hold Daniel after riding in the morning! But it doesn't feel bad in the ride, feels super!

Keep knees closed against saddle in canter, so the knee doesn't rock open and shut. 

Keep hands higher and together. Until they are too high, then put them down.  ;)

Put the neck down before passage because he will tend to come up anyway. Keep the forward thinking in piaffe. Even think of trot, but not on the spot. 

Really straighten the neck before changes. No bending! 

Next day - 
Four Seasons - in double. Warm up easy, stretching. Better feel for activity in canter without speed today. Single change each way easy and straight. Next set - walk-canter then transitions w/i canter to quicken hind leg and quicken response to half half. Olli wanted neck up, not deep, really sit into him. Use haunches in on 10 m circle to collect but don't let him fall in on a smaller circle than 10m. Then when that is good, ride pirouette. Super feeling. Incredible ability to sit. Really wanted him to stay flexed to inside in pirouette. also in corners, clear bending. On long sides - no bend!!!! Absolutely none!!

He has a problem with the tongue coming out the right. He is very stiff left and hollow right, often much too light in right rein. He also has a fairly low set on neck and a thicker throat latch, which makes it hard to keep him up and out at the base of the neck. He also has such extravagant front end movement, that sometimes he pulls himself apart and pulls his back down by flinging the front legs too much. He can really sit but keeping his back up right under the saddle is hard. Olli did lots of piaffe and passage once he got on, and he played with loosening the noseband and lowering the bits. He said he always thinks he has found the "thing" that will help with the tongue - different bit, looser/tighter noseband, but then it only helps for a short while. 

Today on Salcido, Olli told me to walk him outside first and then bring him into the arena and walk him. He had many lessons this morning, both from in the barn and trailering in. It is always very busy in this small arena. I'm glad I know the rules of the arena well! 

Well, I don't think they really "hack" here. I took both boys out back down a nice grass pathway next to a wheat field. I asked if it was ok to go this way, and one of the bereiters said, "yeah," with a shrug of the shoulders. But I guess that really meant, "if you want to risk your life, sure." I don't think either horse has ever been out there, even though it's right behind the barn. Four Seasons was pretty good because it was after his hour long difficult workout. But Salcido was crazy! Piaffing and levading and generally being wild. So we came back to the barn in a steep piaffing shoulder in. 

Once in the arena, Salcido did not relax much. Olli kept saying, ride him longer in the neck! Not so hectic in the walk! Make him take the contact! Well, we tried, but we were just a behind-the-bit ball of nerves. So we went ahead with some trot and canter. Still behind the bit but better and better gradually. In the second set we did some collection in the canter and rode in and out of the pirouettes until I felt like I had control over how small or big we made the pirouettes. Both he and Four Seasons are very well trained for pirouettes, which has always been a weakness of mine, so it's really fun and educational to feel such great pirouettes! We then did some changes. Olli wanted him 100% straight, no bending and no jumping left or right in the tempis. I tried my best, and we got some good 2s. Still not as straight and active as Olli wanted but better. 

Last set I did some trot work. This horse has an incredible trot, but not the easiest to sit. He is a bit long in the back and quite wide. But, wow, what a trot! He keeps the swing very well in the shoulder in but not so great in the half pass, especially to the left. Olli wanted me to really give him the rhythm with my seat and then gradually bend him more. 

Olli rides every horse in the same old style Passier saddle. I don't think there's a saddle I like less than the old Passiers, so sometimes I struggle with keeping my seat where I want it. But that's what everyone here rides in, so that will be my last time complaining about it.  (Out loud, at least.) They also don't seem very concerned about saddle fit. But the horses are incredibly fit and sound, so it doesn't seem to bother them!

At the very end of my ride I did some passage. Salcido is very talented for passage. Yesterday the passage we did was so amazing, but Olli was working with me from the ground with a whip. The horse is very sensitive to that, so Olli wasn't doing much, but I missed him today! He wanted me to think of riding extended trot into the contact and then half hating with my back to bring him to passage but use a quick leg to make him quicker behind. I got some good steps, but I was working a lot harder than Salcido. I only brought small spurs with me, and they don't ride their horses with a whip, unless it's for something specific. Four Seasons is terrified of a whip, but after my session with Salcido today, I asked Olli if he was ok with a whip, and he said, "yeah, sure."  So I think tomorrow I will use one. I know I need to be more effective with my leg without the whip, but based on how incredibly sore I am in every muscle of my body, I think I will use one tomorrow.

The assistant trainer here is riding a 5 year old stallion, Sir Olli, in the world young horse championships at Verden next weekend. He is just amazing, as is an 8 year old, Royal Ascot. There are so many truly international quality horses here, it's really amazing to watch them, let alone sit on them!

I hang out with Daniel in the afternoons while Jonathan works. We have been exploring the local towns - Lengerich and Tecklenberg. And today we went back to the farm and pet all the horses and brought them some apples. Olli's wife, Jutta was working in their barn with their two children, a little boy of 9 and a girl of 7. The boy, Max, was driving the fork lift all over the farm, moving giant bales of straw, etc. He then drove the John Deere tractor with the drag on it. Daniel was in awe. He is so amazed by tractors, but I think seeing a 9 year old boy drive one was just too much for him to handle.  He has a new idol now.  

Last night Daniel decided it was party time and didn't truly fall asleep until 2am... So I dragged myself out of bed this morning (while J & D slept so peacefully) and got to the barn a few minutes before 8, like I have been. No sign of Olli and not the normal hustle bustle, so I rolled some polos and waited. Cleaned a saddle and waited. I finally asked one of the grooms if she knew what the schedule was and if Olli was here. "I think he comes around 11," was all she told me. So... Shall I go back to the hotel and try to sleep?? Shall I go into town and steal wireless internet from the cafe I have been using? Or should I wait around and see if they want me to ride anyone? Of course, the latter! 

And they did! All of a sudden they tell me, "You will ride Dellenger."  As my good USDF certification has taught me, I want to know all about Dellenger before I hop on - breeding, age, level of training, difficulties, favorite itchy spots, does he try to kill people who ride him, etc. But when I asked his age, she said, "I don't know. Somewhere around 10?"  So I did not follow up with all my other questions. The Germans are not a chatty people. 

I asked if I could ride him in the outdoor arena, and they said sure, which I now take with a grain of salt. But he was a good boy. He is a lovely type - very elegant, super uphill with a very long, high set neck. He is very sensitive and was very nervous in the beginning but relaxed with some stretchy trot and serpentine lines. His canter is a bit disappointing because it's very big and open and hard to quicken the hind leg. I rode some trot canter transitions to make him jump more and loosen his back. Then we tried some collection in canter and finally some lateral work in trot. He gets very strong in the contact, especially on the R rein. 

When I came back in, more than one person asked me how he was and how I liked him. This seems like a very normal question, but NO ONE asks how the horses are and says anything about my rides. I am used to this from having been in Germany before, but it still always surprises me, since it's the first thing we do back home with EVERYONE. But I quickly realized that they were asking me how I liked him, because no one likes him. The young girl in the barn told me no one wants to ride him. Poor Dellenger. They were all so shocked (or maybe just thought I was stupid) when I said I liked him. He's still an incredibly nice horse!!?? Maybe not vying for any Olympic team any time soon, but a lot nicer than most of the horses in the US, and his problems are training problems, so you can't really blame him for that. So now watch me get to ride Dellenger every day, since I'm the stupid American who likes him...

Speaking of horses vying for the Olympic team (if he could keep his tongue in his mouth,) I then rode Four Seasons with Olli when he returned from teaching all morning. He was fantastic! I've got a much better feel for him now. And after Olli's lesson with Herr Meyer zu Strohen yesterday, he seemed to want me to ride him much more up and open in the neck, which feels so much better to me than having him so deep. We did a nice warm up and then started with trot work. This horse's trot is truly out of this world. And occasionally my butt was also out of the God awful Passier saddle, because, WoW that's a lot to sit. It was such a relief when he said, "Let's do some canter work."

We started with some pirouettes and then he wanted me to ride some changes. My single changes had been good in the warm up, so I think Olli was not afraid I would screw up as badly as I did yesterday on Salcido, since Four Seasons is much hotter. But, luckily, I didn't. At least not too many times. We did good fours and then some good threes and then Olli had to head into Münster for a show that is going on this weekend. 

Daniel and I explored a nearby town all afternoon. And hopefully tomorrow Jonathan can take some time away from work in the afternoon, and we can go for a hike in the beautiful Teutonberg Forest right nearby. 

Hans Heinrich Meyer zu Strohen came this morning to train Olli, Jutta and Anntin. Olli rode Four Seasons with him, along with others, and he looked super. 

I rode Highland, a 6 year old stallion, lightly this morning. He is a super horse. He reminded me so much of Wilmington, a stallion I used to ride. I wish I could try again with Wilmington now, I think I could do a much better job! This guy was a little stalliony in the beginning, excited to pass all the others in the indoor. Olli was on Four Seasons, Jutta was on a young mare, Annkia was riding Sir Olli, the stallion, so it was busy in that little indoor. But he soon went to work and was very good for me. He has huge gaits and a little bit of a slow hind leg, a lot like Wilmington but an even bigger trot. Olli just wanted me to do a loosening day with a little forward and back in the canter. 

I watched much of the morning, since Herr Meyer zu Strohen was there all morning, and then at 12 I rode Salcido. Olli was still getting help on a stallion who had been trailered in for him to ride. I thought they were almost done when I brought Salcido in, but I should have learned by now that my idea of a heavy workout is their idea of a warmup. They worked the piss out of this horse, who was quite talented for piaffe and passage. I warmed Salcido up and then did some collection in the canter on my own. The first day Olli called him "a diesel" and I remember thinking, what?! He's so sensitive! But now I feel what he's talking about (or maybe now after three days of me, he's getting duller and duller!) I rode him with a whip today, but he really doesn't have a great reaction to that, and Olli wants me to get a quicker reaction from my leg and NOT the whip. We worked first on some pirouettes, and those felt fantastic! He wanted me to be able to come in and out in a smaller or bigger pirouette whenever I wanted, so that I was really in control of how quickly he turned. He also wanted me to ride the full pirouette on the diagonal line, and REALLY collect with him REALLY straight on that line before I turned. He said, "He will turn, no problem! The problem is making sure he's straight and in front of you in collection BEFORE you turn." Then he wanted me to ride out of the pirouette still in the collection before I rode out into a bigger canter, so that he doesn't leave the pirouette on his own or fall apart coming out of it. I did a super pirouette to the left, and then I was so happy when Olli said, "yeah, super! Give him a break!" That I rode a terrible change afterwards ("That was a shit change!" were his exact words) instead of doing a nice transition to walk. Won't do that again!

Next we worked on the changes. I had a lot of trouble with the twos today, but luckily Salcido was incredibly patient with me. We did good fours and then good threes and one line of pretty good twos, but not "Olli good" so he wanted me to do the twos again. But Salcido was on his program, so he was onto the ones. We rode line after line of ones instead of twos. I kept trying harder, but then I was moving around too much with my upper body to give him good aids. "Quiet with your upper body, and just move your leg!" "You must really feel Right, Right, Left, Left, Right, Right, Left, Left, but not lean!!" Finally we did some good twos, and I gave him a break (mostly for me!) But then it was back to work for trot and piaffe and passage. This horse's trot is unreal. He has such a strange conformation of the back - kind of long, and incredibly wide underneath the middle to cantle of the saddle. Then a fairly short but totally flat croup. It makes him a little uncomfortable to sit, but I did my best German Man impression and SAT.
IN the corners, WITH bend
STRAIGHT on the longside with NO bend
UP in front, SITTING behind
ALWAYS more activity
Much better half passes today, although not enough bend for Olli's taste. And then *holy shit* piaffe and passage. I will really try to get someone to video soon. Jonathan came to pick me up and saw some at the end. He said, "I don't know anything, but even I know that was incredible." 

The biggest thing he had me focus on in the transitions was to keep the contact absolutely the same on the way out to passage from piaffe. (And into piaffe from passage, but that is easier.) I always had the hardest time with the piaffe to passage transition with Lancer, enough so that I don't really think I ever got a good one. These felt so perfect. Now, I know they were not perfect, because Olli told me so, but they felt it! It's so tempting to throw the contact away, even a little, when you want to ride out to passage, but the horse needs something to push back up into, and you need something to half halt against. It wasn't a lot of contact, but it was 100% even in the reins and totally unchanged from passage, to piaffe, and back to passage. Hard for me not to throw the reins away and pet him when he piaffes like that!!

Have I mentioned how sore I am? I ride 5 or 6 horses at home every day, and here I am only riding two. But the power with which these horses go and the intensity of my half halts and my activating leg aids is making me so sore I can barely move. I feel fine when I'm riding, luckily, but not in the afternoons and evenings! I'm trying to do my yoga at night and drink lots of water. I didn't pack any ibuprofen, but I think a trip to the pharmacy is in order for tomorrow. 

Jonathan, Daniel and I traveled pretty well, certainly as well as can be expected with an 18 month old on a transatlantic flight! This was Daniel's first time flying, so I really didn't know what to expect. But he is such an easy going kid, I was pretty sure he would be good. And Jonathan and I have traveled all over the world together, and I know that we have the same approach to things, which is: be as prepared as possible, and then go with the flow when the inevitable wrench gets thrown in the works. Luckily we had very few wrenches! We flew from Raleigh to Newark, and Daniel was so excited to see the planes and play with the buttons on the ceiling that turn the lights on and off and control the air. Everything ran on time, which is a small miracle. 

We let the boy run absolutely wild in Newark for our 3.5 hour layover, so that he would be as tired as possible for the next flight. We flew out at 4:25pm, and Daniel goes to bed every night promptly at 7:30, so I was a bit worried about entertaining him for 3 hours in such a small space. But another small miracle occurred when no one was seated next to us, so he had an empty seat to play in. A few good hours of sleep or Daniel, and one or two for Jonathan and me, and then we were there. I've flown into Dusseldorf a few times, so I felt like I *slightly* knew where I was going. 

We have an Opel Astra for these first few weeks. It's comfy and plenty big enough and super speedy! We got to our absolutely charming hotel - Landgasthof Strothman - in Lengerich around 8:30 and were served the most delicious breakfast and coffee while they got our room ready. 

Our only hitch so far is that there doesn't seem to be working internet. This is a little bummer for me but a serious problem for Jonathan, since he needs to work every day, and he has to have a good internet connection the whole time. The owners are being very sweet about trying to fix the problem. Apparently there was a horrendous storm yesterday, and they think it knocked out their WLAN line. Someone is coming in the morning to try to fix it. If not, Jonathan is going to make himself very popular at the local Internet cafe. 

I start at the barn tomorrow morning at 8am, so I am signing off now to try to get a good night's sleep. Thank you again to all of you out there for your support. I will send lots of pictures soon, it is absolutely gorgeous!

PS - I wasn't going to say anything, because I think you will all hate me, but it was so chilly when we arrived, we all had to find our jackets immediately. It finally warmed up to about 75 by the afternoon. I think I left NC at the right time...

It's 12 hours till our flight leaves!  I have so many people to thank for making this trip possible.  I will start with my wonderful husband, who agreed to accompany me on this crazy adventure.  My family and team back at the farm are keeping everything running while I'm away, and I am so grateful to them - my mom and dad and Emme & Kate - you all make this possible, and so much more.  A huge thank you to all who came out to the fundraiser last Sunday and those who donated or bid on items online through my auction.  I am really touched by the support of so many.  We raised much more than I could have hoped for, and that will make this whole experience so much more enjoyable, as now I won't be worrying about how to pay for everything abroad while still covering all the expenses at home.  That is an immense relief, and I will try to focus my energy even more into learning all I can to share with everyone.

I will be updating this blog regularly with notes from my training with Oliver and stories of our time over seas.  Please check back regularly.  I will now try (probably unsuccessfully) to get some sleep!

Thanks for visiting,
Eliza