10/29/2011

This past week has been what you might expect from a working student; mucking, grooming, tacking up horses, turning horses in and out, cleaning tack, sweeping the barns, etc, etc, etc..

BUT. Yesterday I got to clip a horse. I have plenty of experience in body clipping horses, but I’ve never had to worry about whether or not it looked good. This horse hadn’t been clipped before, do he was antsy and I knew they probably didn’t have high expectations because of this, but I wanted to please, of course! :)

So I turned the clippers on and started and all of five minutes into it the clippers stopped shaving. I took the blades apart and put them back together several times with no avail and gave up and let Katrin figure it out. I was then on a roll. Since the horse hadn’t been clipped before I would shut the clippers off every fifteen minutes and give him a break. He was being really good, but the flies bothered him more than anything else and made it hard to clip with him moving around so much. So I guess the breaks were for me, too. I eventually got everything done but the legs and face and by that time the horse was fed up. I don’t blame him. We had been clipping for an hour and the blades were getting hot. But I tried his legs and he kicked my hand twice. Not hard, but still. I have been kicked one too many times to know how terrible it can be. It could escalate and I’d have yet another stitched up hole in me!

So Katrin put a twitch on him and we got the job done without too much fuss. Then I was off to do the rest of my evening routine.

This morning I got up early to go cheer on the Neuss Grefrath Reitclub team at a nearby horseshow! It was a lot of fun. They do a lot of things differently here than in the US, but I expected that. Like, for example, they got their horses ready at the trailers because there was no stalls to put them in. They didn’t wear that weirdo skirts over breeches look you see at Washington County Fairgrounds, but jeans instead. In the warmup ring, everyone goes in one direction at all time (someone asks to change directions if they want to go the other way). Three or four horses show in the arena at once (they all ride the same test and line up single file, except for halts, where they come down the centerline side by side). Even though it was a small show, there was an awards ceremony and they won prizes like saddle pads, polo wraps, and horse treats (jealous!). The levels and patterns are different. And they had a jumping portion of the show that added onto your score, but it was only for people under 21.

Our barn did really well and they all looked spectacular!

We made it back home in time for me to have my lunch. After, I went for another walk around Grefrath. I didn’t feel that I had enough time to go downtown so I stayed close by the barn.

When I got back I made some yummy risotto, watched tv, and talked to Chris and mother until it was time to go to bed. :)

Sonntag

Today was my day off so I slept until 8:30 and then woke up and finished the rest of another novel I was reading (My Name is Memory by Ann Brash, a really thought provoking book). I then made myself some breakfast, showered, cleaned my apartment, watched German television, and with nothing else to do, set out on a journey to explore Neuss.

Neuss, as it turns out, is quite small. It’s mostly made up of houses and apartments, but there were some shops I walked past. There is an aquarium store, a salon, a travel agency, a bar on every corner, a little food stand with candies and snacks, a cafe, a pizza place, and some gift shops. Although none of them were open because it was Sunday, it was good to go for a walk and see what Neuss had to offer, especially since it was particularly good weather for it.

There is also an old, enormous church. I saw that behind it there was a path and I walked onto it to discover a huge graveyard. It was like nothing I had seen before. Every single grave was well kept and beautiful. Even the oldest plots looked as if they had been there for all of a week. They were decorated with fresh flowers, stones, candles (most every one was lit), and vines. It was obvious that people didn’t forget about their loved ones buried deep in the ground. They came back and remembered and continued to take care of them even though they didn’t have to.

I ran into a squirrel while walking around the graveyard. He was a big red one, who climbed up a tree to my eye height and just sat there and stared at me. I stared back until he decided to go on his way up to his palace in the treetops. As he made his way up, I couldn’t help but smile because his grunts sounded like they were in a German accent.

I slowly made my way back to the stables, where I went back to my apartment and thought about what else a person could do on their day off in a foreign country. There wasn’t enough time to walk myself to Dusseldorf and back, so I decided that that was for next weekend. And it wasn’t time to start making myself dinner yet. So I went and talked to Jess and mother! Hooray. :)

Freitag und Samstag

Yesterday was normal except for two things. One, I got horses ready for Marion. Two, after work I went to a party with all of the girls from the barn. We went to one of their houses. Of course, they spoke exclusively in German, but I still was able to catch a drift every once in a while about what they were talking about. The food was quiche...with pork in it. And some sort of potato cake...with bacon in it. *sigh* So I was served streusel. And to drink? Wine and shots. Lol. I didn't have any, nor do I ever want to. The party was still fun though and I got to know some of the people I see on a daily basis better.
This morning I did my normal morning routine. Peggy has the weekend off so I volunteered to muck out mine and her barn, which is eight stalls. I thought maybe good karma would come around...
Turns out I was right! I tacked up Angelina and entered the arena, where Marion was riding. As I warmed up, all of a sudden a voice, in English, came across the arena, yelling at me to make my hands vertical. Little did I know it was the start of my first lesson. It turned out to be mostly on my equitation, which is good, because I admittedly do have poor equitation at times. Some things I need to work on include keeping my hands vertical, my legs underneath me, half halting with my seat more, and looking in between the horse's ears and not down to the inside. Marion was hard on me, but that's good. Those are all things that need to be fixed quickly.
We did lots of transitions. This place is obsessed with them. Why? Because not only does it keep your horse light on your aids, it shifts their weight onto their hindquarters and builds their abs. A horses abs are what make a horse lift their back. All good things. We never went around the arena once without doing some sort of transition, whether it was in-gait, trot to walk and back up, or a lateral movement. It kept Angelina thinking and building muscles. By the end of the lesson, she was rounder in her back and fluid and my eq improved. Hooray!
Then I did some other silly things, like mess around with enormous bags of carrots. Did I mention that they feed a bucketful of carrots as a meal?! Yeah. Pretty weird. It makes me giggle every time I think about it. :) Also, since we're on the subject, they normally feel hay once a day, but some horses are exceptions, and the grain looks like a mixture of cereal, some sort of mash, oats, and pelleted feed.
Afterwords I went for lunch where I ate more soup. I'm eating a crapload of soup lately. At least it's all yummy soup. And German bread is super yummy. You can buy fresh breads at the grocery store. They make it right there. So I ate all of that, sat there and felt awesome, and had a long lunch since it's Saturday. Wootage.
Then the rest of the day was pretty normal. But it was awesome. :)

The past few days

Monday and Tuesday were pretty much normal. On Wednesday I got to lounge more horses, which was fun. And today I had a broom fight with the cobwebs again. I had an especially good ride on Angelina. Whoopdedoo. :)

I’ve been watching lessons as much as possible. I learn so much just by simply watching. Although I haven’t had a lesson yet, I feel that that is okay if I get to watch other people ride. There are some amazing horse/rider combos here. I wish you guys could see! (sorry for the lack of pictures, by the way. I feel like a creeper walking around with a camera.)

I’ve realized this past week how much the people back at home mean to me. I love you all and I miss you like crazy....but I’m keeping a positive attitude and I can’t wait to see you all again!

May the force be with you. ;)

Lazy day Sunday.

Today was my day off so I turned my alarm off last night and let myself catch up on some sleep. I woke up at noon and read the end of my novel I was almost done with (Ape House by Sara Gruen--I highly recommend it). I decided I would take it easy and save the exploring for Neuss for a different day.

I made myself some brunch--scrambled eggs and potatoes o’ Brian, and then got dressed and walked around for awhile before chatting with some of my favorite people online. Then I went back to my apartment to eat and then started another book :)

Ahh, sometimes I love lazy days. :)

Saturday!

Katrin left for the weekend for a wedding so the two other workers and I are on our own. I knew today might be difficult with no one who speaks fluent English, but I felt that I had more energy and was able to muck three double stalls and three normal sized stalls, re-bed, and groom eight horses in a matter of two hours. In the past days it has normally taken me an hour extra.

But of course, there was another incident while cleaning out the fillies stall. That one really doesn’t like me and shows it. I was putting new straw into the stall. They use big square bales that have big flakes I’m not used to pushing around so I lose my balance a lot. While pushing it into the stall, I tripped, fell onto my hands and knees, and watched with horror across the stall as that filly pinned her ears at me, turned around, and let a back hoof fly in my general direction.

I tried to scramble up to avoid it, but it was too late. She made contact with my collarbone, which was lucky because it was originally going towards my head. I got up and smacked her and she gave me a nasty look and went to the corner of the stall. I had a swearing fit but eventually calmed down and finished up the barn. I walked away with a hoof shaped bruise and ego.

Since I had finished so quickly, I got an hour long break and then went out to sweep up around the stables. I had my lunch break and then went out to ride Angelina. It was a lot of fun. There were a bunch of people watching someone else ride (probably a horse for sale) and I got a bunch of complements on my riding! Pretty neat, if I don’t say so myself. I was beginning to wonder what people thought of the silly American girl’s riding.  I know I’m pretty good, but compared to other German riders, I had no idea how good. There isn’t a single bad rider at my barn.

I untacked Angelina and went to change into normal clothes so I could run to the grocery store to get some food. I got ingredients for curry to make that night as well as some sweets and other assorted items.

I guess weekends are short and easy days so I retired to my room for the rest of the night to talk to my lovlies. :)

Day one!

I woke up at 5:30 am so I could be ready to work at 7:00. Katrin showed me a barn where there was a couple of yearlings and a mare in foal and she had me groom them and muck the stalls. While I finished the mare’s stall, Katrin showed up with a horse and put him on a horse treadmill I hadn’t noticed. It is a very strange contraption but all of the horses they put on it didn’t seem to mind. They all had to walk on the treadmill for 25 minutes.

I groomed some more horses and was starting to think that that was all I was going to do when Katrin told me that I was to ride a horse! She was a big, sweet six year old mare named Angelina. It had been almost a week since I had ridden a horse so I made a lot of mistakes, but it made me a whole lot less homesick.

They do a lot of weird things here that will take a long time to get used to. I have to pick the horse’s hooves before they even step out of the stall and people also pick all of the hooves on one side of the horse. You always have to apply hoof balm and Vaseline to their nose when grooming. Horses get turned out for an hour, either longed or walked on the treadmill, and ridden. Cleaning absolutely everything after you use it, which I hate.

I was served lunch by Marion’s mother, but I couldn’t eat it because I saw it had pork on top of it. I had the realization that as a vegetarian, I would unintentionally be on a diet while here. I knew this already, but my stomach ached as I had not had a full meal since Monday. Eating hasn’t been a priority lately.

After lunch I had to clean out all of the automatic waterers, so I met all of the horses in the barns. Then I chatted with my mom and Chris and the day was finally over.

Day three (on time)

My alarm woke me up at 5:30 but I ended up missing the snooze button and luckily woke back up at 6:30. Good thing I didn’t have a whole lot to do!

I did the same stuff as yesterday. Starting to see a pattern here, which I like. I’m not a huge fan of my morning routine up until I ride Angelina, but that’s okay.

Lunch today was sautéed green beans and potatoes, tomato soup, and some sort of yummy custard thing. :)

Then I went out and lounged the same horse as yesterday. We’re coming to an understanding as far as voice commands go.

After, we washed windows and I saw something weird out of the corner of my eye...it was a car...pulling a two horse trailer with a horse in it! What the??

I sweeped up all of the barns and then went to talk to Topher. :)

Day two (a day late)

I woke up at 6:00 today to see if I could get away with an extra half hour of sleep, which it was. I dressed and ate some toast and headed out to find Katrin.

She first had me groom horses again, which I didn’t mind too much. I know I will be doing a lot of it, so I figure I better enjoy it. I then went back to the barn where the yearling fillies and pregnant mare were kept. I mucked and groomed them, meanwhile watching the horses on the treadmill. One of the enormous jumpers was on it and she would occasionally get sleepy and start to fall over, which terrified me. Then one time she fell hard and started to come off the contraption. I braced for an accident, but the treadmill stopped. It has a safety mechanism, thank god.

While watching all of this and putting fresh bedding in the babies stall, one of them noticed that I had left open the door just enough to sneak through. She leapt out and started to trot out of the barn, but luckily the other filly screamed for her to come back, so she did. I put my arm around her nose and Peggy, one of the workers, came to my rescue. She threw me a halter and I led the crazed filly back into her stall.

I finished up in that barn and then did more grooming. I then helped Peggy turn a horse out. This is when I found out there are more fields across the street. Taking horses across a street daily that has no speed limit seemed dangerous, but the people at this barn do not take so many precautions as I do. They leave horses “ground tied” for minutes and pick feet in a way where you’re asking to get kicked. They like to turn horses out with boots, which I find weird. About a quarter of the people I have met wear helmets. Their number one concern isn’t safety, it’s cleanliness.

I rode Angelina again and I was better but I still didn’t feel at my best. My jet lag was still effecting me. After, I had the privilege of sweeping down cobwebs in the barns and almost getting killed several times after scaring the shit out of the horses. I tried to calm them down but they don’t listen to me much since I don’t speak a language they understand.

I was actually able to eat lunch today. It was peas and carrots and something like potatoes au gratin. Yum! My first full meal in awhile. :)

Then I got to lounge a horse, which turned out to be somewhat of a challenge. Voice commands are a bit different but it was fun nonetheless.

Katrin took me to the grocery store to get some more food and I also ended up buying an internet stick. Hopefully it works.

The Pony Express is on the move!

WARNING: May be boring at times. Just writing what comes to me. It is my blog, after all.

I left my house at 3:30 and said goodbye to my animals. Nuzzled Jack one last time and we we were off to pick up Raf in Savage and then to the airport. We arrived on time and my mom park her truck where she wasn’t supposed to and helped us into the baggage check in. We quickly said goodbye and she ran to the truck to find some police officers looking on the from of the truck for a hook-up to tow it away.  They were in a good mood that day, however, and let her go without a problem.

We went through security and soon after that I discovered that Raf is quite the shopper. He especially likes those classy perfume stores that reek ten miles away. You know, the ones you’d never catch me dead in.

After that silly shopping, we went food hunting. Raf got asian and I found out how unvegetarian-friendly airports were. So I got a measly cup of fruit and we boarded the plane. We had great seats with no one in front of us. The captain informed us that the flight was running early and soon after that we took off for our 7.5 hour trip across the ocean. Raf’s video-thinger didn’t work so we switched seats since I just wanted to read. It was my lucky day in terms of airplane food as it was nasty pasta with not-so-green salad. We went up to the Southern tip of Greenland and then came back down. The screens in front of us showed some random facts about our flight and I remember looking at the temperature when we reached Greenland and thinking that I had gone insane. It read, I kid you not, -70 degrees F.

I fell asleep sometime after Greenland but woke up an hour later, groggy. There was about two hours left of the flight and it went by somewhat quickly.

The Amsterdam airport was colorful and trying really hard to be hip. Most of the ads were in English, to my surprise. Raf, having gone 8 or so hours without a smoke, quickly retreated into a smoking room, which were scattered throughout the airport. Never had I seen such a culture where smoking was so important. The rooms were heavily fogged from the nicotine. Although I had been previously warned of these rooms existence's, I was still surprised. And for whatever reason, I had suspected that the people would be a lot different than in Minneapolis. Wrong. I saw that they were just regular old people who had lived different lives in a different culture. They were too human. This made me feel better.

Raf, of course, wanted to do more shopping in classy makup/perfume stores. I looked like such a hag after such a long flight, sitting and worrying about what was to happen next. My face was pale and my skin was dry and my clothes weren’t appropriate. Blahblahblah.

The securtity at this airport was a whole lot easier. I started to strip my clothes off and the woman who was assisting people glanced at my passport and quickly understood what I was doing. She told me that I didn’t need to take my belt, shoes, or anything metal off like I did at the Minneapolis airport. I went into the contraption that scanned me and I was out in no time.

We got onto a bus that took us back on another plane, but this time it was only a thirty minute flight. Since this plane was much smaller, this pilot took the liberty of making sharp turns, going up and down and up and down, and making me feel like I was gonna puke.

We got out of the Dusseldorf airport as soon as we could and waited for the cab that took us to Raf’s super deluxe car. It did all sorts of fancy cool stuff but I don’t really remember what it was cuz I was too busy gawking at my new scenery, which, to my disappointment, wasn’t much different than Minnesota at all.

We arrived at the barn I am to work at for six months. It is truly a very impressive place. It’s all brick with lots of nice arenas and the people are kind. My apartment is huge with a living room, two tv’s with satellite, a bathroom, a bedroom, a kitchen, and stairs so steep and slippery that I’m afraid I’m going to break my neck on them. The horses were, of course, gorgeous. Tall and athletic and effortlessly floated. 

I also watched Reinhart coach some 7-12 year old girls on their obedient ponies in German. Then I wondered around like a fool until the other working student, Katrin, took me to the grocery store.

Marion’s mom came with and she speaks zero english. This made shopping difficult. Katrin told me that I could get anything I wanted, no limits, and I chose some things while Marion’s mother chatted at me about how I should have gotten “this” or “that” instead while Katrin babbled back to her in German as I awkwardly stood there and looked like an American.

We went back to the barn and I found out that the internet in my apartment doesn’t work, which is why this update is so late. I had to go steal Katrin’s internet. She was super nice and said that if I ever feel homesick, need help, internet, or just simply need to talk to someone, she is always there. I felt somewhat relieved. She will be a huge help.

Tomorrow is my first day of work. I have to get up at 5:30 so I’m ready by 7:00. Then my day ends at 7:00pm. Looooooooong day. So far I have mixed feelings about this place, so we’ll see. I am terribly homesick and lonely at times, but it will pass.

OPULENCE. I has it. ;)

I leave for the airport in 1.5 hours.

I have to keep reminding myself to breathe. No, it's not for myself. I know I'll be fine and have a great time . But the fact that I will be away from the people I love is what makes me cry. It's what the pit in my stomach is fretting about. I want somebody to actually jump into my suitcase so I won't feel quite so lonely.

Okay, maybe it is a little selfish. But comn', can you blame me?

I said goodbye to everyone last night and each time someone left, we exchanged a sob or two.
Six months isn't that long, but right now it feels like an eternity.
I will for sure put this blog to use now.
I love you all and miss you already. <3
Bye for now.

All you need is horses.

6 days left. I couldn't be any more excited. :)
I already miss you all but I'm ready to go have the time of my life. I'm going to try my hardest to be the best horsewoman I can be and there's nothing stopping me. I will make sure to update this blog a lot more than I have been (even though I'm not so great at it). And thanks to modern technology, I can talk to you guys free through Skype. Feel free to chat me up! My username is ginger.coleman3.
I hope (and know) that this journey will gain me a huge leg-up in my career with horses. I can't wait to see where life leads me.