It was a very long drive. The weather was good and it didn’t snow much, just a tiny bit in Denmark. Vitall was really good on the ferry from Denmark to Germany. He was traveling backwards and had lots of space to put his head down and stretch his neck. He just munched his hay the entire way and drank water when I offered it to him. I am very fortunate that he travels well. Oslo slept on my lap the entire way like a little baby. He kept me warm which was nice because the heating in the truck wasn’t working unless you had it on full blast. Every 15-20 Corne and I would crank the heat and I put my jacket across Oslo to keep him and my legs warm. The only trouble we had was in Hamburg and into Bremen, Germany. There was some construction there and the highway goes down to single lane of traffic… BIG PAIN! We were crawling for almost an hour which set our journey back. The total trip was 15 hours and we arrived at Anky’s at 8pm.
I gave Vitall a little hand walk and settled him into bed and un-packed my boxes. He settled in right away :). After that we made our way to the bed and breakfast I’m staying at. It’s a really cute place and the owners are very friendly. They laughed when they saw my bags and said “oh you have a lot of stuff!”. We had to drag the suitcases up a very steep staircase. I joked that at least we all got our exercise for the day! The beds are very comfy and I was so pleased to crawl in; I was EXHAUSTED!
In the morning I had a lovely breakfast with fresh squeezed orange juice and freshly baked bread and tea. They gave me meats which I don’t eat so Oslo had a special treat which I snuck him under the table, he was a very pleased boy.
Anky’s barn is a very comforting atmosphere. Very laid back but busy at the same time. At the moment she is re-building everything so there is construction workers running around everywhere but when the place is done it is going to be really 5*. I gave a Vitall a hand walk and put the magnetic blanket on him. I didn’t meet Anky until later as she was off at her reining lesson. Sjef came and found me though and showed me around. I was getting antsy about meeting Anky and was exhilirated at the though of actually being in her barn. When I finally met her she was very kind. She shook my hand and asked how my horse settled and travelled. Both Anky and Sjef are very easy to talk to. They put you right at ease so you feel as if you’ve known them your whole life, even the staff are the same way. It was a bit embarrassing when Oslo proceeded to try and attack Anky’s dog because he decided it was now his territory. The poor dog looked at him as if to say “ok buddy, it’s yours if you want it” and Oslo then felt all macho, the little bugger.
In the morning Anky rides her own horses then from 1pm on she teaches so I will be riding in the afternoons. I had asked the B&B about gyms in my emails prior to coming and at breakfast this morning they had printed out 3 different places for me. Once I get my car tomorrow I am going to check them out. I plan to workout in the morning and I now that I have a sport psychologist I will also be working with her and then going to the barn and training.
I watched about 4 lessons this afternoon. I was pleased with what I saw. There are a lot of neat horses and talented riders. Anky is right in there with her students, she yells when something is wrong but in the next second is praising you. It’s a good combination where she pushes you when you need to be pushed.
I think this is going to be an exciting learning curve. I have good feelings about it and the neatest thing was last night when I was about to crawl into bed and I looked on my pillow and there was 2 lady bugs. So someone was sending me some good luck.
I will have pictures up in the next couple days the weather was so dark and cold today I didn’t manage to take but hopefully tomorrow.
