Oct. 10, 2008

Friday October 10, 2008
I arrived to Fleyenhof at 7:30. I was not sure if they started then but it was a good guess. All of the working students were just feeding. Roode was snoozing. I didn’t want to disturb him but the day was starting and I wanted to get in on it.
I tacked him up and hand walked him around the arena with four other horses working in there and boy was he fresh. He looked good though, very pumped and ready to try to get away from me…but he didn’t. I know his moves. Once he gave a good sigh of relaxation, I decided it was a good time to get on. I looked around for a mounting block…not a one. Oh no. I haven’t tried to mount from the ground in I don’t know how long. I thought, what is this? They have other girls shorter than me getting on bigger horses than mine… I hope nobody is watching, ok…I’m on. Hmmm, not too shabby. Perhaps the motivation to look good at the moment came from this really good looking Bereiter working there and he was riding in the arena also. But, I have soon found out that he has a girlfriend who is also an amazing rider from Finland, so I’m sure he wasn’t looking at me and with how good he was riding I’m sure his focus was very much directed at the horse. Okay enough about the boy…
Roode was very good just walking around the arena with the three to four other horses, which is not typical for him. He can get very nervous when other horses are coming to pass head on and he can pull some huge quirks and 180 degree turns if it doesn’t go well. So, with a lot of comfort and getting through in his body, he passes just fine. I was proud of him. We then marched up and down this nice paved road that goes beside the farm and took in the scenery. : )
After work I gave him a little ace and turnout in a small dirt paddock where he just basked in the sun. He was happy.
I went home and slept from 1:30 – 7:30. I didn’t know I was so tired. Craziness!

Oct. 8, 2008

Wednesday and Thursday October 8, 2008- October 9, 2008
From hanging out with friends the night before and having one last ice cream get together to finally getting home late the night before and doing some final packing, I believe I got a total of 2.5 hours of sleep before the big day. That was my fault. Maybe I’ll learn one of these days to prepare better.
I was very cool and relaxed about the whole thing this morning. I was very ready and I was only trying to remember last minute things until the transport came and the chubby old man missing his bottom four front teeth arrived much earlier than said and he rushed me. That kind of got me out of sorts but I handled it well with Beth and Mez’s help. We got all trunks and loads of baggage in the trailer and then I was preparing Roode who was so cool about all of it. I think he was the best he has ever been with preparing him to load and travel. Maybe he was just so surprised about the whole rush that he was just totally aloof to what was happening. And then, Roode loaded and all ready to go, I went off and completely forgot his fleece cooler. It was the nice one that I just bought last winter. What a bummer!
The Trailer ride to JFK was smooth and not to mention we arrived an hour early. The whole time there was surveillance in the back so that I could see Roode from the front. That was cool. The driver and I shared a little philosophy on on-time matters. He said he doesn’t like the guys who like to arrive the minute that was planned. He thinks you should always be at least an hour early. He said, “If you’re early, you’re on time and if you’re on time, you’re LATE!” I agree but not by an hour…maybe 30 seconds. We actually drove right off of the farm property to the minute he was just supposed to be arriving. Humph…
Once at JFK, we had 6 hours of quarantine. It went very well and it was boring. There were 9 other Arabian mares that were all in foal being shipped to Morocco. They were terrible when it came time to load and go to the tarmac. The first mare left and then they really started screaming. I thought Roode might start getting concerned and do the same but he turned to the far corner and pinned his ears as if to say “Please make it stop”. My ears were hurting too. Then he loaded fine with a trailer to himself and I went to meet him at the tarmac. I waited and waited. The other horses were there, getting loaded in their boxes and still no sign of Roode…hmmm. So, I took pictures of his box (I will post) and I waited some more. By this time I was sort of checking in with myself, ‘I should be exhausted, but I’m not…must be adrenaline’ (It was). It turned out that the holdup was getting through security. Some security pass card declined and then that is a very big deal. Anyway, so to the cool part, I got to load Roode in his box and he marched right on. He was a champ. Locked in and ready to go, I then took cool pictures and the “handsome for older men”…Dutchmen vet/grooms checked him out and I went to regular check in for the flight and loaded with the regular crew and went to the back and anxiously stood by the cargo door. By the way the flight was a KLM half passenger half cargo plane. That was very cool. Through the tiny back emergency door window I watched them load the horses. The lifts that they used were so incredible. It’s really hard to describe but the platform lift had these roller like things and they would pull the box on and put it into place and then it would lift to the height of the cargo and then roll the box on and then the same little roller things were in the plane and they could move the box directly where they wanted and then the box locks on tracks and then it is clamped on the bottom all around. Usually he won’t eat at all while traveling, but by this time (I believe it was 11pm), he was starving. Once all cargo was locked down and it was safe for me to go back to him, I climbed in his box with him and he was munching away at his hay and I stood there with him until after takeoff. I think I was more weirded out for the take off than he was. He didn’t move a limb. He just was a little wide eyed, and I think my eyes were wider. He went back to chewing hay and I watched us fly beside NYC thru his little window. The city lights were amazing from the night sky and then the plane turned and I couldn’t see anymore. Way to kill the romance huh? So, I went to my seat in the passenger area and I was out like a light. I got a little less than 6 hours I think and all I remember is waking up to the intercom saying prepare for landing and it was very bright outside.
October 9, 2008
I looked out the window and saw the beautiful Holland and I went back with Roode who looked like he may have had a good snooze too. The landing was just fine and relaxed. No biggy. I unloaded myself and almost had a little panic as I thought I might never find the horse hotel. But, the cool and logical part of me kicked in quick and I found it just fine. It would not have mattered if it would have taken me all day anyhow. I had to wait another 6 hours because of some missing papers on one of the other horses so I couldn’t leave either. I did a good job embarrassing myself in the meantime though. I thought I would just sit on this little ledge in the middle of the horse hotel and rest my eyes, but I fell asleep and woke up falling to the ground. I caught myself fine I wasn’t hurt at all but everyone saw it and chuckled.
I felt sorry for Roode having to stand in that box for the far more than necessary hours. But, I was eventually able to unload him and I walked him around until he looked a little more relaxed to load into a trailer again and then get to Germany. The drive to Germany was fine and uneventful, though it seemed like forever. At about 10pm on the 9th, we finally arrived to Fleyenhof. Roode was very happy as was I and he rolled and had his first meal since noon yesterday, the 8th.
The family I will be staying with came and picked up me and all my things and I went to sleep at 1:30am.