2009.10. - Horse Riding (Real vs. Harley)

Julia's and Daniel's commitment to horse-riding increased since summer.

Although they have been going to the stable in Sulzbach once a week (thanks to Erika and Julia G for recommending it to us), the foundation for riding & everything "around it" was somehow still not solid enough.

That is until they signed up for their first official
Horse-riding course "Steckenpferd" in the Fall Break.


For four days they worked and learnt at the stable from morning till afternoon.
They had to thoroughly clean their horse from ears to hooves and nose to tail.
They learnt how to saddle up and fix the bridle.
They practiced the riding figures/routines in the hall.
They talked about the anatomy of the horse and what and how much it should eat and drink.
And also about how to recognize signs of distress or disease and what to do about it.
And a lot more ...


The last day was the Test when they collected points for everything - riding, setting up and cleaning the equipments and the horse, plus a written test about the theory they were taught.

They both passed.
What I appreciated even more was to see the friendship they developed to their horse over the week and the discipline and care they had to demonstrate day in day out in order to do their job right.

D with Hanna and their horse Antonia

J with Charlotte and their horse Mandy







Hours of preparation for the Exam:

serious ...

... exhausted ...

... exhilarated.

The children are actually not the only ones who enjoy riding.

Norbert does too.
His dream horse is called Harley Davidson.





And he got to sit on one of this breed in Ramstein, at the American Army Base where Bob, Erika and Julia took us on a special trip.

In fact, we all felt compelled to try these famous metal horses and so we picked our favorites to be pictured on ...











The kids on the other hand were not up to sitting. On the contrary.


In the sports shop they discovered pretty quickly there were some walls to climb.

And so they spent an hour with some rock climbing...






.... before we settled down for lunch at Chili's.




Subsequently we walked off some of the calories we consumed in the shopping mall - we could not eat everything at Chili's no matter how hard and long we tried.
It was a great trip to "America" and were were again very proud to see how unproblematic it was for our kids to adjust linguistically to the culture of a nation which lives on a continent they haven't been to.

Thanks Bob for this special treat!