Olympic games

So, it came out, the list of the riders who qualified as a individuel for Olympics. I'm 6th on the waiting list. It was so close... But still, our federation said that there is still a small chance that some of the countries don't sent their riders and then maybe, MAYBE I will be able to ride in London. But now we just have to keep our fingers crossed and wait till 15th of April. Meanwhile my horses, Sini Spirit and Donnelly, will do something else than dressage for a few weeks. They really earned it!

Vilamoura Portugal fotos

Sunshine Tour 2012 fotos

Finally home!

I flew home already on Friday afternoon but the horses left with Johannsmann early on Saturday morning. My groom Marieke drove with them. They did one over-night stop in south of Germany and finally on Sunday afternoon they arrived home. The horses were surprised to see where they are as they recognized the stables. The horses are well and healthy but now they will have a well earned holiday!

Saturday

In the morning I trained the horses and they feld good. All of them are still feeling fresh which I'm wondering because it has been such a long trip so far. The weather was a bit cooler today. During the night it rained and the morning was also gray. The sun came out first in the afternoon but the temperature didn't rise so high. The freestyle began at 17:20. My starting time with Sini was 19:30. The music was so loud, much louder than I wanted in the sound check,that Sini got scared and was tense trough the hole test. Anyway somehow I managed to rode him and we did all the movements but with tension. I think the judges didn't see it all the time because we still got 73,35%. Tomorrow Donnelly will go the special and Sini will have a small earned break. :)

Vidauban friday

Today was Donnelly's turn. I rode him in the gran Prix for special. Our starting time was 9:18 in the morning. It was still very cold. When we came to the stables it was -2,5 C. Donnelly feld good in the warm up but he got a little bit strong during the test. I was not quite happy about the test. We made one small mistake in siksak and a bigger mistake in one tempis. Our score was 69.4% and third place. Terhi Stegars made a very nice test and got only 1,5 points more than me and she was second. Also Henri Ruoste did well and placed on place 8. We all qualified for the special on Sunday. Sini and Liebe I trained alone because Hubertus flew home already. The freestyle is tomorrow evening and Sini goes at a fourth last horse.

The morning was really cold. In the stables were -5 C and it feld freezing. I started to ride about 10 o'clock. Hubertus came yesterday and we already did light training. Today I started with Donnelly and rode Sini and at last Liebe. All of them went well and Hubertus were happy. Sini had also his Gran Prix today in the afternoon. That's why I rode him in the morning and before the test I did only a short warm up. Sini got a bit tense as we rode in to the arena but calmed down before I started the test. The test began well, we had one mistake in the passage after the first piaffe where Sini suddenly cantered. In two tempis were also had mistakes and the last change after zigzag was late behind. I was very happy about the passage and piaffe and that Sini let me ride him. We got only 68,3% because of the mistakes. We still ended on the second place! Sini qualified for the freestyle which is on Saturday. Donnelly goes the Gran Prix for the special tomorrow early in the morning.

The first night in Vidauban

We arrived in Vidauban about 6.30 p.m on Monday evening. We found our boxes and made them ready for my horses. At first Liebe was really nervous because she couldn't see the other horses. They are all standing in a row next to each other but the walls are closed so they can only see horses on the other side. But we didn't have neighbors yet. We gave the horses water and hay and after a while we took them out for a walk. Later we gave them mash but Liebe didn't start to eat. We took the temperature and it was 38,9. I tried to call the show office, stable manager and the official vet. Nobody answered. Finally the official vet picked up and came out that he is not even here! I couldt believe it! He's coming tomorrow but then it would be too late to help the horse! He promised to sent me another number who might know the number from local vet. We took the temperature again and know it was already 39,5!! Finally I got a number from the vet and she promised to come but se was 1,5h away! Unbelievable... So we just waited and cooled Liebes legs with cold water. At 11.30 p.m the vet came, Liebe got the medicine against fever and got better soon. It was already so late so we decited to stay with the horses and sleep inside the tack box. We rolled blankets around us and tried to sleep.