German Competitive Trail

I visited a competitive trail ride today to see how these things happen here.

They call it Orienteering though. Which I must concede, they do use maps to get thru the trails, but this is where the similarity to Orienteering ends.

Orienteering is a runner's sport that was adopted by horse people and tweaked a little to become my favorite thing. That and endurance.

It was only an hour from here and I just love this particular drive.

However it's been so humid as I tried to take a photo, my camera lens was fogged over. I've been wondering why my salt and garlic won't come out of their shakers, and though no one in our home showered today, our towels feel as wet as if someone did. Ugh.

It's an opressive, migrane-inducing September.

I was almost there and yet again I had to drive on a street only barely wide enough for my car. If someone had been coming toward me I have no idea what we would have done.

As I parked I saw riders heading out. I hope you enjoy looking at gear as much as I do. Many of the horses today wore boots instead of shoes, and the young riders looked like the models in the horse catalogs, the new look is polo and they're emulating that well. I saw a couple of body protectors and lots of backpacks on people who have not found the right saddle bags yet apparently. Note that the beginning of this ride is on pavement.

I thought I saw WHP's Doru. Note the stacks of silage in the background. I found out today that hay has doubled in price due to the rainy summer. I hope we can still get hay and not have to feed silage!

Stylin' backpack chick rides by my car.

When I arrived I saw a sight that gave me deja vu--riders in groups being handed their maps by the manager, and being sent out 10 minutes apart from each other.
The horse is fully equiped with easyboot epics, they look ready to take on the 5 miles ahead of them with ease.

The ride manager says "You are here, and you need to go here..."






I became a little wistful as I stood there and took pictures.

This girl asked me to move so she could stand there to mount.

Take a look at how much coat this pony has in September. Baasha has already got a good start on his winter coat going, to my dismay (it's really hot out!).

I wonder if dogs are allowed to accompany riders.

That's the second saddle I've seen with stirrup leathers under the saddle flaps.

This filthy grey horse was very upset the entire time - I assume they took her buddy away for the ride and she was trotting and cantering circles in her concrete-floored paddock.

Finally someone must have noticed that I was new so she approached me and it was Yvonne, the lady I'd emailed. She offered to introduce me to the sport. Here she is behind a big chestnut who was afraid to go forward. I noticed both of these horses have duck feet. Check that out.

Then the cleaning crew arrived. See that red tractor? They drove it right thru the gate into that upset grey's area and started working in synchrony. I don't think I've ever seen team manure pickup. Notice the upset mare is cantering in this photo. Very loud on the pavement.

Then I noticed the poo crew all had baseball hats on. Baseball hats are not common here yet. They're just starting to be common in the young people and the western riders have noticed that it makes them look American. These riders don't look western but you cannot say - my other photos show riders in breeches and polo shirts on western saddles. It's all so confusing!

This is a Tinker breeding facility (Gypsy Vanner) so I stopped to take a pic of one of the babies.

Then this lady arrived. She just made my day. I should ask who she is. She never stopped smiling, even when her fractious horse showed his displeasure at being made to wait before their start.

As the cool lady on the bay horse approached, I couldn't help but notice the pretty dead tree beside them.

Here's the cheery lady again on her bay horse. The lady in the foreground is Yvonne, my host, who also smiles alot.

I had to catch this moment. Yvonne is laughingly scolding this kid, "You still chew your fingernails, I can see that!" and the girl admitted it, "Yes I do." and all the while the bay horse lady just smiled: )

I asked if I could have a barn tour. See how they've built their two barns onto the hillside? I wonder what the drainage situation is.

Here's another backpack polo-shirt girl. She and her friends appear to be wearing Ariats. I can't help but think how annoying a backpack would be all day by horse (I've done that). But Yvonne tells me it is only a 3 hour course. Also, you can see they bed their stalls with Linstroh here, a variant of straw, it's straw chopped down to half inch sections.

There she goes..

I was happy to see a Fjord horse who seemed happy to see us. He pushes his way through the plastic sheets that separate his paddock from his stall (this is common in Germany because winters are so harsh, stalls with paddocks have big clear plastic strips in the doorways that the horses must learn to push through (and some never learn this (Tolima)).

Fjords are so cool. I have no idea what they are like to ride, but they are so primitive looking. I rubbed on this one's face a long time.

He did not want us to leave him.

As we left the barn I looked at the stall paddocks. They are all paved with holes for drainage, and about the size of stalls, they're just for the horses to get some fresh air. It's nothing like the stall runs I've seen back home (which allow exercise), but it's better than just a stall. This is not an Appy (what I thought) - it's just a Knabstrupper cross. Nice huh?

In the next barn a man is giving his warmblood a thorough rubdown.

Then I came across this wonderful horse. It's another Tinker, but in bay. I did not know they came in anything but black and white.

I had to stop this girl and tell her how much tail her horse has. "5 times the amount of a normal horse!" You have to see a Tinker's tail to believe it.

This is one of the Tinker mares. I wish I had photos of the breeding stallions, they were really chunky. One of them had a moustache. I cannot describe it any other way - he had hair tufts coming out of his nostrils. Weirdy!

Here are the paddocks outside the two barns. I think the reason horses go flying by at a trot pulling carriages on pavement is because they live on pavement, so they're used to it.

I thought it looked like a golf course. This is my region, Bergisches Land.

Then these people pull up and I'm like, "ooooh What kind of trailer is that!?!!"

I am always looking for something similar to what we have back home. No, I'm not redy to buy, but it's sure nice to find something.

To be continued..