Wow i still can't get over how awsome it is over here! Not only are the horses amazing, but the whole atmosphere of the town and people is so comfortable and you feel so at home.

Well the days at the Equestrian Centre are long and hard. We have to be at the barn by 7.30 to do barn duty or to get your horse ready for a dressage lesson, and when you aren't riding you are preparing or putting away your horse or watchhing lessons and studying the theory out of The Principles of Riding. After the lessons we do our Basis Pass class which is the exam that EVERYBODY in Germany has to do who handles or competes a horse. After we do what everybody loves to do in Germnay, and that is SWEEPING! After, at 11am we do an hour of theory with Alex, then at 12pm we break off for lunch. My friend and I ride our bikes all the way into the town centre to get something to eat which is about 15 minutes away, and then bike back to start again at 2pm. We then get our horses ready for jumping classes, and each of the three groups go at different times just like in the dressage. Then we sweep, sweep, sweep and do another hour of theory, and finish at 6pm and we bike back to the hotel.

So there's just the general overview of what we do. The horses are very much school horses and you really have to tell them who is boss. I am right at home in the dressage arena, but i have never jumped so the jumping lessons are very different! I have to ride in a jumping saddle (which i have never done before) with my knees touching me hips (haha)! The horses are good at jumping though you just have to sit there and let them do their thing.

The theory is really interesting but you have to take lots of notes to remember everything. In the morning we do rider theory so we watch videos on the seat, which is the main component of the little bronze medallion. The rider must have a good seat, and it is made completely clear and it is stressed among the Germans. As Alex said; "Even Isabell Werth can have a lesson and there will still be corrections of the seat!" We also watched a video of the training scale, which we are expected to adhere to in our dressage lessons.

The dressage lessons are structured distinctively:
1) walk for 10 min to get the cartilige (i don't know how to spell that) active to that the joints are protected. In thise phase we do some leg-yield, turns on the forehand, flexing and some basic patterns.

2) the suppling up phase for 20 min includes working at an active trot doing the suppling exercises like leg-yield, circles, shoulder fore etc, and then the same in canter. Transitions should also be done to get the horses attention and obedience.

3) the break is always in walk on a long rein.

4) the working phase goes for about 20 min as well and include collecting exercises such as smaller circles, stronger transitions within and between gaits, and other exercises of the level your horse is at that you need to practise like shoulder in, travers, counter canter, flying changes, half pass etc.

5) break

6) the cooling down should consist of the same exercises as the warming or suppling up phase, but with longer walk periods. Make sure the horse is walked for long enough so that his breathing is normal and his sweat has dried up a bit.

In this workout, you first try to achieve the ryhthm, suppleness and contact of the horse, then in the work phase you bring in impulsion and straightness, and then once this is achieved you get, as Alex says, "a bonus" and collection is created. This is the same with connection... if ryhthm and suppleness is achieved "the horse will ask for connection and the rider shall grant it".

As you can see we have learnt A LOT! I love writing it all down as it makes me remember, and i thought i knew the training scale and everything pretty well before and thought i used it in my training effectively, but now i see what the Germans really mean, and it makes so much sense!!!

We have a full week ahead and i am very very tired! The problem is that it gets dark so late here, at 11pm! So you don't feel like going to sleep at all, and sometimes you just can't. But the evenings are very nice; Alex comes to the hotel and has a beer with all of us and we talk a lot. Everybody is also really nice, and i have found a really good friend from america and we have lots of fun, especially when we bikeride through forests and see funny chickens and film the scenery and ride with one hand but then fall of into the bushes because our legs get too tired!!! Hahaha its so much fun!