Oh, How Exciting…best of luck!!!
BEST Wishes!
Chris
Sounds fantastic! Wishing you loads of fun and good luck every step of the way. 
Mahvelous!
(I hope Maestro has someone as skilled as you are watching him while you are gone!)
Good luck, safe travels and have fun. We will be looking forward to your updates!
arrival Update
We had a pleasant flight over-no turbulance and a good group of people and horses. There were 6 containers, a total of 14 horses. Prince and Dewert flew “Business class” just the two of them in the container. There were 2 mares and 2 other young stallions on the flight and all were super good travlers. I flew as a working groom as did Jennifer. We were able to go back and water the boys several times in flight.
Once we arrived at Schipol in Amsterdam, trouble started coming our way. FIrst, the rental car company did nothave the car I ordered but wanted to “switch” me to a car 2x the cost. Then we get to the Animal Hotel to find the vet had not done the clearance papers, all the drivers were waiting and nothing was being done. At 5, we learned the vet had left and was not coming back. So a quick scramble to get the horses out of flight containers and into stalls. Some creative thinking was involved as there were only 9 stalls for 14 horses. Luckily, Prince and Dewert were off loaded first. By 8 PM, all horseds had normal stalls. The Animal Hotel folks,KLM were great as was Mick, the Global groom and Claire, Tim Dutta’s groom.
So we are in Amsterdam falling asleep in a hotel we had not planned on going to.
Photos on facebook
Maryanna - I’m with HiddenAcres about not knowing your plans in Germany. Can you share them again? Glad you had a good trip over and from what I can decipher it sounds like a great adventure :)
I can’t imaginenthe spine tingling excitement. Enjoy and keep us posted!
Best of luck Maryann - you must be thrilled!
Sunday, July 24 Update
What a great driver we had!! Jos (from EHS)slept in his truck outside the animal hotel and was able to monitor and water our guys throughout Thursday night. e arrived on Friday morning and had to wait for clearance and it finally came, getting us on the road by 10:30 AM.
After a 2 1/2 hour drive, we arrived at Klaus Balkenhol’s facility outside Coesfeld and Muenster, Germany. The boys, Prince and Dewert, have nice big stalls with straw bedding. Prince settled immeadiatley and had some turnout in the sand lot. Dewert is abit more concerned about things, but being a very good boy about it.
Saturday Jen rode Prince for a short while in the indoor school and then took a short trail ride. Dewert had some lunging and tack walking. Today it is raining, windy and cool. Both boys had short but good rides inside. Prince is adoring the weather-70 or so during the day and around 55 or so at night. HIs kind of temperatures!! I KNOW the boys and us “girls” are thrilled not to have to deal with the heat back home.
Klaus is not here at the moment, but returns later today. Monday willbegin the real work.
For those who did not know, Don Principe is here for 2 months of intensive training with Jennifer working with Klaus Balkenhol. If the oppertunity presents itself and they are up for it, they might do a show or two towards the end of the trip.This trip came together quickly over the past 8 weeks or so. Plans are to return mid-September and to compete at Devon.
How exciting! Here’s to hoping that Prince will continue to be a star and you come back and kick some serious butt at Devon!
Enjoy your cool stay in Germany!
Best,
Siegi
Maestro update
Maestro is in excellent hands. Both Wendell and our new barn manager, Katie Hanley are taking super care of him. I get updates daily from Wendell, most concerned about weather and heat. I return Tuesday night to take Maestro for his bandage change Wednesday morning. Then I will show at Raleigh, home for 2 days after and then back here.
I will also try to get to watch Duet under saddle-that is exciting! We are going to go slowly with her as I believe she is another Grand Prix talent that is going to take time to develop.
Maryanna - it is good to see such exciting and fun things happen to such deserving and nice people.
Wish you were around next weekend in GA (would love for you to see the Tateman now that he is almost all grown up!), but am so happy and excited for you. Have a blast - and I envy Prince the weather (by the time he comes back Stateside it will be getting ready to be fall and cooler temps! Nice timing!!!).
Tuesday July 26 Update
Prince is loving it here! That boy just loves new places and work.
Klaus worked with Jen and Prince on Monday in a light session. Sort of “get to know you”. Prince then got some turnout in the “sandlot”. It was like a day at the beach- he rolled, and rolled, and rolled in the wet sand. Took both of us washing him and three rinses to get most of the grit out of his coat. His new white fly sheet?? Toast as far as color goes.
Dewert is getting better day by day and starting to relax a bit. He is fine in the stable. It is only when he goes outside that he is concerned. Even though Jen handwalks him or tries to graze him next to Prince in the turnout. I just think he needs to feel secure in the routine as it is different from back home. He was off his concentrates and we were having some concerns about that but we tried the Progressive(Baileys) feed I special ordered for Prince and Dewert decided that he likes it! So we have to order more grain from England this week.
I am now at home for a week. We willtake a bunch of young horses to the Raleigh breed shows this weekend and I will get to spend time with Wendell whom I am missing alot.
Update August 9
Well, this is an exciting trip!
The training is going well. Notable improvements in collected trot, half passes and passage. The piaffe has been super right from the beginning. Canter work is really easy and well done.
Herr Balkonhol’s comment yesterday after a work session “this is a very nice horse”. Jen is riding Dewert as well and getting some nice work from him and good help from Herr Balkenhol.
This past weekend, Jen and I took two days to travel to Verden for the Young Horse Championships. While there, we watched the CDI Grand Prix as well as some of the jumping. We both feel Don Principe can compete with most of the top horses here. The highlight of the weekend though was the 5 yr old CHampion, a mare by Fuerst Heinrich. IT was sheer pleasure watchinhg a well mannered, super minded, and very talented horse recieve acknowledgement fr om the judges. We ALL had tears in our eyes when she was ridden in the awards ceremony.
Another highlight was meeting with some new friends from the USA and old friends from Canada, Australia and spending time with Prince’s breeder.
The sad news of the weekend was that SPS Papagena has crossed the Rainbow Bridge a couple of weeks ago. She was Prince’s dam, and leaves behind a legacy that will be difficult to match.
Back at work this week. Jen had friends from the Czech RepublicIta and Ema, visit and they were very nice, knowledgable horsewomen. In fact, Ita rode Prince on a Hack with Jen and Dewert. Tomorrow, Henk von Bergen will come to see Jen and Prince work.
Awesome report. Sorry I missed you at Verden. Best of luck to Prince and Jen, maybe I’ll see them while they are here? Would love to. You shouldn’t be a working groom with that hand though shock Speaks for your boys characters you could
Maryanna, I love your reports. Have you thought about asking the COTH editors if they can give. You an official blog for the Germany trip? That way more people could follow along and you could post pics. They have done similar blogs.
Kareen, you have my email. If you are in the Coesfeld area, we would love to have you come visit. Same to you Alexandra.
I have not asked to have a blog as I am a poor writer. I try to let people know what is happening with Prince as there have been many supporters along his way to where he is now.
My life is enriched by being associated with this magnificent stallion. I hope that all horsepeople can have a “once in a lifetime” horse grace their lives. There are no words to express the joys and despair of this process. It is a dream when I hear people like Klaus Balkenhol and Courtney King-Dye tell me what a good dressage horse Prince is. I am soooo proud of Prince, as anyone who knows me can confirm, that I have to share.
This horse has given me so many unique oppertunities along the way. How many small breeders can walk along the path I have taken with him? I only hope that I make the right decisions for his happiness and health. I know he is happy being here., he lets everyone know about it LOL! He comes out of his stall twice a day to work and can’t wait to get to the arena.
These reports just gladden my heart for you Maryanna! I know what that boy means to you and the joy you must have right now. You deserve to be proud.
Well, I disagree that there are any deficiencies in your writing but perhaps COTH would do an article once you get back?
