Arrival of the Horses

The horses flying over from the U.S. arrived Saturday afternoon in Amsterdam.  My mother and I had arrived a couple days earlier, so we met our horse and groom, Kate, at the animal hotel at the Amsterdam Airport.  The horses are shipped in box stalls right on the big planes we often fly on as passengers.  From what Kate told me, the horses were fairly well behaved, only slightly uneasy at take off and landing which is understandable.  Once in Amsterdam, the horses had to go through customs, just like people do, and then be checked by a vet before being cleared to leave.  After a few hours of waiting for this process to go through, we loaded all our equipment and the horses onto a large trailer, and headed on our way to Henk Nooren's farm in Belgium.  He has been kind enough to accommodate the entire Young Rider team when we need someplace to layover between shows and on our off week.

Once we arrived at Henk's farm Saturday night, we unloaded the horses, the equipment, and ended the day with feeding and blanketing the horses.  We didn't get finished in the barn until around 10:30 at night, but interestingly, it doesn't get dark here until very late so it really didn't feel like 10:30 at all.  Today, Sunday, we started riding.  So far, it is just myself, Meg O'Mara and Ricky Neal here at the farm for riders.  The others will meet us at the first show in Bonheiden. The horses were all great today, a little fresh after their trip but feeling good.  The next couple days we will continue riding and schooling the horses in preparation for Bonheiden.