Tomorrow will be 2 weeks that I've been here. Hard to believe it's already been that long. These 3 months are going to pass pretty quickly. Every day gets easier as I get more comfortable and confident in the process of things. The soreness is getting much better every time I sit in the saddle.
Karin's mother is leaving tomorrow for Kentucky and Karin should be competing by Thursday or Friday. She's leaving us food since we'll be on our own for dinner while she's gone. We plan to make a trip into town one of these days for pizza. We're all craving it pretty bad. Our staple foods here are bread, nutella, speculos for breakfast and lunch. For those who don't know, nutella is a chocolate spread and speculos has almost the same texture as peanut butter but tastes like graham crackers (it's really good). There are seven of us and we'll go through a tub of peanut butter, nutella and speculos in a day or two. At dinner Leah always serves soup first, which I love. Then potatoes, meat and some type of vegetable. So far everything is really good. I was worried because how picky I can be. But I haven't had any trouble eating everything so far.
We get one day off a week. Today is mine and I had planned to ride my bike into town but the weather is cold and rainy and I wasn't in the mood to get caught in a downpour.
So I've been sitting inside all day being as lazy as possible. Feeling guilty that I'm not braving the weather to explore the cute Belgian countryside but the thought of being soggy and freezing just keeps me away.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
First Days
Hey everybody. Since I'm creating this blog a few days late I'm just going to sum it up. And I haven't decided if I'm going to write a new post everyday yet, since my days are pretty much the same here, but we'll see.
For those who don't know what I'm doing right now, I am working for Karin Donckers for 3 months as a volunteer. Karin is on the Belgian Equestrian team. She's competing in the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky at the end of Sept./beginning of Oct. Her horse just flew to Kentucky a couple days ago and she flies out on Wednesday to join her. So to sum it up I am basically working in an olympic equestrian yard with the opportunity to work with horses and ride much better.
I got into the Amsterdam at about 4:45 and was picked up by Karin's mother. It was a long trip back because traffic was really bad and since Karin's mom didn't speak much English it was pretty quiet too. I decided on that trip that I would take the train back to the airport when I go home :).
There's a lot to learn. I know it will take a couple weeks before I really feel comfortable and not have to ask 10 questions every 10 minutes. There are about 40 horses, which is a lot, but many of them are boarders or sponsored horses. The most aggravating part for me is so many of the horses look alike and I'm really struggling not only to tell them apart but just knowing who each one is and the special things you have to do with each one. But I have only been here for 5 days so I know it will just take time.
Time is definitely what I need for my riding. For the first few days I felt like a fish out of water in the saddle. And the most embarrassing part was Karin gave me my first lesson. I am still bruised on my legs and rear end and my leg muscles are so sore I practically drag my feet when I'm out of the saddle. Though thankfully I can feel a bit justified since I haven't really ridden in the last 5 years.
So my days go like this: Wake up at 7:15, eat breakfast and be out at the barn by 8.
We do trot-ups with Karin (she selects a few horses and we have to trot them down the side of the barn and back so she can see how they move).
Then we put horses on the walker or out in the fields (the walker is a big round pen with a wall in it so the horses have to walk along the wall and are divided by electrified rubber matts so they can't get at each other).
Then we start mucking out stalls and cleaning the barn. After that's done with we give hay to the horses.
There's free time from then till about 3ish to ride and in that we get an hour for lunch.
By the end of that we have to bring all the horses in put more on the walker.
Is this starting to get a little long?? lol.
Anyways, it's a long day with a lot of making sure things run smoothly and everyone gets put on the walker or the treadmill or in the water for the right amount of time. My watch is the most important thing I brought with me.
Alright. Well that's enough for now...
For those who don't know what I'm doing right now, I am working for Karin Donckers for 3 months as a volunteer. Karin is on the Belgian Equestrian team. She's competing in the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky at the end of Sept./beginning of Oct. Her horse just flew to Kentucky a couple days ago and she flies out on Wednesday to join her. So to sum it up I am basically working in an olympic equestrian yard with the opportunity to work with horses and ride much better.
I got into the Amsterdam at about 4:45 and was picked up by Karin's mother. It was a long trip back because traffic was really bad and since Karin's mom didn't speak much English it was pretty quiet too. I decided on that trip that I would take the train back to the airport when I go home :).
There's a lot to learn. I know it will take a couple weeks before I really feel comfortable and not have to ask 10 questions every 10 minutes. There are about 40 horses, which is a lot, but many of them are boarders or sponsored horses. The most aggravating part for me is so many of the horses look alike and I'm really struggling not only to tell them apart but just knowing who each one is and the special things you have to do with each one. But I have only been here for 5 days so I know it will just take time.
Time is definitely what I need for my riding. For the first few days I felt like a fish out of water in the saddle. And the most embarrassing part was Karin gave me my first lesson. I am still bruised on my legs and rear end and my leg muscles are so sore I practically drag my feet when I'm out of the saddle. Though thankfully I can feel a bit justified since I haven't really ridden in the last 5 years.
So my days go like this: Wake up at 7:15, eat breakfast and be out at the barn by 8.
We do trot-ups with Karin (she selects a few horses and we have to trot them down the side of the barn and back so she can see how they move).
Then we put horses on the walker or out in the fields (the walker is a big round pen with a wall in it so the horses have to walk along the wall and are divided by electrified rubber matts so they can't get at each other).
Then we start mucking out stalls and cleaning the barn. After that's done with we give hay to the horses.
There's free time from then till about 3ish to ride and in that we get an hour for lunch.
By the end of that we have to bring all the horses in put more on the walker.
Is this starting to get a little long?? lol.
Anyways, it's a long day with a lot of making sure things run smoothly and everyone gets put on the walker or the treadmill or in the water for the right amount of time. My watch is the most important thing I brought with me.
Alright. Well that's enough for now...
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