# ♥ A Horse Life In Germany ♥



## Piccadilly (Feb 11, 2015)

Hi members! :faceshot:


My name is Simone, I´m 34 years old and I live in the west of Germany. I started riding at the age of 18. 

On my side there is my cute Hanoverian named Glen.coe. He is 17 years old and he loves jumping.

*How do we get together?*

I was searching for a horse. It should be 7-10 years old, I love dark horses with white legs…. . I watched on the internet and I saw him…..10 years old, white (white….urgh….I don´t like white horses) and he was a bit small. But I loved his face. My Exboyfriend said: “Come on! Have a look!”












We drove to the stable and there he was…..very small and very white. But he looked very friendly and cute! I decided to ride him and I liked him.

A few days later I decided to ride him again and the owners were very friendly. It was a family with a 17-year-old daughter. Unfortunately the daughter has had a big problem with her hip so they decided to sell him.

After the second riding I decided to buy him! 












So I hope you´ll enjoy my journal. 



*Please sorry for my english. It isn´t always good that’s why I´m here again. *


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## Fimargue (Jun 19, 2015)

Your gelding is really lovely! And goodness he is probably the smallest Hanoverian ever - so nice. I would really like to know his breeding? Looking forward to read more about your life


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Aww your English sounds fine!  
Welcome & can't wait to hear about your adventures with Glen.coe! 
He is a handsome boy. Sounds like love at first sight! So cute!


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## Piccadilly (Feb 11, 2015)

Thank you!


@ Fimargue: I answear later for your question about his breeding!



*The years 2009-2014*

Very hard years. We didn´t fit together. He rans fast, the head was up although we had a riding instructor of course. We started competitions but it wasn´t good.

I wanted to learn dressage but I loved jumping. I was too afraid for it. My first jumping I landed somewhere in the sand because he stopped. 
When I was thinking about jumping….my heart was pounding, I couldn´t sleep…. . So this was my first and my last attempt.

I never would learn how to ride! Until the year 2014 comes…..

*The year 2014*

Our new stable. It is only a few minutes away from my house. He has a very nice box (it´s a paddock stall, is this the right word??)













Of course the horses are outside the box from 8am to the dark. They have a part of meadow in summer and in winter they have some hay like you can see it on the photo. They also have a shelter.












We have a small indoor riding arena, an outdoor riding arena for dressage and jumping, a small arena for hosemanship (is the word correct? We call it in Germany) and a recirculation system.
We have also two open stables.
We´re having about 60 horses there. The youngest horse is about 8 month old and the oldest about 26 years old. 



A photo of sunup, I love it!


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## Piccadilly (Feb 11, 2015)

*Breeding*

Glens father came from England. His name was Galant. Before he came to Germany his name was Cilcennin Statesman. He was a German Riding Pony and his colour was sorrel (dark).

His mother was called Emmchen. I heard she died at the birth of Glen. Emmchen was also a German Riding Pony and she was a white horse.

Glens grandparents are arabs and there are some welsh ponies in the family. That’s why he has a head like an arab.


*The year 2014*

I found new friends at the stable and there were two girls who wanted to learn jumping. Both were afraid like me and so we founded the group “older people jumping”.

And I was so afraid you can´t believe it.

But a few month later I started my first competition in jumping! Usually this is a competition for children…..but there were many “older” starter.

We didn´t make the competition well but we had fun!


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## Piccadilly (Feb 11, 2015)

At 2014 we got a new riding instructor. And he is so brilliant! He has ridden Glen for a few times and I liked it! 























See what happened only three lessons later:












2015 it would be better! We started a competition in jumping at our stable again and YES! The second place! I was so happy I almost cried.






















At autumn 2015 we drove to our first jumping competition somewhere else. Glen made it fine but we were too slow. Almost the whole people from the stable were there.
But we made the third place at the dressage!






















2015 was a good year. We learned so much! And I never thought that I would jumping! A dream come true!


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## Fimargue (Jun 19, 2015)

Thank you for the information  I was pleased to learn that I was right about the Arab influence. I really like small and fine Warmbloods like this and therefore like to know what kind of horses are found in the pedigree.

It's been a long time since I last tried jumping and lately I have been thinking about trying it again.


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## Piccadilly (Feb 11, 2015)

2016 was a good year. We learned more and more about jumping and dressage.

Here are some pictures:










Second place 





































And we started dressage again










And this is the highest I ever jumped!


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## Tihannah (Apr 7, 2015)

I love the pictures! You two look like a wonderful pair! I look forward to following your journal!

P.S. I was born in Hanau and spent several years living in Stuttgart. I miss Germany so much!


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Great pictures! Thanks so much for sharing with us. :smile: 
You guys look really really good. Subbing this!


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## Piccadilly (Feb 11, 2015)

Thank you and welcome to my journal!

Tihanna: Why did you leave Germany? 

Of course we only did not make competitions at all. We love to ride out. A few minutes away by the trailer we have a huge forrest, well-known, called "The Haard". There are so many bridle-paths and I hope I can show you some more pictures in spring 



















Believe it or not: If you wanna ride out you need in some areas of Germany a license plate for your horse!


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## Rainaisabelle (Jan 2, 2015)

Subbing this journal looks like fun


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## Piccadilly (Feb 11, 2015)

Hello Rainaisabelle and welcome to my journal!

Here are some more favourite pics of Glen:


















































































And Glen is in love! ♥ Here his favourite mare:


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## Piccadilly (Feb 11, 2015)

This year I made a visit to the wild horses of Germany called “The Dülmen Ponies”.

The Dülmen Ponies are living in a sanctuary which is placed in the Nature reserve.
The Wild Horse Sanctuary has a size of about 350 hectare so that it offers a big habitat for 300 horses. The landscape of the sanctuary has woods as well as meadows and grassland. The animals live in their family clan and manage their life totally on their own what means without any human help. Neither a blacksmith or a vet has ever visited the wild horses.

The Dülmen Ponies live in a totally safe sanctuary what means that they do not have any natural enemies like bears or wolfs. They have a natural reproduction increasing the number of the herd members. Naturally after a certain time this causes a problem because the habitat is not able to offer enough space for more than 300 horses. Stallions who are older than one year want to found their own herd. Due to this they have struggles with other young stallions causing dangerous and risky situations.
In 1907 people found a solution for this problem and established the annual wild horse trapping. Since that year this event became a real tradition what takes place on every last Saturday in May.


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## Cherrij (Jan 30, 2013)

Those look like Konik Polski - wild ponies that are reintroduced in different countries and areas to preserve the breed. THey are not as pure wild horses as they used to be, but closest to possible. 

In Latvia we have 2-3 nature reserves for them, where they live and reproduce, and sometimes when the managers think there are too many stallions or horses alltogether, some with different characteristics get taken out of the herd - it is possible to buy 1 year old stallions and so on. Usually their color is a bit different or they are just not needed there.


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## Tihannah (Apr 7, 2015)

My father was American military, so we couldn't stay, but I had an amazing childhood growing up there and miss it everyday.  I wish I had been able to get into riding while I was there.


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## DanteDressageNerd (Mar 12, 2015)

Lovely photos and clips from your journey together, should be interesting to keep reading.

Also I love the scenery from hacking out, I didn't know it required a license but the outdoor riding looks beautiful! I didn't get to visit much of Germany when I visited, mostly stayed at the stables or went to watch shows :lol:


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## egrogan (Jun 1, 2011)

Schoki said:


> Believe it or not: If you wanna ride out you need in some areas of Germany a license plate for your horse!


What a fun fact about the license requirements! Your horse is lovely and it looks like you have beautiful trails for hacking out. 

If you're interested, you should join the 2017 trail riding thread, which is located here: http://www.horseforum.com/trail-riding/2017-rides-share-your-trail-740682/

People use the thread to share pictures of their rides and keep track of the miles/kilometers they cover with their horse.


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## Emeraldsprings (Mar 1, 2015)

I agree that the horse license plate is very interesting! My sister lives in the Netherlands near the German border. I have been across into Germany a few times and I loved it, especially looking at the horse farms and countryside.

Glen is beautiful, I love fleabitten greys, they are always super sweet. You have progressed to jumping bigger fences very quickly, and you look so elegant together, I'm jealous!


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Really such beautiful pictures & I am loving the journey so far. 
That's so interesting & cool about the horse license plate. Never heard of that before. So cool. Glen is stunning!


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## Zexious (Aug 2, 2013)

Love this thread so far--you have such a positive tone to your writing, and Glen is just a doll <3
Can't wait to read more about your adventures!

I'm intrigued by the "Annual Horse Trapping." Are the horses then sold/auctioned off?
Really neat pictures! <3


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## Piccadilly (Feb 11, 2015)

Hey!

I´m so sorry I didn´t keep on writing. I bought a new computer and I have had so many work. But now I have time to go on.

Last saturday we had snow:


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

D'awww such cute snowy pictures!  I love it!!!


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

Journal closed at the request of the author


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