I took a day off from lessons just to give Carrara a simple walk, trot, canter hack and practice just a small amount of the major information I’ve learned the past few weeks here! With an ever busy schedule Anky had to depart today about half past two to be the “ribbon cutter” for the grand opening of a combination tack shop about an hour from Erp this afternoon. I was asking her about her clinic that evening and she said I could just ride with her if I wanted to leave as well at half past two. Sounded great to me as I thoroughly enjoyed riding along in the lorrey with Anky and Willeke to the reining competition!
Arriving about 15 minutes early I see the lorrey pulling out and thought I’d missed the ride but I ran into someone who said Anky was driving separate and would be leaving in just a few. Whew! I hadn’t miss the ride and it was really fun visiting with Anky (in between her phone interviews and business calls) on the drive up in her too cute yet a tad longer than your average Mini Cooper!
The people at the opening were wonderful. The place is called Countrymill and it was a combination of three existing companies as one was western, the other english and the third sold horse boxes and carriages. They desired to create a one stop shop and the place looked amazing. They also had a 20×30 arena in the back so people could bring their horses and try the products they are interested in buying! Nice!
Here’s the crowd waiting to get autographs from Anky…
They allowed the kids up in group and this was the first and cutest little girl I’d seen in a while. Her mom was just as excited as she was!
This picture is for Ex. I had to laugh and think of him as I rounded the corner of saddle pads and the digital camo was right there in my face!
After the opening, some window shopping (I tried on several styles of Anky apparel they offered there of course), and chatting with the nice folks we headed for a very nice yet quick dinner then on to the clinic. When the food server asked if I’d like a menu in English Anky replied “Nah, nah” so I guess I’m learning Dutch now! Haha! Good thing I’m not a picky eater. I was asked do you like fish or meat. I said both and I ended up having the fish. It was salmon and it was great! Gotta love being flexible!
Here’s Anky chatting with one end of the crowd. They had the arena with audience at each end (stands full of course) with the clinic riders in the middle.
This is Claudia and I near the end of Anky’s clinic.
Here’s Anky getting ready to ride Nelson to demo her training style to the audience after teaching 4 students.
The pony club kids engulfed Anky at the end of the clinic for a photo! Too cute!
