It was a long, challenging and of so educational journey and we’re flying back now. I think a couple months solid 6 days a week lessons with journal notes everyday is enough to give anyone overload. Now it’s time to apply the education! Picollo and I fly back today while Carrara will stay in training for a couple more weeks then fly back. Because she was away from the states for more than 60 days she’ll have to do CEM (2ndary quarantine) for up to 21 days stateside. Luckily for me there’s a CEM facility in Southern Pines, NC which is about 3.5 hours from our stable.

Picollo is a seasoned international traveler! The last time (before our arrival) he was in AMS Schipol, he wasn’t paralyzed. This time he’s a great little cart doxy. I love that you can bring dogs into cafés here, even sitting them on the table and people don’t freak out! So awesome!


Because Carrara flew over biz class, we were supposed to be on standby for a biz class return meaning Picollo and I would get a biz class seat instead of riding in the “back of the bus” like we did coming over as groom for Carrara. Our first flight we got bumped off of so we had to find a hotel nearby and this flight we almost didn’t get on as it was 100% booked but 1 person didn’t show and we got his/her seat! Close call! We were in a middle seat in coach but we were on the plane and it was exciting to be going home!! We had to wait for everyone to de-plane as Picollo’s extra crate was in the back of the cabin so we just stood by the flight attendants. They started talking to him and (OF COURSE!) he started barking back. They just thought it was too funny that they would say “Bu-bye” to the passengers and Picollo would give a sharp “Bu-woof” to them. I’m not quite sure how the passengers felt about it but it was pretty cute for a while at least! Here’s Picollo at his “Bu-bark” location.


So because I was on standby, I didn’t want to book a flight that we’d miss nor a car hire that we’d be late for so I showed up at JFK with no solid plans on how to get to Gattis Manor in VA where my Jeep and horse box were. A bit of wandering and thinking with 2 LARGE rollers, 1 hard sided doggie crate, 1 soft sided doggie crate, one laptop backpack, one spunky doxy and my tired self and I opted to phone the car hire to get rates/reservation. I’ll drive to Northern VA as truly the thought of checking bags again and buying the ticket for Picollo plus going through this paperwork inspection was just not appealing. I hired a car, got it all packed, put in my address for the GPS and was off. Mind you at this point I’ve been traveling for 13 hours so I’m a bit loopy and I was blindly following my trusty tomtom GPS until I realized I was crossing a bridge and winding around by the Hudson River! Oh crap! I was heading for Manhattan. Oops! So here’s my tour of Manhattan…










Okey! The tour of Manhattan was old fast and I quickly proceeded to figure out how in the heck to get outta there and on the road to Brent’s in NoVA!

Everytime I eat at McDonald’s I feel sick. It’s not so much with the other fast food restaurants but there’s something about McDonald’s I get a sick feeling from post consumption. All that aside I still do occasionally try it and try something different on the menu each time. I thought with all the Pulp Fiction hype of years past that I should eat french fries at McDonald’s with mayo so I am! Not too bad but I prefer the Dutch fries for sure!


Perhaps I’ll complement the meal and watch Fast Food Nation or Food, Inc.? Either will warn me off from fast food or beef for several weeks at least!

I have either been riding or working and haven’t taken much time to enjoy the sunsets here in The Netherlands. I was working by a window this afternoon and happened to notice the pretty site. Here’s a Dutch sunset!

This is one of the most beautiful arenas I’ve seen. I just love the efficient roof!


This is the outside of the arena lined with lovely trees and hanging baskets. Even in the fall in The Netherlands it looks pretty!

I was pondering last night, if I should feel guilty or not and after talking with several folks about it the answer is definitely not.

You see, even before I left the states to train in Holland with Anky van Grunsven I had parents, kids and businesses asking me to bring them back this or that autographed by Anky. My first reaction was sure that’s something neat I could do for people but then I realized it’s fair to ask her for a max of two autographs so then how would I decide who would get it and under what conditions were the most needy, deserving and was that even for me to decide? I even had a couple of parents email me requesting autographs for their children as Christmas presents. Then there was the online horse website which wanted me to get an autograph they could raffle to their members. Wow! Now on the kids and Christmas, well, that would be a great Christmas present for sure but I contemplated was it my place to provide this Christmas present for these parents? I liked the idea of getting an really nice autographed photo, framing it an auctioning it off giving the money to a not for profit organization like I did with my boots and the Wounded Warrior Project.

I guess the long and the short of it is I decided not to get anything except I asked Anky to autograph my dress boots since I’d ridden in them many hours with her and it just seemed fitting.

So my thought was there has to be an autograph session at WEG with Anky and perhaps we could focus on that? Another thought was hey, just ask her directly as she’s quite approachable regardless of what you might hear. Maybe email the anky.com website and inquire if you were to send a photo with postage paid both ways could they ask Anky to autograph it?

So I’m sorry to all the folks that requested but figuring out who, which and why just doesn’t seem fair and I hope everyone understands. It would definitely be an honor to have Anky’s autograph but I think the real honor would be in asking her directly and watching her actually sign it. Where there’s a will, there’s a way and I’ve completely proven that with my training here abroad!

Happy day to you all!

So Santa Claus isn’t super big here and they celebrate on the 6th of December instead of the 25th meaning Christmas prep events happen much eariler. This past week Sinterklaas (a man dressed like a bishop and riding a white horse) arrived to The Netherlands and was featured in many parades across the country. I hear he finds time to visit even the smallest of villages taking with him his helpers Zwarte Piet (translation is black pete) along to bring candy and treats to the children. I understand Sinterklaas is more closely related to the church than Santa Claus and Zwarte Piet to be much like elves. I’ve heard the Zwarte Piet is from Moorish decent who the bishop saved and they became helpers to other stories that Zwarte Piet is so dark because they go down the chimney to look for the treats for Sinerklaas and his horse which the children place in their shoes by the fireplace. Whatever it is, it’s very sweet and the kids in town were loving it. Here’s a couple of videos from the TV coverage of his arrival.

[flashvideo file=http://blog.horsegirltv.com/movies/zwarte1.flv /]

[flashvideo file=http://blog.horsegirltv.com/movies/zwarte2.flv /]