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We had a great time in Germany. We met lots of people from all over the world, whom I plan on keeping on contact with. The Germans were good hosts and it was an excellent experience for me.

            On the first day we had a general welcome in the clubhouse. We received information about the show and VIP badges. We were then taken on a tour of the grounds, ending at an outdoor dressage arena where our horses were presented to us. Then we went to a different outdoor dressage arena and saw the Prix St. George horses. They were fantastic horses.

We were then able to ride the horses for 20 minutes that they had chosen for us. These were the horses we would ride in our first qualifying test. I got a big black horse called Gourmet. I didn’t do very well on him and at the end of the first day I was 20^th out of the 20 children. The second horse I rode was called Siux. He was a small bay horse who I liked a lot. We only got a few minutes to ride before we had to do our test. I did much better on him and came 10^th in the second qualifying test. This meant that overall I came 17^th. The riders in the finals were from New Zealand, Greece and Brazil.

            We were also able to go on a tour of Paul Schockemohle’s stables and see a demonstration of his show jumping horses. They were terrific. He also has trotters but they were horses not ponies. He has an enormous enclosed track for them to race around (I think they said it was a mile). If you’re standing at one end, it’s difficult to see the horse at the other end. It was amazing.

The show was at Ullrich Kasselmann’s stables and it was very impressive. He had so many indoor arenas and outdoor arenas, enough space to set up 2 temporary 20 x 60 dressage arenas and then still had space left over for thousands of temporary stalls selling goodies. He showed us a display of his young dressage horses, aged 3 – 5. They were the most amazing 3 – 5 year old horses I had ever seen.  There was other stuff going on as well – it was fun watching the international jumping and the Prix St. George tests.

At the opening ceremonies we had to pour the water from our homeland (we brought Barritts Crystal Clear water) into a big fancy fountain. Then at the closing ceremonies we were given the ‘international’ water back in these nice bottles. The closing ceremonies were held in the international arena and I think the Bermuda flag was bigger, and heavier than the other flags.

In closing, I would like to thank the B.E.F., the organizers of the Not the Ag Show, Butterfield and Vallis, Jim Butterfield and the B.H.P.A., for their generous support and contributions. It wouldn’t have been possible without all your help. I would strongly encourage younger riders to aim to qualify for this competition, as it is a very valuable experience.
Erin Marini