is this what they mean...

...by we're "in clover?"

hey, you're in jail

owen at the bat: a story in pictures

i went to a trakehner show on saturday in kiel, germany, at a huge breeding stable. i went with my friend who was taking her 3-month-old filly, betty blue, to be approved into the registry. the trakehner registry is very picky about their bloodlines (you can read more about that here).

she showed the filly together with her mother. the filly was loose and there were chasers at either end, helping get the foals moving so the judges could determine if their gaits were worthy of being registered. there were about 20 foals in all. in addition, there was a range of dressage classes, from lower levels to grand prix. very impressive, tho' the first place ribbons are yellow, which just seemed wrong.

betty was approved and she was branded with the special trakehner brand, which is a kind of a set of moose antlers. it's really very pretty. the judging was interesting - there was a group of judges and they came around to the stalls and inspected her and all of the paperwork before the judging. then, she was shown in the ring and immediately the results were given before she left the ring. then, afterwards, they came around again, stamped her papers and she was then branded.

betty blue, batavia and helle in the show ring. betty was pretty worn out by the whole experience.

betty blue's mother, batavia is 18. she's in foal again for next year with the same sire - special memory, a trakehner stallion that's in the US.

betty has the best disposition. she's just an unbelievable sweetheart.

betty let me spend a good half an hour braiding her mane and she'd never had it done before.
and i didn't even have a hold of her, she just stood for it.

batavia with curly mane after her braids came out.

pretty baby.

trakehners are very fine and pure as warmbloods go. they're very restrictive as to what's allowed in their registry. they are a bit lighter and finer than many of the warmblood breeds. they make good dressage horses. and from what i could see, they have wonderful ways of going and even better dispositions. it was, in all, very impressive.

schooling matilde

sabin was so inspired by her lesson with ruth that she wanted to school matilde today - we invested in some really nice side reins and sabin tried her new dressage saddle on her. it was a very good workout for both of them.

if you're gonna jump....

...it's best to set the jumps yourself. then you know they're exactly how you want them. tho' these were more cavaletti than jumps per se.

creative sabin or why on earth did we buy her all those legos?

one day in the week before our move, most of sabin's room was packed up and she didn't have her usual toys to play with. however, that didn't stop her at all. she used paper, markers, tape and a few odds and ends of lego and spent several hours making play food. here are the results.

giving new meaning to the words "paper plates"

clockwise from upper left: egg sandwich with pepper and salt, cheese sandwich, ham with cucumber, leverpostej (paté) with mayo and crunchy onions on top

the salad course

main dish - potatoes with parsley, a few peas and a hamburger

and for dessert - chocolate chip cookie, a wafer biscuit and possibly ice cream (possibly carrots)

she took these photos herself with her iPhone.

newscast by the sisters broberg

sabin, mathilde (the sister, not the horse) and karoline made a video at the new house on the first day we were there. the things kids will do when they have no television. it's in danish, but worth watching anyway because you can get lots out of the expressions. one of my favorite moments is when karoline flicks the snail off the tree. praise be to iMovie and the iPhone (Karoline shot the whole video on her iPhone). there's a very funny moment as well where mathilde describes a new sport that involves hitting dwarves with coconuts. maybe at some point we can add subtitles. :-)

jumping matilde

the day started off quietly in the pasture, modeling our new blanket

a brisk trot to warm up

pretty 'tilda

we started off with some low jumps

but 'tilda clearly could do more.

and more.

and even more!

i got rather in the groove of capturing the moment.

totally airborne!

garden implements

a nice riding lawn mower came with our new place

the child took a turn.

and may have exceeded the speed limit

no flowers were harmed

there was also a tiller. and husband had fun with it on sunday.

nothing like a little child labor in the garden

planting potatoes