Prost, Germany!

Our third and final camp was in Wollbach, Germany, which is about 150 km northeast of Frankfurt. We started in Frankfurt, Germany and took a quick train ride to Fulda, Germany where we met our wonderful German Mama, Micky Kayser!

The girls in the Frankfurt Main train station

Fulda is a cute little city and we enjoyed seeing the many cathedrals around town.

Mikey brought us to our cute little bed and breakfast in Ostheim, Germany where we spent the next two days enjoying the local culture, including swimming at the local pond, going on a three hour trail ride through the forest, and eating delicious food!

Alex jumping into the local's lake in Germany

Trail ride in Germany

The camp itself was a blast; We had about 16 campers, half of which were youth, and all were incredibly excited to learn and absorb new information.

The campers even had a private roping lesson from Barb and Alex!

Each night we put on special hands-on demonstrations, like groundwork, which Alex is showing a camper here.

Even the kids had some fun learning, such as what it was like to be a horse in a trailer!

We made so many new friends!

The next day we packed up our over-sized bags filled with European memories, took a one hour van ride to Fulda, took two trains to the Frankfurt airport, a 8.5 hour flight to Chicago, a two hour lay over in Chicago, a 2.75 hour flight to Denver, another train to our bags, a one hour drive back to Fort Collins, and finally laid our heads down about 24 hours of travel later!

We truly are so grateful for the American Quarter Horse Association for sponsoring this incredible adventure; Not only were we able to promote the breed and the equine industry abroad, but we also took home so many treasured memories and valuable cultural and geographic differences lessons. We are so excited for all that we learned and for the many friends that we made – All because of the one animal we love more than anything in this world, the American Quarter Horse!

H is for Holland and Horses

Our next stop, and second camp, was in Holland! We left Vienna, hopped on a plane to Warsaw, Poland, had a four hour connection and landed in Amsterdam, took a two hour train ride to Heerenveen, Netherland, and a one hour taxi ride to Zorgvlied, where we made headquarters. The part of Holland where we had camp is very rural and agriculturally based.  In fact, the sites we saw included mostly… Green, cows, sheep, and more green…!

Lots of little sheep…

…And GIANT Holsteins!

The camp itself was in Friesland, where the Fresian horse originated.  Our hotel in Zorgvlied was in Drenthe, which has it’s own dialect (yes, not only did we have to learn Dutch but this unique geographic language as well!).  Our second camp was at the A OK Ranch, which is owned by a brother and sister who enjoy Quarter Horses immensely.  We had about 25 campers come through in the course of three days, most of whom are focused on showing their AQHA horses at nine sanctioned AQHA shows around Holland.

We also had a few ponies, like Sterk (which means brave or strong in Dutch), the Haflinger!

This camp followed a similar format to the one in Austria, with a greater emphasis placed on showing AQHA horses.

Barb Pfeifer teaching campers about groundwork in Holland

Kate explaining balance to campers in Holland

We spent one more night in Holland, and then took an early train ride to Frankfurt, Germany to begin the third portion of our European adventure! The experience from Holland to Germany was one hard to sum up in words – First, we discovered Holland does not accept Visa credit cards. Second, we also discovered rural Holland does not accept Cash. This meant we had to explain ourselves to the train conductor, who was extremely understanding and let us ride the train for free to the next major station.  At that station, we learned Holland is a closed country, and although we had all given our banks advanced notice, one of the girls had her credit card shut off on her.  We managed to still buy tickets and get on the train, although we then learned we had not been given seat assignments and lugged around 100 lbs of luggage each through the tiny cars until we found some empty spots.  When we finally made it to Frankfurt (four train rides later), we hauled luggage about 1 mile down a cobblestone street to our new hotel.  Given our large group, we were put up on the top floor… The elevator managed to break in the midst of our transport up and we ended up hauling luggage up six flights on European stairs to our new room.  Little did we know, but we had somehow managed to book a room in the worst part of town! Needless to say, we kept our humor, found some of the best Chinese food imaginable, slept great, and trekked towards rural Germany for our next camp. Adventures abundant!

Americans in Vienna, part 2

Our second day site-seeing in Vienna, we all fulfilled a dream come true — Attending a performance at the famous Spanish Riding School.  Although most of Europe is on Holiday, including the stallions of the Spanish Riding School, we were able to see a special presentation of the young horses and broodmares who are vital to perpetuating the hundreds of years of pure bloodlines that have made the Lippazaners such a valuable and respectable breed.

They had special presentations of the carriages twice during the show.

One of our favorite parts was the presentations of the three-year old stallions.  They had so much natural athletic ability!

Next, we saw a group of the broodmares and foals. What a treat!

We then headed to Schönbrunn Palace, where many dignitaries and royalty lived, including the mother of Antoinette!

We treated ourselves to a hike up to the cafe that overlooks Schönbrunn Palace and Vienna.

Here’s the cafe – Beautiful!

We concluded our evening with a feast of local cheese and meats in our beautiful hotel room – Then, off to HOLLAND!

Vienna for the Americans, part 1

Exporting Equine Expertise to Europe – A team of five CSU Equine Sciences students and recent graduates have traveled to Europe on behalf of the American Quarter Horse Association to teach horsemanship camps in Austria, Netherlands, and Germany over the course of three weeks. Read more about it here… and follow this blog filled with the team’s European horse adventures!

After we said goodbye to our new Austrian friends at Long View Ranch, we headed back to Vienna to spend a few days seeing the city prior to our next camp in Netherlands.

Long View Ranch - Austria (left to right: Megan Grieve, Claudia Papai, Pam Harmeyer, Gerold Dautzenberg, Alex Eason, Barb Pfeifer, Kate Auchmoody)

The city has so much to offer – We spent our first day in two different spots.  This was our first experience using the underground system here in Vienna, which can be intimidating to a group of country kids.

Alex, Kate, Pam, and Barb joking around about the Underground

All joking aside – The Underground was very easy to use and we even got to listen to an accordion, which Barb and Alex were quite enthusiastic about and applauded by dancing.  Our first stop was back at the City Center where we opted to go back to St. Stephan’s Cathedral and attempt to find the stairs to the top, which was rumored to have beautiful views of the entire city.  Our ability to use broken German and sign language has improved rapidly since first coming to Austria, so we were able to talk to several workers and get directions to a tiny entrance on the opposite side of the church.  We then made our way up 343 steps in a continuous (and SHORT) rock spiral staircase.  Pam was quick to point out that each step was less than half a Euro cent to go up and back – It somehow made the climb more bearable!

Looking up at the South Tower of St. Stephan's Cathedral where we climbed all 343 steps

We’ll just say the views were worth it all…

A view of Austria from the top of St. Stephan's Cathedral

We then trekked across the city to the Tiergarten Schönbrunn, which is the oldest zoo in the world.  The zoo is over 250 years old and is massive – The old cages and new facilities have intertwined to create a dynamic space for animals and people alike!

The authentic cages and rock in the exhibits at the Vienna Zoo

We all truly enjoyed running around from exhibit to exhibit seeing what is quite possibly the largest collection of animals from around the world.

After the zoo, we walked down to Schönbrunn, which is one of the most famous sites in Vienna.

The view from Schönbrunn

Schönbrunn is a palace where dignitaries used to live – The venue is an enormous garden with stunning vistas! We ran out of time, and will go there tomorrow, because we then went to the other side of town with Long View Ranch’s Barn Manager, Claudia, to experience some of the Vienna night life.  Claudia took us to Schweizerhaus, known for their enormous and delicious ham legs. After our big dinner, we went to the Prater, which is more or less the Coney Island of Vienna.  Our biggest goal was getting up into the ferris wheel to see the lights of Vienna at night – Again, stunning!

Tomorrow we have a big day planned – Schlaf schön!

-Pam, Kate, Alex, Barb, and Megan

Reiten in Austria!

Exporting Equine Expertise to Europe – A team of five CSU Equine Sciences students and recent graduates have traveled to Europe on behalf of the American Quarter Horse Association to teach horsemanship camps in Austria, Netherlands, and Germany over the course of three weeks. Read more about it here… and follow this blog filled with the team’s European horse adventures!

Guten tag! The past few days have been a whirlwind. We’ve just finished the mid-way point on our first horsemanship camp outside of Vienna, Austria. It’s been an adventure thus far and it may be possible that we’ve learned more from our Austrian campers than we have taught so far.  It has been interesting learning the cultural and geographic differences – We’ve tried hard to learn some important German words, especially those that involve horses like trot, sit, look up, and stop.  Most of us took Spanish as a second language in High School, so we frequently try to respond to our new friends in German and instead say things like, “lo siento.” The words that seem to stick are the ones we laugh about over meals with our Austrian friends like Prost! (cheers!), funny phrases like “fliegen ist zurück” (the fly is back!), and the names of traditional Austrian desserts, which are quite funny when directly translated.  Our new friends have taken good care of us and it has been entertaining and very educational sharing our differences and each trying new things.

Day 1: Time Travel

Our first taste of REAL coffee during our connection in Frankfurt, Germany (left to right: Pam Harmeyer, Barb Pfeifer, Alex Eason, Kate Auchmoody)

We traveled over 24 hours straight to arrive in Vienna from Fort Collins, Colorado.  Without any major hiccups, we managed to make it through two connecting flights and to the city center by train.  We wheeled our three weeks worth of baggage over 1 km to our hotel and did our best to stay awake to adjust to the time change, which is actually easy to do when you’re in a beautiful place like Austria filled with all sorts of hospitality – We soon discovered we had indeed lost an entire day after calling home, so perhaps this should be labeled days 1 through 2?

Day 2: Around Vienna

St. Joseph's Cathedral

Our wonderful hostess in Austria, Gabriele, encouraged us to visit downtown on our first full day in Austria. Our hotel was within walking distance, so after interpreting a map filled with German acronyms (and a few wrong turns), we ended up in the beautiful city center.  We walked around St. Joseph’s Cathedral and got to see part of Mass.  We then walked down the Straße (street) of the city center, which is a popular pedestrian road for tourists and Austrians alike.  We did a little shopping and made it to the outside of the Opera where we discovered a world famous cafe and sweets restaurant, Cafe Sacher, world renowned for their chocolate tortes.

The famous chocolate torte at Cafe Sacher

And of course… We had no fun together…

Alex and her Austrian foam

Long View Ranch Barn Manager, Claudia, then picked us up from our hotel and brought us to Wilhelmsburg, Austria where the American Quarter Horse Association horsemanship clinic is being held. There we met our new friend, Amy, who is the international intern for the AQHA – Although she bleeds maroon (Texas A&M), we quickly overcame our differences (which is a joke, because it is really a friendly rivalry between our schools) and instantly made a new friend.  We were joined by campers Brigitte and Hans, who introduced us to 0ur first Austrian food – SCHNITZEL – and our first bier (mixed with lemonade, and is very common in Austria) – RADLER!

Day 3: First Day of Camp

After a night filled with jet lagged sleep (if you call it that), we found our way above Wilhelmsburg to a hill where Long View Ranch sits.

The ranch is beautiful and the people are all so nice – Gerold Dautzenberg and his family (including Gabriele, also known as BiBi), have some of the nicest horses and really know so much about the horse business.  We’ve enjoyed seeing their current performers, breeding stock, and upcoming champions.

Claudia with the future Long View Ranch AQHA European Champion Reining, Cow Horse, Trail, and Western Riding horses

We immediately began the camp upon our arrival to Long View Ranch, which is described next.

Days 3 – 6: Austrian Camp

The camp itself consists of just over 25 people, including those who do not speak German like our friend Marco from Slovenia who speaks English in Austria primarily.  Regardless, we utilize translators who are fluent in German, English, and horse industry vocabulary to help teach on a variety of topics in the classroom, such an first aid and health, nutrition, form to function, bits and bridling, anatomy, trailer safety, behavior, and popular western AQHA events like Ranch Horse Versatility (where we pretended to be cows as it is unpopular to work cattle, common to utilize buffalo, and illegal to rope in Austria and throughout most of Europe).

Pam shows Silka how to feel for a facial artery pulse during a first aid topic

Our translators also assist during the 1.5 – 2 hour riding lessons we give throughout the day.  This means each camper rides about 3.5 hours per day and our CSU instructors gives lessons for seven hours every day.

Barb teaching one of the groups about the concepts of balance in the saddle and how it affects your horse

It has been unseasonally cold and rainy throughout the entire camp, which our Austrian friends joke that we brought back with us from Colorado. The rain has not dampened any spirits, however, and the campers have asked to go longer in the evenings with additional topics and longer riding lessons.  After we wrap up around 6-7 PM, we then usually go to dinner for many stories, cultural exchanges, and laughs.  Our dinner last night lasted four hours! We have truly enjoyed our company and have learned a lot about Austrian culture, even to go so far as to remember important words and to order on our own at restaurants!

Day 7:
Tomorrow we will have one more full day at the Austria camp.  It dawned on us tonight at dinner that we must say goodbye to our new friends tomorrow, which is sad! We’ve truly made some incredible friendships thus far and look forward to the new adventures we have with our new friends… And to new friends at the next two camps. These are memories that will last a lifetime and opportunities that have opened our eyes to a whole new world, thanks to the American Quarter Horse Association. Tomorrow evening following camp we will head back to Vienna for a few days before our next camp in Netherlands. Alas, more Austrian adventures to come…!

-Pam, Kate, Alex, Barb, and Megan

Exporting CSU Equine Expertise to Europe

Team leads horsemanship camps in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands

CSU horsemanship camps include both riding instruction and classroom teaching. European camps will include interpreters.

About 75 aspiring European horseback riders will learn new skills from a Colorado State University Equine Sciences team during overseas youth horsemanship camps this summer.

            A team of five CSU Equine Sciences representatives will lead youth horsemanship camps in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. Three weeklong camps are scheduled between July 22 and Aug. 7; the CSU team is leaving Colorado on July 19 to start the European horse adventure.

            The Equine Sciences Program is cooperating with the American Quarter Horse Association to offer the camps for young European riders.

“We’re thrilled to showcase our program,” said Megan Grieve, Equine Sciences Program coordinator from Weld County, who earned her bachelor’s degree from the program in 2010. “These summer camps are a fantastic way to showcase CSU’s affiliation with grassroots programs like the AQHA, as well as our commitment to education and outreach – even abroad.”

            As Miss Rodeo Colorado 2008, Grieve is no stranger to equine public relations. But exporting equine knowledge from the Fort Collins campus to Europe provides a special opportunity for the CSU team.

            “In between camps, we’ll be doing some traveling and site-seeing. Much of it will be equine-related, like visiting the Spanish Riding School in Vienna,” Grieve said. “We’re very excited.”

            The CSU group will use a blog (www.csuequine.wordpress.com), Twitter (www.twitter.com/csuequine) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/csuequinescience) to update CSU Equine Sciences fans about their work and adventures during the European horsemanship jaunt.

            This summer marks the tenth year that the CSU Equine Sciences program has led youth horsemanship camps internationally.

            The camps are modeled on Summer Youth Horsemanship Camps offered each year on the CSU campus. The 2011 summer sessions wrapped up in June.

Participants learn riding and safety skills, as well as valuable equine information, during CSU horsemanship camps.

The weeklong camps on campus annually attract more than 50 young riders of varying abilities, most of them from Colorado. Some bring their own horses; others use horses in the CSU stable.

            Equine Sciences faculty, staff and counselors teach participants ages 10 to 15 a variety of riding and other horsemanship skills. Riding lessons address both English and Western disciplines; daily lectures and activities cover topics including safety, equine first aid, nutrition, tack and horse judging.

            Participants handle a full range of chores – such as feeding, watering, grooming and stall-cleaning – during horse camp. Each camp ends with a riding demonstration for family members.

Riders lead horses into the arena at CSU's B.W. Pickett Equine Center during a Summer Youth Horsemanship Camp. Camps on the Fort Collins campus are a model for those led by a CSU team in Europe this summer.

“Our Summer Youth Horsemanship Camps here at CSU really instill some great skills among the kids who participate, and the camps on campus give us a very good model for the camps we offer each summer in Europe. It’s just a great way to reach out and to provide solid skills and science-based knowledge to young riders here and abroad,” Grieve said.

            Others on the CSU team traveling to Germany, Austria and the Netherlands are: Kate Auchmoody, a CSU Equine Sciences student entering her senior year; Alex Eason, a 2011 Equine Sciences graduate; Pam Harmeyer, a CSU Equine Sciences graduate entering her third year in CSU veterinary medicine; and Barb Pfeifer, also a 2011 Equine Sciences graduate.

            Members of the CSU team were selected based on program involvement, horse experience, and outstanding leadership in class and during extra-curricular equine activities.

            The summer experience also is an example of the unique international opportunities offered to motivated CSU students. The CSU Equine Sciences Program, in its 25^th year, was the first in the United States to offer a four-year equine-science degree and remains one of the top programs of its kind in the nation, with nearly 400 students enrolled each year.

            European camp specifics: The first CSU horsemanship camp will be July 22-25 in Wilhelmsburg, Austria; the second is scheduled July 29-31 in Makkinga, Netherlands; the final camp is set Aug. 4-7 in Frankfurt, Germany.

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