Robin Brueckmann's Road to Belgium

Sunday, September 24, 2006 - Taking Care of the Horses

I slept well. I got up at six, and by seven I was down at breakfast. Laura met me there, and soon Becca and Barb joined us. After we ate, we all headed out to the barn. Laura and Denise had moved the horses to their assigned stalls. Now we got them fed. I had not brought enough feed for the entire stay, and I wanted a particular feed called Pasture Mix that I had only seen here. This feed was rolled corn, rolled oats, rolled barley, and a small pellet of some sort. It looked like something I would want to eat for breakfast. I had fed it to Rocky last time, and he liked it a lot.

After the horses ate, the three of us got ready to ride. We took the horses into the indoor. I had Rocky’s double bridle on today, for a more serious work. I wanted to be able to keep his head up, and we had a good ride.

I had not seen Barb’s horse, Mibis, go before. She was a pleasant Dutch mare, and she was a good partner for Barb. Becca’s Pippin went well today, too.

I rode for about half an hour. The show was still going on in the other part of the venue, so I took Rocky for a tour again. He was alert and in good spirits.

I watched part of a class. It was run differently than the shows I was used to. The next two horses were in the ring, walking or trotting around, while the jumping horse competed. There was only about a twenty-second lag time between the finish of one horse and the time for starting the next.

We walked around the outside of the stables. There was a field of cows nearby. These cows were an unusual shape. They looked more like pigs; they were round in contour rather than normal square cow-shape. I supposed they were raised for meat. I could not tell.

I had forgotten about the hang-gliders. The next field was popular for hang-gliders, parasailers, and radio-controlled plane fliers. Rocky did not mind.

I brought him back to the barn. Laura wanted to turn the horses out before she washed them. We were not sure how long we were going to be able to use the paddocks, so that seemed like a great idea. Mibis was not used to turnout, and she had run around yesterday, but today she went right to grazing.

I cleaned my tack. We were really done for the day now.

All of us except Laura piled into Denise’s car, and we headed toward the hotel. We stopped in Kortrijk centrum for lunch. Becca and I had different kinds of Belgian waffle: what else do you eat in Belgium? We wandered around the town center for a bit, but everything was closed for Sunday.

Back at the hotel, Becca and Denise went to study. I had plenty to do, too.

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