Changing Saddles

 Edited & Updated with images (11th of July, 2012)
Something I wrote 9 months ago...(July 2011)

Das Glueck der Erde liegt auf dem Ruecken der Pferde is probably the best known German proverb modified to quote on riding - it was originally written by Friedrich von Bodenstedt (see below) and is considered a dictum.

"Das Paradies der Erde // liegt auf dem Ruecken der Pferde, // in der Gesundheit des Leibes // und am Herzen des Weibes." - Friedrich von Bodenstedt. The words are the first lines of a poem in his book, A Collection of Poems and Sayings in the Vernacular.

The paradise on earth
lies on the back of the horse
in one's good health
and in the heart of a woman
(my own rough translation)

I encountered this proverb while Googling horse riding schools in North Germany. As previously mentioned in Giddyup! eldest will have a riding holiday in the South of Germany.

Unedited pic of Eldest in their old room in Hamburg, taken (31st of July, 2011) a couple of hours before I brought her (P was under the weather, and the girls stayed back with him) to the train station for her horsebackriding holiday in Thuringia (South of Germany) - added 11th of July, 2012.

She'll be staying for 6 days with other girls of her age at a horse-riding boarding school. I'll write more about the program of the school, in the days to come, or next week when we are settled in HH (abbreviation for Hamburg).

added 11th of July, 2012.
  ♡ Eldest & her horse Ataman ♡ {{{heartsqueeze}}}

She had a fantabulous one week at the horseback-riding boarding school, and left a piece of her heart withAtaman. But they will be reunited again this coming weekend, and everytime she visits her Oma H in the South of Germany.

We had deliberated long about this part of the holiday, first P and I, then both of us together with the girls, then I with K. The greatest hurdle was me overcoming my separation anxiety with eldest.

Although they have been spending a huge part of their school breaks in Germany with their Oma H and with K, this is the first time, that eldest will be by herself with numerous group of new people to adjust to. She's been to school excursions where they spent a week togeter with their class at a destination selected by their teachers in cooperation with the parent body, when she was still going to school in HH as part of end of the school year tradition.

We trust our eldest sense of responsibility and independance, and of course the establishment that will be responsible for her in the duration of the week. One important factor that made me choose the school is that it's only 5 minutes drive from where Oma H lives, and I coordinated with K, that he will check on eldest during the week. I will also be calling her everyday from Hamburg, to know how she is doing.

This decision is the family's baby step into the world of horseback-riding. If you have followed my collection of 30/31 days of blogging here beginning 10 months ago, you are aware that we live in a quaint village, and are surrounded with idyllic countryside surrounded by horse ménage.

The family counts it a blessing to live where we live in the Netherlands. I've always wished that the girls will grow up in the way described in the books of Swedish children's book author Astrid Lindgren, and our home, our community, our surroundings are the fulfillment of that wish.

I envision the family sharing moments together in various ways, and one of those moments are riding together. Last Summer we successfully began riding bikes together, and we can all happily look back at a very rich year filled with shared moments riding our bikes.



For Summer this year, we would like to slowly make time to learn and ride horses, that we may all share this experience with each other as well.

In the next weeks, as I put order to the hundreds of pictures I took in connection with my varied 365 projects I'll be sharing random images of horseback-riding in our region, which I was not able to share.
Now off to do some packing for our trip!



I leave you all with a horse joke which made me grin:

I came down with laryngitis last week.
One day, while I was petting a Shetland Pony at the zoo, a friend of mine asked, "How are you today?."
I responded, "I'm feeling a little horse."
:D