G’day everyone!
It’s been already nine months since I made a move to Germany from Australia. I sort of disappeared from the Australian eventing scene last year, but thanks to facebook I keep me in touch with the friends in Australia, but I heard that there were still a lot of people wondering where I have gone to – so when An Eventful Life asked me to become a blogger I thought it was a good way of keeping in touch with everyone.
Here so I am in Germany, working and training hard under Yoshi and Dirk’s supervision, but also having a lot of fun at Dirk Schrade's stable (above), and this is how it all happened.
Yoshi did a massive job at the London Olympics coming first after the dressage phase and as I knew Yoshi from working at the Hoy’s stables I rang him up and said congratulations to him after the Olympics. While we were talking, he mentioned that he was looking for a working student. He asked me if I knew someone young and enthusiastic about the sport. It didn’t take too long for the following to come out of from my mouth “How about me!’’ Not sure about the young part but I was dead keen for it.
So that was a job but there were hell of a lot of things to sort it out to make the trip happen …
Firstly I wanted to take the mare with me which I had been riding. Her name is GT Printemps who is owned by my long time supporter, Christine Doan. She’s had a few cracks at the 2 star level in Australia and although she isn’t the easiest horse to ride, I had a good feeling that I should try and make the trip with her. So I begged and begged and begged to Christine and as always, she was very kind to say “go for it.’’
So the first step was clear I had to get some transport sorted out. I knew it wasn’t going to be cheap, but hey, these opportunities don’t come so often, so I was prepared to sell everything, even my beloved truck to cover the cost for the flight.
I rang up a transport company and luckily there were two mares waiting to buddy up with another one to fill the spot to split the cost of the whole crate. Super! I’m in! It sounded a bit too easy. Yep, it wasn’t that easy.
I was busy filling up all the paper work and getting organised for the quarantine, in mid-September, with the flight due to be sometime in November when I received a phone call from the transport company. “Sorry,” they said, “but the client with the two mares couldn’t wait any longer so she decided to use another transport company, but didn’t bother telling us.’’ I said “Oh yeah? What does that mean?’’ to which they replied “We have no one apart from your mare” Bugger! The share flight was already going to send me broke, so it wasn’t possible to hire the whole crate. The guy from this company was really nice and very professional and it wasn’t his fault, but now I was standing with no flight and no plan.
I rang up few other companies but had no luck. Apparently the numbers of horses going to Europe slows down a lot from November and doesn’t really pick up until March when the breeding season starts in Northern Hemisphere. I rang Yoshi and told him that maybe this trip wasn’t meant to be. Next day Yoshi rang me up and said “I found one.’’
Yoshi’s never been to Australia and I seriously have no idea how, but he was right, there was a spot on the crate to share which was scheduled to fly on 22nd of October. For horses to leave Australia and go to Europe, they must go into the quarantine for a month prior the flight date. Again this was in mid-September, I had absolutely zero time to muck around. Printemps and I hit the road straightway to get to the quarantine place, just outside of Melbourne.
Printemps in the quarantine, Melbourne
After dropping her off at the quarantine stable, I asked the stable manager which other two horses my mare was flying with. And the manager said “Oh, these two mares over there. Apparently the owner was waiting to find another horse to fill up the spot to split the cost, but she couldn’t find anyone with the other company she was going to use, so she decided to send just with her two with us.’’ I said “I think I know the whole story!’’
Printemps arrived at Heathrow Airport and got to Germany by road safely on 25th of October 2012.
Safely arrived in Germany
More stories from Germany coming soon!
Daiki
