Well, my first year in Germany is now over and the second is well underway. Focus has completed her first German show season with many successes. She has finished in the top three in almost every outing. Classes in Germany are a lot larger then at home. Most classes have a minimum of 25 horses. Focus was victorious in one class with a score of 8.0 and over 32 horses. She also placed second with a score of 7.5 in a class with bundeschampionate qualified horses placing behind her. Since August Focus has been to a few more shows. With myself she attended two shows, both of which I placed third in.

In mid summer I was given an offer to stay longer and therefore I will be staying until next year late spring time. It was a difficult decision for me because I miss home so much but at the same time I am having the time of my life here. In the end I came to the conclusion that I would put off university another year and stay in Germany to better myself and my horse. There is only one time in your life when you can do such a thing and for me that is now. So far it has turned out to be the right decision. The horse has made a lot of progress. By spring time I will be able to show her at Young Riders, which was my whole goal in coming here. It has been a long road with Focus. I have had her since the day she was born and I can remember when she was a foal the first three years went by so slowly. But now she is six and the last three years have gone by faster then I can imagine.

In the last months here a Kamberger Hof many things that happened. My good friend Mirjam was gone for two weeks for her Bereiter testing. And to no surprise she passed her exam. When Mirjam was gone I had to cover her horses as well as my own, therefore sometimes I rode 14 horses a day. A quiet day was 8 or 9 horses. In the two weeks that she was gone I drove to visit her on my day off. Her exam was at the Deutsche Reitschule in Warendorf. Never before have I seen something like this. Everything was so old and historic and so well preserved. This is also the location of where the stallion parade takes place. The facility is so big that everyone goes around on a bike or they would have to walk for half an hour.

Halloween was fun here. Last year we did nothing as Halloween is not celebrated here like at home. But this year I convinced the girls that we should do something for Halloween so we went into the Ski Hall. It was a lot of fun. I also made a day trip to Aachen with one of the boarders here. It was very entertaining and Aachen is certainly a beautiful city.

Our new website is now up and running (www.dressurstall-reisch.de). There is a portrait with Focus and Mr. Reisch together on the portrait page. The stable owner also has their new site underway (www.kamberger-hof.de) both sites have turned out very well.