Hello everyone from Verden, Germany where I'll be for the next few days to watch the Young Horse World Championships and lots of other beautiful horses competing in everything from leadline to GP.  Carlan and I arrived at the Niedersachsenhof just this afternoon. It's a great little hotel just 3 blocks from the show grounds.  All the teams stay here and we've been coming back for four years now ourselves.
Today I watched the three year old Hanoverian mare class.  They were presented in hand and to my surprise, Scott Hassler, USA was one of the judges.  The champion mare was by Weltmeyer out of a Londonderry mare by Brentano II,  The judge panel commented on how nice it was to see such a good Weltmeyer mare  They are much desired for the breeding program,
Afterwards we watched the warm up for the five and six year olds.
Fashionista that I am, I noticed several trends.  Most importantly . . .EVERY RIDER WORE A HELMET!I
They came in all colors (one was cream colored with a brown vent) and many with bling,  I saw several pairs of brown boots with buckles at the top and others in patent leather with bling on the cuff.
Last year most horses wore ear nets but today I only saw two.
Most of the riders are young and they warmed up sometimes 20 horses at a time to Lady Gaga blasting over the speakers.  We drank wine and enjoyed watching,
More tomorrow!