All of this took place, depending upon what time zone you are talking about, between ten in the evening on Thursday the 17th through Saturday evening on the 19th.
The horses were loaded in cargo. Here’s the cargo door closing. Yes it’s blurry but at that point in the trip so was I. Haha!
This is the front door/ramp of Carrara’s container.
This is me and Carrara inside her container.
This is Carrara in her container. All of these are before take off.
So then there was take off. I was stressed having never experienced standing up, facing backwards as a jet liner took off so I wasn’t certain what to expect. As soon as we started going up it was soooooooo amazing! Carrara was standing leaning forward like one of those long jump skiers as the jet ascended into the sky. I could only imagine how good of a stretch this could be for them! Wow! She was quiet through the whole thing but breathing with deep breaths which I understand is standard. We leveled off and all was quiet. She began eating hay. It sounds so simple but being my first time it was simply too cool of an experience. After over 24 hours on the road from North Carolina to New York we were finally in the air and coasting along to Holland. The official KLM groom for the flight was very kind and wonderful to speak with. He raises Dutch Appaloosas which is something I’d never heard of. This of your typical American Quarter App then add the magnificent confirmation of the DWB with very nice movement! The flight seemed so short. The KLM groom offered to sit in the jumper seat (saying he preferred more leg room) and gave me his seat so Olivia the Swiss girl, Ricardo the Columbian guy and I could have more space between one another to relax. I think we all quickly fell asleep! I woke to breakfast being served and knew I needed to go back and check on Carrara to give her some water. She drank some but after almost 48 hours of travel I am sure she was getting dehydrated. She was mellow. Just hanging out and occasionally taking a bite of hay so I didn’t linger as to not keep her up. It seemed so quick that the landing came and just the same as take off, I was in her container standing facing away from the motion. Landing was even more smooth than take off and I recommend standing backwards than sitting forwards for landing on flights. It was very fun. Again, Carrara was a rockstar just being mellow even after landing and during the taxi. We then needed to de-board but the attendants were kind enough to let us watch the cargo people work a bit from afar. Like typical passengers we left out of the plane and went to the car hire. I can’t explain how I felt walking out of Schipol that morning other than I felt like I was home. This isn’t something I’d felt in a long time except when in the presence of Ex. A fun side note on the car hire… Humberto told us to take the red bus as it would take us to the cargo area where we could meet up for customs and taking our horses so Olivia saw a red bus as we were pulling out the parking area and said “follow that” so I did but we ended up going down a buses only area, people were staring at us and it was hilarious. I jokingly stated we I could just smile and apologize for being a dumb American and hopefully they wouldn’t arrest us all but then the Columbia jumped in that we might not have the best of luck with him in the car! Haha! It was hilarious but I am thinking you’d have to be there to fully understand the lack of lucidity in the moment. We arrived to cargo, got our visitors passes and they allowed my car (a cute, tiny Ford Ka) inside. We’re talking cargo as in cargo for many different things including animals. The horse boxes were already inside waiting for us and all we needed to do at this point was to have the vet look at the horses and approve our customs paperwork to be allowed entry. There was plenty of fun conversation, unpacking our gear and Picollo was let out to run around in his cart. He immediately made friends with everyone that came by and the dutch are so nice for dogs, they gave him a disk of water and many, many pats. This is Ricardo wrestling with Picollo while we awaited the vet at the animal hospital KLM cargo.
Oh yes. One very important moment upon arrival to the cargo area is a massive banner with Anky and Salinero was in the area of the horse containers. I couldn’t pass the opportunity to take a photo with the banner.
We offloaded the horses from the containers. Again Carrara was a superstar. We all walked to the vet for a quick inspection, boarding straight on the Dutch side ground transports and the waiting for customs began. Picollo quietly waited in the car.
I hired Marcel Jordon (http://marceljordan.com) per a recommendation from Karin Offield and he was fabulous. His lorrey was super and he was so kind to talk to me about the special features and some of the customizations he made. He was definitely pro and unlike anything I’d ever worked with stateside. It was like a Rolls Royce for the horse world. Here’s Carrara inside the transport.
Here’s the outside of his lorrey.
This is as we were driving out of customs.
And now on the road to Erp!
Being a Friday at about four in the afternoon it was a long drive which typically takes about an hour and one half. We finally arrive to Erp and the Stal Anky but I was completely exhausted by this point and far from conherent so I have no photos of this. I got her settled, with food and the tack trunks in line. The new barn is still under construction but it is quite nice. The outdoor has the old roof removed and the new roof is waiting to be installed as it’s sitting in pallets in Anky’s outdoor. The mentalities are so different here but in a very good way. I’m exhausted at this point but so happy!
My eight in the morning alarm was shut off and I rose about eleven instead but the sleep was welcome! My first full day in The Netherlands was spent organizing my tack boxes, hand walking Carrara several times, a sandwich and fries in the afternoon (I took this photo with my iPhone from an indoor table next to the open window. Yes they are as good as they look and yum mayo!!!),
and working on the laptop looking out at Carrara grazing in the pasture for a few hours. This is Carrara meeting the horse next to the pasture I placed her in.
It’s quite green and lovely here with tall trees lining the road. I was surprised to see they have not chopped down their corn fields yet (you can see some of the crop in the right side of the this photo)!
Here’s a few photos of the new stable which is almost complete. This is from the opposite end of Carrara’s stall.
This is the door leading out to Anky’s outdoor arena which is now home to the pallets of roofing materials waiting to be constructed.
As the stable is not complete, neither are some of the stalls so the stall opposite from Carrara is where I was told to place my tack boxes. Hey… It’s close by so quite convenient and I do most of my tacking in her stall.
This is further back showing my tack boxes in a not yet completed stall and the stall opposite is where Carrara is living now.
There’s much more to follow but we’re all here, safe, sound and I’m loving my home in The Netherlands!