The perfect autumn weekend

That was a wonderful weekend. Three free days due to the public holiday (German reunion) and perfect autumn weather. Time to redeem some gift certificates that I received from my wife and son.

First station: Quad driving, OK, that was the weekend before :)

Quad riding on the men playground

A flight lesson around Kassel from the new airport in Kassel Calden

An Alpaka hiking trip - one of our favorite animals

I will not forget these adventures. Love you, Astrid and Matti!

Matti is born

On second January Matti made it almost in time. Since then drinking, sleeping and grimacing are his favorite activities. Since Sunday we are all at home. So far he is very uncomplicated, sleeping a lot between feedings. It's a lot fun and we are improving pit stop times every day.

Happy New Year

He did not want to be a 2012 edition, we are still waiting for the little boy.

So Happy New Year from Astrid and me, Lea and Benni, Ray, Amurat and Dublin. May all your wishes for 2013 come true.

Holiday in Taiwan and South Korea

Astrid and me had a wonderful trip to Taiwan and South Korea. It was short but impressive. Plus I met some friends from university in Seoul which I had not seen in a decade.

Traditional pagoda in the central mountains of Taiwan

Delicious food at the Sun Moon lake

Impressive newly build temple in the central Taiwan mountains, a nice mixture between traditional gold...

...and colorful architecture...

...with a massive buddha overlooking the valley.

The central mountain range with its steep and narrow roads.

Sometimes you could not even see the roads in the middle of the jungle.

A bit of trekking along the way.

Back to South Korea. We had a 2 day stop-over only, but it was enough time to visit again some places like the Shinchon area, the Sogang university and some temples in the city center.

Traditional Korean architecture

Asians do not build houses, they build cities. Coming soon...

Winter holiday

As the winter had a tight grip on Germany til last week we decided to stay in Hesse at Astrids family for our winter holiday.

It was the week of karneval whis more a tractor show here. ;-)

We went skiing in Willingen and had fun with our horses, the dogs and the new 4-wheel drive Volvo.









On our way home to Mannheim Astrid started this year's dressage tournament season with a good placement.



Next week I will be in Bangkok for 3 days.

Astrid's big show

We have been in Marbach today for this years stallion parade. Astrid was riding Amurat, a horse of Mannheims haflinger breeder Kurt Antes, in front of more than 10.000 people.



A great horse...



...and a great overall show.



We'll be there again next Saturday and Sunday for the last 2 shows.

July: 4 weekends - 4 tournaments

Beside my job the July was also a heavy months for tournaments for us.

We participated in Heddesheim, Dossenheim, Großsachsen and Hemsbach, all in the Rhine-Neckar-Area around Mannheim. Partly we had 3 horses with us (Andor, Ray and Amurat), so my job as a "tournament wally" was really stressfull.

But it was also very rewarding month. Andor, our young haflinger, scored 2 first, 1 second and 2 third places, a great achievement in only 1 month.

Below you see Andor during his performance in Dossenheim with Astrid on top...



...and smiling afterwards with his award.



In Hemsbach Andor got the special James Bond number and scored 3rd.



Taking a shower after coming back home to the stable.