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.

Bike tour Rheinfelden > Mannheim (335 km)

I always wanted to cycle from the project in Rheinfelden, Switzerland home to Mannheim. It is very simple, just follow the Rhine river downstream passing such nice cities like Basel, Strassburg and Karlsruhe and many more scenic towns and villages.

I started Thursday evening after work with my old travel bike and arrived on Saturday lunch time after 335 km and 17 cycling hours.



I followed the Canal du Rhone au Rhin that runs parallel to the Rhine for a while...



...before coming to wonderful Strassburg.



The evening of the second day, the passing sun shining through the mistletoes.

Wild West

Four weeks ago I began leaving the save haven of our stables and started riding through the prairie. ;)



Today I ventured the first time to the Käfertaler Wald, a huge forest North of Mannheim. I love it, that´s riding!

Summer in the city

We have two weeks of vacation and decided to stay in and around Mannheim.

The first days have already been exiting. Sunday I participated at the Heidelbergman, an Olympic distance triathlon. Monday we did a short trip to the Hunsrück to visit a friend who is breeding Haflinger horses. He had invited us on a coach ride and bbq.







In the next days I plan to do some running and horse riding, we have another tournament on Friday and there is plenty of things to do in the garden and home, if I get bored of relaxing.

Moreover I will practice a bit with my camera. Here are some impressions from our garden...







...and the fields around our horse stable in Straßenheim:







Sunset over Mannheim:

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.

Busy working month

July was a very busy month at work with a lot of interesting experiences. We had a lot of people from all over the world in Switzerland for the final testing of the system we implement. But the old saying goes: Work hard, party hard.

Therefore we also did a team event with all the the people from around the world in Basel going around in an old tram. See the team below:



Some other team events this month were the Company running event on the Formula1 race track Hockenheimring, the yearly Summer Party and a sailing trip on the Lake Constance. See below some photos:


Our Camelot team at the Firmencup


Me during the final meters of my personal record braking race :)



Our Camelot team on the sailing event on Lake Constance


One of the four boats

Visit from Mecklenburg

My parents visited us in Mannheim for a week and accompanied us to a tournament. On the picture below you see my mom taken out by Klaus in his four-in-hand.

Eppelheim Tournament

We went to Eppelheim for a dressage tournament this weekend. Ray was a bit nervous on Friday evening due to some water sprinkling on the neighbouring court...



..., so we took Andor today. He stayed cool and again was well placed in his second tournament. This time a 5th place, very good.

A new home

Last Tuesday Lea celebrated it´s 3rd birthday. And she became a proud owner of a new home. :)

Whitsun vacation (3): Lovely Schwerin

Part 3 of the weekend adventures in Mecklenburg was a visit at the BUGA, the Bundesgartenschau, the federal gardening exhibition in my hometown Schwerin.

The exhibition is nicely integrated into the park landscape around the castle and lakefront and has lots of flowers and also art to show.









A whole day of walking in the sun makes quite tired.