Not gonna lie, after all the wine on Friday night at the party, Saturday morning was ROUGH. Luckily there wasn’t anything happening super early at Bundeschampionat that we felt like we absolutely had to see, because both of us were zombies. Zombies with varying degrees of headache that had major caffeine requirements and were definitely over-sensitive to the bright morning sun. Four hours of sleep after a lot of wine did not cut it for me.
We missed the eventing horses’ dressage, but caught the tail end of the eventing pony dressage and basically stayed parked by the ring for a while to watch the eventers’ showjumping. Neither one of us wanted to move that much anyway.
By midday a little bit of frozen yogurt with strawberries had perked us up a bit, as did intense stalking of the 5yo by Mighty Magic. By this point I’m basically a professional MM offspring stalker, so one of my biggest objectives for the show was to get eyes on him. Overall I had marked 3 horses in the program as “ones to watch” based on the pedigrees I liked – the MM, a Diarado, and a Grey Top.
There were several quality horses in the 5yos, which was nice to see. All 3 of the ones I’d marked were definitely still my favorites once I saw them go, and – spoiler alert for tomorrow – my 3 were all in the top 4 by the end. I think the one that stood out to me most on Saturday though was the Mighty Magic (me, biased? Nooooo…). His rider made a big boo-boo at the first line and he proceeded to bail her out in pretty spectacular fashion, without even turning a hair. That’s a quality I definitely appreciate in a horse.
After watching the eventers showjump, we walked over to the big jumper ring to watch the 7yo 2* class. I wanted to see a particular stallion, Diacontinus, mostly because I find his pedigree very interesting for eventing (Diarado x Contendro x Argentinus) and for a jumper stallion he got pretty high dressage marks at his stallion testing. He was quite handsome and did not disappoint.
After the first round we were a bit bleary-eyed and we’d seen so many horses that they were starting to blur together, so we peeled our butts off the bleachers and plodded wearily to Aldi to grab some easy dinner to cook at the apartment. So cheap, and good food too. Can we talk about why food is so much better in Europe? Nevermind, that’s probably another rant.
We collapsed into bed pretty early that night, both out of sheer weariness and in anticipation of the next day: the last day of the finals, and the crowning of the 2017 champions!
breedrideevent.com 
Welcome home!! Looks like a fantastic time was had! (And um yes wine hangovers are the WORST!) LOL. Junk food helps! As does lots of coffee/coke etc whatever you can drink.
Gorgeous horses. And i have become a MM stalker too. Can’t believe one of his babies is right in my backyard almost. I think his owner is starting to think I am a stalker (I sold my dressage saddle to one of her students) but every time i go there i go straight to his stall first. SUCH a charmer and so talented. I will get lots of photos of him at FH!
So i am biased too. 🙂 But those horses all over the place there, did you see any UGLY ones? Cause i dont think they have any!! HA
We have Aldi here now I have never been in there yet.
They say it is very similar to the Europe ones! Hmmm
Glad you are home. It was very quiet without you.!!
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The MM’s are usually easy to pick out of a crowd, most of them have his face!
And yeah no, there were no ugly horses at BuCha… 😉
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What an opportunity! Lots of handsome horse flesh!
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Wow what a save and he doesn’t bat an eye! Definitely a quality we can all appreciate. And good looking to boot… my kinda horse.
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Same. A bit less fancy than the winner, but I like how well he can take a joke.
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Mighty Carrera looks like he could’ve jumped the course on three legs.
And yeah, the face does look familiar. Except for the ears…
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Touché! 😂
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The MM is a SAINT. I need one exactly like that please. And the gray stallion is gorgeous! Ugh. Makes me REALLY want a new pony.
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If you know anyone looking for a nice one, the last place 5yo eventer was an extremely fancy derby horse in the making. Super quiet, brave, excellent jump, super rhythmical canter. The judges hated it, but it would be a $$$ hunter here. And probably wouldn’t be that expensive to buy right now. 😂
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so you should have just brought him home 🙂 LOL!
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can I borrow a bunch of money?
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Stunning horses! That last grey is my favorite.
And yes, everything tastes better in Europe. I love food when we travel to Germany, and the same foods over here just don’t taste nearly as good.
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If that MM wasn’t as fancy as the winner, well, DAMN, is all I have to say. Because I thought he was pretty freakin’ nice! 🙂 They’re ALL gorgeous. Interesting that you spotted that Derby horse in the making, too. I bet the word will get out and some big-name trainer will make a killing on him.
As a long-time and extremely loyal Aldi shopper I knew they were based in Germany. Makes sense that the food is better/fresher there as I buy any number of things that have been imported. The best is when they feature German – I stock up on schnitzel, noodles, red cabbage and other good stuff.
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