[drivingpairs] Team Texas Tidbit #1
- From: "M. Denmark" <mdenmark@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <drivingpairs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 08:28:35 -0500
Jerry McClennan is going to try to keep everyone updated on their trip
through the European CDE Circuit to the World Pairs Driving Competition with
her Texas Tidbits e-mails. Hope you enjoy them!
Milli Ann Denmark
June 30, 2005
Friends,
I'll try to keep y'all updated as to what is happening on the CDE European
circuit.
Let me begin by thanking you all for your support!!! We appreciate it more
than we can ever tell you.
Now..First you should know our itinerary. First know that it all changes on
a daily basis, so everything is understood AT THIS TIME!!!
Equipment ships out of HOUSTON on Monday, July 18. Horses, Mike and Jerry
(Jerry has a ticket - Mike and horses are iffy) on Tuesday July 19, all
ending up in Amsterdam.
Through all of this we have met via Chester Weber and LOTS of e-mails, a
wonderful couple names Gerard and Saskia Leitjen who live in Beerse,
Belgium. They will pick us up at the Amsterdam airport and take us to their
place. See pictures of their place at http://www.blakheide.be/
From what we know of the Leitjen, they are pretty much like us. Stay in
their trailer on the show grounds, drive pairs, do the work together with no
help. We should get along great!!! They will be taking us to the 2 shows
and we'll stay in their trailer. I think they may be competing as well,
don't know for sure. The first show is a CAI-A at Beekbergen, Holland
(Netherlands).the last weekend in July. We will go back to their place on
Sunday after the show and leave a couple of days later for Riesenbeck,
Germany for another CAI-A. Both these events are for advanced pairs and
four-in-hands only and as I understand it AT THIS TIME have over 100
entries. The following website is a German site that lists all the show
dates, results, etc. It is in English and quite informative. Each show on
the calendar can clicked on and the "omnibus" type information about that
show is available. Go to results and it will have details posted pretty
quickly after the show www.hoefnet.nl/pages-eng/index_eng.html
We'll rent a car upon arrival so we are mobile. Hopefully we'll have a
phone with international service before we leave. Not looking too positive
right now, but I'm sure with another week I'll find something.
After those two shows, we will stay in Beerse to train. We've learned that
every Wednesday night the pair drivers in the area meet at The Leitjen's to
practice cones. Gerard was very upset after last weekend's show. He told
us he knocked a ball down - the first one in TWO years. We told him we hope
and LOT of his cones expertise will rub off. Hopefully we'll get better
while at Beerse.
On Sunday, August 29 we head for Landstetten, Germany just south of Munich
to meet all the other drivers at the US Training Camp. I've not found this
town on my map, but the Haertlein's are sending us good road maps. (Talk
about a small world, Tricia's company has a large office in Beerse, so she's
in the process of getting all the "scoop" we need to know while there. I
hope we can take several one or two day trips from Beerse to see the
countries. Every time we ask how far things are, it is always just "a
couple of hours". We haven't had the courage to ask how much things cost.)
The US camp is at the training facility of Zeitler Kutschbock
www.zeitlers-kutschbock.de/kutschbock.html we will all drive and train
together here until we leave for Salzburg on Sunday, September 4 ready to
"kick butt" as Beth Fischer says.
Lisa's truck and trailer went with the ponies so she will have it to work
out of. Alan Aulson has also shipped his stuff. He and Lisa are staying in
Beekbergen while we are in Beerse. Fritz has been in Europe (Frankfurt I
believe) since winning the National Championship. He did have a serious
accident at the Saumur show in France. He broke ribs and punctured a lung.
Mike has talked to him and he's feeling great and will be ready to compete
at Beekbergen and Riesenbeck. He is back in California to complete his
physical therapy and celebrate the July 4 holiday before going back to
Frankfurt.
http://www.caaonline.com/pdfs/salzburg05_online.pdf
is supposed to have all the information about Salzburg, but shows "This page
does not exist" right now.
We've been told there will be 10,000 spectators at EACH HAZARD. I have a
hard time believing that, but will let you know when we get there.
Currently, I'm loading suitcases - some with cold weather stuff and some
with hot weather stuff. September in Austria could very easily be 40
degrees. Right now, with it being 100 in Texas, I'm READY!!!, but yall know
me and I'll have on BOTH pairs of silk long handles. Mary Mott, you better
bring that snowmobile outfit you loaned me for the Bromont show. Sounds
like I might need it again. You should have heard those French Canadians
laughing at me. It's spring. They had on shorts and I had on the
snowmobile outfit. Of course I didn't KNOW it was a snowmobile outfit until
they told me. The barn stuff is being packed; the dressage stuff is being
shrink wrapped onto the dressage carriage. The 27 bags of feed and the
supplements are being put into those rolling Wal-Mart coffins so it can be
rolled from one place to another. They didn't like my suggestion of shrink
wrapping it on a pallet. No way to move it once we got to the airport(s).
We'll have to purchase oats, or barley or whatever grain they have when we
get there and mix our own feed so they will be pretty much eating what they
are eating now.
Other than that and the tons of paper work that comes across the e-mail and
fax machine, I'm just trying to fix fences, mow pastures, wean babies, get
an orphan colt we have onto solid food before we leave (first mare in 38
years of breeding horses that we've lost in foaling). I'm going to a
Houston Symphony Patriotic Concert on Sunday that is being held at Festival
Hill, the training facility for the orchestra that is about 20 miles from
the house. Gotta get away from the paperwork. I had a dream night before
last that was so real I had to get up at 5am and check the e-mails to be
sure what I dreamed had not really happened and I'd not gotten the correct
paper work turned in. Oh, There is some disease in Austria that has proven
to be a problem for our spare (Ready). She is the only mare on the whole US
team and the disease prevents mares from re-entering the US. So it was
leave here in quarantine there for 3 months or do something else. Chester
is loaning us Campino T, one of his horses that is already in Europe. Since
we only use the spare as a spare, we want everyone to pray that it continues
that way. God has blessed us in not having to pull that spare to date. We
are asking for His continued blessing in that regard. He has really worked
miracles in our lives and if we have not had the opportunity to tell any of
you about what He means to us, we want to. His daily guidance and presence
is awesome and is irreplaceable in our lives.
Guess this will get you started. Since I'm sure I won't have this much time
once things begin moving, hopefully the remainder of these Texas Tidbits
will be just that "tidbits"!
Love to you all.
Serving the Shepherd, Loving His Lambs,
Jerry McLennan
jerrymclennan@xxxxxxxxxxx
3000 Pecan Mill Lane Brenham, TX 77833
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