As a non-German/Dutch speaking American working in Holland, the single most paramount difficulty I’ve encountered has to be the language barrier. A word of advice to anyone planning on coming to Europe to work, take some time to learn at least a few words. I’ve been coming here for years and I thought I knew enough of the important words in Dutch to, “get by”. Boy was I wrong. The title for my new post, Netherlands…Unglaublich, comes from one of the first words I heard repeatedly in my first weeks here. Unglaublich means, “Unbelievable” in German and is used frequently in Holland as well. Being that my first weeks here have been Unglaublich!, I thought I would share with you the top 5 most unbelievable differences between Holland and home (both with the horses and without).
5. The Weather: The weather has to make the top 10 simply because I’m a California girl at heart and the frequent rain, wind and cold have me missing the warm California sun. I’m no idiot, I knew coming over here that Holland is not green by accident, that the green grass and lush countryside could only flourish in the bounty of rain and water. But, I didn’t realize quite how common rain and cold were during the summer in Holland. At least once every three days since I’ve been here there has been a storm that rolls through. Sometimes it rains hard and sometimes it’s a mere drizzle, but it always rains. I only brought one jacket with me (a burly Marmot ski jacket) and it couldn’t keep up with the onslaught of rain. After the first two weeks of always feeling wet, I went to the store and bought two new rain jackets. Kingsland, nicht schlecht! (Another phrase that’s used almost as much as unglaublich and means “not bad”)
4. The Food: This one could be a whole blog post on it’s own. The food here is truly unglaublich…unglaublich bad. Before my trip, I had no idea how versatile the potato was. All friets are, of course, smothered with a healthy dose of friets sauce (a frighteningly delicious Mayonnaise based sauce and a reason to come here on it‘s own!). The supermarkets here offer quite a different selection of food than we are used to in California. In Holland the dairy and bread section easily fill half of the market. Breakfast is usually an abundance of bread served with your choice of toppings: butter, cheese, nutella, chocolate sprinkles, and sometimes thinly sliced ham. Lunches are usually some type of broodje (Dutch for sandwich). However, those of you who are thinking submarine sandwich on a big hoagie with all the trimmings have got it all wrong. A typical lunch broodje, is simply two pieces of sliced bread with butter and a thin slice of meat or cheese in between. No lettuce, tomato, onions, mayo, mustard, olives, pickles or peppers; just bread and meat or cheese. Not even meat and cheese…one or the other. Dinner (when the other riders and I don’t order pizza for delivery) usually consists of either pasta or rice covered with some type of goulash and served with friets and defrosted carrots or peas. In the end, the food is tasty and plentiful…just not the place to come if you’re hoping to diet!
3. The roads/travel/cars: Anyone who has never been to Europe before would be floored by how small and narrow the main thoroughfares a
re, both in and outside of town. Huge lorries (their word for trucks) (pic to the left is an average lorry at a horse show) will fly past cars, bicycles and other lorries on roads that are less than 12 ft wide. And lines in the roads dictating lanes? Who needs ‘em? Those are reserved only for the autobahn and main freeways. A thumbs up or pointer finger in the air with a small honk of the horn are the thanks given to a car or lorry offering the right of way. Aside from the roads, what’s on the roads has me at a loss for words. I was at the vet clinic the other day watching a horse get vetted (another post entirely) and I watched in awe as a brand new Jaguar coup drove into the parking lot pulling a three horse trailer. I thought for sure this was a special occasion and that I would never see it again. Then, at my first horse show I watched 20 or 30 BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar, Volvo etc. all drive into the lot pulling trailers. I hope to post some pictures so you all believe me. The horse trailers here are only 2 and 3 horse trailers (with a few exceptions) and anything bigger is seen in the form of a lorry or truck. These lorries are unglaublich. A horse trailer/tack room/RV/big rig hybrid, these trucks offer the one day horse show every creature comfort available to 
horse and rider. The horses are tacked up and groomed right on the rig and can stand comfortably between classes. As for the rider, most lorries have living quarters in the front with anything from couches, to kitchens, to beds and TV’s. I’m still not sure why this idea has not been picked up in America. The question of why aside, if I won the lottery I would buy one for myself!
2. Horse shows: Anyone who’s been to a horse show in the states knows the waiting game that exists there. Competitors and spectators can wait all day for classes with holdups coming at any and every moment. Usually, unless for a special show, the horse show exists on it’s own. That is to say, that you go to the event to see the jumping, or the dressage, or the eventing. You wou
ld never go, for example, to a hunter jumper show in the states to see motorcycle jumping, or horse driving classes, or cattle judging, or miniature horse keuring (a breeding/registry show for horses). Welcome to my first competition in Holland. The farm I am working for took three 4yr old show jumpers to a competition for young horses in hopes of qualifying for the finals in July. I went along to help (will hopefully get to show next time) and was amazed by what I saw. After driving along a tiny and bouncy brick road through a small village (I thought for sure we were lost) we turned into this huge grass field that had been transformed into a carnival like place filled with cars, lorries, horses, bounce houses for kids, cows, mares and foals, food and clothing vendors and miniature horses. And this is just what I could see from where we parked. I quickly jumped off the lorry, helped get the first horse ready and then walked around to soak in the sights. The first class in the main arena was a class for young driving horses. There w
as loud orchestra music playing as 7 or 8 exhibitors trotted their horses around the ring from the comfort of their carriages. The horses are supposed to trot, never canter, with their knees high and then extending out to stretch across the ground. They put special shoes and weights on their hooves ( I learned) to make them trot this way. The drivers sit in their carriages wearing special formal attire (men in suits and bowler hats, women in skirts, blazers and derby hats) and encourage their horses movements with lounge whips that they crack behind the horses. Meanwhile, only meters away, the young 4 year old jumping horses are warming up in a small arena preparing to take the main stage. If that were not enough excitement, in another arena a mare and foal keuring was taking place for KWPN sport horses (Royal Dutch Studbook of the Netherlands). On the other side of the warm up ring was a show for miniature horses and foals (sooooooo cute!). On the far side of the field, an in hand dairy cow show of some sort was happening as well (never meandered over to see exactly what was happening there). When I thought I ha
d seen it all, after the 4 year old class and before the 5 year old class started, two motorcycle riders took center stage in the main arena. I thought to myself, this is one way to get dads and brothers to a show! They set an oxer and vertical (two horse jumps for you non horsy people) to 1.20meters and the riders started jumping their motorcycles over them (with a small ramp in front). By the end, after the crowd had been enticed, the jumps were finally raised to 1.60 meters. (5’3”). With the crowd clapping, both riders challenged the fences and when one cleared both obstacles the crowd went wild. It was really special to see how many non horsy spectators had come to the show to see everything. I hope a few of the pictures I will post will do it justice. Much, much more blogging to come on the horse show front!
1. Riding as a sport: Coming from America, where so much of the riding and horse sport has become a service based industry, I am continuously amazed at how much of a true sport horse riding is in Europe. Top riders are revered and idolized much the way football players, baseball players and basketball players are looked up to in the states. Top riders have major sponsors and commercials on TV. Common and middle income families have horses in their fields much the same way American families have a basketball hoop or hockey goal in their driveway. Everyone in Holland rides; boys, girls, men and women. At the farm where I am working one of the top riders is a 63 year old German man who is one of the strongest fittest people I’ve ever met. I’ve seen him hop on several horses cold turkey that I would normally lounge for half an hour before considering riding. But, they like it that way. When the horses are fresh and spry they jump better. Instead of working or lunging horses before a competition, they grain them up and keep them fresh. Just a whole different world in Europe…and the reason why I’m here. Much, much more to come on the riding front! Cheers for now!