Well it has been a whirlwind tour these past 6 weeks!
First to Holland for 2 terrific riding workshops organized by Wendy van Duuran at Van Stahl and Stal Mirielle, then on to Breda for a day-long Feldenkrais workshop for humans organized by Angele van Tilberg. We had lovely weather and great people so the clinics were fun, enjoyable and now feel like they were more than 1 year ago! Thanks to everyone who attended and helped with the organization.
Then by train (yes!), with my two 60 lb bags in tow to Essen Germany where Brinja Riedel picked me up at the station. Thank goodness! Actually the train system in Europe is fantastic and there were elevators to get to the tracks so I didn’t have to drag those bags up any stairs.
In Essen I had a SURE FOOT Equine booth and once again we were nominated for the Innovation Award at Equitana. It is huge just to be nominated (for a 2nd time!) and while we did not win (a disinfectant spray won in our category), we did get lots of attention. Every day at Equitana I had two 15 min demos to show SURE FOOT in the St. Georg Arena, which was right by my booth. La Perla was gracious in providing lovely horses and Brinja fell in love with Garbozo, a cremelo gelding who was our star performer. The crowds at Equitana were enormous with over 200,000 through the door over the entire 9 days.
Joanna Lo and Callie King arrived in time for the evening performance by Ingrid Klimke. It was very exciting and educational to listen to her training philosophy on translator head phones. Callie did numerous interviews with various exhibitors including Linda Tellington-Jones. Joanna helped out in the booth and Beate, Brinja’s friend, wrangled horses each day. It was a fantastic team and everyone was so supportive! It’s one of the things I love most about Equitana. We are all in it together and everyone helps out. It really does feel like family. Wednesday night we all went to the Hop Top show and were not disappointed. The talent is amazing and the performances breathtaking! Joanna took fantastic photos.
By Thursday, we sold out of SURE FOOT pads so we coasted into the end. Another Equitana in the books and I am ready to go back. Crazy but fun and you meet so many wonderful people it makes you forget just how hard a 9 day show is!
Then, I went on to the UK where I gave a one-day SURE FOOT workshop for IVRAP (Institute of Registered Veterinary and Animal Physiotherapists). What a fantastic group of professionals! Grainne Ni Chaba-Byrne organized wonderful horses for the demo and everyone could see the value SURE FOOT brings to their work. The workshop was held at the Palace House, which was recently opened as a museum. It was gorgeous!
I finally flew home on the 30th, had just enough time to get over jet lag and pack when Brad and I headed out to Equine Affaire, Ohio! I must be a gluten for punishment. We arrived to lovely weather, warm and sunny only to have the temps drop, snow and wind and freezing cold the next day. The temps gradually warmed up again and by the time we left it was sunny and warm like when we arrived. The show was fantastic and I had wonderful demo riders. Thanks to everyone we had so many positive comments about the 5-Minute Fixes demo on Friday. In addition to the scheduled demos we did a live feed on Facebook. This was Patrick King’s idea to do a blog post and it was such a hit he came back for my Trail of Torture the next day. :) You can watch both of these on the Murdoch Method YouTube channel, in addition to the discussion I had with Sean Patrick on riding reining stops.
Finally back home and a few days down time – well deserved if I do say so myself and also a big thanks to all the support crew here at home keeping things running while I was traveling the world.
Until next time……(oh yeah – this Autumn!) See you at the Expos!
Wendy
