Missed Connections
Reflecting on Thursday's marathon trip, we were looking forward to a little easier day this Friday. We were to return to Tullstorp in the morning, and then go on to see a couple of horses that were owned by people we met the previous day. These horses were both stabled at other farms, thankfully a little closer not only to our hotel, but also to the National Stud at Flyinge. We hoped to spend some time, and Euros, at the tack shop there as well.
Day 5 - Friday February 12th.
When we went down for breakfast on Friday morning, it felt like we were two bears returning home to find that Goldilocks had been in our porridge! This was the first time that anyone had beat us to the breakfast table, but thankfully there was plenty left on the buffet.


After breakfast we drove the 15 minutes to Tullstorp, where we were to see again the same chestnut gelding as we had seen on Wednesday. The morning was particularly cold, making Jan's heated indoor seem even more like paradise. Courtenay rode the gelding, who went even better this day, as they had become a little more comfortable with eachother.



At the same time, Jan and his staff were going about their usual day of riding the stallions and horses in training. We saw Jan ride another Briar offspring, this time a very large bay gelding, before handing him off to trade for a young stallion. Jan is very involved in the development of young horses and preparing stallions for testing, and there were both 2.5 - and 3.5-year old stallions being ridden. It was fascinating to see how the training was approached with these young horses, clearly keeping it a game for them where they don't realize just how hard they are working! The quality of these young horses just shone in every step.



Jan was enthused to show us another seven year old stallion, also sired by Briar, and whom they refer to as "the copy" for good reason. Nearly identical in markings, and very similar in shape, he was one of those horses, like his sire, with whom you can't help but fall in love. True to the Briar stamp, he displayed the trademark piaffe and passage, as well as some of the best pirouettes we'd ever seen! Just when we thought he was done, Jan offered Courtenay the chance to "sit up" on him. Like a kid at Christmas, Courtenay's eyes lit up as she rode around with a huge grin on her face. You could see this would be a moment not soon forgotten!



Once the riding was finished we joined Jan for coffee in the upstairs lounge, taking advantage of one more chance to warm up before continuing on towards Flyinge.
It was at this time that we began experiencing technical difficulties. Our understanding was that we were to meet someone at a barn close to Flyinge, at 1pm. We had been instructed to phone this individual to confirm time at some point in the morning, but we didn't seem able to get the call through from Courtenay's Blackberry. After several attempts, we decided to make our way in that direction anyway, thinking that if nothing else we could show up at the barn and try to get in contact with the rider from there, killing some time in the nearby tack shop if necessary. Thinking that things might not go exactly according to plan, we thought it prudent to touch base with our second contact, who was scheduled to show us another horse later in the afternoon. Our problems continued, as we could not reach this person either! So we went with our original plan, since we were half way to Flyinge at this point.
Over the previous days, we had come to the conclusion that not all properties here have exact street addresses. Some do, but others merely have a postal code and a name, ie Tullstorp. In most cases the names seem to coincide with the name of the surrounding area. Whatever the system is, I have yet to completely decode it, which can make it difficult when the GPS requests a complete address! In this particular instance, this incongruence would prove challenging. Sparing the reader from the boring details of several u-turns, much confusion, and a whole lot of cursing, let me just say that at one point we did find ourselves driving backwards down a deeply snow-covered country lane with ditches on either side, a dumptruck headed towards us and gaining ground far more quickly than our Faulty Ford Focus could move!
Eventually we did find a barn that resembled the description we had been given, but we still had not been in contact with anyone. We drove into the yard but couldn't locate a human being, so finally we accepted our defeat and decided to ease our disappointment with some retail therapy at Flyinge. Courtenay selected some stunning double bridles for her horses back home, while I opted to save my Euros for Germany, where we'll be next week.



With a few more miles on the ol' clunker, horses ridden and money spent, a stop at the pastry shop on the way home was all we needed to complete the day. Being finished before dinner time is always a novel concept for us, and you might think that we'd use this opportune Friday night to paint the town red. However we were pretty sure that the 'town' of Stortorget was not quite ready for us, and we didn't want word of our antics to get back to our newly established contacts.
With that in mind, and spending some well-deserved down time in the hotel, we were able to catch up on a bit of correspondence with the folks back home, and address other important business such as attending to this much neglected blog!
Tune in again tomorrow for our return to Odense, and escapades in Saturday's early morning snowstorm...