2004 Vorwerk Stallion Show

Dinner with the Westendarps

Another way in which Thomas and I are mutually linked is through Johannes Westendarp. Johannes has indirectly linked us together without him even realizing it. I first visited his beautiful farm in November by being invited to it through my American friend Holly Simensen. She is keeping two brood mares there which I know from their performances at breed shows in Europe. I met Holly for the first time at the 2000 Palm Beach Dressage Derby through Mary Phelps. Thomas is linked to Johannes through his Danish friend Lone Boegh Henriksen, who purchased the licensed Hanoverian Rosentanz (Rohdiamant x Sao Paulo) at the 2003 Hanoverian Licensing. As Johannes owned Rosentanz before Lone and is a renowned trainer of young dressage horses, Lone decided to keep the stallion at Johannes' barn until the 30-day performance test.

When I told Ines Westendarp that we were coming to Germany for the Vorwerk show, we were invited for dinner. By 5.30 PM we were at Hof Westendarp where we saw Ines and Johannes taking care of their kids. Matthias was playing with a tractor and trailer, which he called "Anengeh" (Anhanger), and Alexa was bustling about. When the babysitter came, we left for an Italian place close by. Three German girls who are friends of the Westendarps joined us for dinner, which was delicious!

We drove back to Vechta round 11 PM and were both dead tired in fact. So, not paying close attention we took the wrong road leading us into Bramsche instead of on the highway to Vechta. After 40 minutes of driving we back in Osnabruck having travelled the same road twice. It was an almost Kafkaesque situation. Round 12.15 AM we were at the hotel, tugged to the room and fell a sleep right away.

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