Home is where the heart is - and it's easy to know where it is

Glad to be home! Even though we didn’t get a warm (in the true sense of the word) welcome, a temperature drop of about 50F (!) between Germany and Michigan wasn’t exactly fun. We had a great –albeit very busy- week, spending lots of time with family and friends, tack shopping, sightseeing, enjoying the Leonberger Pferdemarkt.

The Leonberger Pferdemarkt (“horse market”) has been happening once a year every second Tuesday in February since 1634! Basically, the town of Leonberg devotes several days to horses and horse related activities, culminating on Tuesday with the public horse sales,  a huge parade through town, and a special trade fair. The animals for sale on the medieval market square are family and pleasure horses, ponies, even donkeys;  meaning they are mainly for children and trail-riding adults. The sales are conducted by handshake, no paperwork, no pre-purchase exam. There is an area off the main square separated off where the horses get trotted up, and that basically is the assessment. Nowadays the sales portion is more to keep the tradition up than conducting major deals, though.

(A note to people that are thinking of “horse market” in terms of “Sales/Auction” the American Way: This has nothing to do with meat auctions. These horses are not sold for meat).

Another fun visit was to Loesdau, a huge tack supplier with locations all over Germany. Their headquarters are located right next to Burg Hohenzollern, a castle built in the 11^th century. After some serious shopping we enjoyed a glass of “Tannenzaepfle” (the awesome local beer) at the tack shop’s bar located in a tower; looking out at the Burg. Ah, NICE!

But, it sure was also NICE to be home. And yes, as they say “Home is where the heart is” – or in our case: “Home is where our critters are”. I’m sure Saumur, Chambord, Remy, Teddy, Max, Jaas, Halle, Julius and Jerry agree wholeheartedly!