At the age of twelve Vera selects her first horse and does not yet suspect that it is the horse of her life.
The Icelandic horse took up more and more space in our lives and every day we gained experience with our steadily growing small herd, and we started our first breeding attempts. At this time we also made our first tournament experiences – admittedly, with quite moderate success. But we must not forget what the tournament preparation looked like at that time: We still only had one riding course a year, that had to be enough. Otherwise, we were on our own and had all the time in the world to ride a horse badly. This is how it was at that time – not to be compared with today’s possibilities in terms of lessons and riding! But we also learned to deal with different types of horses, to try something out and to look for our own ways. Even if it didn’t always work out, it still helped us.
Meanwhile, I was twelve and had made my first experiences with different horses. I mostly inherited the ones my older siblings had “outgrown”.
Vera spent many hours a day in the barn
The house of the Reber family under construction, where today the restaurant “Lipperthof bei Erkan” is located.
In 1976 we went to Aschaffenburg again. That was one of the highlights of the year, because Aschaffenburg, this rather insignificant city, was the place of longing of many Icelandic horse lovers for some time. At Hof Schellenmühle we met people with the enthusiasm of my parents, with visions in their heads and the love of a horse breed in their hearts, with which people in Germany still had little experience. Everyone was looking for a horse that would take its owner a step further in this new world of horses.
Usually, my brother chose the horses, and he already had one in mind for me…
This time, I should get a horse, too. Usually, my big brother chose the horses, and he already had one in mind for me. But I did not agree with his selection, because I had long since fallen for a four-year-old grey horse.
What did I like about him? He had a great tölt and was adjustable at any speed. That was different than with my first horse, which was always clear beated but a bit boring, and also different than his successor who was the complete opposite, namely hot and unstoppable. I prevailed against my big brother – with the support of my parents, although my dream horse had a damn high price of 7800 DM at that time. They had to sell two horses for it, I will never forget that!
On Good Friday 1976 I tried my Frosti, on Easter Monday we took him with us to Wurz. I was happy!
