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This Saturday we were invited to a great event. Our friends, York and Bettina, invited us to a "hunt".
You can see from the photos, that the boys were excited to wake up early, drive 90 minutes south and west of Munich to the largest lake in Germany, and take a ferry to an island.There are two islands which were previously cloisters (one for men and one for women) until King Ludwig II decided he wanted the island for himself. He built a small version of Versailles as a summer palace.
We were only told that it would be a show of horses and dogs to celebrate the history of hunting.
Arriving at 9am we noticed some of the people in outfits that seemed out of the 19th century (and lots of dogs including George.)
We loved that after a short ceremony, the people sat for white sausage, pretzels, and beer - 9am. Our host said, "yeah - but they got up at 5am so it's practically noon to them..."
At 11, we gathered to watch the priest come out of a church built before Columbus sailed to the new world, to bless the riders, horses, and dogs. The riders had outfits of red and blue riding jackets with helmets and various body protection. The average age of the riders was about 60 years.After the blessing, the observers walked to a spot where the riders would have to jump a huge log.
Since almost no one believes it is nice to hunt fox in the traditional fashion, the hunt had two riders lead the dogs/riders with a 'scent' bag. The 40+ dogs then gave chase and the riders followed.
At the first jump, we tried to explain that there was some danger to horses and riders to our kids. First, the scent horses came by - then the sound of the dogs. It was exciting. We were warned that we needed to keep George on a very short lease because the hunting dogs are capable of killing non-hunting dogs.
Here is a shot of the horses coming across the jump.
The ceremony was great. The event is hosted by the head of the Bavarian hunting club, who invites the owner of the dogs and various "friends".
Here we see the dogs.
They control the dogs with whips and calls and whips.After a couple of jumps and demonstrations of hunting, there is an intermission where we were invited to sit for lunch. We stretched out on our blanket and took out our lunch while the horses were kept warm by walking around the field.
Notice the ambulance in the background. We had one rider (age: 65+) fall off the horse at the first jump. He looked very embarrassed and more hurt. Horse rode off at high speed. Rider got up without help but I sensed broken ribs. Kids asked if he was OK and our host said, "sure - it gets easier if you do it all the time." He probably can't walk today. I will check the obits tomorrow.
After 3 hours of riding and jumping - they rode up the main lawn of the Schloss (castle). The dogs were rewarded after a day of hunting with a huge barrel of cow stomachs- they fought over the pieces. The riders, who started with beer, had some champagne.
Daphne and I were so happy but the kids were not as impressed. After the ferry back to the island, we stopped at a small chapel with the oldest frescoes (12th century) in Bavaria. Kids didn't even want to go into the chapel.
They found a playground outside the chapel and there was a ride which looked like a wagon wheel on a pole with straps that let the kids swing with wild abandon.I am sure this will be the only memory of the day.
York and I demonstrate that at the end of every adventure in Bavaria is a beer. (He had the small).
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