A ride on a Standardbred, a pacing Arabian, and a stable full of My Little Ponies

I finally got to visit the Icelandic horse stable in my neighborhood, totally unexpectedly tonight, so I didn't get any pictures. (I've included some photos from April.) The manager told me I can come by anytime to take pictures, and I promise I will because omgosh, the cuteness! So many of them, all sticking their heads thru the bars to munch hay in a big long line, with their sweet expressions and amazing hair. One had so much forelock it was sticking out in all directions and I just cracked up.

They remind me of wild horses because of their behavior and closeness. They are always pressed up against each other with apparently no personal space issues. Not only at pasture, but what I saw tonight in the indoor area where many live together.

I was there to check out an old retired Icelandic as a possible buddy for Baasha. My first impression of her was "She has more hair than Baasha!" I didn't know any horse could have an even longer coat than Baasha this year.

They said I could just come by and get her anytime, and I offered to just walk her here because there's no need to use a trailer for such a short distance.

Actually the guy wanted to just give me the horse but we cannot afford any more vet bills. He seems to understand this and we'll see if the two horses get along as soon as I get more hay in my loft.

How did this happen so suddenly?

I've been tutoring a neighbor kid (6th grade) in English twice a week, and his dad used to crew for a local endurance rider. I had no idea I lived a stone's throw from an endurance rider, and I met the man last week.

Juergen is almost 70, and seemed happy to meet me and answer my questions about distance riding options in Germany. I'd only been to the two FEI rides and I need to know about local, small, alternatives. I am very turned off by endurance here and I need to understand the whole story before I write it off altogether.

He asked me to come ride with him on Monday so we did.

He rides a big huge Arabian and he gave me his Standardbred to ride. The Standardbred was to be his backup endurance horse. The horse was so huge I couldn't groom his upper parts properly, let alone bridle him.

The Standardbred kept craning his neck around and rolling his eyes at me, Whothehe** are you! he kept saying. He also kept flinching and jumping at every noise. Oh boy, I wondered what I was in for.

Juergen told me we'd only do a walking ride because the Standardbred is recently off the track and has no idea about trails and hills. Sure enough, the horse would hesitate at every hill and try to figure out how to get his enormous form down without falling. He tripped repeatedly, even on these groomed trails. Great, here I am riding another tripper on a training ride.

The worst part about riding an obviously green horse, over 17 hands, was I couldn't adjust the stirrup leathes to fit me, they were as short as they'd go and my legs are really short, my feet were just dangling in the stirrups. I couldn't get my weight down low for the security I needed, and my inner thighs were taking a lot of punishment on an old Bighorn-style endurance saddle. Those high-tech endurance stirrups with springs inside (200 euros!) couldn't help me at all. I said a prayer that I'd survive the day.

The horse gawked at every single thing out there, but wasn't spooky, so I eventually relaxed.

He did bolt a little at one point and I couldn't figure out what the cause was. We just rammed into the Arab, stopping the bolt right there.

The Arab wanted to go-go-go of course, and when we came to one particularly inviting hill, he started jigging. Wait ...that's not a jig --- he was PACING! I'd never seen a pacing Arabian before. I was stunned! I am not sure he's purebred, probably not, being so large.

Juergen finally let me use the informal language with him so that was nice. It's stressful for me to try to remember all the conjugations for formal because by this point it's not as natural for me.

We finally made it home and I gave the horse some apples and bread. Whew, I survived!

I asked him, "So how long have you had this horse?"

"Two weeks."

WTH!

"How many times have you ridden him?"

"Twice."

omygoodness I just can't imagine it, putting a total stranger on a horse you just got from the track, that you'd only ridden twice!

He said "Next time you can bring your own saddle, and you can go ride him alone if you want." Uh uh, alone, no way. But yes, my own saddle will help a lot! I said "Do you have an extra extra long english girth?"

I have to be wary after my experiences riding people's horses here in Germany. It seems people want to use me to make their crazy horses less so, or use me to do conditioning rides with no hope for ever competing myself. I mean, if I were young and daring I'd be into it, but I don't want to adopt someone else's challenge - I'll buy my own challenge again someday.

He lives so close, I have to be careful, he doesn't seem like an easy person to get along with, from certain comments he's made. But he is totally eager to befriend me and my man.

Tonight he came over unexpectedly to meet my husband and ask us out to dinner at a fancy restaurant nearby. My man said "March" and then he said "Would you like to go meet that Icelandic horse now?"

That's how we ended up there, standing around in this huge stable full of tiny fluffy horses with Juergen talking to the ladies there - one lady was oiling her saddle and Juergen told her "Hey, I've got myself a new Trotter!" (They call Standardbreds "Trotters" here.) Then he went on to say "My endurance mare got kicked on a ride from Munich to Italy and broke her leg so now she's wurst."

I looked at another lady standing there and she said "Did he say 'wurst'?" and I asked my man, "Did he?" and my man said, "Yes. The horse is sausage now." AGH! Who talks about their horse like that?

My man later explained that the horses are not his pets, they are his hobby. I cannot reconcile this.

We'll see what happens.