Thoroughbred Reitbeteiligung

I went to check out a TB at a stable nearby that I've always been curious about. Oh, how I wish I'd brought my camera! This is one of the most uniquely designed stables I've seen. I will bring it next time.

The whole time I was feeling quite cautious. My husband actually told me "Nice knowing ya!" when he knew I was leaving to see a TB. OK, I have some history in Germany with a TB and he knows it precisely.

As soon as I walked in the entry gate, I was surrounded by 5 dogs, 2 of them barking an ear splitting, nonstop attack. I was being sniffed all over and I really hate that. I know it's typical for farms to have loose dogs but there was no one around and I cannot help but be nervous when surrounded by loose barking dogs. (They do bite when they bark, my man found out on one of our neighborhood walks.) (In these photos stolen from their website, the place looks flat when viewed from above but trust me it's incredibly hilly here and everything is stacked.)

I ask around and finally find the couple who own the TB. The man is cleaning stalls and she takes me on a little tour. I was thrilled to see the place. It is built on the side of a hill so the winter paddocks are almost stacked, on levels above one another. The outdoor riding ring was on the edge of the hill. If you fell off your horse you could fall down the whole mountain.

The indoor riding hall was just a little room with support colums every 5 meters so you would have to dodge those as you rode. I wonder how many people have collided.

The indoor was a second floor, over stalls. Yikes. People here are creative when it comes to working with this convoluted landscape. An arena over stalls. (Last week I saw horses living basically underground!)

There were horses EVERYWHERE, even turned out in the outdoor ring and turned out in the riding hall. I liked that not a single horse was in a stall, but if I wanted to ride, I'd have to move horses around and that would make me uncomfortable. Sure there are plenty of people running around to help, but still - on a Saturday, was no one going to ride? There were so many little girls running around getting ponies and grooming ponies and cleaning and feeding silage. What a great place for kids. One lady showed up and put her two little kids in the nursery area (an outdoor playland) and went to get her horse.

The website for this place talks about how they encourage people who don't have their own horse to come "adopt" one of theirs for a fee and play with it.

They are a rescue with 40 horses, 6 or 7 are boarders.

This is from their site, the arrival of another rescue. Note the very helpful dogs, smelling every newcomer's backside.

They have a great marketing plan that draws people to help out, and enjoy the presence of horses they otherwise couldn't. I'm impressed.

But the bathroom was for crap, and they have no riders' lounge as most stables here do. Oh well. I learned they own a business in Duesseldorf and travel there often. That's not easy, so, they're not just running a rescue, they have their own business and this is on the side. I wonder how often they get to enjoy their own horses.

This photo shows the indoor hall (the white/black area) over the stalls (stone). Cathrin took me down to the muddy paddock where a group of horses hung out. Her TB, Anwa was standing there being the herd boss. He was huge, *sigh*. She catches him and then his best friend tries to come through, slipping through the gate. Cathrin's husband grabs the horse's winter blanket to try to haul him backwards but that doesn't work. Cathrin yells over to someone "loose horse" and someone catches him. We're standing in this narrow aisleway between two winter paddocks. It's not quite wide enough to stand beside the horse you're leading through, you have to go single file. On both sides are horses reaching their heads over the fence and guess what they're doing? They're feinting and baring their teeth and lunging and biting at Anwa. From both sides while we wait for the loose horse to get caught in that "alley."

You would have smiled if you'd have seen me. I was fully 10 meters back from the bad situation, ready to bolt if things got ugly. Cathrin yelled to someone, "I'm in a bad place here!"

Yah, design flaw.

I start thinking this place is not for me, how can I get out of this...

She wants me to get to know the horse, but won't ride him for me because she doesn't ride. She ties him up and says, "I'm actually afraid of horses."

Uh....what?

I said, "You own two...and you're afraid?"

She said, "My daughter has a pony and I got this TB for my husband, but he cannot ride, his doctor won't let him."

I said, "But he cleans stalls. OK!"

I strip the blanket off of him and see a huge lanky underweight TB. His back is way above my head. I hate that.

Cathrin goes to the feed area and comes back with an enormous tub filled to the very top with grain. Corn, oats, barley. It was bigger than a 5 gallon bucket. I've heard of people feeding horses (TBs, actually) this much grain but I'd actually never seen it with my eyes.


I thought, "Oh well, there goes any chance of me getting to know this horse." and I told her so.

She offered to let me groom him and I did my best. For about 30 minutes I worked on him even though he'd just rolled in the mud and had sticky parts. The rest I got shining, and his mane turned out very fluffy and nice. He's a nice looking horse.

A short lady showed up with a little girl and I was told this was his former Reitbeteiligung (lease) and she pointed to her belly to say why she's no longer riding. She's due to have another baby soon.

She didn't offer any information about the horse, what I was hoping, but I let the two of them talk as I groomed. I was very annoyed with Cathrin smoked cigarettes right there next to us, right in the barn. Ugh. Another lady joined her. That's Germany, smoking in barns is safe because your barn is made of stone anyway!

Anwa was very nice with his feet and I noticed he had snow shoes on front and was bare behind.

Cathrin explained that his last Reitbeteiligung (before the pregnant girl?) was an overambitious jumper rider who not only wanted to compete often, but to win. She was also too heavy for him (she said 90 kilos), for jumping. I said, "It is hard to admit fear, but I will admit I fear jumping. It's something I intend to learn someday but I am not in a hurry." (OK I can do small jumps but big ones, no way! I'm fine until that landing part comes.)

I asked my most pressing question - wie ist er..oh sorry "How is he out on trails, alone, and with others?"

She said, "Oh, I don't let my lease riders ride him alone out there! That's too dangerous."

At that point I almost walked away, but then I thought, hmmm...........

I said, "What about lessons. I am interested in Dressage lessons - can I take them here?"

She said a few trainers come now and then. I said, "How often?" "Every two weeks" OK...

Then another lady said, "Oh, it's mostly ground work, what we're doing now."

I said, "I would love to come watch, and observe and see if I can understand the instructor." (German horse nomenclature)

They invited me to come out next Sunday to see a lesson. Cathrin said this time she'll try hard to get her daughter to come so I can watch her ride the horse.

I thought, hmmm, it still might work for me. I thanked them both heartily and went home and told my man.

He said, "That's like 3 blog posts worth right there."

Maybe he forgot about my propensity for lengthy posts? As my niece says, "My aunt can sure write a lot!"

As I left I noticed he wasn't done eating that grain, and I'd been there an hour. That's a lotta grain.