Another barn and the mystery horse

I have one (one!) colleague who has a horse, but she's a returning rider after 20 years with no horses and admits she doesn't have much knowledge or experience.
I have a hard time communicating with her cuz she's one of those fast talkers who don't know how to articulate for foreigners. But I'm getting better at her murmuring speedy talk. First thing when I found out she had a horse near Cologne, I asked, "When will you invite me to see him!?" and it took a long time, and lots of repetitions of that question, but finally on Friday she took me seriously and we met after work.

I also have to add that she's kind of an abrasive German, the kind you think of when you think "Typical German." She has the gift of "forthrightness," which is putting it nicely.

I really like seeing new barns and although she told me to bring my breeches, I wasn't too keen on riding yet another strange horse.

Funny, as a kid I'd jumpt at any chance to ride. Now I want the relationship, I want to ride a horse I know. Especially after so many test rides lately. Ugh.

There is one thing about Germany that is very very cool for people like us. Horse sport is huge here. Horse sport, horse hobby, horses overall - horses rule and each and every German city has riding stables and trails and the opportunity, even for city kids, to ride in either cheap lessons (10$/hour) or a lease situation. Every grocery store and gas station has horse magazines. Every day there is something horsey on TV.

So I was not suprised when, just a few mintutes outside of downtown Cologne, we hit the horse area - a district where one riding stable comes after the next. One was actually still IN the city!

"So what kind of horse do you have?" I asked.

"I don't know."

I thought, oh boy, she's really new to horses. But then I realized, she honestly doesn't know, and no one knows.

So your guess is as good as mine.

He's the prettiest horse in the barn. Honest, and the barn has a good share of fancy Andalusians and Fresians and Tinkers if you like hair.

Her horse's name is Diamond and he's a dark bay with a head very much like an Arabian. Striking with exotic curved ears, large sweet eyes, and a tiny muzzle. His neck is long, his croup is a table top, and his coat gleams in health.

But he's freaking huge. As soon as I saw his back up above my head I thought, "I'll pass on the ride." She says she just likes the big ones. Oh, but she also said, "He's not nearly as big as many others in this barn!"

Before coming to Germany I was told "The horses are big" by a friend. Boy was she right.

The horse had navicular and was stall bound for a year, during which the owner defaulted and just quit - leaving him to the barn owner.

The horse has strange legs, strange pasterns and hooves, I don't know how to explain it, but they're just strange. He definitely has an old injury to his RF pastern.

She asked me to look at his hooves and they're long, but not bad. OK the heels are like 1 inch long (over the sole) but the frogs are healthy and the hooves have great concavity.

She saddled him in the aisle without even tying him up, he just stands there. I tried to get some photos but taking photos in a dark barn aisle is no way to photograph a horse.(This photo is my colleague on Diamond. For some reason in this photo he reminds me of Mikael's Dandy.)

The arena was also dark. There was a lesson going on, with about 8 girls/women riding. I was fascinated, watching the lesson. One lady fell off and I felt so bad for her. Later my colleague told me that lady always falls off, she has no balance at all.

I watched my colleague ride and she did the typical very long warm up and extremely conservative workout and even longer cool down. Well, when your horse lives in a stall all Winter -- yah, they had no Winter paddocks at this place, only stalls!

She has 2 ladies leasing Diamond as well, to help with the cost, and keep him busy.

The fun part came after the lesson was over. A second trainer entered the arena, a man, and he started playing with the stereo, flipping stations. Three male riders entered the arena.

He found some schmalzy German station and then the fun began. It was wonderful, so different from the women's lesson - these guys were singing along with the silly songs, and cracking jokes, and laughing. I was amazed how all three of them had their boots stuck all the way in their stirrups as far as they'd go, and no one said anything. I kept expecting a horrible accident/dragging to occur. But these guys were having so much fun! I would sign up for the men's hour, I say!

 My friend finally finished and did the ritual of scraping the arena sand out of her horse's hooves before leading to the stall. This happens at all of the German riding stables I've been to - you clean the sand out because the barn owner paid for a sand arena and wants the sand to stay there.

As is typical, people were smoking cigarettes in the arena and in the barn.

It was a Friday night and everyone was very casual and relaxed and just having fun with their horses. Some people were out in the lit outdoor, lunging their horses.

One teenage girl sat next to me - she was wearing those awful argyle socks up to her knees over her breeches, and she changed from her riding paddock boots to her tennis shoes - with the socks staying as they were. Yuk.

I really don't know what kind of horse Diamond is. He is a very light, delicate mover, not moving out much, but barely glancing the ground with his hooves. He gives me the impression he has some injuries he's protecting, even though he's sound.

My colleague is doing very well by him, riding so conservatively. I think he'll give her years of pleasure riding. She says she's never ridden him out of the arena, but she doesn't seem to mind that.

She tried to get me to ride but I was content to just watch.

I wish them well.