Emergency dismount: I've got it

I'm celebrating life again tonight as I survived another test ride on another young Arabian.

A homlier Arabian I have never met, but she was a sweetheart on the ground. This is a 7 year old mostly Egyptian Arabian. Her owner, a very tall man, is meticulous with her care.

In fact, I've never seen someone groom a horse so thoroughly, in particular, the hooves. He took forever on each hoof. He scraped, he brushed, he dug into the white line as much as he could, he brushed some more, each hoof was pristine when he finally set it down. I am a pretty good hoof cleaner, when I take the time to use a brush and betadine, but I don't do this every time like he apparently does. Do you see her "Seabiscuit" leg here?

The mare was lipping my hand and standing very politely, she has very good manners. He saddled her and we went to the arena.

He is a good horseman - he spent at least 10 minutes warming her up at a walk and bending her and doing serpentines. He is a Phillipe Karl follower, I appreciate that! That's why he rides so "out of her mouth" - he rides with his seat and legs.

He rides with no rein contact, using his seat and legs and torso position to steer.


When I got on, he directed me to use my torso to turn her, and my hips. It was wonderful, like having a riding lesson, and it really worked, the mare is sensitive to the slightest postural/weight change.

She has that prancy walk/trot like Bedina, a horse I rode a few months ago that hangs each hoof in the air in suspension before setting it down again. A very labor intensive but pretty quirk.

This mare is named Bint Marena and her pedigree is full of the same Egyptians as Baasha's. The man was astute enough to know what Bint means.

She's so homely, isn't she? And I have to wonder about a man who looks about 7 feet tall riding a horse who, although advertised as 153 cm, is shorter than Baasha (150).

I did some turns on the haunches with her and some nice serpentines, she's really well started. She responds to your thoughts, your intentions in your body.

I don't know why she wears a shanked snaffle. I asked and he said she just likes it. I found it hard to ride with "no hands" because this bit was really a monster, but I managed (except on the trail).

I also noted she has the most upside-down neck of any horse I've ever met, despite his gentle, no hands riding. I wonder why. The topline of her neck is completely atrophied, sunken, as neglected horses' necks often hang.

Hooves.

She has these tiny black size 0 hooves that are so incredibly resilient, she is a true gravel cruncher.

--I'm sorry that these images do not reflect the story sequentially. I only took a few while I was there and then used the sale photos. I know it's confusing to read!--

As we hit the trail (him on a 4 year old Andalusian), I marvelled at how she just carried on, striding out over jagged rock and even a section of trail that had been recently laid with broken roofing tiles. Seriously, we were riding on solid broken ceramic shards, and she just carried on with her tiny black hooves. (Which are admittedly very uneven but they are not barefoot people, they just realize that this horse doesn't seem to need shoes so they let her go. I told him it would be a shame if a buyer put shoes on such wonderful feet and he admitted he would do it if he put her into endurance training. I said there are some wonderful hoof boots on the market. I hope he heard me.)

Then we came to a field that had been recently mowed and had big plastic shrink-wrapped bales of silage/haylage everywhere. Since the man had advertised her as "Beginner safe", I had no worries. But his young grey horse started fretting and then suddenly bolted down the road. At this my horse started fretting and started to bolt, and for some unknown reason I turned her into the woods. Maybe some twisted logic in my head thought that banging into trees would be nicer than uncontrolled road racing. I have no idea, but I found myself tangling in bushes and trees and the mare was freaking out and tripping over large stumps, and she was not only terrifed of the hay bales, she was now missing her friend. Great.


As she continued bouncing around, I went past the point where I thought I could ride it out. I considered that I might die today, so I planned my emergency dismount and did it. I was pretty shook up.

The man turned his horse around finally and came back and found me on the ground and asked if she had reared or knocked me off. I said, "Reared? No."

I walked a bit and got back on. To be honest I had had enough and wanted to go back. I'd spent my Saturday off work driving to another state and I just wanted to go home and spend time with Baasha.

But I got back on and rode further, wherever he wanted to go. At one shallow hill (they're all shallow in Niedersachsen), the mare tried to take off. I spent a great deal of energy and scolded her a bit, trying to keep her at a walk. He says he always runs here.

We talked about endurance riding, what he and his wife sometimes do, at the lower levels. He told me about the beach endurance ride at the North Sea. They camp on a Standardbred racing track the whole weekend. Cool, huh? His wife does endurance on a Haflinger. Isn't that odd? He says that a Haflinger won an endurance ride recently - I love it when a non-Arab wins, it's something special.

When we got back we re-groomed the horses immaculately again, with all the hoof scraping, picking and brushing as before. My goodness! Then we took them to pasture and he told me his release process. He says we should turn the horses toward us, then give them one slice of apple, then remove the halter, then give them the second slice and say the word "Prima". OK, I don't really understand the use of the word Prima (except that I sometimes say "Good boy" when my horse sighs and relaxes, automatically), but I did it. And you know what, it was a really nice trick. The horses did not take off, nor did they even leave us - they kind of just hung out around us until we left, and then they walked off. A very safe method of turning out.

I was fascinated by the barn (as always) - it was brick with huge windows facing outward to the parking area where I parked. Many horses stuck their heads out as I drove up. The windows seem big enough that a feisty horse could leave. The barn had some stalls with those ceiling-to-floor bars for feeding hay. One mare with a baby was eating straw, the baby too, and her trough was full of "corn hash" - what I saw in a huge plastic wrapped round bale outside - ground up entire corn plants. Apparently they don't taste as good as straw bedding.

The barn was the same building as the house, what I really am jealous of! One door separated them, and a black room with black soot held a big black tank. I thought it was an oil tank but he said it was a wood burning furnace that heats the entire house. I said "They put wood in? Every day?" "Yes." I looked up into the barn rafters where straw was poking through the holes, and the rafters were black with soot above the stalls. How risky is this situation - you build a fire every day, IN YOUR BARN? OK, I need to see the whole picture - in Germany, many homes and barns share the same building, so if they make a fire in their woodstove, technically they are building it in their barn/home. I don't know, this just seemed especially unsafe considering the entire roof of the barn was black with soot from the fires.

He was anxious to hear my opinion about his mare. I told him honestly I'm concerned about her right front leg. She's got a Seabiscuit front leg (over at the knee), and it never slowed Seabiscuit down, but I'm not sure it's prudent to buy a horse with that. He seemed reasonable about a pre-purchase exam, (fail: seller pays. passes: buyer pays).

Do you see how she tends to not weight that leg?

But it's more than just the leg.

I drove home at 160 kph (very fast) and went out to my pasture and sat on the grass, watching Baasha nibble grass, with my cat purring and rubbing on me, and I thought, "It's so good to be alive tonight."

I stayed out there until darkness fell. I cleaned Baasha's feet meticulously and brushed his mane while he ate his dinner. It's this horse, my horse, Baasha, I really wish to ride. *sigh*