Good horse, bad ride

I hate this, I do not want to be shopping anymore. I am so sick of it.

I really like this horse, Tempelhof. He's actually really pretty in RL and I find that I really like his warm color.


His head is atrocious, he has goaty eyes, but his legs and feet look good (until....later).

When I arrived two guys were already saddled up (one mounted) ready for me to join them on a trail ride. That is not usually how I do things but since it's a Standardbred, I thought, "Nothing worse than 2 weeks ago can happen." Boy was I wrong.

I was having a great time. Chatting it up with Ado, a man who's known Tempelhof for 3 years and knows everything about him and just adores him. I even asked him if he was getting a cut of the sale, he was so glowing about the horse. He said "Um Gottes Willen nein!"

I was really happy to be riding English again. Oh, those nice, tractable reins! I was in a dressage saddle that felt great.

His boyfriend with a lovely Martin Gore hairdo was riding a hot chestnut mare who jigged ahead of us most of the ride, trying to hurry us along. I was very impressed that Tempelhof did not insist on being right up behind her and he actually let her go on further and further with only keen interest, but no actual fight with me (as Baasha would have done).

I asked the horse for his head and he finally gave it to me and then it didn't take long before he was dropping onto the bit when I only touched him with my calves. Nice. He did have a rooting issue but I can fix that (in German I found out it's called "stealing the reins".)

It was terribly icy and the convoluted frozen mud was tricky but he never tripped. He is barefoot.

I noted that when a slender branch touched Tempelhof, he flinched. That is not normal behavior for an experienced trail horse. However, that would be no problem to train, I'm very fond of bushwhacking (geocaching) with horses where they must press through brush and step over complicated things. That would be fun, actually.

I was having such a great time until it happened. I don't know what happened, they had to tell me later. I guess some lady saw us coming, looked Ado right in the eye and then whipped her silver ice windshield guard off her car. I never saw her all I know was my horse was spinning and I was about to fall off but I was able to get ahold of the reins and then wham, his neck hit me in the face. I was hit so hard my head was spinning and I thought something was broken. I burst into tears from the pain (how embarrassing) and Ado was like "Do you want to get off? Are you OK?" I said, "Yes. Yes - is my face OK?" I thought I was bleeding but I wasn't. I tried to get off the horse and I couldn't, I was too shaky. I yelled HO! at the horse because he was still jumpy and I'm thinking that was the first time those guys had heard anyone shout that word at a horse (they say "Brrr" in German).

I finally jumped to the ground and leaned my spinning head into the shoulder of Tempelhof and cried. I then led him down the trail after the boyfriend. I was actually happy to be back on the ground again and thinking of all the times I'd been happy to just get off and lead a horse. It felt good to walk. I heard Ado shouting at the BF, "Schatzi, don't let her trot, make her walk!" and he'd try but she'd jig and then he'd just stop her and wait for us. This happened over and over the way home. Finally I found and incline and used it to jump back on Tempelhof. I was determined to not let this ruin my ride, but I could feel my chin throbbing and my lip swelling up like I'd had enhancement surgery. I put Tempelhof into a shorter frame and made him go the rest of the way home like that. I was pleased that he responded exactly as Baasha would, obediently and never arguing. I did let him have his head where on downhill slopes.

I found myself crying again and immediately wondering why - was it pain, was it fear, was it shame, or was it the supreme disappointment that something had to go wrong with this horse I was having such a great time on?

I thought it was funny later when the owner said, "He's never thrown anyone" and I said, "He almost did today." (BTW, I got the impression that the owner did not know the horse as well as Ado, he's just trying to sell him for his wife who recently gave birth to twins.)

Ado and I finally picked up a conversation after a long while and I navigated the frozen solid bits without falling.

When we got home I asked to see Ado ride Tempelhof in the arena. I got some pictures but they're blurry.

He's a decent dressage rider (besides this falling forward thing) and Tempelhof is no slacker, he looked great, and actually quite light on the front end as he was really trying hard.

I was really starting to like this horse, but I had one big worry about him - his pasterns. They look OK when he's standing, but when he walks or trots, they drop significantly. I don't know if it's DSLD or what. He does have the posty rear legs that tend to go with DSLD.

I wonder if any of you have experience with horses like this. It really worries me and I'm not even sure it's worth a vet exam because many vets won't recognize it, and early diagnosis is tough.

I would love to go back and have a perfect ride on that horse. His manners could use help - he literally dragged his owner the entire way to the paddock when we were finished. He would not be dragging me anywhere if I bought him!

I think that any horse would have spooked at that, and I never said spooking was a problem for me, I always said I'd rather have a spooky horse than one who's terribly herd bound.

My head hurts so I took some ibuprofen, and I even checked my memory on the way home by saying my birthday and my wedding day. I feel weak all over, it must be from the stress of that.

I came home and groomed Baasha and he was angelic, so beautiful and he was stretching up and pushing into the brush, which he never does, but after all these blankets he's itchy. I sure do love him.

Below are pics of the day, including the fancy arena with adjacent viewing lounge. Nice! And Ado riding Tempelhof, blurry due to low light. Lots of pics...