This is my "old Hero" Lad's Black Buster - who's 24 years old now and he's been my horse for 21 years!  Bred in Germany, and imported to the Netherlands in 1986, Buster also has Racking Horse papers (RHAA, Alabama), which I applied for through an intermediate who saw him rack here in Europe. Buster can rack and he can walk and I've got pictures of him at three years old, not being ridden yet (and unshod), showing him at a walk, at a rack and at a trot. For him, a  rack is obviously natural as well - I just compare him with Roan Allen F-38, who is described as executing a very fine rack as well as a splendid walk.

**Lad's Black Buster was gently laid to rest at the age of 24 years.**

I used to train him regularly on the lunge line and then I let him trot, on the Dutch command "draf" which he knows well, to let him use those muscles and make himself long and relaxed (with at times his nose reaching to the ground).  These are some pictures of Buster under side-saddle, which I did quite a lot with him. Buster was also shown under side-saddle and a friend of mine even showed him jumping under side-saddle!

Now Buster is a very spirited horse with lots of stamina but he can be lunged with just a halter on, and and you can hold  him with just your little finger. Once a little girl of five years old, asked me whether she could lunge my horse too. I let her do it and even stepped out of the ring. There was this child, lunging my stallion all on her own! 

Things do change with other horses around though, for  he's mighty interested in mares. He can be ridden within any group, as I often did, but at a show or any occasion with foreign horses, it's very difficult to let him relax enough to do a walk, he'll be too tense for it and will readily go off in a rack. Now I do enjoy a rack, but a nice lofty rack covering lots of ground! When Buster used to be trained and was well muscled, he surely could do such a rack!

The photo below of Buster in western gear was taken by Ellen Vierhaus, Stephan's wife and partner in their horse-business. They are well-known gaited-horse trainers. In 1991 Buster was staying at their place for the breeding season. He was mainly used to cover "German Trotters" (this registry is built up of about 90% Standardbred blood). These "Trotters" are often gaited, and that's exactly the main activity of Ellen and Stephan Vierhaus: training and selling German Trotters as gaited riding horses. The crossbreds TWH with Trotter are registered with a German Registry-Book (Rheinisches Pferdestammbuch). I still have Trotters now and again to breed to Buster or Leroy.

Buster can be ridden with virtually any type of bit or without bitting, also on a halter with ropes attached. Seven years ago he had an accident in his stable-box. He's usually quiet in the stable but there was a mare in heat and probably at night he had been rearing. I came there at four o'clock p.m. and found him standing at the rear of his box (he always came to the door normally), with a little saliva with bubbles drooping from his lip and he hadn't touched much of his hay and pallets. So I knew something to be wrong (typically - nobody had noticed anything before - I must admit here I'm a vet so I've got that advantage).

Further I noticed a little bit of swelling on his lower jaw, no blood or open wound. Also, I saw scratches on the metal above his stable door, and that was such a type of door running over wheels with this (dangerous!) longitudinal opening over the door. So, obviously, he had been rearing, got stuck in that opening with his lower jaw, and had it broken - my most probable diagnosis.

So I got a halter, loose enough to let his lower jaw free, got Buster up the horse trailer and drove him very carefully to another vet with X-ray apparatus. He made the X-rays and there it came out that his lower jaw was broken threefold and complicated (several small fragments). We decided to treat him "conservatively", that is, without surgery (too much risk of bone infection and other complications) and this turned out to be right.

Buster's jaw healed very well. After healing he again ate everything, but during his recovery,  he was fed several buckets of nourishing "porridge" a day, for several months. I couldn't turn him out on grass (or anywhere) or feed him any hay or give him straw in the stable! Any force on his jaw should be avoided! Couldn't use a bit, didn't have a bosal, just a hackamore - which of course couldn't be used because of the strap under the jaw.

So I lunged him (with the little finger!) and rode him out on a halter. Couldn't stay in a riding pen as this really was not enough for his high spirits (and both Buster and I quite dislike it). Later I bought a side-pull, could put it on loose, no pressure on the jaw but just on the nose-bone, and rode him with this all the consecutive year. Then it was Spring again and Buster was getting more interested in the mares, so I started with a mouthpiece again as passing other horse-riders in the woods with just a side-pull on a stallion became a bit insecure.

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