Whether you buy him or not is between you and your trainer, but I like him.
We have a Cornet son (out of a Ramiro Z mare) who looks and sounds personality wise (honestly the sweetest, most perfect puppy dog) very like this horse, so clearly I’m partial 
Ours is headed for the hunter ring as he is slow, slow, slow…
Are you still over there? Can you set up another test ride over a course? They can be lower fences, you want to see attitude and rideability between fences and watch him off both leads with you on board. Sometimes big jumping horses are not content to take things lower and slower as a rider learns.
Just a thought.
I like the horse as well. He is definitely an athlete, and is keen and brave. 20 or 30 year old me would have loved him.
His form really isn’t a concern at all. His front end is fine, even quite good, when he gets to the fence in balance at an appropriate spot.
Watching your video, I think you did an excellent job on him. But I want you to notice the head shaking around the corners, and how heavy he got in your hands after the second fence. Imagine if there was a third fence a related distance from the second. Could you have reestablished rhythm and balance in time? And then landed from the third fence in balance? THAT’S what the pro was so tactful about managing, riding from seat and weight rather than hand.
Again, you might buy this horse and have a fabulous time learning on him. You might get this horse and have to have a pro tune him up for you frequently and still have a good time and a learning experience. Or you could end up with a bad experience or a horse you don’t feel confident about riding.
It’s a very nice horse. You are a very capable rider. It doesn’t mean this is a match.
ETA: If you were my client (I’m going to make some assumptions, sorry.) with a lot of experience in the hunter ring, but not much or none in the jumper ring, this is not the horse I would want for you. I would want a horse that was stepping down, a been there/done that type, who would be forgiving of mistakes, but could be competitive at the 1.1 and 1.2 meter classes. If you didn’t have the budget for THAT horse and had to buy a young horse to bring along, this horse would tempt me, but I wouldn’t bite. I’d want something a little less nervy and a little less forward; a little more accepting of the hand.
If you buy the horse anyway, because he’s lovely, I’ll cheer for you every step of the way and demand photos.
But one last caveat - if a professional familiar with the market tells you this horse is a little or a lot too cheap for something with his athletic ability, run, don’t walk, away.
McGurks post times 10
He shakes his head a lot in the beginning of the show video also, which is not something I love. But he does settle out as the course goes on, which is promising.
I’d say that if you have had confidence issues, even if you are generally an accurate rider, this also wouldn’t be my first pick horse due to his type. I tried one in Europe that would be the ideal…well, sort of “tried him”…he was clearly a jumper and I was looking for a hunter prospect but hadn’t jumped much at all in the past year due to my horse’s soundness issues so the trainer (who I’d met before) put me on a more seasoned sale horse to knock the rust off before showing me the 5yo hunter prospect. That horse had been ridden by a junior girl not a big European man, he locked in on the jumps and took you there, but he didn’t rip your arms off doing it and if you saw the short distance he complied kindly. He’d leave it out, add it up, whatever. He had a jumper motor and was not the most supple thing I’ve ever sat on so not a candidate for an eq conversion prospect. If I had any inkling of showing in the jumpers, I would have bought him. I mean, honestly, if I had my own farm and the finances to collect horses, I would have wanted him as a practice horse and thrown him on the plane along with the one I did buy. That is the kind of first jumper I would recommend.
My first thought upon looking at the pro video was, “the rider isn’t ‘the most’ German rider I’ve ever seen in a sales video (his stirrups are a little shorter) but still looks pretty damn German.”
I have to agree with everything @McGurk and @Paint_Party said as well. I can see why you like him OP, but in the pro video he looks very much having his hand held throughout the round (and a strong, sensitive, expert hand and seat ride by the rider). I’m always fascinated by the difference between the European and American riding styles!
This thread made me think of another COTH thread awhile back from a rider with a more seasoned horse that was trained in Germany who was having trouble keeping him together (not mentally, but physically):
Except OP looks plenty athletic and strong. You are citing someone who says they are unfit and have no core muscles and is looking for some kind of fix that does not involve the gym or improving their athleticism.
I see no evidence of that with op. In the video she has a lovely following arm which only comes from a strong core.
Agreed!
I think you’re misreading what @Impractical_Horsewoman was trying to say.
NO ONE is criticizing the OP’s fitness and athleticism. Literally no one. She stayed with this horse admirably while he jumped some good sized fences and cracked his back.
There is a big difference between the German and American styles of riding, even more of a difference between the German style and the American hunter style.
The OP rides like an American hunter rider - more out of the tack than in, light seat, soft following contact. The German rider in the video is in the tack, even a little behind the motion and using his seat and weight more than his hand to rate and rebalance the horse. He’s also being very quietly, tactfully active, asking the horse to rebalance and rate while pushing him up into the bridle with seat and leg.
If you’ve come up riding and showing hunters, this is a very big style change. A good hunter rider does as little as possible, establishing pace early and then quietly maintaining it. If you ride a German trained horse and do a hunter half halt, that is, open your hip angle without sitting, and squeeze release one rein, the horse is going to invert, because he doesn’t understand the light contact and why you’re not riding back to front. If you coast around a corner in two point like you would on a hunter, the German trained horse is going to dump on his front end, and if you try to lift him with your hand, he’s going to curl behind the bit, because you weren’t riding back to front.
Now, people make that style change all the time, it can be done. But to do it on a very forward, catty, athletic horse that can jump you out of the tack? Whole different ball game.
1000%–you said it so much more eloquently than I could! I also posted the link just in case there was anything the OP might find useful in the thread, from a rider who was struggling with adjusting to a horse that had been trained “German.” Just because the rider isn’t in the exact same situation doesn’t mean the experience might not be useful to read about.
OP asked if the horses jumping form might be an issue, not to be told she will ruin this horse because she can’t possibly learn to ride it.
No one here could know enough to tell her if it’ll work out or not. It’s a nice modern type horse, jumps a bit green, she rides it well, it’s worth considering but will take some adapting to. That’s it, period. Everyone else is projecting their issues.
Also that show video was very obviously not taken in germany.
Are we reading the same thread? Because I don’t recall anyone saying anything like that. Can you tell me what in my posts in particular you’re reacting to?
Absolutely. I’m making some observations off the OP’s post, a photo and a two videos. I am not telling her whether it will work out or not. I’m making some observations based on my experience and my analysis. The OP doesn’t have to pay any attention to me, I’m just a random anonymous poster on an internet forum.
My point was that the pro is making the horse look easier than it is. That’s fine, that’s quite literally a pro’s job.
But this forum is chock full of thread of people who have imported horses and ended up with a very different horse than they thought they were getting, people who bought a horse from a pro’s program only to discover it didn’t continue to go that way after leaving the program and people who bought a horse to ride and ended up paying a pro to ride it.
So advising caution and due diligence in this situation is in no way disparaging the OP or her riding ability. It’s just advising caution.
You wrote a lot about the german riding style but the horse is clearly in Italy and is not shown ridden in a stereotypical “german” style. This is what I mean by people projecting their experiences. No-one hurrying to telling OP about the problems with americans buying german horses seems to have noticed this minor detail.
I apologize and should have said “European.” I did assume Germany. But regardless you seem to be projecting a lot onto people’s posts just because they aren’t urging her to buy the horse. It’s the OP’s decision and ultimately nothing we say here is the final influencer. But I do think what @McGurk said about the way the horse was ridden in the video bears repeating.
I am sure the OP also has people who can offer her advice IRL who know her best who can offer input as well.
That’s a really disingenuous way to deflect, I never say that. I’m just pointing out the assumptions and outright errors people are making based on their personal biases.
Sigh.
I fully acknowledge that I assumed the horse was in Germany. I am not sure where it was stated it was in Italy, but okay, it was not in Germany. I will amend my comments to say the horse is being ridden in a very European style, which is very different than the way American hunters are ridden. I have seen this be a stumbling block for riders importing horses from Europe, and I based my comments on that.
I’ve been very complimentary of the horse and the rider. I said I would have loved to have ridden the horse in my 20s and 30s, that the rider did a very credible job over big fences coping with his extravagant style. I asked for photos if she buys the horse. I have tried to be polite and respectful while offering my opinion and analysis. I stand by both.
So I’m at a loss how I should have done things differently so as not to offend someone. Not the OP, apparently, but someone else on the thread.
I wish the OP well whether she buys the horse or passes.
In the future, if anyone else wants my opinion or analysis, send me a request by PM.
ETA: I turned the volume up on the show video, and the announcer is speaking Italian, and some of the sponsors signs appear to be Italian. I didn’t pick up on that the first two viewings, as I had the volume off and was watching the horse.
Please don’t hold back your opinions because someone (not the OP) complains.
I think your posts are very well thought out and well written.
@McGurk @Amberley I genuinely appreciate both your expertise & thoughtful input, and paradoxically also appreciate you defending me against feeling too discouraged in this process. Thank you both. To reduce confusion, this is a Swiss rider with a very soft but distinctly Euro-style for sure. The horse has been shown in Italy, France, and Spain. He sent a few videos from various shows this summer, all looking lovely - I’m not entirely sure where this one was, but not Germany…
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