Mounted shooting horse prospect~~~Chainsaw

Was to go look at a six yr old gelding on 7-10-11 but had to postpone due to a funeral visitation, so rescheduled for 7-13-11. On 7-13 got the dually hooked to the trailer and took off for points west.  Went about ten miles and felt the truck was pulling funny.  Pulled off the road to find the inside drivers dual flat.  Strike two at making the trip to have a look.  Saturday 7-16-11 we leave again with fixed tire on a warm July day here in Iowa to make the 100 plus mile trip to have a look see at this horse.  We get fairly close to the destination and stop to retrieve some cold drinks from the fridge of the LQ of the horse trailer.  Ooops, drinks weren't so cold, the fridge had stopped working.  Made note to stop and get ice on the way home to put contents of fridge into the cooler.  We take off and dial the address into the wife's "smart phone" to show us the way to this wonderfull new prospective shooting horse.  It takes us over 8 miles of muddy gravel roads ( area just had two inches of rain that morning), and we arrive at the destination which is on a PAVED ROAD~~~~~so much for smart phones.
We pull in and the horse is in the round pen by the barn.  Nice looking good sized six year old registered AQHA bay gelding.  The owners neighbor happens to be an ex rodeo stock contractor by the name of Ron StPeter. Had a nice visit with Ron and the owners~~~great people and the horse is just about what I was looking for. (Maybe I should have asked Ron if he has bucked this horse???)  I do get on the horse for a short ride in the round pen and things went fine.  We arrive at a price, sign the transfer sheet and it's time to load the horse and take him home.  45 Minutes later I jokingly ask for my money back when the horse refuses to load into the strange 3H slant load Featherlite trailer.  After lots of patience the horse is loaded and we are on our way.  Owners say they always tie their horses in but I don't tie them in soooo off we go.
About 20 min down the road we stop at a Casey's store where they are having a shift change and it's quite a wait just to get some ice.  Old feller in there looks us over and tells us we should watch RFD-TV.  My nerves are a little thin at this point.  I tell the clerks my wife will hang around and pay for the ice, I am taking it to the trailer to get things done as it's HOT and the poor horse is in the trailer.  I go outside to the trailer and drop the bars on the window of the horses stall so he can stick his head out and get more fresh air. About the time I am behind the trailer I hear a racket, look back and see my new horse is a very good climber, he's got his head, and BOTH FRONT LEGS OUT the window of the trailer and has struck the hinge on the bars window, breaking it creating a sharp object which is drawing blood in a wild way. About this time the old feller from the store drives up and says "YOU REALLY NEED TO WATCH RFD-TV, I gave him "THE LOOK"  After some struggling I go inside the trailer, open the divider and the horse decides he will come back in.  Side of the trailer looks like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, blood and hair everywhere.  I am crushed and feeling mighty low at this point.  New horse is all cut up and our nice trailer now has an oblong window.  I look the horse over and see he's not bleeding terribly bad so I put the bars window back up and head east to home.  We get home and things settle down.  I doctor the cuts with Underwood horse medicine and intigrate him into the herd of our 3 other gentle horses.  After telling this to some friends the name CHAINSAW got stuck on him, everyone seems to like it. 
Heat stayed with us till the first part of August, I doctored ol Chainsaw up and his wounds were not bad at all.  Worked on the window of the trailer the next day and it wasn't bad either, so things looked lots better.

Finally on August 8th I couldn't stand it any longer, Chainsaw was 97% healed, the weather was nicer and I was itching to ride him.  Tossed the saddle on him and took him out to our 100X200 arena.  Sold the round pen last year so the arena was the smallest place to ride I had.  The horse was at a trainer for 60 days last fall so it's not like he's never been rode at all.  I get on him and we have a nice short ride with him dropping his nose lots to try and evade the bit.  I KNOW I should have done more ground work but it just felt like time to RIDE.  Didn't sack him out or anything and we had an OK ten minute ride.
August 9 rode him again with him becoming some better.
We ride Aug 10&11 with some trotting involved and he gets better with each ride.  Still haven't had any buck or real wild issues but he is VERY sensitive.
Had company on August 12, one of which was our 9 yr old grandson who is VERY active and can make lots of interesting noises without even trying.  Chainsaw was so snorty I knew better than to hop aboard so I chose to wait for a better time.
Aug 14 was a Saturday and we had a nice ride in the arena again, with Chainsaw getting lots softer in the face by the end of the ride.  We are trotting larger circles all the time.
Aug 15 another nice ride but when I stepped off after 30 min or so Chainsaw bolted like cockroaches when U turn the light on.  He went out of the arena to stand over by the barn.  Nice thing was I walked right up to him and he was fine. He's been very good to stand still for mounting and dismounting.  He did cowkick at my some when I was doctoring his front leg, but I write that off to spirit  :-)  He stands like a rock for flyspray and is getting gentler every day. 
Aug 16 ~~last night I had another nice ride on him. We are trotting the entire arena now and he's picking up on leg cues and doing great.  Needs his feet trimmed or shoes put on so I can ride the gravel roads soon.  We will be cantering soon and am looking forward to it all.  A few rides back someone shot a gun off over a mile away and that perked him up some, so am thinking teaching him to accept the gunfire off of his back will be a challenge.  So far I can move my hand all around and he's not spooking.  Will work up to carrying balloons on him, shooting around him and etc in the near future.  To this point there has been no bucking or really bad behavior, he's just very sensitive. 
THANKS TO THE PREVIOUS OWNERS, he's a great horse and he's responding well to the calm gentle handling he's getting at our house.