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The Day I fell in love with “The Devil”

One day a long time ago, there was….  Isn’t that how all fairy tales and love stories start.  Well I think I will not do that lets start it like this!

The day was extra hot very early.  It was 7am and already sweat was forming on my brow as I loaded “the Madam”.  The destination… Benoni, and a liaison with a sexy hunk of a stallion.  Let’s just hope “Madam” take to this stallion, as she has rejected 4 others.  I sigh as I close the horsebox.  I made a decision to buy a colt as it is expensive to take my 3 little mares to visit the selected hunks.  So I was taking “Madam” along for a liaison with the sexy hunk of a stallion that is also the shire of the colt.  If she does not take to the stallion, the trip was not wasted and the youngster had a companion for the trip home.  This was a very large escapade and costly.

I got into the vehicle and started of.  If she does not warm up to this stallion, she would move on to live with my friend.  At least she would have a loving home as my friend adore her, but just want her for a riding horse.  I need a broodmare not another riding horse.  I sigh deeply and check the rear view mirror.  All well.

It was a long three hour drive and as we pulled into the farm, the stallion gave me a show, I will not likely ever forget.  He was running and bucking and rearing, in excitement, as he know very well, a strange horsebox meant a visiting Lady. So he did his best to impress.

And “Madam” was actually answering his calls, maybe just maybe this will be the one she would like.  We pulled in and off load her, let her rest in a camp next to the Hunk.  A lot of flirting was going on so we left them at it.  Well she did not take to the stallion in the end, and she moved stables.

Then it was time to meet the “Colt”.  So the stable hand released the 4 yearling colts, and they came streaking around the corner.  This was the moment I fell in love.  In the front was a smaller colt, Head up nose in the air, bushy mane bouncing and tail Curled over his back.  Nostrils wide, his red chestnut coat gleaming.  High stepping dainty feet.  He floated over the ground in long ground covering strides.  He out paced the other colts in a trot.  It was a sight that took my breath away.

They trotted and frolicked around us and then that red gleaming colt, came to a standstill a arm length from me.  Tail still up, little neck arched and nostrils flaring.  His whole attitude was on fire!  Our eyes met and I was lost in the brown eyes that sparkles with life and an inner fire that made me feel something I did not understand.  Looking in his eyes made me want to sing and dance, experiencing the joy that was radiating from him.  We stood like that for a full 5 minutes.  His nostrils flaring as he read my energy and the smell of the stranger staring at him.

As I looked at him I saw and felt Fire, not just fire a blaze!  Slowly I extended my hand and he extended his nose, as we touched for a minute, I felt his energy, his vibrant lust for life.  Then he bounded away neck arching, as he danced around the paddock.  All the other colts were standing around, but not him.  It was as if his little body could not contain the fire in his heart.

I selected my colt according to bloodlines, but this will be the first time I see him.  His owner looked at me and smiled “Well, which one of these colts is YOUR colt!”  I looked at them and said without hesitation, “That one with the fire radiating from him, there is no question about it, it is him.”  She laughed and said “You are very right!”

I asked: What is his name?” The answer Shetan, it means The Devil in Arabic.  I looked concerned for a moment.  She said: “You will have to be firm with him, as he is a lot of horse, even at this age!”

Well, I actually almost left him there.  It took 6 grown men to load Shetan, but I just could not leave without him.  So the love affair started with the devil colt.

For 5 years he was the axis my live revolved around. Together we learned to get along; slowly I tamed the fire in his blood, and turned it to love.  He was a devil horse, he bit, reared, stomped you, and ran you over. Kicked, and doing anything with him was always a battle of wills.  In the end I sat down in his pasture and stayed there for a whole day. Walking with him, following his every move, I would not quit, I did that for a week, and then he started paying attention. Slowly I learned to use my energy to touch him, without touching him, eventually I could do anything with him. Finally the Devil horse, realized, the value of love, of being touched.

Everyone that witnessed that struggle told me to put him down, or sell him. Yet, I could not do that.  In the end I won his heart by loving him, with all I was.  Then at 2 years we were away for a weekend, and they tried to steal him.  He fought them and they left him alone, but they left him with a cracked knee cap.  The vet said, put him down, I refused.  Showed him the gate and said “You do not know anything, piss off!”

So I stabled him and each day I healed him, with all the love I had.  6 weeks later he could walk.  8 weeks later he was trotting without a limp. A year later he was declared sound, except for a splint, that developed from the blow to the knee.  The horse that would never have run again was floating around the pasture again, the father of 2 gorgeous foals.

But he was now called the ugly stallion, as he is not what they would like to use for breeding.  He was too short, at 6 months he ripped open his front end.  It healed with a tiny scar.  You could barely see it, when I bought him, but it stemmed his grow a bit, then the setback with his knee.  So he turned into this wonky stallion. Nothing about him fit together.  Everyone called him ugly, but they could not see him through my eyes.  I saw the fire in his soul, the energy in his movements, and the gentle touch of his love.  No-one saw what I did.

At that time my life went to hell in a hand basket, way more that it normally was. I found refuse in the warm neck of a friend, many a day I would burry my face in his mane and share my soul with him, together we came through so much difficulty, so much pain and so much heartache.  Yet we shared the joy of being together, playing together.  The joy of touching in love, the joy of sharing our energy and speaking of the meaning of life.  Sharing special moments.

He got himself into all sorts of situation, stuck in a haynet, he would quietly stand there and call out to me, to be rescued.  If he felt sick he would tell me so.  Where I worked in the pastures he followed me like a dog, or play with the shovel, when I put it down.

In the end the “Devil” horse became a close friend that shared his fire freely.  Then the day came that the farm was sold and I had no-where to go.  So in the end I had to sell my friend, the fire that help me feel.  It was the worst day of my life.

It was hard to see horses on the TV or drive by farms and see them frolic.  3 years passed.

Then one day a friend called, “Love you have to come down here, they are going to put your stallion down as he is unmanageable.  No-one can get anywhere near him”.  So I raced down there.  His new owners met me and they were at wits end, they loved him dearly, but after his accident, when he ran into a tree and ripped open his side at night, he wanted nothing to do with any of them.

He stood in a smallish pasture, he was healed up, but his soul was hurting.  I stood there by the gate and I wanted to cry, his fire was gone.  He was unhappy, and depressed.  He ignored everyone.  Then I did as I have always done I whistled his special whistle.  He raised his head answered and came running as he always had.  He stopped in front of me looked at me flattened his ears and said “Where have you been.  Why did you leave me?” he turned and walked away.  I was crying, as I felt his anger and pain, and I knew just how hard it had been on him.

I walk up to him where he stood with his back turned to me, I circled around and he kept turning his back on me with flattened ears.  He was showing me exactly what he felt.  It hurt, deeply.

After the 4^th attempt to reach him and he again turned his back on me, I said “FINE, be like that!” folded my arms and turned my back on him.  5 min later he turned around and slipped his head under my arm.  He said: “I still love you, why did you leave me.”

It near killed me.  There was not a dry eye at the fence; everyone felt that, and the sheer pain, hit them all hard.  I just wrapped my arms around his neck and cried my heart out.  There I explained why I had to let him go, and why he can’t come home with me.  I convinced him that this was the best place for him now, and that these people also love him.  In the end he understood, he even walked up to them and allowed them to touch him.

I told them that he was not a horse, he was used to be treated like an equal, if they treat him like that he will be more giving.  They thanked me and I got in the car with my family and we left.  Shetan watched us go, calling a last good bye.  Inside I felt like the biggest horrid person there is.  Yet I also knew that I can not bring him home.

8 months later his previous owners phoned me, they were giving up the farm, and they want me to have Shetan back.  For free.  At that point I was living on a smallholding and I went and fetch him home.  As I lowered the ramp of the box he walked straight in, looked back and said “Come on lets go home.” It was heaven to have him back, with his fire in tact.

We again experience the joy of our friendship, and he remembered all our games as if he has never been away.  We played like we always had, and he did the show stance when I asked him to.  Both of us had been through hell, but we found that we have grown, but the joy and pure love we shared was still there.  3 years later, I lost all I had, and I left him with friends, this time I explained everything and Shetan has taken this in stride, he is still with friends, and breeding beautiful babies.  Yet I miss his fire, miss our friendship.  Each time I go to visit, we spend time together talking.  He is content to stay, and I know he is happy.  He is living freely, running with joy and fire in his soul.

I know I have to sell him soon, and it is killing me, as I promised I would never sell him again.  Now I have to break that promise again.  It hurt, to know that as much as I love him, I can’t touch his fire as I have done so many times in the past.  I visit him in spirit and we would race together.  Yet that is never the same as running your hand over his muscled body and speaking to an old friend.

On this day of love, I wanted to pay tribute to the greatest love I ever experience.  The love of and "animal soul"

I will always remember the day I fell in love with “The Devil” called Shetan!