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 a liking to this stallion, as she has rejected 4 others.  I sigh as I close the horsebox.

 

I have made a decision to buy a colt as it is expensive to take my 3 little mares to visit the selected hunks.  This was the reason I am taking “The Madam” along, for a liaison with the sexy hunk of a stallion that is also the shire of the colt I am interested in.  I selected him according to bloodlines, but have not seen him yet.  At least 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 and costly escapade.

 

I got into the vehicle and started of.  If she does not warm up to this stallion, she would move on to live with a friend.  There she would find 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, bucking and rearing, in excitement, as he know very well, a strange horsebox meant a visiting lady. So he did his best to impress, believe me I was impressed!

 

“The Madam” was actually answering his calls, maybe just maybe this will be the one she would like.  We pulled in and off load her, letting her rest in a camp next to the Hunk.  A lot of flirting was going on so we left them at it.  In the end she did not take to the stallion advances, and she later 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 of the stable block.  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.  There really is NO other horse that can move like an Arabian can!  I stood there transfixed, barely breathing!

 

The youngsters 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!  It radiated from him!  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, it flowed from him, into my body, filling me with the essence of pure 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.

 

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! The 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.  This was the day the love affair with the devil colt started.

 

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. He 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, and the pleasure 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 he was almost stolen.  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!  He will run again!”

 

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, and the father of 2 gorgeous foals.

 

Yet he was now called the ugly stallion, as he is not what they would like to use for breeding, not good enough.  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 growth 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, the raw beauty that lies in his soul.

 

At that time my life went to hell in a hand basket, way more that it already 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 about the meaning of life.  Sharing special moment’s no-one else understood.

 

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

 

In the end the “Devil” horse became a close friend that shared his fire and love freely.  Then the day came that the farm was sold and I had no-where to go.  Then in the end I had to sell my friend, the fire that helped me feel, my confidant, my best friend and my soul.  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, so many times in the past I whistled his special whistle.  He raised his head, answered and came running like 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 understood his pain, as it was also my own.

 

I walk up to him where he stood with his back turned to me, but as I circled around, 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 slowly turned around and slipped his head under my arm.  He said: “I still love you, why did you leave me? Why did you stop loving 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 to him, 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, and accepted it, he even walked up to them and allowed them to touch him again.

 

His owner looked at me tears streaming down his face and said: “In all my life I have never seen anything like that! Never!”  I told them that he was not a horse, he was used to be treated like an equal, and 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, most horrid person there is.  Yet I also knew that I can not bring him home.

 

8 months later his owners phoned me, they were giving up the farm, and they want me to have Shetan back. His words “There is no way this horse goes anywhere but home!”  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.  We again spend hours discussing the complexities of life.  Again my eyes were filled with his beauty, a beauty no-one else can see!

 

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 hurts, 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, sharing your energy and love and speaking about the complexities of life to an old friend.

 

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

 

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