Merlin, the horse that chose us
The day we met Merlin our lives changed.
That morning, 18 months ago, I had asked my husband Jack, if he wanted to come for a ride with me but he wasn’t interested. He never really rode horses unless he had a job to do like checking the fences or mustering the cattle. We don’t own a big farm any more so he doesn’t ride at all now, the motor bike does the job.
One day, he surprised me though when he said that he might be interested in doing the carriage driving for RDA (Riding for the Disabled) sometime… maybe! This gave me hope that one day he may become interested in horses and we could do something together.
He had a draft horse once, they worked together to get logs out of the hills, he’d also hitch him up to a cart every now and then and go for a walk about the farm to put salt blocks out for the cattle. Jack did love that horse, he called him The Biggin but The Biggin got cancer of the salivary glands and we had to put him down. Jack was devastated and never had much to do with horses again.
That morning when I couldn’t talk Jack into coming for a ride with me I realised that I should give up on the dream that we’d do something together with the horses, this was my passion and one we didn’t share. I resigned myself to the fact that, even though we were quite content in our marriage of 31 years and were good mates, we really didn’t have a hobby that we did together and all my asking wasn’t going to change that.
About half an hour after I had come to that conclusion we got a phone call from a trotting horse trainer. He said he had a trotter that might suit RDA for carriage driving. I’d mentioned to the trainer months earlier that we were thinking about doing the carriage driving and if he had an old reliable horse or knew of one that would suit to call us. This was the call. He lived about two and half hours away and when he said we had to come that morning because the horse was going to be sent to the doggers, we thought we should go and take a look. I was surprised that Jack agreed, he was actually keen.
We took the horse float just in case. When we got to the trainers place he had the horse, Butch he called him, tied up and was brushing his tail, I was so surprised at how beautiful this horse was, he was jet black, around 16.2hh with a huge head, long forlock and mane. Not at all like a trotter, or my image of one though he was very fit looking, not a hint of fat on him anywhere, more like a greyhound dog. He had a presence about him but a real sadness in his eyes. I found him quite daunting but Jack walked straight up to him and scatched his bottom lip, the horse nuzzled him and that was that. Jack was hooked.
The trainer harnessed him up and we took him for a run around the training track, me, Jack and the trainer all sitting squashed up in the buggy. I hadn’t been in a buggy before and I was a bit nervous, I was also worried that we were too heavy for Butch but he seemed to handle the weight OK. When we finished the run we headed back to the stalls, Butch was anxious to get back, I watched him get agitated and he didn’t want to stop when one of the other trainers stopped to say hello. Butch became quite impatient and started swinging his head about and stomping his feet, so we didn’t stop long, a few seconds maybe. I wondered what he would do if he was asked to wait any longer? Butch wanted to get back and get out of this rig and I can’t say I blame him.
Despite the fact that he was obviously too much horse for what we wanted, Jack said we’d take him. We paid $350, the same as the dogger would have paid and we took him home. We were right, he was too much to use for RDA, and besides that, Jack had to learn to drive the RDA carriage and we knew we needed a quieter horse, but we were happy to have Butch come home with us.
I don’t know what it was but there was a definite connection between Jack and Butch. I was so amazed at the transformation in Jack, he now sat with me and watched the horses eat of an afternoon, he brushed Butch, trimmed his feet, talked about horses and decided he’d better get another horse that was more suitable. One he could learn from and then he would be more confident to use Butch.
I believe horses choose people, we don’t choose them. This was definitely the case here. This was a dream come true for me, finally we had horses as a mutual interest. We decided the name Butch didn’t suit such a magic horse so we called him Merlin, Merlin the Magic Horse, he had brought a little bit of magic into our lives and the name was fitting.
Many things have changed since Merlin came into our lives, one of the most important, apart from bringing Jack and I together with horses, is that Jack has done a lot of training in carriage driving and now takes people with disabilities for a ride every second Tuesday. Its a rewarding and enjoyable time and if it wasn’t for Merlin it probably wouldn’t have happened. He has brought magic to many lives.
Merlin is happy here, his eyes are soft and no longer have a sadness, he is a valued and loved member of our equine family, he’s gradually putting on weight and his body is starting to mend from the falls he had during his racing career. He plays and runs around the arena with me, he lets me ride him and tries really hard to please. There’s a lot I would like to tell you about him, and maybe I will, but some other time.
November 5th, 2009 at 11:50 am
About the horse Merlin its great to hear that it has done a great job.