I walked into the barn. Standing in the corner, he stood with his head down. Tired, sad eyes gazed at the ground and never rose with interest to welcome a newcomer to his stable. He carelessly moved in a slow and melancholy way when Mary, the woman who owned him, walked him over to the crossties. I reached out to him, but he was unconcerned and uninterested in any person, any other horses, or his surroundings. My heart went out to him as I stroked his neck. I wondered what could possibly make this healthy handsome horse so dreary? As a Quarter horse, his muscles were undefined, but he had beautiful conformation, standing at 15.3 hands, and he was a striking red-golden brown bay gelding with a star on his forehead.
Mary began to explain his history, and I developed a clearer meaning of why and how Magic came to be six years young, but acted like he was an old timer. From the day he was about six months old, Magic had one mishap and illness after another. His first phase of mishaps began when his back leg was severely tangled in barbed wire fencing. He had a large scar to prove it, and somewhat favored that leg when he walked. His current issue was that he had become ill with Strangles. The vet performed an operation that left him with a constant draining wound under his chin, and he was medicated. His owner seemed frustrated by the prospect that he had one issue after another and caring for him was becoming a burden. She also told me that he was not trainable, and that she was too intimidated by him to ride him. By the time he was old enough and well recovered to ride, he was unmanageable for her. As gentle and calm as he was on the ground, he had a fire in him that no one could break and would buck even the best trainers off, she told me. This sparked something in me, and after I left the barn, I continued to think and wonder about Magic.
Later that week, I called Mary and told her that I would like to take Magic home. I took him to a stable down the road from my house that had a nice big pasture with a pond and a few other horses. I decided that it would be a nice place for him to live. As the days progressed, he and I became good friends. I rode him almost daily throughout the change of seasons, and I diligently cleaned his wounds twice a day. Gradually, he became confident, beautiful, and healthy both mentally and physically. On days he was feeling especially good, he would show off to any onlookers by proudly strutting around the paddock with his tail lifted high.
One day I was riding him in the riding arena, and the sounds of a shrieking horse shattered through the air. Startled and worried, I rode down to the pasture to see what was happening, and saw the mare that spent her days with Magic in the paddock, caught in the electric fencing. Her front leg was tangled and she was in a panicked state as she desperately struggled to free herself. The more she fought and pulled, the more the wire gripped tightly around her. I jumped off Magic, turned the electric fencing off and ran back to see if I could help get her free. Magic was distraught and called to her with neigh after neigh. I could tell that he would not be kept away as he was determined that he too could help her. Still saddled, he pulled until he became free from the small tree I tied him to, and trotted over to her. He stood above her and touched her nostrils, as both horses breathed a sign of relief into each other. She was calm for an instant, as a reassured feeling swept over her that he would somehow save her and not a human hand. At that moment, Frank came running down from the stable to cut the fencing that released the bound wire from her. Free, she stumbled to her feet. She was lucky to not have been more seriously hurt, but had few noticeable scrapes and bruises. Magic seemed to not want to let her go too far from him from that day on, and he and the mare spent many lazy days grazing in the pasture.
Magic had come a long way since he came out of the doldrums his illnesses and loneliness brought to him years before. He continued to strut with his head and tail held high, play with other horses, and impatiently await mealtimes.
