I couldn't bear to write the end of Black Beauty's story. It seems that dying horses will continue to walk and graze until they drop, and the next day of beet pulp and regular horse food never came for her. I heard she died near the malecon. So sad for such a beautiful horse.
Then the next year there was Filiberto a small unhandsome but cheerful fellow who happened into my yard. He had all the disfiguring signs of one who had been ridden too young. He was covered in ticks and needed grooming, but had shoes--an indicator that he belonged somewhere. A young man with fiery dark eyes came to claim him. "El caballo is mio!", but it turned out he was not the owner but the thief. He stole him first, fair and square.
Then there was Serenity and her yearling filly Zandi, just a gorgeous pair. Serenity was a big paso fino brown and Zandi a big beautiful bay. This became another sad story. They were stolen away from my yard. In her new home, Zandi gorged herself on sweet feed and died of colic. Serenity returned to the wild and I heard she had another bay foal at her side.
Now there is Isis, a small perfect, gentle, dark brown paso fino of mature years, smart, lovely and cagey. She came two years ago with a swollen belly--not worms. After a few months she appeared with a skinny little foal at her side, a luminescent pearly gray and tan with black and white tail and black mane. Isis' colt is named Horus and now a yearling bigger than his mom. They are both gentle and doing well, although they recently went walkabout for a couple of days.
I left the gates wide open for their return. I was worried that Isis would come back alone, but they arrived one night late togther with a friend, a big palomino stallion. In the morning, Isis and Horus were tired and dirty. Horus was all beaten up and scratched from his adventure. He is not wise in the ways of the wild horse. He has lived every day of his life up to now here being doted on by his mom and me, brushed and fed and loved. The big palomino I thought quite handsome. He clearly is enamored of Isis. It took me all day to get him out of the yard. He comes every day to gaze at Isis through the fence.
Who knows what happened in their absence? There may be another foal in a year.
