I saw it from my car: The first sign of life springing back: a hope growing. A fiery copper color was radiating it’s way over and along his now thick body, mane and tail. His watery brown eyes peered at me from under his long, bushy, strikingly black forelock. His head raised high above his Arabian arched neck, he emanated his signature deep, long “moo” as his greeting to my arrival in the barn. "My precious cow," I thought, "How far you’ve come. You’re surely a different horse now." Standing proudly, head high before me was a calm, confidant, bay Arabian in the picture of health where once a terrified literal bag of bones and peach fuzz had. I opened his door, and he lunged forward greedily guzzling the apple he knew I had brought specifically for him. He knew he was special to me. I moved his forelock to the side so I could see his white star, and kissed it. He shook his head in approval as I patted his neck before retreating to get his brushes. Kehbir is proof to me that God brings even animals and humans together for a purpose. Kehbir needed healing love; and looking back, so did I.
Truthfully Sudi was the horse that caught my eye on the internet website. And for some reason, my mother insisted on getting a foal from the same farm. In retrospect, it was good we bought them together because they were able to travel the long haul of 48 hours from Missouri to South Carolina together.
However, when I saw the two boys in the trailer when they arrived my heart sank. They looked NOTHING like their photographs. Both foals had lost half their manes and tails (maybe in the stress of transport, but then again, maybe not) and their coats looked dull and malnourished – most definitely from worms. Terror was blazing in their eyes, and while they did not want to stay on the trailer, they were not sure they wanted to get off either.
My first thought was “Oh dear Lord, what have we done?!” I could see the exact question blatantly expressed in my mother’s eyes. My two friends, who were helping as the welcoming committee, obviously looked bewildered as well.
Kehbir was the first to come off the trailer. His curiosity had definitely gotten the better of him, and he came wobbling off the trailer. He could not have even been 14 hands yet (and of course he was said to have been over 15). He looked like a yearling – not anywhere near his promised 18 months. I could see his ribs rippling beneath the remnants of his wooly brown baby hair. Had this horse been neglected his entire young life? Had he ever been groomed? The condition of his coat led me to believe that he probably had never been stalled, and dinner was probably a “free for all” where only the lucky dominant horses had a shot of eating any feed or good hay.
Any human movement was cause for a tremendous reaction of spinning backwards with loud snorts and huge, questioning eyes. My heart was in my stomach. How could a breeder have let this happen? This horse was acting as if he had never been handled. I wasn’t sure whether I was sad, disappointed, angry, or maybe a combination of all of them.
However, underneath the craze of this horse I saw a look that said “I want to trust you. I want to know that you love me.” Now this look didn’t come about all the time. But it was as if I could physically see the argument going through his brain. His ears were all the time busily moving looking for the slightest inclination that we were out to harm him. The whites of his eyes would flicker in and out as if glancing at the evil and good fairy on each shoulder.
As time progressed Kehbir began to make a turn around. While the condition of his coat was still lacking (it didn’t help that it was still winter!), his attitude began to show considerable improvement. Within the first two weeks we had him, he learned to be tied, groomed, have hooves cleaned, and be blanketed. The only really bad situation had to do with the farrier – and I am SURE he had never had his hooves trimmed before coming to us. He was absolutely terrified of the farrier. As we continue to analyze the farrier situation, we have come to realize that it is not the farrier in general but a type of body and mental frame of particular men that scare him. However, through much positive reinforcement (and feed!) we are working to help him realize that everything is Ok.
Unfortunately, at the time, everything internally for him was not Ok. We began to notice an increase in aggressive behavior, and also very stud like qualities that should definitely NOT be appearing in a gelding.
In one humorous instance, we left him alone in a field a significant distance from our barn. I began to worry as we were walking off. He began pinning his ears back flat against his head, throwing his head down, striking out with his front hooves and galloping fiercely up and down the side of the fence. Very cautiously I began to slow down my walk back to the barn, stilling keeping a CLOSE eye on him.
He was making a dash up to the front of the fence again, and I saw the look in his eye. It was a look that said “I can’t stop in time…but maybe I can.” He attempted to slow down slightly, but that only served to help him collect before he took a gigantic leap up and over the fence. As he landed, the recognition of freedom began to dawn over his face, and he took off bucking and leaping in the direction of the barn.
I thought at first he would just meander over to some other horses in a nearby field who had caught wind of his magnificent escape. But, as he was making his way over, he caught sight of something even more fantastic than playing with his buddies. It was the palomino mare Malibu.
Her blonde main and tail were flowing in the breeze, and she had a nice glisten to her golden coat as my friend Amber was just dismounting from a ride. Kehbir’s eyes sparkled as he abruptly produced a flying change and began a full out gallop in the direction of the blonde beauty.
Through my struggle to hold on to Sudi (who by the way was VERY dismayed that he was not allowed to be running out and about with Kehbir), I tried to yell back to the barn that Kehbir was headed their way. Unfortunately, the pounding of his hooves covered my desperate warnings, but acted as the sound of his triumphant entrance.
He fell back into a beautiful passage as he began to prance around the bewildered and unassuming Malibu. And then he hopped. That’s right, like a bunny. He reared and attempted to mount Malibu without a thought of what she might think. Suddenly awoken and very aware of her impending rape, Malibu leaped forward in circles as Amber desperately tried to hold on to her mare and ward of the incensed gelding.
Malibu, defending herself, threw out a couple kicks and the impact echoed through the distance to my ears where I was desperately trying to run through my laughter to help. Unfortunately, even upon my arrival I was clueless as to how to help as the two horses were still madly dashing in circles around Amber and Sudi was beginning to dance around me. In a true act of bravery, her fiancé Daniel leaped into the two horses managing to grab a hold to Kehbir’s halter and pull him out of the chase.
It was then an there that we knew for sure the problem we had for so long been wanting to deny: Kehbir was a crypt orchid. When he was gelded as a younger colt, the vet had only managed to get one testicle – leaving the other to fully grow and produce mass hormones. He was going to need to be gelded again.
Well Kehbir survived the second gelding, and he has been much merrier since then. Unfortunately after the gelding was completed, he also threw two huge splints on his front legs and developed an extreme coat allergy. My mother and I were at our wits end as to how to help this horse, but slowly and surely he has made it through all these trials. And through all of this, he began to understand that we were there to help him. And maybe that’s what it took to begin the forging of our relationship together. Perhaps that was God’s plan all along.
Currently Kehbir is beginning his work under saddle. He is still very “child-like” in his antics, so I am in no rush to hurry his schooling. A little bit of discipline is all he needs right now. I cannot express how proud of him I was at his show of bravery during the last dressage show. And I truly believe even the judge saw through his fear to his willing attitude – a far cry from a year and a half ago! How far love can go to break even the poorest of beginnings.
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