MAGICAL MERLIN
Merlin's Story begins with his mom Sally.
Sally is a fiercely independent mare. She is a bit pushy, and not too enamored of people and fellow equines, but she is a wonderful parent to her offspring.
Sally doesn't need help. She takes care of herself. Doesn't like nosey humans prying into her business, watching and advising and offering clumsy help.
And she fools us every time. One morning we go out, and there's an extra four legs with a little body stuck unsurely on top of it running through the paddock in Sally's wake.
We round them up, mom and the new kid, and we do our ahhh-ing and ohhh-ing, and for a little while Sally lets us make a fuss and praise and congratulate her.
Sally’s daughter Hopi (=The Peaceful One) is born in2005. A year later there’s a boy, Dark and handsome, with a white blaze on his forehead, just like his half-sister. We name him Merlin, because there is something quite magical about him, and because he survives the first few days, which are tough. One leg is injured from birth, it seems mom accidentally stepped on him, and he is having some difficulty getting nourishment.
After he is weaned, he gets to hang out with the big boys in the paddock. Once he gets cornered at the big round hay bale that serves as buffet, and he takes a couple steps and flies right over it. What a horse! And he's only five months old! We know that soon he'll be clearing the fences, out to explore the big wide world.
This is how the story should go, because what makes stories stories are adventures, little horses leaping over the haybale, and then leaping over the moon.
Merlin loses weight when he should be gaining weight. He has severe bouts of colic. We do what we can, get him the best feed and supplements, medicine when required, and pain killers when there is a bad episode. And more medicine, and more pills and more potions. And more.
He is a brave little fellow, and he puts up with it all. Stuck in the barn when the other horses are out playing in the snow, he doesn't give up. We are mom now. We talk to him endlessly. He gets a designer coat to keep his thin little body warm.
In February God takes back the gift that was Merlin. A ruptured bowel is something even a sorcerer cannot overcome.
We talk him across the divide, and try to tell him how much he is loved, and how grateful we are for the joy he brought to our lives, and how sorry we are that we were unable to keep him from harm, and how he will soon have the most wonderful pasture in which to roam and graze, and the most beautiful moon over which to leap.