Ever since Johan first walked August along the hot and dusty road one December Saturday in 2009, we have all been bitten by the horse bug....he's such a funny little thing, a cross between a pony and a horse, but he was the first horse that we owned and as old as he is he has such a good temperament, he is patient with children and doesn't complain when he would rather be off with his friends in the paddock, but he like we, has recently lost yet another friend and ally.
In April 2010, we adopted Amberfield and Pippin. Both young foals they grew up around August with him disciplining them and playing with them. A year later, Amberfield contracted African Horse Sickness and within hours this horse of power and beauty crashed to the ground....it was heartwrenching and I will never forget how in that short space of time she fought with all her might until she could no more. A week later, Pippin went the same way, not quite as quickly, but the outcome was the same. After the two of them were gone and buried, August pined. He became the old man he really is, dragging his feet, hanging his head until we thought we would soon lose him too.
Then later that year in 2011, when NiQi was herself so very ill, Johan heard of someone in the area who was cutting down on her herd and wanting to place some of her horses. Johan contacted her and arranged to take NiQi to see them. With oxygen in tow, the two of them went to have a look and NiQi fell in love with Zorro. Her eyes lit up when she saw him and when they came home all she could talk about were these gorgeous horses they had visited. Less than a week later, Johan had a call from Zorro's owner - she was going to give Zorro AND Angel to NiQi. The day that Johan and Peet brought the two of them here, August became a different horse....he perked up, he found a spring in his step that had been missing for almost 6 months...everywhere they walked he walked too. For weeks the three of them stood at the front corner of our property gazing out into the distance in the direction from which both Zorro and Angel had come. The only times they came up was to drink water and to be fed, then back they would go again standing guard. I don't know why it was, but the standing at the corner became less and less and for shorter periods of time until eventually one day they must have realized that this is now home. Then along came Navajo...from the same lady. Out of the blue she phoned Johan one day in 2012 and offered him to us. NiQi was ecstatic. He was Angels baby and when he arrived the reunion between them was as it should be between a mother and her son. Navajo is a stallion and although younger he soon was the leader of the herd, neither Zorro nor August had a say, Navajo made sure he was always first.
Early in 2013, we discovered there was a mare living behind us. We had never seen her before, but suddenly one morning she was prancing up and down on her side of the fence. When Navajo saw her he followed her up and down on his side of the fence. It wasn't too long before the hormones were racing and a fence between them was no problem at all to a stallion who had his sights set on the mare flaunting herself at him. Johan ended up cutting him free of the fence before, with great force we put him into the crusher. He was not happy at all, rearing up and trying to get out until we became quite concerned. His eyes were stressed and wild, he had one thing on his mind and that was to reach 'his' mare. Switch is her name and she too came to live here with us falling pregnant immediately.
Switch gave birth to a beautiful foal in the early hours of the morning of 8th December 2013. From the moment we saw him, he was strong, steady on his legs, sucking at his mother with a surety that this is what life is all about. Days became weeks and weeks became months. I mentally noted his age on the 8th of each month. The morning of 8th August, the thought crossed my mind that we must really start weaning him now. He was a big boy...bigger than August and at 8 months old it was time. That same afternoon when I was outside with the horses, I noticed that he was hanging his head. He didn't seem to be in the mood for anything. I fed the horses and I watched as he ate, nothing wrong with his appetite, but still there was something not quite right. I had my many other chores ahead of me so left him with the other horses. A little later I went back and I noticed he was a little wobbly...I watched as he walked off with the other horses. He lagged behind and seemed to have difficulty keeping his balance, but he kept on walking. I busied myself again wondering if I was imagining things. As dusk was drawing in I locked up the house and walked down to where I could see the horses in the distance. I climbed through the fences and followed their trails until I found Titan standing with the rest. He wasn't eating. He was standing sleeping. He woke as I checked him over. Feeling his tummy and listening for any gurgling gassy sounds, he stood still. I ruled out colic in my mind, which was as that time a relief because colic in a horse can be deadly if not caught quickly enough. He didn't feel feverish and definitely wasn't sweating. His teeth and gums looked fine. His ears were upright, alert and not flat against his head which would have been a clear indication that something was wrong. He moved toward Switch and nuzzled in under her trying to drink but she pushed him away. I thought that maybe she was staring to wean him herself. I left him there as I walked back to the house, shining the flashlight on my phone to see my way back and hoping and praying that come morning he would be his usual self.
My first thought when I woke was of Titan. I was anxious for it to become light. As dawn approached I made my way outside and went to get the horse food. The horses were standing at their posts waiting to be fed, all except for Titan. I looked out to the fields and couldn't see him, he must be lying down I thought. I fed the others and scrambled though the fence again to look for him. Eventually I found him, lying down...he wasn't flat on his side but on his haunches which I thought and hoped was a good sign, but now he was sweating and that was not good. When he saw me and he heard me calling he stood up. Wobbly and unsteady on his legs he started coming towards me. The other horses came running down and I scrambled behind a tree as they all pushed Titan away from me and made a barrier between him and me. At first I thought they were being mean to Titan. Later I realized they were trying to protect him. I called Johan and told him Titan was no better than the previous night. He said he would phone our vet. I had to move the other horses away to be able to get to Titan. I raced back and filled the buckets with more food. They followed me and I opened the gate between us and Belinda. Once they were next door I closed the gate behind them and went back for Titan. He walked all the way, I didn't need to halter him, he just walked beside me. I opened up the orchard and let him in there. Soon after the vet arrived. She took his temperature, it was 39....She too didn't think it was colic. She said from the way he was standing, trying to keep his balance, and walking like a drunkkard, that whatever it was, was neurologiacal. It could be billary, it could be that he ate a poisonous plant or it could be the onslaught of tetanus. She asked if he had hurt himself recently. I showed her the marks on his back legs where the skin had been scraped off some weeks before. We don't know what he did or on what he hurt himself, but he had come home one day when NiQi was in hospital with the marks. I hadn't thought it was that bad, they weren't deep gashes or gaping wounds, they were just scrapes. She drew a few vials of blood, gave him a sedative, an antibiotic and something for billary. They sedative made him tired and he went down. I was in a hurry. I had to leave by 11 to fetch NiQi from work so I could drive through to Jo'burg with her to a Womans' Day 'charitea'. The vet said she would pop by in a couple of hours....we were on the road when she phoned the first time. I told NiQi to ignore the call. The second time, she wanted to know why the vet was calling, who was at the vet. Having kept my emotions bottled up since the evening before, I had to tell her. With tears streaming down my face I told her it was Titan. The vet phoned again and she answered. She spoke to her and heard that the diagnosis was tetanus. It had reached his brain. He would not recover. We should put him down. I told her to do it. I didn't want him to suffer with loads of pain when he woke from the sedative. The afternoon dragged by. NiQi took photos of the event and delivered her speech. We arrived home just before dark. Titan was still in the orchard. With the wind whipping around us, we looked at our baby boy lying asleep, peaceful and in no pain. The other horses stood guard on the other side of the fence. They stood there until we had buried him the next day and then they moved on to graze. Switch neighed that first night and the following day, her baby is gone and her udders were full. Today we got tetanus injections for the other horses as well as anti biotics...just in case. I look at them and now see scrapes and wounds in a new light....Titan, as with Amberfield and Pippin, will forever be in our memories. I you've ever owned a horse you will understand.....if you've ever loved, you too will understand...
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