We fed them 10% Alzu concentrates as suggested by my friend's cousin and they had erogrostis bales throughout the day and fresh water and soon settled down, Czar and Topaz the best of friends as they shared their terrible traumatic ordeal at the hands of people. Topaz turned out to be a very unfortunate little filly, as she had boxy feet and a very bad back so we ended up selling her to people who had a big plot and wanted her as a companion horse to their other horses. I am hopeful that her life ended up pretty happy too!
In the meantime, Alida purchased her beautiful black stallion, and promptly named him Twister and I bought Sultan, a 24 month old Boerperd Colt. I just couldn't refuse him and we got him as an older boy to be ridden sooner as Czar was still a baby. So we had the 'big boys' in one paddock and the 'babies' in another one. I also was given a very old lady who wanted to retire and spend her last years in a quiet and happy environment.
So, before we knew what was happening, our horsey dream had become a reality and we had 4, soon to be 5 horses on the property!
It took a very, very long time for me to gain Czar's trust, and I would and could never blame him. To this day, and he is 13 years old, I still remember his utter terror and trauma experienced at the hands of people and that is why I would never break the trust he placed in me as his caretaker.
Czar is highly inquisitive by nature, and very soon he would start looking in my direction as I approached. I had gotten into the habit of sitting in the middle of the paddock, reading a book or playing with a piece of string, completely ignoring this little charcoal coloured boy strolling over to see what I was doing.
I did this for quite some time and he was so intrigued and wanted to see what I was doing that he would come right up to me. Slowly but surely I would lift my hand and touch him, he would shy away and I would go back and continue what I was doing. I was down on the ground so I posed to real threat to him and he soon figured this out. It was a complete breakthrough the day that he let me touch his muzzle and stroke him. A light went on in his eyes, because this was feeling rather good!
Then we progressed smoothly, he got carrots and he tolerated me moving about inside his paddock. He got possessive about his food and would kick out at the little filly when she came too close. He really came into his own and I could not be more proud.
We had to catch them to give them their first African Horse Sickness shots and boy, was this another story! We had two very wild young horses running all over the place, jumping and kicking madly and I was worried that all the hard work would be lost. So in the end, I strolled over to Czar who was standing quite close to the crush at the time, and I merely asked him to hold still, as I needed to catch him. I reached out, took a hold of his halter and that was the end of the story. This was the beginning of our extraordinary bond.
As time went on, and as Alida explained in her first story, Twister became rideable and we rode him and Sultan on outrides in the area which was a lot of fun! We have lots of stories to tell such as me ending up hanging from a branch after a wayward pony decided not to stop for a tree...Twister became ill and we lost him, people came and people went, and still Czar seemed unperturbed and was growing up to be a beautiful and strong young stallion.
At some point I decided to see if we could back him, as he was so very very tame. He would come at my whistle, as he does to this day. He seemed genuinely interested and happy to see me as I did not live on the plot with him and had to visit as much as I could. We put the small saddle on his back and I got on and we had no drama whatsoever.
We had our share of injuries, because stallions and mares together make for some interesting tales to tell! Sultan, my Boerperd stallion, decided to go 'next door' one day and ended up nearly impaling himself on the paddock railing. We had to get the vet out to stitch up a gash above the one eye and unscrew the wooden pole as it was pressing right into his stomach, which in turn, could cause him serious damage. Czar also ended up with a huge gash over the one eye another time, but a lot of tlc and woundspray took care of that particular injury. So we learnt as we went along and they came to understand that we were there to take care of them. I firmly believe this and I believe this is why my horses would run to me whenever something spooked them, such as end of year crackers or thunder and lightning.
When the old lady (the retired pony I mentioned before) lay down in the sand one day, I knew the end was near and we had to call the vet again. He arrived with his gun and I had to take Czar and Topaz up and away for them not to see (and I guess for me not to see either!). When the shot rang out, Czar bolted to one side and Topaz the other and it was very clear that the sound of a gun shot was embedded in their minds! I was holding onto the leadreins and did not let go in time, which resulted in burnt and sore palms! Doc Dobie went one way, crying over the dead pony and I went the other way and only once we had our emotions under control, did we face one another again. It remains very hard to have to let an animal go, but our vet always felt exactly the same and that was a comforting thought.
The years went by and Czar was a happy, healthy and magnificent boy! He received compliments in abundance whenever strangers saw him and we finally figured out that he must be a Nooitgedacht Pony, with a lot of Arab in there too, because he would proudly prance around the paddock with an arched neck and an elevated tail and he was utterly gorgeous. To this day he is highly energetic, lifts his legs high and prances around like the prettiest boy in the country.
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