Seeing her for the first time after years, I was excited, anticipating, and afraid at the same time. See, Samar has many reasons to love me and miss me, but she also has several reasons to hate me and to hold some grudge against me. If we consider how long it has been and the fact that her life wasn't empty, she has a son on her side now.

Samar is a female horse in my friend's family farm.

The last time I was there, she was three years old-- newly grown and untamed. Running freely around the farm, eating whatever she pleases, and only allowing her favorite humans to come near her, Samar was a challenge to me back then.

Her mother was calmer and much better trained. But Samar was bigger in size and has an unusual beauty and confidence. It took me a very long while to come close to her, then a lot of effort to touch her and start petting her and feeding her with my hands to end up gaining her trust. My friend was very surprised about how close were became by the end of the day so he called his father and told him they may have a chance to tame Samar.

Since she has never worn any reigns or saddles, she naturally refused to take them on, and she refused very violently. They had to tie her to a metal stick in the center by a long rope and force her to run in circles to drain her energy and absorb her resistance. She would suffer the intense physical effort and the whipping and she would look at me with her judging eyes. She wasn't pleading. She was angry. Angry at the man forcing her to run (she even tried to kick him with her extremely strong legs) and angry at me for standing there watching the whole thing and not trying to stop it.

By the end of the process, she was all sweaty and tired you'd think she'd submit easily to wearing the reigns... but no! She might, physically, have had a dead battery but her strong will and her wild nature were not compromised.

They asked me to ride her with no reigns and no saddle, just using the rope she's tied with. I thought about it. I wouldn't mind taking the risk. After all, we had a good connection and I trusted she wouldn't try to harm me, but I had no other clothes but the ones I was wearing and I couldn't continue my next two days wearing them wet with her sweat. Or maybe that was my excuse, maybe fear made me decline the honor of being Samar's first rider ever and reconcile myself with riding her tamed mother.

​To Be Continued

Image made by @Saffisara