I started taking care of newly hatched chicks and rescued baby birds in Haiti when I was five. It took me a long time to realize that raising a wild bird to release was useless when it imprinted it on me.
I inherited a flea bitten grey mustang stallion, Lightning, from my older brother when I was ten, when my brother stayed in the U.S. to attend school.
https://picasaweb.google.com/100046980955983551622/Pets#5321277626768054258
Lightning and I were inseparable until I went to college in the U.S.myself. But in the meantime I bought a Akhal Teke mare I named La Bruja who could win any race in the valley, and one night La Bruja untied her tether rope and paid a visit to Lightning, apparently.
I was staring at the rope lying in the grass wondering what had happened when the mare came strolling up to me looking like she was smiling. I was never the wiser until one morning when I arrived to take her to water, she had a snow-white foal at her side.
I named him Suki and he rapidly took on a buckskin color and used to follow me everywhere, even into the house when I forgot to shut the door properly. My mom warned me to keep the horses out of the house, but one day I came in to find my dad with three visitors in the living room and Suki standing next to his butterfly chair chewing on his elbow with his baby gums.
I was sure I was in trouble but my dad looked bemused and visitors looked charmed. Nothing was said about it later.
After I came back from college to visit, I found that Suki had grown into a beautiful gaited buckskin stallion, so I quickly taught him to accept a rider and we rode everywhere together, no bridle or saddle, just like I do with all my horses. Suki even saved my life from a speeding camion on the main road by leaping sideways into the 15 ft ditch alongside the road when I touched his neck to signal him.
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