Merlin – Such Magic.                             By Pamela Bluck.

When I was a child I longed to have my own pony, but at that time it was not possible, instead I would go and find a quiet place and read, all about ponies, novels of girl’s and their ponies and I would dream.  One such book was called “To save a pony” by Pat Leitch.  I read it again and again and I loved it.  Obviously as I got older the book was forgotten, but the love for horses never faded.  And here I am all these years later..............

I had gone to market with a friend and my sister, the friend wanted a pony as companion to one he had on loan from us, so we agreed to help him and find something suitable, it was as we were looking around the pony pens that I heard the call, a deep enquiring neigh, I looked around and across all the heads of horses I saw something quite beautiful, the grey, anxious head and the deep brown eyes, I was mesmerised and made my way towards him, pushing my way through the crowds.

What I found was a sight that appalled me; he was approx 15 h.h, white in colour, Arab in breed and the saddest thing I ever saw. He carried no weight and was obviously very distressed, and yet something about him held such dignity, such nobility and such presence.

My sister came breathlessly up behind me, “what you doing” she asked, “you were there one minute gone the next” she caught sight of the horse, “Oh” she said.

The horse was being held by a dealer, “How much” I asked” “six hundred pounds” he answered.  We did not have that much on us, “wait for him to come through the ring” suggested my sister.  I agreed and we all went off to search for a pony.  We found a very pleasant little chap, a Welsh Section A, and went into the auction to wait for his number to come up.  I will admit I went missing twice more before returning to my seat.  We managed to secure the pony for our friend and waited and waited for the grey, but he did not appear and when his number was missed I went in search of him, but he had gone.  I felt bereft.

We made arrangements for a carrier to take the pony back to my house, as I was to keep him in my stable for a couple of days.  Our sanctuary then was on Darland Lane in Rossett, so it made sense to make sure the pony was fit and well before going to his new home.

When the lorry arrives the driver led the pony down the ramp, and then, there came the deep neigh and as I made my way up the ramp there was the white horse. “I think” I said “that this one is mine too” the driver laughed.  Little did he know I was deadly serious?

Then the strangest thing happened, 3 days later I received a telephone call, apparently the driver had told the new owners what I had said.  “We are having trouble with him” they said “come and have a look”  If I ever thought it was possible the grey horse looked worse, he had fallen and injured himself and was very stressed and was shaking. Later  I loaded him quietly into my trailer, he was eager to leave. “Oh” they said, “he wouldn’t do that for us, oh and by the way his name is Merlin”........

Merlin spent a lot of time being quietly handled, he had a lot of problems and yet he was such a kind, loving little guy, never looking to hurt, bite or kick, I spent hours grooming and reassuring him. He was stabled at my house and each and every day he was led across the major road and down the lane where he spent his days getting to know the other horses and he made steady progress, he gained weight and settled, we kept to his regular routine.  We also found that if we made any major changes to this routine he would regress, so in the end we didn’t.  So he was to be with us for life, but that was no problem.  He was the nicest horse I had ever met.