The Mare with no Name, by Yara Zalzal

The mare with no name

They call me Miracle now, but a couple of weeks ago, I was still the mare with no name. Once upon a time, I had a friend and the man had brought us to this empty farm that we thought would be the real deal. Hay, bran and wheat galore, plenty of water, and space to run freely like there’s no tomorrow. We thought that was it. The life we had always dreamed of having. The days passed and every day, we were getting less and less food. What we thought would have been the perfect life, turned out to be all a sham. No food and a little water days on end. No place to stand in the shade during hot summer days and no warm place for the winter. Even the space we had, suddenly seemed much smaller than we thought it was at first. Even when we looked all around us, we had nothing to eat in the natural environment surrounding us. Hunger struck. All the abundance of feed we thought we were going to have suddenly felt like one hundred dreams away. I could see my friend’s bones. I could see him getting weak. His body seemed frailer than mine. The man who was supposed to take care of us used to go AWOL for days on end. Then, he would show up with some food that would barely last a day. My friend was disappearing day by day. His frail legs could barely carry on the weight of his body, until he couldn’t stand no more. Nights were the worst. My friend was attacked multiple times by wild animals and I had my share of bites too. One morning, I woke up to my friend hanging on to life, till there was no more life in him. The saddest day of my life; and they say that horses don’t mourn their loved ones. My body became feebler by the day. The man was nowhere to be found. I came to the conclusion that I was next. There was no use of me being alive. I was going to die.

But, it turns out that I was destined to stay alive.

One day, everything changed all of a sudden when some nice people came to the farm. They put me into a trailer and the man was there. He started screaming and didn’t want me to go away with them. I had a feeling in my guts that things were changing for the better. I felt like I had to go as far away from this place as possible. This man who not once even tried to interact with my friend and me, who not once patted our backs, cleaned our hooves or even greeted us with a smile will be a thing of the past.

As they drove me away in this big and comfortable box, it then hit me. I was finally going to have a life of which every horse dreams. My body hurt and my skin scratched, but I knew that it was only a matter of time before I got better. I was starving and could not wait till I had my first real meal as a horse. A while later, we reached what seemed to be a beautiful barn with plenty of other horses. I was relieved. They took me out of the trailer, greeted me like a queen, patted my back and front, kissed my cheeks and filled me with all the love in the world. I was so eager to finally eat. It all went well and they even treated me with some vitamins so accelerate my recovery. I always hear them say that I am getting better and they even bring in vet for a visit every now and then. One of the nice people whispered in my ear that that was it for me and that she would never allow anyone to mistreat me ever again. I knew I was finally safe. They call me Miracle now, because if my rescuers were a couple of days late to rescue me, I would have suffered from the same fate as my friend.

Miracle’s health state is improving by the day. She is so beautiful, smart and gentle, and putting on some weight by the day. She is getting better and regaining confidence, slowly but surely. 

After having fostered her for two years, she finally found a forever home.