Kyran
When Kyran came to us in 2019, he was a 20 year old stallion and he had lived most of his life in the company of one or two other stallions. Our dream was to bring him together with the mares, to make it possible for him to live his remaining years as part of the family herd. The question was how to do this, as we did not want to have foals yet.
For the time being he lived with his son Prodromos, as he had done at his former owner’s place. We started exploring possibilities, hearing other people’s experiences with various solutions, reading, informing, consulting an animal communicator, feeling…
It took us a long time to come to the decision that we would have him gelded, even though this was a risky operation at his age. We asked a very experienced vet to do the operation, which happened at the end of January 2020. Kyran responded to the operation well and recovered quickly.
Two months later we suddenly had to leave the place we were with the horses. It was the beginning of lockdown and we could not find transport for the horses. We decided to walk to our new place, fifty kilometres in three days.
It was an epic journey through the beautiful countryside full of spring flowers. Kyran immensely enjoyed the three days walking although it must have been tyring for him. He was visibly enjoying his free position at the back of the herd, every now and then staying behind to have a bite of fresh green and then trotting towards us to keep up. He automatically took up the role of lead stallion at the back of the herd, regularly stopping to look and listen for danger, and calling out to others who had wandered into a side road. When he felt there was some kind of danger, he moved forward to defend the herd. It was immensely gratifying to see him taking up this role and enjoying himself so much.
Once we arrived at the new place higher up on the mountain, rains came. It was extremely cold and there was not yet a good shelter for the horses. Unfortunately Kyran had not been fully accepted by the the herd, so he probably spent the nights in the cold alone. One morning he was lying dead in the field.
This picture very sadly illustrates Kyran’s position at the new place. From our human perspective we had not considered the possiblity that his son who had lived peacefully with him for years would now see this beautiful wise and harmless soul as competition and keep him out of the herd. The mares also rejected him. It was heart breaking to see. He just wanted to rest under another leader.
And it was very painful to realise we never considered how the mares would feel about getting the two guys in their herd. All along my dream had been to have the heard together, assuming that was what the horses would want too. We had put so much effort into making that possible. Now with Kyran gone the heart was out of it.
Now these events still bring tears to our eyes. Kyran was a beautiful primal horse, he had a kind of attentiveness and geniality that made him a true gentleman horse. He embodied a lovely combination of immense inner strength and softness, and a great capacity to connect.
We still miss our dear friend.
Kyran 1999-2020
