Saved from butcher’s knife, Salma becomes a hit at hippotherapy center

I have always dreamed of having my own horse.

“Watch out, your dream it might come true”, was the thought spinning in my mind while I stood in the rain, looking at my first horse. I had just paid $350 for her. The horse’s name was Salma.

It was an ordinary village horse chewing hay with humbleness and indifference. No way could this be the horse of my dreams. The animal had dirty hair of odd color, bones sticking out, an ugly protruding belly and a head too big for such a small body.

The horse would step back when I tried to pet her head. She would obediently walk from the stables to the pasture and back and had a sort of beaten look.

“I am not going to ride her,” I said. (Truth be told, I do not like small horses). “I am not going to use in hippotherapy* most probably she is an ambler.” (Particular walk of the breed. Sometimes the amble is also known as the pace)

I went on observing her. “I borrowed part of the sum paid for her and have no idea how I will pay of the debt. And I still have to feed her.”

Somewhere, deep inside my soul, I realized that did the right thing; if not for me, then at least for the horse. A big part of me however was unsatisfied with my purchase.

Saved from the butcher’s knife

Buying a horse was not at all in the plans of our hippotherapy center. Her owner, a local villager we knew, brought her to us one day. He asked us to find a customer for her otherwise… he would slaughter the horse!

“I need money urgently”, he explained. He told us that the horse was 8 months pregnant and that she has not been eating anything but pumpkin peels for the last 6 weeks.

Completely shocked by what we heard we started searching for a buyer. But all the potential buyers would just smile when the villager asked $450 for the horse.

He finally found a customer; a butcher who was going to get the horse for $200-250. What was interesting was that the villager was willing to selling the horse to a butcher for $200 but not to anyone else.

We begged him to wait for three more days, promising to find a better customer. He left the horse at our place and waited.

On the third day the villager returned with the butcher and his big, sharp knife. The exhausted horse just looked at the knife with dull eyes and hanged her head. That sight was more terrible than the butcher and his knife.

We raised $350 and bought Salma

We told the villager that we wanted to buy the horse for $350 and would pay him the entire sum in two days. We searched high and low for the money; sending countless emails to friends all over the world. By the end of the second day the sum was gathered. Salma was finally safe in our stables.

Every morning I would clean her, brush her mane and… try hard to love her.

Since Salma was under nourished, her chances of survival were 50/50.

Salma would elicit pity, heartache, but not love. We found out that she indeed was pregnant but lost her foal few months ago. Then more horrible details came out. Salma had two foals before. One was killed by a wolf, before her eyes, while she was tied on the tree. The other was slaughtered by the owner, again in her presence.

This would strengthen the feeling of pity on the part of the owner, would cause anger and anguish, but not love. The horse herself would respond with the same indifference.

Humans were created to torture Salma – to force her to carry tons of water and wood on her back, leaving her without water for many hours, depriving her of hay and, in the end, almost handing her over to a butcher. Salma surely must have been thinking what new tortures were in store for her at the hands of her new buyers.

Kids at the therapy center love Salma

I am standing in the middle of the corral and am looking at one of our students riding Salma. It is softly raining, just like the day when Salma appeared at our stables. Salma is running; raising her feet high off the ground and her tail up. She looks like an Andalusia horse. The student’s hands are soft and tender. Salma likes the girl and runs under her with pleasure.

Yesterday, we had a group of children at the center. The kids thought Salma was the most beautiful horse at our stables. The children attending hippotherapy sessions always ask to ride Salma.

The riders keep examining her for exotic breeds, claiming she is too elegant for a common village horse. All our stallions go crazy for her. And what is most important is that I love her from the bottom of my heart…

When we realized Salma wasn’t pregnant and when she had sufficiently recovered her strength, we started to work with her.

Salma started running on a leash. To our surprise, Salma wasn’t an ambler at all, moreover, she could even teach the correct running technique to our breedy horses.

Horse slowly learns to trust humans…again

Salma gradually filled out; her bones getting concealed under meat and muscle. Her ugly belly disappeared. Under the horse-comb, a brush and shampoo, a shining dark bay color appeared. Then we started to saddle her. I will not change her soft trot and gallop in the fields with anything else.

Step by step, the horse with a damaged psyche learnt to trust humans once again; to have a person to love, care and longer for her. When she sees me, Salma neighs lowly and tenderly. When I am a bit slow to approach her, welcome and pet her, Salma lets out an offended neigh. When she is thirsty the neigh is loud and demanding. When the rope she is tied around the tree with gets tangled, she neighs long and loud, raising the alarm

Salma is behaves differently with the children attending hippotherapy sessions and with people learning horseback riding. With the riding students she is a cunning psychologist. The rider has to be concentrated and attentive every second. A small mistake and Salma will take him or her right back to the stables. Moreover, when the rider gets angry for that trick of hers, Salma turns her head to the rider with wide open, innocent eyes as if saying, “Oh, wasn’t that what you ordered me to do? Sorry, I didn’t get the right message”. The rider gets angrier still, calls her sly, mean, and promises never to go close to her again. Invariably, that same rider asks for Salma at the next lesson.

But with the children Salma totally changes. Her pace becomes calm and careful. When a child with balance problem slides aside Salma raises hip and pushes him back. Sometimes it seems to me that she gives the children the all love and care she was deprived of giving to her foals.

Original owner doesn’t recognize Salma

Recently her former owner came to visit her. “What a beautiful horse”, he says, approaching Salma. “And where is my horse?”

“You are standing next to her”, I replied.
He was about to choke with amazement. He went to Salma and stretched his hand to stroke her. Salma jumped back, pressing her body on the box wall. Her lips were trembling. She raised her head slowly and looked at me – asking, fearing, and hoping.

I hugged her shining silky neck and whispered that I would never ever part with her, not for all the riches in the world.

I told the owner that had I known what a miracle I was buying, I would have given him the $450 he originally wanted.

The villager was stingy and greedy. And that was my small revenge for Salma.

* Hippotherapy is a physical, occupational, and speech-language therapy treatment strategy that utilizes equine movement as part of an integrated intervention program to achieve functional outcomes. Hippotherapy has been shown to improve muscle tone, balance, posture, coordination, motor development as well as emotional well-being.