Are you still here?

A couple more Sundays passed with Regal waiting for the trainer and the trailer to come for him. When I arrived Monday afternoons, there he was, still waiting. I was always happy to see him, secretly pleased that he'd be around a little longer.

Greg decided to give him the opportunity to explore life with at least one other horse and turned him out in a spacious grass paddock with an older TB gelding. Let loose, he put on a spectacular show; all power, grace and confidence- hardly the horse any of us had seen. It was a transformation that was remarkable in my opinion and I wished he'd bomb around that field all day long so I could sit and watch him move. He was even quite civilized with old Aly and the other TB's across the fence, at least initially.

In short order though he set about terrorizing Aly and doing his best to dominate the boys across the fence. He was pushy, rude and totally without manners or boundaries. He ran Aly off his food for fun and was very aggressive with the boys next door - the fence stopped him from being a total menace and Aly forced him to keep his distance but never really schooled him. I found myself silently egging Aly on "Just give him the boots buddy, that was uncalled for!", but the old boy would just clear out and go back to sucking air on a post further down the fence.

Around the 1st of May, I heard that the trainer wasn't coming to get him after all. I had given up my lease on Dante because the recession came home to roost in my life in the form of a reduction in my work hours and I figured I'd better get budgeting for the idea that I might even be unemployed in the not-too-distant future. My silver lining was in thinking that if I got laid off I could always find a job at a barn somewhere...

Having a bit more free time and feeling I just couldn't stand it any longer, I volunteered to try to do something with Regal instead of just letting him languish. I realized at this time that a huge part of my writing and thinking and just being was already oriented in Regal's direction. I was fascinated by him and pretty sure that he had something to teach me. I had no idea what I was getting into.