Must be French, LOL!

I prefer my dogs to any human

nearly impossible

Ah..La Brujah! She was an Akhal Teke throwback. Nobody gelds or deliberately breeds horses in Haiti, but since Haiti used to be a major horse market for the French, and they kept the best horse breeds there, after the slave uprising, those horses were left to breed at will.

She was small compared to purebred Akhal Teke horses, but much bigger than the typical Haitian horses. She had long, sloping shoulders, shape of a greyhound, wide-spread, protruding hip bones, flat rib cage, scraggly, sparse mane, and a metallic, golden sheen to her coat.

I rode her without a saddle or bridle, but her acceleration was so explosive, I had to grab her mane to fight pure inertia.

She wouldn't let anyone ride her but me, and would become upset and turn her back to me if she saw me riding my other horse, Lightning.

I used to race her against local horses whenever we were challenged, or sufficiently taunted, and she always won by so much, I was sitting under a mango tree and the mare was grazing by the time the race competitor arrived.

One morning, she wasn't tied to her tether rope in the morning. But just then she returned, and almost seemed to be smiling. The next year, she had a white foal, to my surprise, that was a miniature of his apparent dad, Lightning.
We named him Suki.

Later he turned a buckskin color, like his mom, and he also had her broken pace gait, where each foot hits the ground separately, making the horse smooth, yet very fast.

Suki saved my life from a runaway camion truck in 1975.

@birdingnut Would love to see a picture of La Brujah!!! LOVE that name. /going to save it in names list

@VirginCotton oh please do a google search on Akhal Teke. There is nothing in the world like them. They're the greyhound or deer version of a horse with an unusual hair follicle structure that renders them having a metallic sheen to the coat, aka "chrome".

@VirginCotton I have photos of her, but I was in my teens when I had her, and I'm now 65 yrs old, living in Thailand. I have old black and white photos my mom took of us but I don't even know if the photo albums survived storage, since I've been living in Thailand since 2010.

I called her La Brujah, for the reason that, because of her Akhal Teke genetic manifestation, she was ugly compared to the usual rounded Haitian mustangs..long legs, thin greyhound body, flat ribs, thin neck, scraggly mane, jutting hip bones, although I loved that shimmering metalic coat.

She was so sensitive and fiercely loyal to me that I can see that owning one might be problematic for Americans, who are used to car-like horses that let anyone ride them.

@Qualia Also, she really was like a witch..that horse could run like the wind on the bottom of a ravine that was filled with smooth, round river rocks that should have broken her legs or at least slowed her down.

I got carried away with her incredible speed (my friends who drove beside us while we were cruising beside the road said she was moving at 30 mph) after riding on the ravine rocks, and rode her up a footpath that went straight up out of the river bed, and up the side of a mountain near our Cap Haitian, Haiti, mission.

The path grew increasingly steep until it was almost vertical and I decided maybe we should turn around, so I dismounted to look around.

To my horror, I couldn't see any path behind us..just an almost sheer drop off and tiny houses far below in the distance. I nearly fainted, felt dizzy, and realized that nobody knew where I was, and I had no idea how to get down again. I wondered what would happen to me.

I finally realized that La Brujah got us here..she could get us down. Best to trust her and not think about it.

So I remounted, and, keeping my eyes focused on her mane, I thought-signaled her to go back down the mountain (I didn't ride with a saddle or bridle, although how I stayed on her back on that slope, I don't know). I felt her bounding under me, but I mostly shut my eyes, and soon I felt us back on the level again.

I remembered the Bible verse (Amos 6:12), "can horses run on rocks?" and knew that mine could.

I'm sorry..I don't think I clearly explained what a throwback is. It's a reference to when a particular breed, or type, of animal reappears in a general population of mixed genetics, such as when a foal is born with stripes on its legs, indicating ancient wild horse heritage.

@VirginCotton I had the Ahkal Teke and Spanish mustangs in Haiti, when I was growing up, and into young adulthood.

I had the Arabian when I lived in Durango, CO, I had the American White, Walking Horses, racking horses, racking mule, etc. when I lived on the family farm near Morehead, KY.
That part of KY is into gaited horses..ONLY.

If you want to buy trotting horses you have to get a Standardbred, bred by the Amish.

@VirginCotton Here's a link to a photo of one that looks similar to La Brujah, although she was smaller, and had a slightly darker coat. [learn-about-horses.com]

@VirginCotton You are into stock horses..cool! When I lived in Durango, CO, most horses were quarter horses or thoroughbred/quarter horse mixes for barrel racing, but some people also drove Morgan horse teams. The only stock herding I did was when I roped half grown wild boars that got into our Haiti mission corn, back when I was a teen.

I didn't ride with a bridle or saddle, but my little Haitian mustang stallion could read my thoughts.
However, I only had to think to him which hog to target and he'd expertly cut it out, block its escape, and get me into the perfect position to throw a lasso over its head and front legs, since the boars had no necks, and keep the rope taut enough it couldn't escape. After a few minutes I'd ride closer to it, so the rope loosened and fell off and it would streak for the fence.

Of course, that never stopped the hogs from trying again, so I always had new targets on which to practice my roping skills.

@VirginCotton Yes I'm familiar with palomino coats One of my favorite "devil" horses to ride as a kid was a palomino. (he would try to scrape me off him with trees and whatnot) LOL

Where were the photos taken? Do you know the horses' breeds?

@birdingnut Those are photos from 2009. A paddock in the Adelaide hills the owners let us use. I know Ressa was a Welsh pony, Nazgul was an arab of some kind? He was a small horse. When I was much younger there was taggy who was a god you know the breed, black hooves, sandy colour with some white. I can't remember the name of the breed. Ressa had a brother smoke who would rub against fences he died in 2004 when he got his leg caught and ripped badly. Thunder and lightning were these two mares before that, that gave birth to Gandalf (he nearly died so he was given that name) and I can't remember the other foals name. I was very little so I helped break him in. We had a clydestale to pull the larger wagon when we crossed NSW and Victoria called Monty, he was 19 hands he was huge but very friendly. Jessie was a mare of similar breed who pulled the much lighter wagon My sister and her husband slept in. When I figure everything out I'll definitely have horses again. I was 15 when we gave away/sold the last two.

@DragonDust Sounds fun! So you have horse-drawn wagon trips across NSW? They have such things in the western US, and in KY, where I lived. I had a single horse cart, but never joined the others since they were mostly mule-drawn wagons, and the trip was for several days, with camping, and I had to take care of my livestock.

@birdingnut It was a gypsy tour of romeo and Juliet it was my family and a few friends. My dad has black hair now. He's the tall blonde one.

@DragonDust Nice vardo! Did your dad make it? You say you were attending the Miley Cyrus Gypsy Heart tour in 2011?

@birdingnut No my family and I traveled by wagon/cart in 2004, it was a gypsy romeo and Juliet. My dad had black hair now that's why I point that out, he's still around. Married to mum and so on, does fencing at Adelaide Sword academy (his company). It's just a nice old picture. CNS (theater acting company) did many plays I did some myself with them. They still do vacation care shows but its mostly dads fencing now.

She is the best!