“ISO

Looking for a client.

Friesian or Friesian Draft cross. Must be 16 hands or taller.

Prefer walk/trot/canter trained. Trail or outside arena riding a bonus.

Doesn’t need fancy buttons but will certainly be welcome.”

C. posted this on Facebook in August of ’23, and I immediately texted her to find out who was getting my. dream horse.

I love friesians; they’re my favorite breed. I love black horses.

She had a client, a gentleman in his 70’s who we will call J. J’s heart horse of 20+ years had passed away a few months ago, and he was looking for a new one. He’s also wealthy, and his budget was in the $50k range.

I’m in every friesian group I could find on Facebook, so I offered to keep an eye out. I sent her a couple of horses I came across for sale, but after about 10 days she said he found a horse for $40k, and sent me a picture:

I thought buying a friesian cross that didn’t really look like a friesian was dumb, but I shrugged it off. Not my $40k. Also his name was Zeke. What a terrible name for a horse.

I forgot about it for a couple of months until November when I showed up for my lesson and there he was:

God damn this horse is handsome. I used to joke his name should be Chris Hemshorse, because if Chris Hemsworth were a horse, he’d be this horse.

I walked up to his little pasture and exhaled. He came right over and breathed with me. After a minute, he rested his head on top of mine.

“I like you,” I thought.

“I like you too,” he seemed to reply.

“Someday,” I told myself, “I hope I get to have a horse like this.”

He was a big friendly guy, and he certainly got a lot of attention. His paddock was right at the edge of the area we rode in for lessons, so there was a lot of activity, a lot of people, and he got a lot of visitors, and treats, and pats.

I joked with C. that if J. ever needed anyone else to ride him, I volunteered. She laughed. “Get in line,” she said.

I didn’t think too much else about him, but I caught a few comments here and there…. J. didn’t seem to be enjoying riding him. He was spooky, and for $40k he expected something more solid. He was supposed to get lessons with the person who sold him, but she was ghosting him. He was frustrated.

A month or two after he arrived (we’re up to December 2023 / January 2024) C. moved her horses and lessons to a new facility. It was a huge upgrade over the old place, and much closer to me, so I was excited. This meant I could ride with her more, which was great because Griffy was just now coming back from his last bout of lameness and could only do short rides.

The way the new place is set up, there is a large pavilion in the center of the property. To the right in front of it are the arenas. To the left behind it are the paddocks. Talos (I just can’t keep calling him Zeke….I really, really hate that name) ended up in a large paddock by himself towards the back of the road. J. did not want him put with other horses, because he was afraid of him getting injured. C. tried to convince him otherwise, but he insisted, and at the end of the day she has to do what the owner wants (as long as it’s not actually dangerous for the horse.)

It was obvious at this point that Talos was not the horse J. wanted. J. showed up twice a week, threw on a bareback pad, rode around the property for 10 minutes, then put him away. No grooming, no connection time, no love. Just poke around then done.

Because his pasture was towards the back, people didn’t really have any reason o walk by him. He watched the school horses come and go, he watched the boarder’s horses get taken out by their people, and he just stood in the corner, next to he gate, like he was just hoping for someone to come pay attention to him. I later dubbed it the sadness corner.

C. said J. was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with Talos. The person he bought him from was now completely MIA (we later found out she went to California for six months!). Talos was spookier in the new place. C. had offered to give him lessons, and suggested finding someone to lease Talos so he had more regular work (I eagerly volunteered) but he didn’t seem interested. She thought he might sell him. I laughed.

“If he’ll sell him for half price, I”m in!” I joked. She looked at me seriously. “I think he might,” she said.

After I picked my jaw up of off the floor, we walked up to his pasture. We patted and scratched him and he seemed really happy and enjoyed the attention. I told her that the perfect solution here was for him to let me lease him. I could ride him regularly since Griffy was still limited, and since J. was only riding twice a week it wouldn’t interfere with his time. She agreed, and said she’d talk to him.

The next day I got a text from C.

“I talked to J. He wants to sell him. He’ll take $20k.”

I was in shock. That’s a lot of money, but god damn – how often do you get a chance to buy a horse like this?

The next day Griffy saw the vet and they told me he would never be sound at anything more than a walk.

I think I would have bought Talos regardless of Griffy’s status, but that terrible news definitely made it an easier decision.

We agreed that I would lease him for a month and if all went well, I would buy him. I’m really lucky he let me do that.

About 3 weeks later, I was at a clinic with Anna Blake. I was telling her about him, and his foundation with natural horsemanship training (the person who owned him before J. is super into that. I’m not a fan, but whatever.)

Anna told me that he would likely have some issues with holes in his training – he would be shutdown, and it would take some work to bring out his voice. As she was telling me all this, she paused, looked at me and said “You idiot.”

Everyone around us was a bit shocked. Anna smiled.

“I say that because nothing I have said has changed your mind about buying this horse,” she said. I smiled back.

I remember one night we took him into the arena with just a halter. I asked Catherine to show me exactly what natural horsemanship is, because I had no idea. I still don’t. I just remember this one cool moment – he was trotting around the ring, and she called him to come in. We were standing about 10 feet apart. He came towards her, and then stopped.

He looked at her.

He looked at me.

I stayed as still as I possibly could, but I wanted him to come to me so badly.

He considered a bit longer….and then he came to me.

If I had to pick a moment I knew we were going to be together, that was it.

Funny thing – I thought I was going to change his name to Zeus. It’s similar enough to Zeke, and I thought he needed something related to a deity. But, years ago I watched a video with a horse named Talos (which is the god of humanity in Skyrim) and thought it was a really cool name. I took a poll amongst my friends and every single one picked Talos. So Talos he became.

On June 7th, 2024, I wrote a check for my entire savings account, and he became my biggest boyo. ❤

M. made him a special horse cake to welcome him to the family: