Black Magic's Story

I promised on my first blog to tell you the story of how I got my horse Black Magic. I can't find a better day than today to do that. From the paper work I have on her she was sold at an auction as a 2-year old with a puffy knee. The couple who bought her put her in a pasture with another horse. Some series of unfortunate events occurred with the couple and the man was removed from the location with the horses. It was my understanding that he did most of the work with the horses. The woman was no very familiar with horses and it turns out the Magic did not like her at all. Magic would chase the woman around the field biting and kicking at her. In the end the woman could not take it anymore and put Magic in the paper. The ad said "Free to anyone who can catch her." Thankfully this ad was read by the founder and president of Denkai Animal Sanctuary Floss Blackburn. Floss and her team went to the property and spent an entire day trying to get Magic loaded. They finally did and took her to the sanctuary.

I am not sure how long she was at the sanctuary before I came along, but I don't think it was very long. So here is how I got involved. I wanted to get involved with horses and began looking for some place in Northern Colorado that had this capability. I stumbled across Denkai on the internet and saw that you could sponsor horses. Well of course I was all over that! I looked through the list of available horses to sponsor and found Magic. I loved her just from her picture and contacted Floss about being her sponsor.

To begin with I would go out on my lunch break and as often as possible to just be near her. She would not let me too close at first and so I'd just stand and talk to her. Then one evening I went out to see her and she had a cut over her eye. Floss was not there, but I had her cell phone number and called her. By the time Floss got back it was dark and we had to work by the "light of the moon". One of the people who help Floss at the sanctuary is Darrin. He is VERY experienced with all types of horses. (He is also a VERY patient and wonderful farrier. His contact info can be found at the bottom of this post if you need a new farrier or horse trainier.) He had a rope halter that we need to get on Magic so we could treat her cut. Well she didn't want any of that. I was the only one who could get close enough to her, so Darrin gave me the rope halter. I had NEVER haltered a horse before. I understood the concept, but didn't know exactly what I needed to do. Magic let me put the halter over her face and then Darrin instructed me on how to tie it so it wouldn't come off. We treated her cut and she was on the mend.

I continued my visits and then Floss was forced to move the sanctuary, which meant haltering Magic and loading her into a trailer. Well we got her into a round pin and it took me ALL day to get her haltered. She was one of the last animals to be moved that day. Once Magic was haltered she was fine in the trailer and rode along quietly.

At the new location, I tried to work on getting her to halter easier, but it was quite a distance from my house and I wasn't getting out as often as I wanted. So I talked to Floss about adopting her and she thought that would be great idea. So in October of 2006 I moved her to a boarding facility near my home.

I have continued to work with Magic, although her training is not as far along as I'd like. But I love her and just spending time with her makes me happy!

So that's it. That's the story of how I came to have my wonderful horse Black Magic!

Darrin’s Contact Info
Darrin Hill
970-776-6816
Moondog66@gmail.com