How do I even begin to describe this amazing being. He is the most intelligent and loyal horse I have ever met. He is the most sensitive spirit that I have ever had the honor to be around. He is one of the best teachers I have ever had the privilege of learning from. He is my brother in a mission of coexistence. He is my best friend. I met Griph in 2009 when a mutual friend and I helped him get out of the slaughter market. He was physically, mentally, and spiritually scarred. He had experienced atrocities at the hand of man, that no one should bear witness too, let alone endure.
Griph was closed when we first met. A mere shell of what he was at his essence. He let me in which is an honor that I will never forget, or be able to repay. Together we found him again. That journey was a priceless gift for both of us. He was able to be himself and live a life that he so deserves. We didn’t know how far we were going together. For that matter we didn’t even know where we were going, we just knew it would be together.
For the first two years I didn’t want to ask him to carry me. I just wanted him to experience some good times with a human. It was important to me that we built our foundation from the ground up. Focusing on key items like trust, communication, relationship, these were the ways to unlock my friend from the past and help him to become present. Oddly enough he helped me through my darkest times during 2012. The roles reversed and now my friend was my guiding light and led me back to my path. We now follow the same path together.
Well we had to go down that dark road a bit in order to adequately describe this exuberant horse, Griph. He is one of the most clever horses, often getting his herd mates to do his bidding without them quite knowing. He runs the group as much as he wants leaving most of the heavy lifting to his friend Raven. He has an incredible work ethic, one that is not shared by any other horse that I’ve met, or herd of. He is the fastest horse that I’ve seen. He has raced numerous purebreds with light female riders, and smoked them each time. I even had to slow him down before to not hurt the pride of the other rider and horse. He’s currently never lost a race. That’s why we gave him a nick name, Griph lightning. He loves to be out with his crew, that is after all something that he has craved for a long time. But you will also find him off by himself standing pensively looking into the distance. Even though he acts like he’s tough and hard all the time, he will soak up love like none other, and reciprocate it. Hes’ extremely curious about everything around him. One time I left my shop door open while the horses were grazing and pretty soon here comes Griph walking through an average size home door. He came all the way in and decided to work with me in the shop for a bit. Quality control I guess. I am so thankful that he can finely just be himself. With every day that goes by my life is immeasurably enriched by my boy Griph.