Orin was the first horse rescued by Griph and I from slaughter. Our mission to help horses get out of the slaughter market was made real the day that Orin was picked up. When I met Orin it was in August of 2015. After I asked permission to go in with the horses, I hoped over the corral panels that made the cell up. This was the main holding pen that I was in now. There was about a dozen horses in this specific area. Most of them immediately vacated the area surrounding me, like water leaving the spot oil was dropped. There was one horse that walked right up to me. The courage he showed to just walk up to a complete stranger was noticeable. What was even more noticeable was how causal he was about it. Unlike most of the other horses at the feedlot, Orin just seemed like he was enjoying himself there. While others wore faces of sorrow and bewilderment, wandering the feedlot in some sort of half present state as if caught in some nightmare that they couldn’t wake from. Orin came walking over to me, a complete stranger, with the comfort of a used car salesman. He wasted no time chumming me up with his charismatic personality. Like I said he was the first to come home that day.
No information came with Orin giving an idea to why he was there, besides what his body told. Orin came with numerous physical mystery scars. Whatever it was that had happened to Orin was very traumatic. The scars on his right flank are deep and cover a large amount of area. He also has a very large scar on his back right leg that indicates a fairly nasty wound in his history. I remember those were the only places that he didn’t liked being touched when I first met him. Orin holds onto a certain sadness from his past that is a deep scar in his heart. I believe that both the physical and emotional scars are linked together. Since knowing him I can see that the scars on his flank have filled in more with scar tissue, and the wound on his leg is much less noticeable. But what brings my heart joy more than that is that I can feel his heart healing as well. As time goes on I can see Orin opening up and expanding, finding and exploring new parts of himself.
I noticed that Orin was incredibly willing to try, the moment we met. We had to work on the obvious foundation block that was the weakest, which was trust. Which is often the case in any horse, but especially horses that find themselves in the slaughter market. The only thing they really had that they could give away was broken. Once that happens it can be hard to find your way back to yourself. Thankfully Orin’s special gift is his stalwart willingness to try. Trying turned into doing and now Orin is on his way back to himself, and enjoying the journey.
He was put into a lot of situations that were demanding of him right away. When Orin arrived, he went to work immediately. Not just because through engaging with him I found out that he was experienced carrying people, but also because I think that he needed to. His first year he worked incredibly hard. He was very timid of the whole range riding aspect at first, but he always maintained that remarkable willingness. Orin’s first night I heard commotion near the horses that woke me up out of my sleep. It was Orin, he had spooked at something in the woods and snapped his high line. He stood calmly looking at me, he was willing to remain calm even in this new world he found himself in as long as he could trust me. He just kept showing me that he would do anything , experience anything as long as that trust was solid. He had finally repaired his ability to trust and had given it away again. A gift that is an honor to accept. D.O.B: approximately 2002 Breed: Quarter Horse Sex: Male