‘Hear that?’ Ali asked, cupping his ear.
‘What?’
‘Paruku is in there, and that’s the first time he hasn’t protested at your approach,’ Ali said. ‘I have the feeling something might be different today.’
Helen was climbing into the yard, but Rachel could see that Paruku had raised his head and was looking at her, sniffing the air in her direction.
‘Take Rachel with you,’ Ali said. ‘Something happened yesterday. I think you can build on it today.’
Rachel climbed into the yard behind her mother. Paruku watched them without moving.
‘How about you run the show?’ Helen said, and handed Rachel the flag. ‘You’ve seen me do it; you know how it worked with the others.’
They walked to the centre of the ring together and Rachel looked across at Paruku.
‘Slap the flag so it makes a noise,’ Helen said.
Rachel brought the flag down sharply and Paruku reared. He tossed his head and broke into a fast canter around the perimeter of the round yard.
‘Good,’ Helen said. ‘Let him run away from you. Be firm, Rachel. Don’t waver. Keep facing him squarely and staring right at his eyes. If he slows down, slap that flag again. He can run from you as much as he wants.’
Paruku showed no sign of slowing down; in fact he sped up so that he was thundering around the ring, his tail held high, with Rachel in the middle. She turned on the spot, her eyes fixed on him. He looked beautifully fit, his muscles rippling under his coat. Out in the wild the horses had all looked a little pot-bellied from their diets of dry grass, but now he was lean and streamlined.
Rachel fixed her attention even harder on Paruku. There were only two things in the world — her and the horse — and she wanted those two things to be joined. She knew from watching her mother work with the brumbies that a change would come over the horse and that he’d want to come close to the human who was pushing him away, and then trust could be built. But would Paruku be the exception?
She slapped the flag down again sharply. Paruku’s pace didn’t change, though she saw he had turned an ear in her direction as he thundered around the edge of the yard.
‘That’s good,’ Helen murmured. ‘He’s taking notice of you.’
Rachel remembered seeing Paruku galloping across the plain at the lake. If only he’d kept running! He’d still be out there, wild and free, not galloping around a yard in a desert on the other side of the world. She blinked, and mentally shook herself. She needed to stay present and watch the horse right now, not get lost in her memories of his earlier life. His coat was getting dark with sweat. It was hot — he must be tiring.
‘I’m going to leave you alone with him so he can just focus on you,’ Helen said quietly. She strode briskly across to the railings and climbed through.
Paruku saw her go and hesitated. His head swung around and he looked from Helen to Rachel. His ears went back and he snorted.
Rachel didn’t wait for her mother’s instruction. She knew she had to do this herself. She faced Paruku squarely and snapped the flag hard. He jumped and sped up again, galloping round and round the ring. She stared at him hard, as though physically pushing him away with her gaze.
Her mother had told her that the basis of this method was that the pushed-out horse felt afraid being alone, and wanted to come back to the herd. In the round yard, the person at the centre was the only thing the horse had to come back to. Rachel understood it in a way she never had before.
Paruku’s inside ear flicked in her direction. She had his attention again. That ear was trained on her.
Come on, Paruku, she thought to herself. Come on, boy. You’re safe.
There was a slight shift and she looked at him hard to see what it was. His head had dropped. Only a fraction, but perhaps enough. She waited another few beats. Yes, his head was definitely lower, and she caught a flash of his tongue. She could have wept with relief. He was making chewing motions with his mouth, signalling to the herd’s lead mare that he wanted to be allowed back in. Only this time, it was Rachel he was signalling to. Although he was afraid of her, she was less frightening than being alone.
His head dropped right down, until he was moving with his nose just a few centimetres off the ground, as if he was sniffing it.
It was time to reward him by easing off the pressure. Rachel shifted her body so that she was side-on to him as he cantered instead of head-on, and she moved her gaze from his eyes down to his shoulder. It was a signal that should tell him two things — that she understood his language, and that she wasn’t pushing him away any more. She hoped with all her heart it would work.
From the corner of her eye, she saw Paruku slow down. He dropped from a canter to a trot, and then to a walk. When Rachel turned her back on him, he halted.
All she could do now was wait. She’d shown him she understood his language, and she’d rewarded him for his response. It was up to him now. This was the moment when the horse chose to come to the human.
Despite the early hour, the heat shimmered down on Rachel and she wished she had worn a hat to keep the sun off. All the horses in training were out on their morning ride. She could hear the sounds of the stables — the grooms sweeping out the stalls, the treadmill working with a horse thudding along the rubber mat, the squeak of the training machine taking the horses in circles. Human laughter echoed across the complex.
Rachel looked at the ground, at the pale desert sand, so different from the red stuff Paruku knew. She strained to hear if he was approaching her. She thought she heard a footfall, but couldn’t be sure.
Then she felt air moving across her neck, and from the corner of her eye she saw that he was standing close behind her. She heard him draw the air in through his nostrils, smelling her, and in response she did the same.
He had done it. He had chosen to come to her.
Rachel blinked to stop herself from crying, and turned around slowly. She kept her eyes on the ground and stepped forwards. Paruku hesitated, shifted a little, then extended his nose. Rachel slowly put out her hand.
‘Good boy,’ she said, and started up a gentle murmuring. ‘Well done, boy.’
She ran the tips of her fingers down his nose for the first time. His coat was warm and silky, and she felt again the hot rush of his breath on her hand. She remembered how Ali had greeted him when he first arrived, the Arabic phrase meaning ‘peace be upon you’, one of the ones she’d learned.
‘Assalaam Alaikum, Paruku,’ she whispered, running her hand down his nose again.
Hair-of-Fire talks in a low murmur, a flow of sound, and she strokes him all over, her hands never leaving him, moving down his neck, across his chest, slowly down his foreleg. When he flinches and sidesteps, she waits, her hands still. She’s not afraid of him; she welcomes him. She blows through her tiny nostrils at him, she scratches his coat.
His skin twitches and shakes, he swivels his ears, but he lets her do it. He feels an easing of the tightness he’s felt ever since he was caught. He lowers his head and lets his muscles unclench. He breathes her in. He’s been running away from her for a long time, and now he’s tired.
When she steps away from him and walks off, he follows her, his nose close to her shoulder.
The other one, the older female, comes into the yard and together they rub him all over with a soft, floppy thing and then they lay it across his withers. He flicks his ears at the strangeness and they take it away, then bring it back, until he’s not afraid of it. When they tighten something around his belly, he snorts and bucks a few times, and they send him cantering around the yard again until he understands that it won’t hurt, and lowers his head, asking to come close.
At the end, Hair-of-Fire stands by his head and the other one puts her weight across his back, lying still over his withers to let him feel the sense of it, and when he is comfortable she slides smoothly to sit on his back and he jumps a little and then stands, feeling the strangeness of it, feeling human legs against his hide, and some
thing stirs in his ancient memory, something beyond his life. Somewhere, way back, it seems he knows this feeling, the way that human bodies and horse bodies fit together so well.
Chapter 15
From then on, Rachel worked with Paruku every day. After Helen rode him the first few times and made sure he was accustomed to a person on his back, Rachel was allowed to get on. It felt strange at first, for both of them. Paruku turned his head to look at her up there and gave a few small leaps, trying to get his head down. Rapscallion had always liked to pigroot, so Rachel was accustomed to it, and was able to bring his head up and soothe him until he relaxed again.
He was the perfect size for her. Aragorn had been too big, and Rapscallion was too small, but Rachel could mount Paruku from the ground without help, and once sitting on his back she felt at home. We were made for each other, she thought. Then squashed down the thought. It was too painful.
Especially because Paruku was changing. A different side of his personality was starting to emerge. As his trust of Rachel grew, he started to become more affectionate. He followed her around the enclosure, his nose close to her shoulder. He enjoyed being groomed. He even began to nicker when he saw her coming.
Rachel was happy that he was adjusting so well, but saw too that Paruku was losing the wildness that made him special to her in the first place. She missed the free creature she’d seen out in the desert, even while she made friends with him.
They graduated from riding in the round yard to the bigger yards, and then to the open sand arena, which was big enough for them to train Paruku to trot and canter, to respond to Rachel’s signals, to become at ease with a human on his back. Helen worked with them every morning, and then every afternoon Rachel worked with him by herself, or sometimes with Ali watching to see how they were progressing.
Her father sometimes came and watched too, but they hadn’t really made up. Rachel still felt a knot of anger at him, and they were each cool with the other. Mike was very busy anyway, helping all the brumbies to settle in and working with the stable veterinarian. Cassie was riding Jalka every day and Helen was still working with the brumbies and their endurance riders. The days started at 4.30am and by the evening the whole family was exhausted. They’d eat a quick dinner together and fall into bed. On the second weekend Mike, Helen and Cassie went into Dubai city for some sightseeing and shopping, but Rachel stayed at the stables. She only had two weeks with Paruku. She wasn’t going to waste a day of that time shopping.
When she wasn’t riding Paruku, she groomed him and fed him and cleaned out his enclosure. Even in the heat of the day, when everyone else disappeared indoors, Rachel hung out with the little mob. Paruku and Marran would stand side by side, scratching each other’s backs with their teeth or resting, though always with one ear alert. Marjii, who seemed perfectly happy in the heat, skipped around them and tried to get them to play. When the horses ignored him, he’d play with Rachel instead.
Every day Rachel reinforced the colt’s training, stroking his woolly coat, running her hands down his legs, and playing with him. He was very like Paruku in personality, as well as in looks, she could see. He was already bossy, pushing his mother around and demanding attention, shoving his head under her belly whenever he wanted to drink. He seemed inexhaustible, running up and down the enclosure, kicking his legs in the air and gambolling like a lamb. Then suddenly tiredness would overcome him and he’d curl up in the sand and fall asleep. He was affectionate too, looking for her and calling out when he caught sight of her.
Ali thought he was special. ‘We’re lucky to have this one,’ he said, leaning over the fence one day to watch Rachel brushing Marjii. ‘I told your father no stallions and no foals, but I’m glad Marjii slipped through the net. If Paruku works out as well as I hope, then Marjii has a good future as an endurance horse. We may even breed from him one day.’
Rachel didn’t answer, but busied herself with the foal.
‘What’s the matter?’ Ali asked.
‘I still wish Paruku hadn’t been gelded,’ she burst out, startling Marjii and making him jump away from her.
‘All the males in the stables are gelded. It’s too hard to keep stallions in a complex like this.’
‘Your horses weren’t wild before,’ Rachel said. ‘Paruku was an adult with his own mare. He knew about being a stallion. He’s lost that.’
Ali leaned on the railings and looked at Paruku. The horse raised his head and looked back at him. The brumbies might doze like other horses, but they were always alert and the slightest change around them made them stand up straight and test the air.
‘It’s true, what you say,’ Ali said. ‘But Rachel, Paruku’s destiny is with humans. He allowed himself to be caught, and now he’s chosen to bond with people. Yes, we’ve taken away his maleness, but in return he has richer and more complex relationships.’
‘But he’s not the same!’
Ali reached out a hand and stroked Paruku’s face, and scratched the white star on his forehead. Paruku stretched his neck forwards, enjoying it.
‘No,’ Ali said slowly. ‘No, he’s not.’
He turned and walked away without another word. Rachel stared after him, watching his white robes swishing behind him. They only had another few days and then they were going home. She would have to say goodbye to Paruku, Marran and Marjii — and all the brumbies — for good.
‘Are you sure?’ Helen adjusted the strap of Rachel’s riding helmet. ‘You don’t have to do it.’
‘I want to do it, Mum,’ Rachel said, giving the helmet an experimental twist. It sat firmly on her head. She wore the riding uniform of the stable — dark riding tights, a long-sleeved navy-blue polo shirt, and running shoes. It felt odd not to be wearing jodhpurs and boots, but she looked just like all the other riders, apart from her red curls, of course.
Paruku, next to her, looked around with interest. The day had come for his first training ride with the other horses. All the horses going out on the morning ride were gathering in the open asphalted area. Every horse was trotted up and down in front of the vet to check that it was perfectly sound before riding, and Mike was helping the stable vet with this job. Cassie also was joining the training ride on Jalka.
‘Sabah al khair.’ Ali came to join them. He was wearing his white robes, which he always managed to keep spotless.
‘Sabah al noor,’ Rachel and Helen said together.
‘A big day,’ Ali said, smiling at them both. ‘Paruku runs with his new herd for the first time. Are you afraid?’
Rachel shook her head firmly. Then, at the expression on his face, she relented. ‘A little,’ she admitted.
‘He’s learned to trust you, now you must learn to trust him,’ Ali said. ‘Let him be himself, Rachel. He’s learning obedience nicely. Give him a little freedom too.’
‘Not too much freedom!’ Helen said. ‘Rachel’s only twelve, Ali. I don’t want her getting hurt.’
He smiled and nodded. ‘Of course. But she’s not a child when it comes to horses. Rachel has more sense than some riders twice her age.’
Rachel felt herself blushing, and took hold of Paruku’s reins to lead him away. ‘I’d better take him over to the vet,’ she said, and escaped their scrutiny.
But as she led Paruku in a trot up and down the inspection area, she felt a different scrutiny. The stable vet was looking intently at the horse’s legs, but her father was looking at her instead of Paruku. When she led him away, Mike followed.
Rachel put the reins up over Paruku’s head and climbed into the saddle. Paruku danced a little as she landed on his back. She was used to this now — it was something he always did. She enjoyed it.
Her father shaded his eyes with his hands and looked up at her. ‘Be careful today.’
‘I’ll be fine,’ she said, keeping her gaze on Paruku’s ears.
He sighed. ‘Rachel, you’re really being unreasonable. I couldn’t give you Paruku, and I had no choice about gelding him. Can’t you let it go?’
‘Rachel!’ One of the female riders, Maryam, waved at her enthusiastically. ‘Are you ready?’
Rachel waved back, and Paruku pricked up his ears. He pulled at his reins and danced a few more steps. Rachel stroked his neck to calm him. It was a new experience, being in such a big group of horses, and she hoped he wouldn’t freak out.
Cassie trotted up beside her on Jalka, and the two horses greeted each other. The bloodstained mare had joined the daily rides a week earlier than Paruku, and was accustomed to them already.
Rachel marvelled at the sight of her. Looking at the two horses, it was hard to imagine that only seven weeks earlier they’d been running wild in the remote desert of the Kimberley. Now they were about to go on a training ride in one of the world’s top endurance-training facilities, and were waiting calmly, as though it was an everyday occurrence.
‘Let’s go,’ Maryam called, and the group of female riders set off on the track at a trot. It was a soft, sandy surface designed to build up fitness, but Paruku and Jalka pulled at their reins and tossed their heads, keen for a run.
The track led around the perimeter of the stable facility and then out to the desert itself. As they broke into a canter and followed the trail out into the dunes, Rachel realised it would be the first time since he’d been captured that Paruku would be unrestrained. There was nothing between him and the desert. She was the only thing stopping him from being free.
She felt a moment of fear, and then forced it out of her mind. The morning chill was lifting and she could feel the warmth of the sun. The female riders cantered in a loose group, laughing and joking, letting the horses settle into the rhythm they needed for a long ride. This would be Paruku’s life from now on. Every day he’d go out on a two-hour training ride like this, out into the desert. When his training became more intense, he’d do longer sessions, sometimes up to eighty kilometres, to prepare him for endurance races.
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