"We must embrace our pain and burn it as fuel for our journey"

                                                         -anonymous

Name: Falkner

Breed: Gypsy Vanner

Age:

Gender: stallion/male

Height: 16hh

Sire: Demitri

Dam: Artemisia

Siblings: none

Mate: Tsura

Crush: Tsura

Crushers: Tsura

Foals: none

Personality: Falkner is a gentleman. He is very serious about his work and is always willing to please. He never fails to plase others.

History:

(I'm trying something new so bear with me!!)

    The night I was born was rainy(quite typical for western Scotland).

    The first thing I remember is feeling the icy drops fall onto my already wet skin. Then there was the warm sensation of my mother licking my thick baby fur backwards, trying to warm me. I was not as quick of a learner then. I knew, as instinct told me, I needed to get up. But the rain was so cold and I was angry that I had been released from my warm pouch into this cold and unforgiving world.

    But, my mother was persistant. She nudged me and kicked me rather hardly, telling me to rise and stop being a coward. So I got up. I was extremely wobbly at first, falling many times. But I soon got it. Then a alien feeling came from the pit of my stomach and rumbled at me. The sound scared me and I cried out, darting forward and falling in the mud. My mother laughed at me, but then told me to rise again. I soon figured out the reason for the strange feeling and threating rumbling was my hunger.

    At first I suckled on my mother's hock, completely ignorant of where to go for food. She simply lifted her leg away from my awkward attempt and told me to try again. I finally got it right.

    I grew fast, becoming swift and sturdy from my many trial and error attempts.

    When my baby fur finally shedded away I becme much lighter than I used to be. I became more and more like my breed. The huge amount of fur(or called feathers in the equine world) became lush and plentiful. My mane and tail grew fast and became thick as that of a cowhide. It was a pain for the humans to keep it untangled.

   Oh, I forgot to say that I was owned by humans. My apologies. I only learned the first names of my human family. There was the big man, whom's name I never learned. My human always called him "Pa" so that's what I began to call him. His mate had died quite a few years back, before my birth and my mother's birth.

   Pa was a big man, with lots of fur on his chin and upper lip. His fur amused me to no end. He also had some at the very top of his head, but it was fading fast. Oh, and his fur was very white, whiter than snow.

   My human was a young male named Douglas. In horse years I would say he was about fifteen years old. He only had a little fur on his upper lip, but had massive amounts of fur on his head. He was my human. Douglas would come to me every night pet me, feed me, and train me.

   My home was a very big and old farm. It was well put together, however. They grew many different crops there, although many died because of an excess of rain. The paths to the barn and family house was simply dirt, so you can imagine how I felt when I went into town for the first time.

   The first time I ever left the safety of the old farm I was four years old. I had recently been trained to be ridden and Douglas usually just rode me bareback with a rope strung behing my ears and over my nose. I watched, with Douglas astride, as Pa strapped Mama up to a big cart that was filled with human delicacies. I had seen this happen many a time and I had no idea where Pa took my mama.  

   But then we were on our way and Douglas had be following the cart as we bumped down the dirt road. We traveled for a few hours before we got there. Along the way Mama talked to me about how great my father was before he was sold by Pa at a horse auction. I had heard this tail so many times so I simply drooped my ears and bottom lip and listened to her.

   When we got there even Mama became silent. It was a small town, yes, complete with a butcher shop, barber shop for both men and women, many grocery stalls, and a barn in which horse supplies were held, along with any horses that were doomed to be butchered for their meat. The roads were very long and entirely cobblestone. Our hooves rang out like bells on the stone. I will never forget that day.

    Many people looked towards us, eyes growing wide. They looked from loyal old Mama plodding along in front to me, a young thing that was still learning the ways of life. Many offered to buy me, a few offered to buy Mama. But Pa and Douglas declined all offers. Us Gypsy Vanners belonged to them.

    Time passed fast after the first trip to town. Shortly after my fifth birthday Pa and Douglas decided it was time to put on the cart. So I began to learn to pull a cart. It was tiresome, but I loved it. I always arched my neck and lifted my legs, prancing through the town like I owned the place. This would become ordinary life for me for almost a year.

    But hard times fell upon Pa and Douglas after Mama died. She had become their new plow horse after I took over at the cart. I could easily pull the plow and did so for a while. But the huge amount of work began to make me weary. Finally, Pa and Douglas couldn't afford to feed me. So I became doomed to the meat barn.

    I remember Pa and Douglas crying when they handed me over to the horse handler in front of the rickety old barn. I would never see them again.

    I did not know the reason why they were doing this to me and I sunk into deep depression. I simply waited for my early end. I was only just coming up on my sixth birthday. There was so much left to do. I wanted to have a mate. I wanted a foal. I wanted to see the eastern, northern, and southern parts of Scotland. I wanted to do so much but I was doomed to become meat for the very people who arranged my conceiving.

   The day they came I was standing in the back of my stall, brooding. I heard their horses from down the barn aisle.

    "Wow, Cade, this place is really nice! I knew it was a good idea to come here for vacation. Its so old. Oh and the horses! I've never seen such beautiful Gypsy Vanners in my life... besides my Lyric of course."

   "Yeah, too bad we can't save these horses."

    "What do you mean save them?"

    "Kate these horses are to be sold for meat. Did you not see the horses being led from here to the butcher's barn?"

    All was quite for a bit. Then the female voice spoke again.

    "Maybe I can buy one or two. The money I got from selling Jinxing Jordon should be enough to buy a couple of beat-down farm horses."

    Then they were outside my stall.

    "Oh my GOD! Look at that stallion, Cade!!!"

    "He's a beauty alright, but they are going to want a lot for him."

    Then the groom whom I had begun to respond to spoke up.

    "I don't want to see him go to the butcher's barn. I can strike a bargain with you. I own this barn and I'm in business with the town butcher."

    Then the threesome went into talking quickly, until the female voice finally became satisfied. I was haltered and led out of my stall, down the aisle. I was put into the hands of one of the people whom had bargained for me. He was tall and lanky, with russet hair and vivid eyes. He had a dominant yet kind air about him.

   A few more horses were led out as well. Then the female came out after shaking the groom's hand one last time. Then we began walking. It wasn't long before we got to the place where the two people who I would come to know as Kate and Cade stayed. We were tied losely on the porch rail and left to graze. There were two strange objects lying beside the farmhouse. It would come to know these things as the "automobile" and the "trailer."

    We left the next morning. I was loaded into the strange object. The other horses balked, but I went in with no trouble. Id didn't care what happened to me now. I had lost my whole family. I was still in deep depression, assuming that I was merely being hauled off to a new town to be slaughtered at. I had learned to sleep at huge periods of time during the day to hide the pain from the betrayal of Pa and Douglas. I slept a good 10 hours a day, waking up in the night, drinking the slightest bit of water, and going back to sleep. So I didn't know long it had been since we had left Scotland. For all I knew it could have been a day, a week, a month, or a year. I didn't care.

    We made stops a couple times in the day when Kate began complained about having to "pee." We also stopped for a few hours at night, allowing the driver to sleep a bit.

   I could tell the climate was changing eventually. I became violantly sick. I only slept longer. But when the truck and trailer stopped for the very last time I was still not over my sickness.

   That was the first time in a long time that I saw daylight. It was so strange out here. Everything was vibrant with grass and the sky was blue with no clouds at all. There were also so many other horses.

   I was put into a corral of my own. Over the course of a month or so I became used to the climate and came out of my depression only because of Cade. He was so much like Douglas, although much younger, it was crazy.

   My experience with the humans was great and I became better because of it. But the horses were cruel. They called me "Scottie" because of my Scottish accent. I didn't stand up for myself. I didn't know how. I had never been around other horses that talked to me besides Mama and one horse that had accompanied me in the trailer.

   I am beginning to learn the ways of the cowpony but I have much to learn. Nevada is much different then rainy old Scotland....my homeland.

~~~~~

design and render (c) AngelTrouble

P.S. I worked very hard on a special bio for a special stallion. Please don't just look and see if he has a mate and then fav him, actually read his history if you are interested. I will take critique on the history, but not harsh critique, thanks ^_^