Barcelona

One of the hardest things we face at the Lucy Irvine Foundation Europe is a heavily ingrained mindset about treatment of horses in the Roma community.  Sons and grandsons have the same approach their fathers and grandfathers did and as grandad is often still living with the family, his voice still carries. Tradition, how wonderful! we might say. Or we could interpret the repetition of behaviours as failure to adapt to knowledge based on science and study with a preference to follow patterns that have obtained for centuries, because that's how things have always been done.

These are some of the traditions regarding horses we see practiced in Roma communities here: 

A horse is bought to earn for the family. If it's a mare she's put to a stallion young so there's another horse in the pipeline. As soon as the foal arrives it's dominated by restraint. Generations of arms go around it to make sure it grows up easy to handle.

Small boys hang on the edge of the crowd wielding sticks plucked from hedgerows. There's competitive dominance in the air. Little macho masters are being moulded at the same time the foal is being manipulated towards a future of service to the family. At an age that would horrify most of those with knowledge of how and when a foal's frame develops, the baby is put into harness. Again this involves a macho gathering of the extended family. Boys may already have ridden the foal from when it's around 8 months old so it's already accustomed to being commanded.  Before that, it has run, tied, alongside its mother as she works. Once it's become 'krotok', (humble) in harness, its life ahead is set. It will haul wood,  herbs to sell and water for its master until it's no longer of any use, at which point it will be sold for meat. 

Frequently, however, a horse will have several masters. Swapping and selling on is a popular pastime. Men sit in cafes discussing whether to sell or swap a horse. Youths listen in. Their turn will come. There's street cred attached to being seen as a wheeler dealer. To an outsider this constant change and exchange of horses can seem pointless. If its lame, why not find out what's wrong and fix it instead of selling it? If it's thin, why not feed it up? LIFE has made some difference in this area because we'll help bring a horse back to health. But we have to beware of opportunism. An owner could accept our charity in order to sell at a higher price. A visibly well horse attracts more cash than a sick one. When we find someone's used us in this way we make a note to challenge him when he asks for help with another horse. Nevertheless it's worth keeping in mind that we've helped a horse regain health, even if it's now owned by a new master. And there are Roma here who do care about the welfare of their horses for more than economic reasons. We help, encourage and cherish those exceptions as seeds of change for the future.

Barcelona was rescued from a traditional set up but not raised from a foal in his owner's yard. We don't know his full history but we do know that somehow this small horse with big potential landed in the hands of one of the adult sons of a family who'd part-swapped another for him because he was fast. A fast horse attracts street cred to the owner and is useful to conveying him to and from work, shopping or gathering wood, at speed. 

LIFE was first called out to Barcelona's owner's yard when the horse had a harness wound, an infected hole on his chest opened and reopened by the rubbing of a heavy collar. 

"Watch out" said the men gathered, "He'll bite you."  

There was pride in this warning. Barcelona was thin and unkempt but his spirit wasn't broken. It's convenient when a horse's spirit is broken - when he's humble - but it makes him ordinary. Barcelona wasn't ordinary. He had spark and I made my admiration of this feisty little stallion obvious. The owner, who constantly fingered a gold medallion on his chest, preened. 

"Look after him" I said, and left meds for the wound and instructions not to make him work until it was healed. I was assured Barcelona would only rest until he was better.

The next day I saw him harnessed and driven hard, the owner urging him on to encouraging cheers from passengers. We stopped them and I asked what he was doing. Just going for water, he explained. There was no running water in the ghetto where he lived. Water for cooking, drinking and washing had to be carted there. He shrugged when I mentioned our agreement of the day before, asking rhetorically what he was to do. He had small children at home. His wife needed water to look after them.  Plus, Barcelona needed water, he pointed out.  He could lead the horse by hand to where there was water, I countered. But I was seeing a catch 22 we've since hit often. How were these men to provide even water for their families if they couldn't harness their workhorse? 

LIFE continued to help Barcelona whenever he had injuries, which was often: mouth wounds where a harsh bit had sawn the flesh open, leg wounds where he'd been scraped by nails in his rough shelter and many more harness wounds, some of which became so deep veterinary treatment was required. His hooves were in a sorry state, too, so we had them trimmed by an expert who also shod him as finely as she did her own competition horses. She also remarked on his potential. By then it was in my mind to rescue Barcelona from the repeated bad handling I witnessed and routine neglect of his needs, but it was fully two years before the opportunity came - when the owner decided he wanted a car instead of a horse.  

With the help of kind supporters, LIFE purchased Barcelona so that he wouldn't fall into bad hands again. We had him gelded so he could fit into our mini herd, and gradual rehabilitative work started. A friend of LIFE, an experienced horsewoman, took him to her stables for the gelding and aftercare and did some groundwork with him which we continued back at LIFE whenever we had a thoroughly horse-savvy volunteer on site. Unfortunately, that's not often but we learn what we can and in between experts' visits, Daniel, a local untrained but naturally talented young horse handler rode him. 

 They were a good match. Barcelona under Daniel was like a distant cousin to a Native American pony or a Mongolian youth's companion on the steppe. Lightly built, muscular and flexible,  the pair of them, boy and horse jumped ditches, wove among trees in the woods, herded sheep, opened and closed gates,  and Barcelona was as at ease in crowds in the ghetto as he was when among cars. One experienced rider said Barcelona could be a polo pony, he was so brave and flexible. But polo can be rough and when the chance for an equally different but rather gentler career for him came up, I welcomed it with open arms on his behalf. 

A qualified dressage trainer had moved to Bulgaria from Turkey and was looking for ponies in need of rehoming to start a training school. What an opportunity for our little red star! Today, Barcelona is settling in at her ranch near the Turkish border among other ponies with potential. All at LIFE look forward immensely to watching this unusual former gypsy workhorse's progress as a dressage pony and we hope he'll have many followers. Watch this space!

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Thanks for reading,

Lucy