A Heartwarming Equine Friendship

I have a horse named Sully.  He is an arabian.  They can be a much maligned breed because they are incredibly smart, in most cases far smarter than their human counterparts.

He is a super cool guy and I love him in all of his arab-ness.  He is actually a pretty level headed man with a very strong spirit.  I completely respect that spirit and in doing so he has completely blossomed and is a pretty happy horse.  The one thing is...he is definitely an outcast in the herd.  

He prefers to be in the pasture as opposed to a paddock so I have come to respect that but I have always felt sorry for him because he was always off by himself.  I even saw another gelding in the pasture viciously put a run on him and chase him as far away from the herd as he could get him.  I'm not sure why he doesn't fit in but there must be something different about him.  Horses don't like different.  

Two years ago, I put him out in the pasture with another gelding named Royal.  Royal, in spite of being the largest horse out in the pasture, is one of the lowest in the pecking order.  

Strangely enough, the two of them forged a fast friendship much to my happiness.

I brought Sully up and had him in a pen away from Royal for over a year.  Sully hated being in a pen so I put him back out into the herd only to see him shunned once again.

I introduced Royal back to the herd as well and the two of them immediately resumed their friendship.  It is one of the most heart warming things that I have ever witnessed in inter-horse relationships.  They are inseparable and it seems that now that they have each other, the rest of the herd leaves them alone. They stand close together, grooming each other or sometimes just resting a muzzle on the other guy's back.   They are usually off by themselves within sight of the main herd but very content in each other's company.  The strange part is, they are not really herd bound. If I take Sully out to ride him, Royal is okay with it.  

You don't often see equine friendships that stand the test of time, I think because horses are very much in the moment creatures since in the wild, their very survival depends on it.  I think these two have something very special, very special indeed.

Here are some pics of the two of them.

Taken 2 summers ago

Taken this summer