Wild Horses, a song written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards has been playing over and over in my head.
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The song debuted on the Rolling Stones 1971 album Sticky Fingers.
But, I’ve got Britain’s Got Talent superstar, Susan Boyle’s version of this classic on repeat.
This sad song took me back to when I spent eight days walking through the Transkei.
It was there that I came across these two wild horses standing on a deserted beach, staring into the afternoon sun.
For me, horses are hands-down the most majestic animals on the planet.
The horses seemed to have broken free, as a thick piece of tethered rope was tied around their necks.
There was haunting and jaded look in their eyes despite their new-found freedom – I guess few will know what these two had been through to obtain it.
As the sand blew over the dunes the two horses stuck two sad, solemn figures.
Whenever I moved closer to photograph them, the weary old workhorses – moved, but closer together.
It was evident a special bond had been forged between them.
Their bodies were a battlefield of scars and one had a clearly noticeable injury to an ear.
Velma Bronn Johnston, also known as Wild Horse Annie, was an animal welfare activist in the United States.
Johnston led a campaign to stop the eradication of mustangs and free-roaming burros from public lands.
She was instrumental in passing legislation to stop using aircraft and land vehicles from inhumanely capturing wild horses and burros.
Johnston beautifully summed up my experience.
“You occasionally see one, and it’s the thrill of a lifetime. But mostly all you ever see is a cloud of dust after they are gone. It’s their stubborn ability to survive that makes them so remarkable.”
I think everyone, deep down, has an inner wild horse wanting to be set free.
“Blame it or praise it, there is no denying the wild horse in us,” said Virginia Woolf, an English writer, and considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors.
On this note, I’m ‘digging deep’ to find that ‘stubborn ability to survive’ this lockdown.
When all of this is over I’m going to celebrate my freedom, like the Transkei horses, on the beach, facing the sun.
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