Lucinka

Story

Luciška was our first horse — a Noriker mare bought from a furman. She came out of the forest with worn, overstretched legs, and so she enjoyed a well-earned retirement here. Her legs did hurt her, but in the herd she had a standing that was not up for discussion: she was the lead mare. Stallion or gelding, it made no difference — when Luca gave the order, everyone obeyed.

She had had foals before, at the furman's. That is how breeding goes: some foals stayed at home, others were sold — and in the end Luca herself was sold. To us. Here she gave birth to Balko and that was the first time a foal of hers did not go anywhere. It stayed with her. And in 2024 we brought her daughter home to her as well — Maja.

Luca with one of her foals.

She left us in August 2025, in the days when we were fighting for Rigo in the yard. One morning she did not come home with the herd. I sensed that something had happened, and I found her up on the hill, in the meadow we call the biotope — where the horses spend their nights and where I have spent a few nights with them myself. She was lying right at the far end. There was not a single wound on her, not even a hoof scrape in the ground around her. She left entirely on her own, with the sunset, surrounded by her herd, in a place she loved.

Our vet told me then, in a gentle voice, that apart from Luca she had known only one mare with that privilege — to leave in the embrace of her herd. And I still think she wanted to soften the blow we were taking at the time. She had her age and her pains. After she left there was a strange, almost zen-like calm in the herd. Nobody kicked, nobody had anything to prove. There was simply quiet.