They say friends can be found in the most unexpected places. This has been the same case for Athena and Duke. Lakyn, and JoJo, two animal rescuers, discovered these two horses in a terrible state and decided to help them recover. Athena, the mare, never knew love or understood affection. Whereas, Duke, the mini stallion failed to make friends until he met Athena.
Recently, a Facebook page posted a video featuring the animals’ story – from failing to socialize initially, to becoming best friends. In a world where animal cruelty is seen very often, this video showed another path of loving them unconditionally.
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Athena found her retreat in Duke
Today the Facebook page Soulmates shared an adorable video on their social media with the caption, “Huge rescue horse is thrilled to find a mini horse boyfriend — and he throws a tantrum whenever they’re apart!” The video starts with JoJo describing the first day she met Athena at an auction. “She was depressed, extremely scared. She was basically a bag of bones.”
Devastated, lonely, and dirty, the mare had a hard time at first. In fact, the rescuers, who have a community named ‘furvivors’, would have to stand for an hour in front of Athena to let her come toward them. Things were not going in the right way, and she was taking a lot of time to come out of her shell. Enter, Duke.
After realizing that there’s another horse just like her, who eats alone and dwells alone, the mare came forward and befriended him. From then on, as the rescuer shared, “Even through the fence, they were friends. When they figured out they could be in the same pastures together, they didn’t want to be separated then on.”
Their friendship soon turned to a strong companionship; as they started staying together, and eating together. In fact, as Lakyn described, “When she eats, he has to guard her. He will circle behind her and make sure no one’s there. He will make sure she’s protected. We can’t take her away from him, that he doesn’t throw a little tantrum. A Duke tantrum. He has serious Athena FOMO.”
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Now, Athena is able to approach other horses, enjoys the love she gets, and has finally achieved a healthy weight. Kudos to the rescuers who could see through the pain of these horses and could bring them back to normal life, making them confident. What do you think about their story? Let us know.
Written by
Edited by
Anupama Ghosh