Merlin's Premonition
by Sharon Throop
When Wendy was still alive we had two geldings instead of just one. I owned Rufus a sorrel, 12 years old, and Bill rode Merlin the white arab/appy that we still have.
Some fellow employees at work own the land across the road from us and told me that anytime we wanted to ride over there it was fine with them. So with our 50 acres and their 40 that seemed like a good offer. Their land sits right next to the cemetery that is across the road from us.
So one Friday evening shortly before Wendy died (she was back in college by this time), we saddled up and proceeded across the road. Merlin would not cross the road, so I got Rufus to go first and then Bill had to walk Merlin over and re-mount. We walked in front of the cemetery first to get to our friend's land. After rounding the corner I saw a herd of deer grazing in the back and my horse being *nuts* about deer I told Bill no way, and turned to go back home.
We decided to walk through the cemetery, as there are 3 roads in/out. We walked onto the first road and all was fine, with Merlin in the lead. We crossed over the back, where there are no graves and proceeded to walk down the middle road.
When we came to the exact spot that Wendy is buried in today, Merlin literally would not go past that spot. No amount of coaxing or cropping would make him walk past that spot. There are no huge headstones there to scare him and we couldn't figure it out.
I finally told Bill let's just go back down the first road and walk across the front like when we originally came over. The first road contains huge headstones and very old ones also, but Merlin walked past them fine.
Merlin, in my opinion, had a premonition of things to come and as Wendy rode him on occasion we are both sure that he knew something then, that we would not know until several weeks later. 
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