Gladiator arrived wearing his name like armour. Aggressive on the outside, coiled and sharp. But underneath that fire lived something ancient and tender, a sensitivity so deep it frightened him as much as it frightened everyone around him.
He taught me that fire and fragility have always lived in the same body, in horses and in men.
Twenty years of life lived at full intensity, and he burned every single day of it bright. He is gone now. But I feel him every time a horse tests me and I choose to stay.