I think he had a really good life here in his retirement. He discovered Africa for the first time: the great expanses of dusty savannah, the blinding light of the African noon, the flocks of sheep and cattle and the bird life – the strange noises of the African night: all of this was new to him after the gentility of the cool and leafy Circle Hippique in Bamako. He relished it all and got to know it well. He was always eager to throw himself into a new adventure- brave and exciting and very macho, Maobi was a wonderful stallion. He, like Napoleon his predecessor, died a virgin alas. Why oh why did I never let him breed?