by Phoenix, HSM team writer

Keshi, Lockwood’s most recent Demon Horse, arrives just in time for Halloween.

Keshi is Lockwood’s most artistic creation in the equestrian line. Keshi, the Demon Horse God, killed by Krishna. Meaning “long haired”, a black stallion with visible skeletal composition, Keshi is as massive and formidable as the other Demon Horses from Lockwood, though his origin in this instance is unknown to us. The slaying of this Demon Horse God is chronicled in the Bhagavata Purna; some relate Keshi as being a demon of childhood illness and disease, to having origins in the Greek Herculean labour of slaying the horse of Diomedes. Either of these or neither of these could be true, for this Keshi from Lockwood. His name is also known to the second-century period in Chinese history Keshi, possibly the earliest Sanskrit word known in Chinese: in old Chinese, *Kese, a mount of great value, was given in ransom for Emperor Wen of Zhou in 1103.

Whatever his origin, his appearance is bound to remind some of you of another ethereal fantasy equine breed, the Thestral. This other breed, however, is more a mixture of several other creatures, having the head of a dragon and leathery wings much like a giant bat with a horse skeleton. Thestrals can be seen by anyone who has witnessed and accepted a death, and was created for the Harry Potter series. Lockwood’s Demon Horse has no such prerequisite, and is all horse. His black muscular body and white flame mane and tail set him apart from the other colorful horses in the Demon breed.

Keshi has an unexpected appeal as a Demon horse; he seems more suited to the season, his skeleton has the appearance of being a costume perhaps painted on a glistening black stallion, striking fear in all that see him and or being his true skeleton visible through his flesh.  To my way of thinking he is more in line with what I would expect Death to be astride.

I can well imagine the cloaked figure of Death, with his bone-white skull just visible beneath his cloaked hood, his bony fingers holding the reins of his skeletal Demon Horse in one hand and the always death-fully sharp scythe in the other as he rides down through the dark, still night on his purposeful journey. Dark clouds roll past the full, luminous moon, horse and rider still visible in the night. The white of their skeletons glinting in the mist on their mission, Death roaming the countryside on the back of this fearsome Demon Horse, snorts of his death cold breath mingling with the night air. The clip of his heavy hooves heard slicing through the turf, his white flaming mane filling the night sky scattering the heavenly bodies in his wake. His neighing sending chills through all those that hear him. Blood red eyes matching the red leather of his rider’s saddle peering at their quarry– a faint reminder of the once corporeal body of both horse and rider.

Keshi, like his other Demon brethren Thallia, with green mane and tail, Lumina, with Red mane and tail, and Ultra with purple mane and tail, is available in the Lockwood store. The first three Demon Horses are 2.99 while Keshi is available for 2.49. He is a Demon Horse, dark and massive like his predecessors, but unique and perfect for the dark rider in us all.

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