The two had attended a circus show and Megan had insisted she wanted to see the horses afterwards. While she was admiring the horses, Elbrus was eyeing her mother. Not being able to converse in English at all, his eyes had to do the talking and he immediately clicked with the German speaking "Boerenooi".
After the second date, the little girl was besotted by the quiet man and had asked him whether he would be her dad, much to the embarrassment of Edda who blushed crimson and who feared that he might think she had put her daughter up to it. But the feeling was mutual and after marrying Edda (who is also a good horse rider having grown up on her father's Arab horse breeding farm), he legally adopted Megan.
He trained her to be an acrobat, teaching her many deft movements jumping on and off moving horses - and then followed her brother Sasha's training. In the meantime the youngest in the family, Arian (12) is proving to be an excellent horse rider and footballer. Both brothers took part in the weekend's school soccer tournament held at Outeniqua Park.
The Ourtaev family - Edda is in the centre and Elbrus on the right.
