There are certain animals, dogs and horses certainly, to whom humans owe uncounted debts. Too often, we fail them, and too often, we fail them at the moment of their greatest need. 

The Winds of Heaven

 “The wind of heaven is that which blows between a horse’s ears.” Arabian proverb

The old horse stood quietly in his stall, just as he did each day, day after day. He had given up waiting to be taken out and released into the large south pasture. These days, people came in to clean his stall, then leave, forgetting even the once familiar pat on his neck or shoulder.

“Good Lad”. That’s what they used to call him when they would stroke his neck or pat his shoulder. It wasn’t his name, it wasn’t anything about how he identified himself, but like everything else about the two-leggeds, he allowed it because he had to- it was the way of things. But now, it was a quick shuffle into the stall with the rake or shovel, a slap-dash collection of dirty straw and every few days, when the straw became thin, someone would toss in half a bale and leave it for him to eventually spread it in the stall with his movements.

He was 27. For sixteen years he had obediently served them, obeyed their wishes, carried them on his back, taking them wherever they wanted to go. His first three years had been pleasant enough, the fourth year was learning to accept them as his masters, and after that, it was 16 years of waking, being fed, groomed, saddled and ridden, then groomed, fed and sleep. And then it was over. New horses appeared, young horses, and he was relegated to the stall.

To read the rest of this story, see link to The Twilight Mirror and the New Dawn by Jordan Amar

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