A sublime moment in a field of horses
To get home I walk across a trail through a public field. On this field are 8 horses. They usually ignore me, but for the past month one of them - a beautiful, jet-black horse - has been coming over to me and standing motionless. I politely scratch his chin, face and back and then walk away.
This evening, though, as I walked across the field, ALL the horses came towards me. They formed a loose circle around me and just stood there, most about a meter away, but several nuzzling me with their heads. I stood still and then scratched some of their chins, and together we stood there for long moments. With their size and power it was all quite unnerving, but also almost supernatural in a way; us in the dying light, in an empty field in the middle of nowhere, just me and 8 horses, with their big black eyes and strange brains.
As this went on I tried to walk away, but I make it a habit of never walking behind horses, so I was kind of trapped. Eventually some of the horses fanned out, giving me an opening to walk off. I headed away from them, making my way to the fence and gate at the edge of the field. They followed me the entire way, walking in single file, snorting occasionally, big muscles flexing.
Walking the street back to my house I kept thinking how beautiful and gentle and intelligent these animals are, and also how dangerous and powerful. Had they snapped or decided to lunge or stampede, I'd have been seriously damaged or even killed. Nature has a dangerous awe about it.
Submitted May 22, 2017 at 10:32AM by AlexKerensky
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