Caring for Horses

Next day, Alan got up at dawn and went towards the horses. He greeted the guard near that area and started to keep water and grass for the horses.

He patted the neck of each and every horses while talking to them. He was talking to them like they were also humans and they were his friends.

The guard was silently observing this. He was surprised the way the horses were behaving towards Alan. They were looking very comfortable in the presence of him.

He had never seen these horses or any horse for that matter let a stranger near them and look so comfortable. This showed the level of Alan's confidence and the love he had towards these animals.

Alan took the brush and started to rub the horses one by one. It took almost 2 hours by the time Alan completed his work and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

Suddlen he felt many eyes on him. When he looked up, he saw almost everyone in the camp. Including his grandmother and John looking at him.

He suddenly felt awkward and embarrassed to see so many eyes watching him wit various expressions. Many guards had a bewildered expression. Captain Kevin and John had a surprised expression. Helen had a fond expression in their eyes.

John looked at Captain Kevin and raised an eyebrow. He shook his head still a surprised expression and sighed.

" I had never seen these horses let some stranger take care of them . They are very relaxed and they even looked calm". Kevin said to John.

John then smiled and said "well he is a special boy after all....".

" Lets start our preparation to move John said loudly to everyone. We will be able to cover a good ground today by the looks of it. John was looking at the sky.

After a habing hot soup, they started to move again. This time, they stopped their journey to have their meal, which the cooked had already prepared and packed.

Alan ate his meal quickly. He sprinted towards the horses. Guards had already given them the water. This time the area where they were staying had some grass and small plants which the horses were grazing.

Alan inspected each and every horse by sliding his hand all over their bodies looking for any injury. He then started looking at their hooves for the same. The horses cooperated with Alan's inspiration without any fuss. Everyone saw this for a few moments and then they shook their head smiling and started doing other works to continue the journey.

They again started to move forward after an hour of resting.

Alan this time did not got into the carriage.

He started walking with Captin Kevin. With Kevin's permission he took the reign of captain's horse in his hand. The horse was calm and didn't looked agitated. Now and then, Alan was patting and rubbing the side of the horse while they walked.

Kevin was observing all these things. The actions Alen performed look natural and instinctive. He always patted the horse and rubbed it's side whenever the horse felt agitated or skittish which made the horse to calm down again.

Amazing !!! How can he sense the feelings of the horse so easily? That too when he is handling it for the first time!!!.

It takes months & even years of companionship between a horse and its rider to build such a bond between each other.

I know horses can sense a human's feeling. This is the first time I am seeing a boy sensing a horse's feelings when both the animal or the person hardly know each other.

In the evening they halted near a small opening surrounded by tress.

Alan immediately got into to taking care of the horses. He did all the cleaning, rubbing, feeding and checking each and every horse they had. The guards were left with no work to do.

So Captain Kevin made them fetch dried woods. Collect water from a nearby stream and few of them offered to go hunt.

This time Alan was seen speaking with horses holding their head in his hands.

Whenever he talked the horse would bend down its head to his eye level and Alan will gently hold its head scratching behind its ears and talking to it. It felt like they were having some conversations and the horse were agreeing to whatever Alan was saying. And Alan sometimes seems to nod his head giving others a felling that, he was agreeing to the horses request and start scratching harder or start doing something else for the horse.