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Photo by Gail Harvey, no reproduction without permission

Meeting Sabiq

Admittedly, I came without apples. Or carrots. Empty-handed at Christmas, basically, yet the horse spied me from yards off and trotted straight at me. Hello. Under my breath I muttered "Sabiq" [which means winner] and there came the sweetest equine specimen. A little elderly, and maybe a little lonesome, since horses seem [out here anyway] to be paddocked in pairs. As a child I was pretty terrified of horses, not sure why, and yet the fact that this one chose to meet me on a snowy side-road without any seeming provocation but the word "Sabiq" and the Arabic music blaring on my ipod as I power-walked did strike me. I find horses so spiritually amazing that reaching out to stroke his/her pretty white spiral on a dark brow wasn't at all scary. Tomorrow I will bring apples, or carrots, something, and tomorrow I will also be prepared for the fact that in greeting my new chum I will plummet four feet into a snow-bank and recognize why people wear snowsuits out here:)
It's a funny thing to miss a horse, but kind of perfect at Christmas. After the holidays I will go and ask the owner what his/her [didn't look, ha ha] real name is and if he/she likes a rider or just wants to be friends on the roadside. I'd like to know how old, what's the story behind, and yet again, it hardly matters: it seems a song and the whispered word Sabiq was enough to bring him/her toward me.
Merry Christmas...May you walk often in 2008, on two legs or four.