The woman shifted again. This time, however, instead of the colt shifting his entire body to realign with her, he took one small, tentative step in her direction. The woman responded by stepping slightly backward, away from him. This break from the previous pattern once again caused concern for the colt and he raised his head in alert. The woman took in a long slow breath, and then just as slowly let it back out. This one tiny gesture on her part caused the colt to relax slightly and as his head gradually began to lower as he, too, exhaled.

The woman smiled, and the colt, almost as if some unknown gentle force was carrying him, took two easy steps in her direction. The woman shifted backwards, the colt stepped toward her. She shifted to the side; the colt lined himself up with her and stepped toward her again. She let out a long, slow exhale, and the colt lowered his head and quietly walked up to her, stopping just far enough away so that the woman, if she chose to do so, could touch his shoulder.

“I’ll be damned,” came the man’s quiet voice from outside the pen.

The colt and the woman stood next to each other for several seconds before she slowly raised her arm and touched him briefly on his shoulder. The colt exhaled again. The woman lowered her arm, backed two steps, turned and left the pen. The colt tried to follow her, but the man’s presence outside the pen presented just enough pressure to cause him to stop. After closing and latching the gate behind her, both humans left, only to have the man return several minutes later with the colt’s breakfast that he placed in its usual spot just inside the pen not far from the water tank.

The colt was exhausted. He spent nearly twenty minutes of every hour during the rest of the day sleeping. The other forty minutes of every hour were spent eating and playing hide and seek with the sun, as he tried to keep his face covered by the narrow lines of shade cast by the fence rails as it pivoted from east to west. When night fell, the colt drifted into a much deeper sleep for longer periods, and by the time the man and woman showed up at his pen the next morning, he was awake, but still groggy.

Just as she had the day before, the woman entered his pen with the halter and lead rope in the crook of her arm, and slowly but deliberately approached him. Also just like the day before, the colt bolted for the fence and made several very fast and worried laps. But then, after traveling fewer than ten laps total, and as if someone had flipped a switch, the colt stopped dead in his tracks and turned to face the woman, ears pricked and eyes alert. Ever since the woman left the pen the day before, the colt had thought about what had transpired between the two of them. He came to the realization that he had run a lot farther and faster than he needed, because at no time had the woman really ever posed a threat to him. While he was leery of all humans in general, the woman had proved to him on two separate occasions that she meant him no harm. He wasn’t sure what to think of her other than that, but one thing was fairly certain; running from her probably wasn’t necessary.