I froze.

Every muscle in my body locked up; every limb stopped moving.

It was as if ice had poured through my viens.

The only sound was the gasp of air whistling into my lungs. The horse was silent, nochalently assesing me. I felt too close, too vulnerable.

The horse tilted its head, and I took a jerky step backwards. My foot nudged a shovel behind me, and the sudden noise made the horse's ears flicker.

I couldn't look away. It's eyes were holding mine, but they looked far to intelligent for a dumb animal. They were cool and uncaring, a definate change to the wild, frightened look it had given Janie only a minute ago.

'Good horse,' I whispered.

I was ignored.

Weirdly, I felt a little offended. 'Here, girl,' I said, louder this time.

The horse turned it's head away, staring at the cieling.

It was almost as if it was playing with me.

'Hey,' I said. 'Hey!'

My shout earnt nothing more than an ear twitch. I suddenly felt more at ease, as if it was just a game. I smiled to myself, and clapped.

The horse swiveled right around on its hind legs so it was facing the wall. I grinned. It wasn't that scary at all.

'Hey! Over here!'

This time I got the reaction I had been waiting for. The horse wheeled around and gazed, exasperated, at me. It almost felt like it was saying 'Just shut up, okay?'

I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms. 'Uh uh. So you think I'm just going to give up, do you?' I asked the horse.

Seriously, if that animal could have spoken right there and then, I would be getting an extremely girly, irritated talk. 'Leave off, okay? I'm just not bothered.' I smiled again as I imagined this. It was almost comical.

Spurred on my this progress and lack of passing out in fear, I reached out a hand.

To my suprise, the horse didn't pull away, or bite me like it did Janie.

It shut it's eyes as I layed my palm on it's head. I felt so in control, and very peaceful.

I'm not sure how long we stood there, caught in a moment of sincerity.

When Janie came in again, she stopped at the door and looked pleased, as if she had achived something.

She didn't understand.

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