Racehorses

  Loud noises can make me jump, literally.  I thought of that the other week when I saw this online footage of a couple of horses galloping through the London streets.  They were with the famous Household Cavalry, whose horses are usually tightly disciplined.  But these were near a construction site where they dropped a heavy load from a big height, and the noise was enough to spook them!  (I’m glad I’m not a construction worker who has to deal with such noises.) By the time they were subdued, they’d damaged a bus and a taxi.  I certainly would want to be in their way.  

Some years back there was a fire at the stables near the Woodbine racetrack, and dozens of racehorses rushed out into the neighbourhood.  Imagine looking out at your front lawn and seeing a scared horse there!  I wouldn’t know how to calm one down.  I guess I’d feed him an apple and a carrot and hope for the best.  I’ve heard of horse whisperers, who have a natural sense of what a horse is feeling.  What a great talent that must be…

I remember seeing the movie Missing… some 40 years ago.  Directed by Costa-Gavras, it’s about Jack Lemmon investigating his son’s disappearance during the 1973 coup where the Chilean army overthrew a democratic communist government. (Lemmon was best known for comedy, but he gives a solid dramatic performance here.) One of its images was of a riderless horse running through the street during the coup.  Such images address our deep-seated fears—what’s to prevent every horse from running away and going wherever he feels?  I also think of the spooked horse in Picasso’s mural “Guernica.”  That painting depicts the chaos that followed a fascist-terror bombing, but it isn’t chaotic itself:  everything works together for the overall image.

Here’s a fortune cookie message: “You believe whatever people tell you.”