Free The Horse Healer by Gonzalo Giner

seemed thicker.
    â€œLook, Diego, to have a proper diagnosis of colic, you have to observe the mucus in the mouth.” Galib spoke to the boy patiently, wanting him to understand everything.
    â€œAnd what am I looking for there?”
    â€œNow he’s too nervous, but if he sees we’re calm, he won’t hurt us. We have to go in and look at his gums, his upper incisors, and see what color they are.”
    From the door of the stables, they observed the animal, now on his feet again. He looked more agitated than before and seemed dangerous. Diego had never seen anything like it. He swallowed his saliva.
    â€œAre you scared to go in?”
    Diego said nothing, opened the small door, and walked in cautiously. Galib followed him, nodding. The horse observed them irritably. He neighed twice and took refuge in a corner. Diego came close to him decisively and repeated once more something Galib had seen him do with Sabba. He breathed on his nostrils and the animal responded in kind. Galib passed Diego the bridle and he tried to put it on very slowly. The horse, responding to a jab of pain, pulled fiercely, escaping from them, and began to trot about madly. Galib stood by Diego’s side and instructed him on how to approach the horse from the side.
    â€œDon’t worry,” Diego said. “I think I know how to calm him down.”
    The almojarife gave Galib a nervous look. If that was his helper, he couldn’t understand how the albéitar would leave him to work alone. He trusted the Muslim, but it was a matter of an irreplaceable horse for him.
    Galib calmed the man down with a wave of the hand and stepped farther away to get a better sense of the difference in the volume of the horse’s abdomen and its way of walking. From a small bag he withdrew two pinches of mallow, three of poppy, one of viola, and he passed them to a stable boy to prepare him a tincture.
    â€œBring a bit of oil, salt, and a big handful of wheat bran.”
    Diego clicked his tongue a few times, making a sound that seemed to calm the animal, and approached the horse with caution. He managed to get a rope around its head and then tied it to a bar on the wall. He began to speak to it in whispers until he felt the horse was more relaxed, and without missing the opportunity, he pulled its lips apart to look inside.
    â€œHe has a kind of ring around his upper teeth, with an orange or almost red color.”
    â€œPerfect, Diego, that is the definitive sign of colic. Get out of there. We’ll figure out now how to treat it.”
    â€œWill he be well by tomorrow?” The Jew was thinking about his journey.
    â€œImpossible. Forget that idea.”
    The almojarife raised his hands to his head and looked for a kerchief to wipe off his sweat.
    â€œThis is a terrible setback for my plans.” He looked for the stable master. “Can I take the black mare?”
    â€œI fear not, master, she is too far pregnant.”
    â€œWell then?”
    Galib sent for a bundle of esparto and a long pole of wood coated with oil. He had another of the stable boys come with straw to create an elevation on one part of the floor.
    â€œIf you don’t have another fast horse, I can lend you one of mine. Sometimes I think it can run on air.”
    â€œGalib, I will accept it. You always know the solution to a problem. … I thank you for it.”
    Galib paid the matter no mind and turned to Diego.
    â€œAre you all right, are you frightened?”
    â€œNo, but you have to be very careful with his mouth. He looks like he wants to bite.”
    â€œI hadn’t noticed that, I’m surprised by your intuition. Tell me why you smell them and why you breathe on them.”
    Diego found the question strange and tried to respond.
    â€œI noticed that they do it that way, especially when they meet for the first time. Maybe it’s their way of saying hello, I’m not sure, or maybe it makes them trust you, like when we