Child finds horse chained in the desert, but it was not a common horse. Diego Ramirez was walking in the morning in search of dry branches when he heard a faint sound coming from distant stones. The 12-year-old stopped by drying his sweat from his forehead with the back of the dirty ground hand. His family needed the firewood to cook lunch, but that groan under it left it curious. As he approached the rocks scattered across the arid terrain, Diego felt his heart squeeze in the chest. A horse too skinny was lying between the stones with a heavy chain attached to the neck. The animal had its eyes open, one blue like the sky and another coffee like dry earth and a strange mark on the forehead that looked like a drawing made with hot iron. “My God,” Diego whispered slowly, slowly squeezing the animal. The horse turned his head toward the boy and made a low sound, as if he were asking for help. Diego saw that the ribs of the animal were noticeable under the dark fur and that his legs had red marks where the chain had hurt him. Who did this to you? asked Diego extending his small hand to the horse’s snout. The animal smelled his fingers and leaned the snout on the palm of the child’s hand. Diego felt that those different eyes were begging for help and his childly heart could not ignore that silent request. Diego tried to pull the chain, but it was too heavy for his small hands. The link holding the animal was welded to an iron ring nailed to a large stone.

He pulled and pulled until his hands turned red, but he didn’t get loose a little. “I’m going to get help,” Diego promised, touching the horse’s head fondly. “I’m not going to leave you here, no.” The boy ran home carrying only a few thin sticks he had put together along the way. When he arrived at the small adobe house, where he lived with his mother, Doña Rosa, and his two younger brothers, Pedrito and Sofia, he was breathless and eyes shining with worry.

Mom, I found a horse chained there in the stones,” Diego said, releasing the sticks on the ground. He’s very skinny and hurt. He needs help. Doña Rosa looked up from the pot where she would stir some watered beans and look at her son with a tired face. Diego, kid, are you making up stories now? No, Mom, it’s serious. The horse is almost lifeless. Someone chained him there and abandoned him. The 4-year-old woman sighed deeply and wiped her hands in the patched apron.

Son, we barely have to eat. I can’t mess with anyone’s horse and more if someone is chained, I put it there for some reason. But Mom, no. Diego, forget that horse and go get more firewood. Your father is coming soon and needs to have lunch ready. Diego lowered his head, but inside he knew that he would not be able to forget those eyes begging for help. When the mother was not seeing, she took a bottle of water and a handful of grass growing in the yard and put it in the pocket of the old pants.

I’m going to look for more firewood,” she told her mother and ran out before she could say anything. Back in the stones, Diego found the horse in the same position, but now with his eyes closed. The boy felt the heart speed up thinking that the animal had stopped breathing, but when he approached he saw the chest still rising and slowly falling. “Hi, I came back,” he said short, kneeling next to the horse. The animal opened its eyes and looked at Diego with an expression the boy had never seen in any animal.