My daughter was only two years old when she first became fascinated with it. Our neighbors kept a real horse at their home. For a little girl, this was a true miracle: she could spend hours next to this big, calm animal.

She hugged its neck, pressed her cheek to its soft mane, patted its warm back with her tiny palms. Sometimes they played together in the hayloft, and at times my daughter even fell asleep right in the hay beside the horse, as if it were her best friend.

We laughed as we watched them, though deep inside we sometimes worried — after all, a horse is a large animal. But from the very first encounters, it was clear: the horse was unusually intelligent and calm, almost as if it understood that in front of it was a child who needed special gentleness.

This went on for months. Our daughter grew more and more attached to the horse, and the neighbor’s beloved animal returned her affection. But one day, there was a knock on our door. Our neighbor stood there, looking unusually serious.

— “We need to talk,” he said as soon as he entered.

— “Did something happen? Did my daughter do something wrong?” I asked anxiously.

— “No,” he shook his head. “But it concerns your daughter. You absolutely need to take her to a doctor.”

My heart clenched.

— “Why? Is something wrong?”

And then I learned something terrible.

The neighbor explained that his horse, trained and accustomed to sensing changes in a person’s health, had been acting strangely around our daughter lately.

She no longer played calmly, but often sniffed the girl anxiously, as if trying to figure something out, and sometimes even positioned herself between the child and others, as though protecting her.

At first, we thought it was just animal whims, but his words made us uneasy.

We still went to the doctor. After an examination, we heard a terrifying diagnosis: our two-year-old daughter had cancer. But thanks to the fact that the illness was detected at the earliest stage, the doctors were able to act ahead of time.

Today, my daughter is alive and healthy. She still loves playing with the neighbor’s horse, and we look at this animal with immense gratitude. Because it was the horse who first signaled to us that we needed to pay attention to our child’s health.