A Horse, a Goat and a Friendship

My sister stables her racehorses in Bowie, Md. Thoroughbreds by their nature have a tendency to be high-strung, but the stable has found a low-tech way to calm one of the horses.

Billy the goat has befriended Top of the Tree, a 3-year-old black filly who won her last race at Laurel Park and who has a habit of pacing in her stall.

"[Billy] sort of goes visiting stall to stall," my sister Ellen says. "But he and the filly seem to have a special bond." Top of the Tree lies down in her stall and puts her head on the goat's body. And Billy doesn't mind.

As Humphrey Bogart said in "Casablanca," I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.