Life Through The Horse's Eyes. Chapter 2. + others

Hey i'm just going to put most of my book on here, too many chapters to keep putting them on one by one.

2

THE BIG TRUCK

I was playing move your feet with Syrup, (Move your feet is a game where the first one to move their feet loses.)

I heard the loud noise first.

It was a cold morning and the rest of the herd were all huddled by the hedge trying to shelter from the wind. We heard a strange noise, loud and frightening. A large truck came into view - it thundered along the road next to the field, and came up the driveway, our herd scattered into the field terrified. It was so big! It had slits in it and some things were moving inside of it, it was made of wood and I could smell other horses. I heard a loud scared whinny coming for inside and allot of crashing around.

I thought I probably didn’t want to know what that thing was doing here, it would make me more scared.

Mum screamed loudly “ahhhh! It’s come again! It’s come to take one of the yearlings!”

At that point I felt paralysed, glued to the floor shaking; I looked to dad to see what he would say.

“Run” he said “Everyone run! It has come again! Run for your lives!”

and we didn’t have to think twice to do as he said, we ran as fast as we could to the other side of the field with our tails in the air.

After a while we got bored of running around. The truck parked by the pens where we had our food, and some men got out and started talking and putting some funny things into their mouths - they spat out smoke and smelled really nasty!

They pulled the back down and got some horses out, there were 15 horses that I could see get out and they were driven down into a barn on the yard.

The horses looked beautiful! All different colours and sizes. They whinnied quite a bit. They all looked really tired. I wondered how long they had been in there.

Mum said that they wanted to catch us, (She knew this from experiance) so we weren’t scared because they had often caught us to take us to our pens for our food. I wouldn’t let the men catch me, but I let Rose. She took me to the pen with some food and showed me to some big looking men. They examined me all over. A special man called a vet also looked at me, and seemed happy with what he saw.

After I finished my dinner I waited to be taken back out into the pasture, with the rest of my herd, but instead the rest of the herd went back and they reluctantly left behind Syrup and I.

One of the men took my rope and I was lead in the other direction across the courtyard. As I was being led I spotted Rose crying in the corner, and I knew something was up. I stopped and backed up, wanting to go back to Mum and the others, but they held me tight. I reared up in fear, and one of the men smacked my bum and made me leap forward.

“get on you stupid creature!” one big burly man said hatefully.

“you make our lives hard enough!” the other one who was helping him said.

I whinnied and seven whinnies replied. As I rounded the corner I saw it, the great big monster truck that Mum said took horses away never to be heard of again!

Now I really struggled. I threw my head up in the air and I kicked out at one of the men that were pushing me from behind but I just missed him, and I suddenly felt a sting of pain as he whipped me. I leapt forward again and again, each stroke of the whip forcing me closer and closer to the big truck.

I cried out again for help but no one came, I didn’t know what to do with myself - Mum wasn’t here to tell me what to do and dad wasn’t here to protect me from these men!

I felt a rope around my quarters as two of the four men pushed me toward the big truck, they held me until one of them lowered a ramp and I could see the inside, it didn’t look very nice. It was very dark and scary. Terrified I, tried to pull back but couldn’t because of the rope behind me. I heard my mum’s whinny and I tried to whinny back but failed. When the burly one stung the back of my legs with something.

One of the men smacked me behind again and I was forced up the ramp into the truck. One man got hold of my rope and pulled me to the back. He tied me up quite high so I couldn’t get out when he loaded the others.

It was very dark in the lorry, there were only small windows and they were so high I couldn’t see out of them. My heart beat fast; I could hear the others coming too. I heard Syrups whinny and whinnied back.

It smelt rusty and rotting in the lorry among the scent of horse dung that was really old. The wood underneath my hooves was all wet from wee of hundreds of horses and it creaked allot.

I could still see outside. Some other horses were being pulled into the lorry like me and were tied up next to me at the back.

More horses came in then they shut the ramp (that’s what they called the back of it)

The engine started and it rattled the whole truck. We heard them singing along to some music and then the lorry pulled of and we had to go to.

It was hard to stand up strait because of the swinging motion of it when we went around the corners or stopped.

After a while, when I had got a bit more used to the motion of the lorry, and nothing else had happened, I was curious as to who I was with. I checked the one closest to me.

He was a nice looking black horse with a lighter mane and tail. He told me his name was Midnight, and that he had been on the truck for three days and nights! I was horrified, how could he eat the grass and run and play if he was stuck in here - and more importantly, how could I?

The horse on the other side of me was a handsome colt about the same age as me. He had a nice white mane and a light coffee coat, he smelt of lush spring grass and hay. He looked like a horse that’s called a palomino.



He was shaking too. I asked him how he was and he didn’t answer, he just looked up at me. Then he said that he wanted his Mum and I remembered mine and felt sad again, I thought about what Mum and Dad were doing, about Dylan and Maple, I thought about Chester, Captain and Flick, and felt sad.

I tried another loud whinny in the hope mum would whinny back but no answer came.

We stopped three times on the way across the country for the drivers to have a break (although we didn’t get one!) I learned more about Midnight and Drifter (the colt my age) and heard their stories, which were similar to mine. Eventually we reached a place where another big lorry was floating on the water! It had a strange smell, all salty!

The ramp came down and they came and led us out. We were calmer now because we were tiered and our legs were hurting. We were herded into a barn like at my stud. It was for cows, but I didn’t mind. It had a little straw on the hard concrete floor. Horses only like to wee on grass or something that will absorb it, so we were desperate for a wee.

They brought us some mangy hay and we ate it because we had not eaten anything all day and her were hungry.

They also brought some water for us. We drank it thirstily.

We all fell asleep lying down except the heard leader who was on guard.

The next day we were loaded up onto a big ship in pairs, there were lots of stalls with straw and high rails lined up along the side. They were smelly.

We made more of a fuss because we weren’t as tiered as before.

I was with my new friend Drifter, which pleased me. The rest of the horses were tied up in the pens and the gates were shut.

We heard a massive noise, a booming horn, and shortly afterwards our new lorry (which Midnight told me was called a ship) started to move and sway, even worse than the other one.

3

A NEW FRIEND

As I was on board the ship I met a young boy who made sure that all the horses were ok below the deck. He was a nice colt with a short brown mane and a cheeky grin almost all the time. He wore short trousers and a scruffy top and he was very skinny (he could have been Rose’s brother).

He went around to each horse to give it a sugar cube and a handful of nuts every day, and each day he would come to my stall. I felt so cross at this new life I hadn’t asked for that I put my ears back at him each time. He would look at my flat ears and walk by to the next stall!

I couldn’t understand it, why wouldn’t he give me some food too? I told him with ears and teeth to give it to me - but it appeared that he didn’t like me and always gave it to Drifter.

But one night the stable boy (who called himself Daniel) came to my stall and stood watching me. He talked kindly to me, in a soft voice, and after a while I got curious as to what he wanted. I gave him forward ears and sniffed him cautiously - and at last he gave me my sugar cube and my handful of nuts. That made me think hard about why he gave it to me when I had my ears forward and when he didn’t give it to me when I had my ears back, very puzzling!

He would talk to me every night from then on. I learned that he was sometimes beaten by the cook and jeered at by some of the crew, I felt so angry at them for teasing this nice boy. I wished I could get out of the pen to bite them for him.

A few days passed like this, and I started to look forward to Daniel coming to see me. He sometimes had bruises where the cook had hit him with a kitchen utensil. I would nuzzle him and try to tell him that it was ok, he didn’t speak Spanish though.

One day I awoke at the dawn, but instead of hearing the waves crash against the side of the boat I couldn’t hear anything! Not a sound!

I puzzled over this as Daniel came to check on us but instead of just “hi” or a sugar cube he put a rope on my head and lead me out of the stable. That was the first time I had walked out of my tight stable in three days! It felt lovely, like I wanted to run around and buck and bronc like a new born foal, but he knew that and kept a tight hold of me.

I saw all the others being lead off the boat onto the harbour and followed happily, glad to be off that stinking boat that had kept me prisoner for so long.

I was handed over to another man and Daniel looked scared as the man shouted at him for something he did the other day. I looked at Daniel and he was crying. I felt so angry at this man for making Dan do that I bit him on the bum and when he turned around I bit his big tummy.

Dan looked shocked then started laughing, I smiled at him and whinnied loudly to him and was dragged off by this big ugly brute.

It was lovely feeling the wind in my mane and tail, hearing the others whinny in delight, thinking back to my home back in Spain. Now I was in another place altogether, I could hear the cries of the gulls above me but it was a horrid place not like the pictures Daniel showed me, it was concrete floors and murky sea water.

A bit later some other man let me into another stable in a big barn with my friends. Apparently the next day we would be off again in a truck across France then onto another big boat to England then on another truck to York, I heard them talking about it with their mates when they were having what they called a ciggy.

4

Across France

As we travelled across France they loaded up some more horses, a grey yearling, a brown and white two year old and a pure white mare about 10 years old. She was called Millie, and was a bit of a pain, as she was so much older and wiser than us, and kept reminding us of that fact! Although we were cross at her attitude, she did know a lot, and we listened to her tales as we drove along the long roads. She had had a very full life, with lots of different homes and owners, some nice, some nasty. She gave us lots of advice like how to bite and kick anyone you didn’t like, which sounded sensible.



It was a long journey, only two stops so far, and we were thirsty, we had travelled for eight hours non stop, so we were expecting a break soon.

An hour later and we could feel the big lorry start to stop, two doors open and then the ramp came down, and I could feel the wind now rushing past my face, the smell of sweet grass and the whinny of distant horses. For a second I thought it was my herd, but when I called back a foreign call answered, it was not my herd.

I suddenly felt lonely again as if I had just left, Drifter gave me a whicker, but I felt the same, as lonely as a lamb that had lost its mother.

They took us into a BIG field and let us loose together, there was about twenty others in the field before us, but we didn’t mind.

We swung our heads down to eat the sweet dry grass, it was the first time we had been in a big field like this since Spain and I immediately thought of mum and the herd back in Spain again, thinking about Rose, about the sun set and me grazing happily by my mum and dad, I again felt lonely, upset, hurt.

When they came back to get us from our big field, we ran, oh we ran so fast it made our eyes water.



The dirty man, who called himself Fred, exclaimed, “I knew this was a bad idea, we should have put them in pens! Now we’ll never catch them!” and the fat one agreed. “Well, let’s just leave them here” said the fat one, who was called Sid. “They’ll soon come when they’re thirsty - there isn’t any water in this field”.

“Won’t they get ill?” asked Fred, who sounded concerned.

“Serves them right” answered Sid sullenly. “I’ve had enough of this; I’m off to the pub”

We didn’t listen - we felt so free, a giant herd galloping across the plains of America as wild as the wind, as free as the mountain lion.

However, galloping around soon got tiring, and we stopped to graze. We were all sweating, except Millie, who had just been grazing the whole time. “You stupid foals” she called to us “Why waste your energy likes that? Make the most of this grass; you might not get any for a long time”.

We felt a bit silly, and thought we’d better copy her example. We were all so thirsty, and then we discovered there was no water!

After a while we felt more and thirstier, so we wandered over to the yard to see if there was any water there, there was!

It was in one of the big pens. I was the first to head over to it and the rest followed, when I reached the water I heard a gate shut behind us, they had trapped us. We went over to see if they had shut it and of course they had. They came round the corner and we could smell the beer on their breath, it was a funny smell, like rust, but sweet!

We looked at the water they had given us, it had beer in it!

“I hate them” I thought in anger. As they came to catch us with their ropes, I kicked out and caught one of them on his knee! He yelled in pain and they all stumbled back. I now knew I was armed!



It took them ages to figure out what to do with us, well more precisely, what to do with me - the others let themselves get caught and taken into the lorry, but not me!

I kicked and reared; I struck at them and bit them until they left me alone. But I was thirsty and hungry, so I thought to myself how long this would last, and I decided a lorry wasn’t much different to this and sauntered up the ramp by myself.

For the rest of the day we travelled along the roads. It was so boring, but at about 1:00pm we stopped and they let down the ramp to bring us out and we were at a harbour again. For a moment I thought we had gone in a circle, but I realized we hadn’t when I saw the surroundings. It smelt the same though, all salty.

They managed to load almost all of us on without any difficulty but some refused to go in and were beaten until they leapt in with the rest of us.

It was a windy day when we set sail, the waves were really high. Drifter and I cuddled up together out of fear. The ship swayed this way and that and all the horses said they felt sick.

It wasn’t as long as the last time, but much more scary than before!

Some of the other horses we picked up on the way hadn’t been on a ship before and were terrified and upset from just leaving their herds behind. I knew how they felt and went to comfort them, but then a huge roll of the ship and a crash startled me. I managed to stay on my feet, but Drifter had fallen over and caught his leg underneath the railings. I rushed back to him not knowing what to do.

I called out, hoping someone would hear my screams and luckily someone did. He was a deck hand. He rushed over to our stall and saw Drifter stuck and yelled for help, “Derrick! Call the Captain - we have a horse stuck underneath the railings of a stall, tell him to come quick!” he shouted at the top of his voice, hoping it would be heard over the sound of the terrifying waves crashing into the boat.

A little bit later five men came to help pull Drifter out and managed to succeed and he flopped to the floor, so they got hold of his legs and pulled him to safety.

The vet came (a mare this time). She said he had a leg injury and would have to be immobilized for a while so his leg could heal, he would be incapacitated for at least a week.

A WEEK! I knew they wouldn’t wait that long, we had to be off again in two days time, not a whole week! What would they do?

Would we leave him here to heal then they come back to fetch him, or would they have him put to sleep!?

We couldn’t know until tomorrow.

the next day the vet said that his leg was worse - a serious injury so it was definite, He had to stay behind for three weeks. The next day we had to leave Drifter behind while we carried on, almost all the horses didn’t want to leave him, but we had to. They loaded us up again onto the lorry and we were off!

I slept for ages! When I awoke we were in a new, heathery, hilly place, with a wild smell. I had no idea the world was so big. Then we turned into a big driveway that lead into a stable yard, it was SO big!

There were lots of other horses there. I could smell the farrier at work and the smell of shavings and other horses, (Millie had told me all about the farrier - how it smelled horrid but didn‘t hurt) it was scary. They parked the truck. We thrashed around like yearlings waiting for their dinner in the truck while they lowered the ramp; it seemed to take those hours not seconds to lower it, why couldn’t they just get on with it?

I felt a sudden gush of energy as we rampaged out into the cold windy air; about twenty horses all looked up at once to see us new arrivals. They looked interested, but not surprised, as if they saw this all the time.

They let some of us out into a small paddock, my friends into another. We pranced around glad to be out in the sunshine and then stuck our heads down to the grass, but I didn’t - I’d seen something else, which made my heart, beat faster!

5

The new herd

I pricked my ears up and stared at the field next to us, there was the best looking stallion staring right back at me! He pranced over to the fence, showing off by lifting his tail as high as it would go! He snorted loudly and whinnied to me “Hello! Come over and talk to me!” He had a funny accent I could hardly understand.

I strolled casually up to the fence, grazing on the way, pretending not to really care about him at all! But I couldn’t resist peeking under my forelock. He was gorgeous with a long mane and tail and a nice expression on his face.

“Hi yourself” I said pertly, tossing my mane. “What’s your name?”

“My name is Sparta, and I’m a thoroughbred racehorse who has won lots of races” he boasted. He demonstrated for me by suddenly galloping around his field before skidding to a stop beside me once again. “See? Aren’t I fast!”

I felt a bit impressed, but I wasn’t going to show it!

“As if that interests me.” I retorted. “Why waste your energy? Most of us here would rather eat the grass - we haven’t seen it for a long time!”

“Huh?” he snorted. “What are you on about - we eat grass every day!”

“Well we haven’t” I replied “we’ve been across the sea and over land for four weeks without grass”.

That caught his interest, and he stopped showing off for a while and asked me quite politely all about my journey. We talked for ages, me telling him all about my life, and he fascinating me with tales of his life as a racehorse. We ended up dozing off next to each other for a while.

When I awoke, the rest of my friends were at the other end of the field, and I thought I’d better go and join them. “See ya!” I called cheekily to Sparta, and sauntered off, ignoring his calls to return.

“And where have you been?” asked Millie, the old mare. “Flirting with the new boy, eh?” she sniggered at me. “I think you’re a bit young for him, he’ll be much more interested in me. Thought you were pining for your soul mate, anyway” and she swaggered over to Sparta, tossing her head and making little squealing sounds.

To my satisfaction, Sparta ignored her, and instead continued to call to me! But Millie had reminded me about poor Drifter, and I stood and moped for a while, before continuing to graze with the others. I was still starving!

Over the next few months I made friends with a new yearling called Castanya Pearl, she was a pretty looking filly she had a black mane and tail and she was a light cream colour and she had a cute blaze that stood out on her forehead.

She had come from Mexico she said and she had a grey dad and a black mum, so why she came out like this she doesn’t know!

I really liked her she wasn’t boastful or shy, wasn’t boring. But very free spirited and very likeable, and that’s what the rest of the herd thought too.

One warm day I had a chat with Millie. She had said that she had seen places like this before, they trained horses to be ridden, then sold them to people for a profit. I asked her to explain, and she said that humans worshiped something called money - which they have to have it to eat and drink, for houses and other things; it seemed rather strange, why you would want a house when you could have a field. It didn’t make sense to me, as I told Millie, but she just tossed her head and muttered something about “ignorant foals” under her breath.

The next day some people (as I now knew to call the two legged things) came up to catch us. Well I knew how to handle them!

I kicked out at them but they dodged, I tried to bite them, but they smacked my nose, I tried to strike at them but missed.

It was useless, they were too good to get kicked, bitten or struck. I then saw Sparta get lead away into a huge arena with sand like the beach on the floor and big wooden walls around the edge. As I followed Sparta in they closed my only escape, I was trapped like before!

6

Horrible Training

I was in the indoor schooling arena with Sparta, I felt scared, Sparta saw that and said in his charming voice, “There’s no need to be scared, and they’re probably just going to train you.”

“I know that, that’s why I’m so scared!”

I shouted at him. I had had experience of men with ropes before, and I didn’t want to leave this place already.

“Now now, there’s no need to be like that, they wont hurt you… much” he said calmly.

“But I don’t want to be trained! I don’t want to be ridden, and I don’t want to be sold!” I said stubbornly.

He scowled at me by laying his ears back and stretching his neck out.

I shut up.

They then led Sparta into the corner of the school and put a saddle on my back (I knew what a saddle was because Millie had told me about it)

Sparta called across the school, “Don’t worry it’s just a saddle, it wont hurt you”

“I know” I answered. He seemed impressed.

The men seemed impressed too, “Right, let’s get on with it, Joe” a fat one said

“Yes sir” a skinny one said

Joe then took hold of me while the fat one leaned over me. I wasn’t used to this and turned into a bucking bronco!

He fell off on the first buck, and landed right in front of me, so I bit him to tell him what I thought of him.

He didn’t like that at all! He groaned and staggered to his feet.

“Dave - are you alright Sir?” Joe asked, watching me warily.

Joe let go of my lead rope to help out the fat one, and I trotted off to see Sparta, but before I could get to him Dave shouted “Where’s that ‘orse gone?”

Joe looked around for me and found me next to Sparta.

He looked back to Dave, who shouted at him, “Well what are you looking at me for? Get- that- ‘orse!”

So he got up and went to go get me, and Sparta instructed,

“Just you stand still now and BE GOOD!”

So on that note I cantered off across the school to bite the fat man again but I felt a bite on my bum,

“OW” I exclaimed and turned around to see what it was that bit me just in time to see Sparta’s hooves rushing past my face.

He turned back around and bit me again; “OWWWW” “STOP THAT!” I shouted at him and he drove me back to the skinny one so he could grab my rope.

“Good boy” he said, and gave Sparta some treats he had in his pocket. Sparta glared at me and walked back off to the corner.

I gave his bum flat ears as he walked away.

“What are we going to do with you then missus?” Joe sighed, while taking me back to Dave.

He ordered Joe to put a bridle on me with a flash noseband and a big bit.

“You’re gonna have a hard time throwing me off now missus”

Joe came back into the school and asked

“Do you want a martingale sir?”

“Yes” he answered slyly, “and bring my whip”

Joe looked a bit worried, but ran to obey.

After 10 minutes he came back with what I supposed must be all that stuff he wanted

They heaved a bridle on me. The metal thing in my mouth tasted horrid and hurt me. I tried to spit it out but it was too tight. When he got on again the martingale suddenly tightened and I felt it pull on my head. Then he kicked me and I went not knowing what to do about this, I couldn’t rear, this thing was holding my head down, I couldn’t buck, and I couldn’t bite him as the bridle held my head in position.

Sparta looked over my way and saw me and quickly looked away.

After a while the man called Dave got off me and my head loosened and then my saddle came off and then my bridle, Joe then led me out back into my pasture with the others. I felt relieved my ordeal was over for the day.

As I walked into the field all my friends galloped to the gate to meet me.

They were asking me about how it went, and I explained. The other young horses were horrified, but Millie said, “What are you all curious about? That sort of stuff happens all the time with humans, I should know!”

And we all crowded around her then asking why, how and when.

They fussed over her for a while asking questions, then they got bored and wandered off to go eat grass.

I looked over to Sparta’s field and saw he was staring at me too; I was very pleased, but didn’t show it, I gave him flat ears for earlier and he went over to see Millie instead, annoying me even more!

That day he called me to come over to the fence to talk to him, but I refused and said smugly, “why should I, I might just get bitten again”

And walked off to have a drink.

7

Drifter comes back

It was a sunny day about a week after I arrived, when a lorry came up the driveway. We looked to see who was in it - there were lots of other horses in there!

As they unloaded from the truck they pulled around there holders, like I did when I first got here.

They let them loose in a paddock far away from ours, on the other side from Sparta.

They galloped around and around till they were tired, then stopped to eat grass, I noticed a two year old with a white mane and a light bay coat, just like Drifter, I felt sad again thinking about it.

As I moped about it I saw him looking at me too and I put back my ears, turned my bum on him and swished my tail, he looked away, sheepishly.

As it grew closer to night time I spotted him looking at me again, so I went up to the fence to see what he wanted.

But before I could get to the fence, I stopped, sniffed the air…

DRIFTER!!!!!!!

I whinnied my loudest and happiest as I galloped up to the fence to see him.

He looked rather bemused until he smelt me too; he whinnied back and galloped up to the fence to meet me.

“Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it’s really you!!!!!!!!!!”

“Me either, it’s been sooo long!”

“I thought about you every day you know”

“Me too”

We looked at each other happily.

“How’s your leg healing?” I asked concerned

“A lot better actually”

“Is there a scar?”

“Yes and a big one too!”

“Can I see?”

“Sure”

He showed me his leg, and I exclaimed

“Wow that must have hurt!”

“Yeah it did”

Then Sparta came over to see him. Sparta was let into this field yesterday, and I was his girl!

“Who are you?” Sparta asked warily

“I’m Drifter, nice to meet you” Drifter said cheerfully

“Do you know him Sienna?” Sparta asked annoyed

“Yes he’s my best friend; I met him on the way to the sea from Spain to France”

“Oh really, Sparta said/asked sharply, remembering the story I told him

“And who are you?” Drifter asked me curiously

“I am Sparta, leader of this herd, champion racehorse and these are my girls.”

“Very nice herd you have there, is Sienna available?”

“Yes” I said before Sparta had a chance to say no.

“Ok, let’s go over here.” he led the way with Sparta’s eyes burning into the back of him in hate.

“How was your journey?” I asked, happy to change the subject.

“fine.” he said bluntly.

“Good, did you meet any other nice horses on the way?”

“Not really, I was thinking about you too much to be friendly.”

“Me too.”

“Oh really? Sparta seemed to have your attention!”

“But I thought about you most of the time, a girl can get sidetracked!”

“I never did.”

“So you’re telling me that the whole way here, night and day you didn’t think about anything else except me?”

“Yes.”

“Oh…”

AWKWARD! Then Sparta interrupted.

“Are you coming Sienna? I’m going to go get some food.”

“Yeah I’ll come too, Drifter, are you coming?”

“No” he said bluntly.

We walked off to go get food without him, I felt VERY upset, and why was he being like this? It’s not like I’m not friends with him anymore.

The next day Drifter stayed on one side of the fence and we stayed away from the other, Sparta kept asking me things about him I liked.

It sort of went like this:

“Do you like my mane?”

“Yes.”

“Do you like my coat?”

“Yes.”

“Do you like my paces?”

“Yes.”

“Do you like… him?” he said hatefully.

“Yes… Wait. Who?”???

“That Drifter boy?” he spat his name out like a fly.

“In what way?” I asked pretending not to know what he meant.

“Do you like, like him?” he said swishing his tail and putting back his ears.

“Not more than you, but I’m good friends with him.”

“Oh good” he said under his breath thankfully.

Stallions! What are they like!

The weeks passed. Gradually I got used to being ridden, and stopped trying to throw Dave off, as it never worked anyway. I learned how to go, and whoa, and turn and burn, but that was hard because Dave was heavy and bounced around a lot.

Every few day’s people would arrive, look at the horses and pick one out to take home. But although lots of people looked at me, when I gave them flat ears and ran off kicking and squealing, they never asked to see me.

But several of my friends got sold, and I became anxious that no one would ever want me and I would be stuck here.

*

The next day some people came to look at us. There was a tall burly man, a medium skinny lady and a little girl, a foal just like Rose.

The man I got to know a bit, Dave, but still didn’t like him, showed me to these people from the field gate. They liked the look of me.

The little girl (who I overheard was called Becky) had curly ginger hair. She wore blue jodhpurs, a spotless coat and long leather riding boots. Her mum was called Janice, a blond tart and her dad was called Bill a hefty slob, Becky said that I was pretty. I like foals, and she reminded me of Rose, so instead of giving her flat ears, I pricked them and sniffed her jacket.

“Mummy I want this one, Mummy, Mummy”

“But where will we keep it?” asked her Dad.

“In the garden!” replied Janice promptly.

“I need the garden for my cars!” Bill said annoyed

“But I need it more! Tell him Mummy!” Becky said scowling

“Yes she does need it more, she wants it for the pony,” Janice said persuasively

“Well it’s not coming anywhere near my cars” said Bill.

“It’s not going to come near your smelly cars!” said Becky rudely. I was amazed, how could she be so rude to her father! She must have been higher than him in the ranks of their herd.

When I overheard them calling me it I put my ears back and swished my tail.

“If I don’t have it, I’m going to scream.” Becky said bratishly

“No no, sweetie, no, don’t do that!” Janice said putting her hand over the child’s mouth

“How much do you want for it?” Janice asked hurriedly

Dave sniffed. “You haven’t ridden her yet“, he said rubbing his hands. Let’s say £2000

“£2000.” Squawked Bill in horror. He obviously hadn’t heard of my breeding.

“No less?”

“Sorry, but there’s lots of people wanting a lovely quality animal like this” Dave lied. I snorted with laughter - no one else wanted me, I’d seen to that!

“Mummy!!!!!” The child whined.

“I’ll take it.” Janice said hurriedly

The child ran to me a bit fast and I didn’t like it, so I shied away and trotted off.

“I’m not paying £2000 for one what runs off” stated Bill flatly.

“Ok. £1800 when we’ve tried it out and not a penny less.” said Dave with finality.

Janice handed him the money and they caught me.

They took me to the arena to try me.

They asked for my tack to be brought. Joe hurried off to get it while they waited with me. I spent my time sniffing Becky and thinking wistfully of Rose. This seemed to please Becky, as if she thought I was being nice to her!

When he brought the tack they heaved it onto my back and pulled the bridle and martingale on.

“Do you want to get on first darling?” mummy asked

“Yes, of course” darling said petulantly

“Let mummy help you on then” Janice said babyishly

“Yeah, whatever!” muttered the child rudely. I was beginning to feel she wasn’t the nicest foal in the human world.

She shoved her foot in the stirrup and dug her toe into my side, then threw herself on me. She wasn’t heavy, but she was so unbalanced that I felt a slight strain to hold her as she clambered onto me and positioned herself in the saddle.

“Go on then… move!” the brat said rudely.

I shifted my wait slightly forwards.

“Um… she is used to a gentle nudge to ask her to go forwards” Joe said warily.

“I can do what I want with it, but fine”

She jabbed at my sides and shouted at me,

“Go on get moving you lazy animal!”

I was startled at being kicked, so I jumped forward into a canter. Immediately she screamed

“Stop you brute!!!!!!!”

What? You told me to go a second ago, now you want me to stop? I was starting to feel annoyed.

She pulled at my reins so hard I slipped and turned around in tight circles really fast. She kicked me harder and I went into another canter.

She pulled hard on two reins again. It hurt my mouth so I threw my head up in the air and went into a trot, she pulled harder and I went into a walk.

“Isn’t she a good rider?” Janice said proudly, not really asking, but telling.

“Do you want me to answer that?” Joe said quietly

Janice scowled at him and huffed to herself, “At least my daughter isn’t a stable hand”. Then it was his turn to scowl.

“There see, that’s how you control an untrained horse” she laughed to herself.

Joe and Dave looked at each other.

“Go on jump it and canter it then, why do you think we got it?” Her dad said. He was standing at the entrance out of my way grinning.

She kicked me again and we charged around the arena. She headed me straight for a big jump and I was so surprised I jumped it first time.

Joe and Dave looked at each other in surprise; they had never tried to jump me!

She halted me roughly, “See aren’t I good, I can manage this horse really well, considering…”

She smiled a really smug smile, so did her mum and dad.

She then got off me and handed me to her mum, “Get her in the truck”. She walked off towards the truck, leaving her mum and dad behind with me.

They loaded me up into the truck and smacked my bum as I went in.

“Go on hurry up get in!” Bill said annoyed.

They started the truck up.

Becky looked back at the field.

“STOP!!!”

We halted hard, I stumbled.

I could hear her scream from there, “I want that one too!”

Soon enough Drifter, was loaded up with me, yes!

We drove for ages, Drifter sulking at the back.

New home… again!

It was a sunny day when we arrived at the yard; it had a very nice smell, like new haylage in a field of spring grass.

There were all sorts of horses being tied up and being groomed.

Drifter said this was called a livery yard, where people put their horses, but don’t own the land they put them on.

Bill let down the ramp and led us out. I sniffed at the other horses and looked cute, Drifter scowled and lay his ears back at the others.

We were let into the field and I went straight up to the fence to see this other horse.

I tossed my mane and lifted my tail; he whickered to me and pranced along side the fence.

He was soooo handsome - he had a black mane and tail, a really dark bay body (black but horsy people don’t call it that, don’t know why)

And a tan muzzle. 

“Hello, my name is Castanya midnight, but you can call me Storm.

“Hi Storm, my name is Burnt Sienna, but you can call me Sienna.”

“why are you called that Sienna?”

“I ‘m the colour of burnt sienna.”

“nice, so how old are you?”

“I’m four, you?”

“five”

Drifter wandered over.

“ um.. Drifter, this is Castanya midnight”

“or Storm?” I asked him.

“Castanya is fine” Storm said eyeing Drifter carefully.

“why don’t you come over here with me?” Drifter said.

“Oh ok, I’ll see you soon then.”

“I see I have competition” Storm said smugly.

“Maybe” I put on my cute smile and flicked my tail at him.

“Come on Sienna!” Drifter said again.

“I’ll see you later” I winked at him, giving him false hope.

“Bye” was all he could say, Drifter bit my bum and turned me towards the trees.

“And where have you been, flirting with him hey, hmm what am I going to do with you.”

“I have a life you know!”

“I know”

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!

I’m ridden

A few days later Becky’s grooms came to catch me, I complied. They took me into a big arena and it had some big jumps in it, they tacked me up in my normal stuff and held me until Becky came into the arena. She was wearing cream jodhpurs and a light blue short sleeved top, and she carried a whip.

She asked them if they had warmed me up and they said no, she shouted at them then said, “Fine, I’ll warm her up, since you’re too

Incompetent to do it.”

She mounted me and the martingale tightened. It pulled my head in tighter and she kicked me as before when she came to buy me, I did as she said and went at a reasonable pace for her. She trotted me from A to C for a bit then did it in canter, I behaved well for her.

When we had done that for a while she turned me towards a small jump, I jumped it beautifully, then she turned me for a bigger jump, I hesitated a bit but still jumped it well.

Then she turned me for a really big one and I cantered up to it but then abruptly halted to look at it, she whipped me hard on my quarters and I galloped around the arena. She pulled on my reins and my martingale tightened pulling me to a stop.

She shouted at me then turned me at it again. She smacked me just before I jumped it and I did a bunny-hop over it, I could feel she had lost her balance and decided to take advantage of this opportunity and bucked, hard. She landed in a heap next to me; I gave her a quick side kick and heard her yell in pain.

The next day she came to the field to ride me again. She came this time.

I cantered of to the other side of the field, not wanting to be ridden again.

She chased me all over the field for ten minutes until she gave up and went to go get her other horse.

When she eventually caught me the next day she took me to the arena again like before.

The second she got on me I bucked trying to make sure she couldn’t hurt me; she fell off the second buck and took me back into the field.

I made a mental list of what to do to get Becky to not ride me or catch me:

Run away, humans give up after ten minutes,

Kick, humans are more breakable then horses,

Bite, they are to busy tending to their bite mark to bother with me,

Buck if you do get caught, humans are easily off balanced,

Bite their leg if they manage to stay on over the bucking,

Rear, they can fall off over my bum,

Bolt, they don’t know how to stop me and throw themselves off, or fall off (bolt means gallop uncontrollably so you can run away from what ever it is that’s scaring you or annoying you)

After I had done all of these things on Becky and her friends, she didn’t want me anymore.

“Send this horse to market tomorrow, I want her gone! Out of my sight!”

They let me go into the field.

       17

                           Market

It was a sunny day when I was loaded up into the lorry; we travelled for miles until we came to a halt.

I could smell sweat and could hear horses and farm animals calling to each other, it was very scary!

They let down the ramp and the wind blew all the different smells up into my nose, there was a lot of people there, they had loads of pens filed with horses, pigs, cows, sheep, donkeys, dogs, rabbits, chickens, geese etc..

They all looked terrified, a bit like me! They led me into one of these pens with another horse.

His name was Flash and he was a chestnut colour with a white blaze and white marks on his back, a black scar on his hip and a sticker on his bum.

He introduced himself and I did too, he said that this place was where people came to buy horses and other animals by bidding against each other to see who would pay the highest amount for the animal, who ever won got the animal.

There were lots of people around looking at the horses and animals, they went into the pens and examined the animals closely.

A few people came past us and had a quick look at Flash, but left it without coming into the pen to look closer, he asked me how I came to be here and I explained my story to him, he was fascinated by it.

Once I had finished my story I asked him about how he came to be here, he explained,

“My life started in the New Forest, I was born wild. Three days ago, when they came for me, they came on bikes that moved on their own. They rounded us up and drove us to a big building, we were put into pens like these, they looked us all over and had vets look us over, they tended to some, and then we were sorted into groups of ten, after a while we were loaded up onto a lorry and set off, when we were unloaded we were here. Not a very long story - unlike yours!”

“Wow you were really wild!!” I exclaimed.

“Yeah, it was lovely” he said staring into the distance.

“It’s a shame we ended up here” I said sadly.

“Yes, it is, especially since you are such a lovely horse” he said smiling at me.

“Aww thanks!” I said bashfully. I knew why I was here and it was nothing to do with my looks!

“What breed are you?” he asked

“Huh?” I snorted.

“Breed, type, sort” he said expectantly.

“Oh um… I don’t know, how about you?” I asked shyly.

“I’m a New Forest. That’s a big forest in the South of the country. You look like an Andalusian, and since you come from Spain, you probably are.”

“Wow, am I aristocratic then?”

“Yes very, not like me.”

Then some people took an interest in me, I looked at them disdainfully, and they left me alone.

It was a slow day; a few people came to look at me. I gave them all flat ears, so not many came into my pen. One brave person tried, but I soon kicked him out again!

Then it was getting into afternoon, and some people came to look at me, there was a man a woman and a child, the man had brown hair, was dressed in working clothes. The woman had blondy brown hair, was dressed in jodhpurs and a denim long sleeved top. And the child had brown hair, was dressed like her mum but with a blue long sleeved top.

They looked quite nice, the child who was called Gwen asked her mum what breed of horse I was and she answered, “She is an Andalusian, a fine bred horse from Spain.”

“Wow, she’s so pretty!” Gwen said admiringly.

I think I like this family! I thought to myself.

Gwen’s mum, Pauline, came into my pen to have a look at me. She looked me all over and felt my legs, my back, etc…I gave her flat ears, but she was so polite with her touch, that I didn’t kick her.

“I think this horse has just been spoiled by bad handling”, said Pauline thoughtfully. “There doesn’t seem to be anything physically wrong with her”.

Gwen came to talk to me when her parents had gone to look at some of the other horses, she looked at the tag on my pen gate, it said:

This is a stunning looking horse, she is a 4 year old bay 14.2hh andalusian, beautiful paces, good jumper, great to hack, jump, trek, compete, shoe, tack up, box, (stable) clip etc.

Sad sale due to financial circumstances.

 Liars! They sold me because I was naughty and they didn’t like me. How do they know if I’m good in any of those things, they never did any of them?!

“Yeah right! They always say that, it’s never true!” Gwen said scornfully.

Oh my gosh! She understands! At least she isn’t fooled by their lies!

“You poor horse what happened to you? Why are you here of all places?” She asked me. Of course I couldn’t respond, but I pricked my ears at her and blew softly down my nose, which she seemed to like.

“I bet they just didn’t treat you right.” She stroked my nose lovingly, and then moved to my shoulder where my mum used to lick me like that - bliss!

I was number twelve, and number ten was entering the ring. Flash was number 11. Some other guy took me to the side of the arena in a line. There were two in front of me. I could hear the auctioneer shouting…

“290 290 290, do we have a bid for 290 guineas?”

He went on and on, until the horse got lead out back into its pen. Then Flash went in. I didn’t hear many people bidding, and he was very quickly led out again. I said a quick goodbye. Then I heard a woman say “sold for dog meat. What a shame.” I was horrified - Dog Meat!

I had no time to dwell on this at the time, although it haunted me for years afterwards. I was led into the arena. It was very small, round, with woodchip on the floor. There were loads of people there, they all surrounded me. I saw the family that liked me in the stands at the back.

The man who was shouting out prices asked for a bid of 2000 for me. No one spoke and a few people laughed. This annoyed me and I put my ears flat and kicked out at them. They laughed again, and someone called “2000 smarties maybe, John!”

“Come on everyone, this is a quality animal - Bred in Spain, broken at a professional yard, no vices or health problems, been a lovely child’s pony - what’s stopping you all?” He encouraged them to bid, but still no one put up their hand. I was furious. Didn’t they know quality when they saw it? I reared and struck out at the air, squealing in temper.

“I’ll bid 200”, said a fat man standing at the front of the ring. The bidding slowly rose, until it reached 900. Pauline put her hand up, indicating she would bid.

“I’m bid 950, do I hear 1000, 950 selling now, quality animal, worth a lot more …..” The auctioneer rattled on, but no one else challenged Pauline. The auctioneer made one final try, and then banged his hammer down. I was sold to that nice family, good!

When I was back into my pen the family came to see me. “Fancy a super animal like this for only 950 guineas,” Pauline was marvelling. She seemed very pleased. “I was only going to go to 1000, so it’s lucky we got her,” she continued.

Gulp. Lucky for me too, I was thinking.

Gwen talked to me for most of the afternoon until Pauline and Adrian (Adrian being her dad) came back saying they had arranged transport for me.

She showed them the tag on my pen and they said the same thing Gwen had said,

“I bet they’re just saying that so she would sell!” Pauline said. Adrian agreed.

When the lorry finally came for me, it didn’t look like the others I had been in, it looked nice, and it had a straw bed and a haynet. Thank goodness, I was starving as Becky hadn’t left me with anything to eat. Typical!

Pauline started to load me up into it. Obviously I refused, laying my ears back and striking out. I expected her to start pulling and hitting, but she didn’t. Instead she held the end of this long rope and got a long stick and pointed into the lorry with the end of the rope and tapped my bum with the long whip. I gave her flat ears to tell her to stop, but she just kept tapping my bum harder. It was really irritating, and finally I took a step up the ramp. Instantly she stopped tapping me and instead rubbed me kindly.

It took me a while but I went in without her having to heave me in and put ropes around my bum! That gave me plenty to think about on my journey. I expected to be rattled and jerked around as usual, but it was quite smooth for a change.

When we eventually stopped, I thought we were there, but when they lowered the ramp it looked like a big car park - this can’t be the place we were heading to, surely!

But they led me out and let me eat grass on the side of the car park, with a loose rope; I snatched at the grass for at least half an hour. Then Pauline loaded me up into the lorry like the first time at the market. She tapped me on the bum until I went in, then she shut the ramp and I was off to my new home, where ever that might be!

18

Nice home

Copyright Jennifer Wroath.