The Great Expedition

Chapter 18

At the apartment in the city Kristie felt like an elephant in a shoe box. Going from a wide house and many acres to a small apartement was hard. Kristie kept bumping into her parents and furniture. Even her room was smaller then at the farm. Most of all Kristie missed Stardust. Whenever the was quiet Kristie thought of Stardust and that made her even more sad so she tried to keep busy. School was no better, in the three weeks she had been in this school, she had made no friends and no one even made an attempt to talk to her. 

.......................................................................'.........................................................................................

At the farm Stardust missed Kristie so much. When she was not eating, protecting Honeysuckle from Rob or feeding/watering other horses, she was pacing the fence. Kristie was never gone for this long and Stardust was starting to worry. Honeysuckle tried to distract her but Stardust, who had a lot of pent up emotions, kicked Honeysuckle then bit her on the neck. Honeysuckle tried to run away, but with that flight a chunk of skin and hair was ripped from her neck by Stardust. Stardust then chased Honeysuckle into a corner and kicked her in the barrel two times. Stardust galloped away but when Honeysuckle tried to get away from the corner, Stardust would show up and kicked, bite and pushed Honeysuckle back into the corner. The process repeated until Honeysuckle learned that she was ment to stand in this corner. Just before sundown Rob came down and fed each horse half a flake of hay. All the horses usually got at least two flakes, so this food barely filled them up and most of them still had grumbling stomachs afterwards. 

There you go stupid horses. From now on that is all you will get. No use wasting so much money on hay. Rob went back inside and a few minutes later Stardust hopped out of the paddock to go feed the horses again. Once all horses were fed, Stardust galloped to the forest. Once in the clearing Stardust went her full speed. Soon she was flat out galloping. Once out of breath Stardust slowed to a walk. After getting her breath back she galloped back to the farm and sailed over the fence with ease. Once in the paddock she layed down to rest.

................................................................................................................................................................

Stardust woke up to pounding. Stardust stood up and shook herself. She then looked around and saw that Rob was pounding nails into a board to attach it to a post. Rob was clearly making the fence higher. He must have seen Stardust jump out of her paddock last night. Once the new rails were attached to keep a jumping horse in. Rob then walked around the farm checking the horses. When he came to the barely halter broke horse paddock, he saw that the appaloosa gelding was lying down not breathing. His paddock friend was standing over him, his head to the ground. The gelding must have died from infected wounds and starvation. You could see the ribs on both of the horses. Rob took a look at the body and grabbed the other gelding led him out of the paddock and into another one. Rob then went into the house and would not come out until sunset to feed the horses. Stardust was nervous. Would Kristie ever come back? she thought. Why would she leave me here with this monster. Stardust wanted to hop out of the paddock but she knew if she did, Rob would put the fences up higher. Stardust had to be smart now, she should only hop out of the paddock late at night when she knew Rob was asleep. For the time being Stardust ate, played with Honeysuckle and thought about Kristie. Once it was sunset Rob came out and gave a flake of hay to each horse and went back into the house. Soon the stars came up and around midnight Stardust decided that Rob was asleep. 

Stardust galloped to the other side of the paddock and lept over the fence. She had jumped higher with Kristie and at shows. Honeysuckle, who started to gallop when Stardust did, was galloping towards the fence but at the last second slid to a stop. As much as Honeysuckle wanted to follow Stardust, she could did not know how to jump. So for the time being Honeysuckle had to stay in the paddock. Stardust went to go grab another flake of hay so that when she left Honeysuckle would be kept busy and not disrupt Rob with her whinnying. Once Honeysuckle was munching on hay Stardust galloped into the forest. She headed straight to the clearing like she always did. She then did a couple of laps at a flat out gallop, going as fast as she could. Then she settled down and started trimming away at the grass. If she got bored she would go gallop a couple more laps. When the sky started to get lighter, Stardust galloped back to the farm and sailed over the fence. Honeysuckle was laying down dozing in the lean in shelter but quickly awoke when she heard galloping hooves. Honeysuckle quickly went over to Stardust, nuzzling her hellos on the grey mare's back.

It was about nine o'clock when both mares started to pace up and down the fence line. Both super hungry and wanting food. Soon all the horses on the farm were pacing, every few minutes one of the horses would whinny loudly. Finally Rob came outside.

SHUT UP! You stupid horses just because I'm a few minutes late in feeding you does not mean you can burst my eardrums with that noise you make. Just for that you get half of the food you usually get.  After Rob gave them their food, all the horses settled down while munching on their breakfast. Rob went up to the house and a few minutes later came back out wearing his ''riding clothes''. He then tried to catch Honeysuckle like he did every morning, but failed again thanks to Stardust. Rob walked over to the pie-bald gelding, caught him and led him into the ring. Once in the ring, Rob put the gelding on the lunge line and flicked the whip hard down on the gelding's rump. The gelding sqealed loudly and the whip was brought down again. 

So this is how today is going to be. thought Stardust.

Author's note

QOTD: What is something you would like to learn? It can be horse related or something else.

I would like to learn some dressage but I feel like it would be boring. I would much rather the thrill of soaring over a huge jump and going fast.