The First Year (Book 1 of Show Horse In Disguise)

When They Left And She Came

One day in the fresh spring air, a beautiful baby foal was born. That baby foal was me. I loved to run free and let my buckskin fur flow. Everything was right in the world. I thought my family would be together forever. I thought wrong.

A year later something bad happened. Poachers, they shot my dad, a beautiful buckskin stallion. A couple minutes later a different man came. He rode a weird four wheeled machine that roared loudly. Then the man lassoed my mom, a black and white mare.

It has been a year now that I have been running wild by myself. I thought if it has been one year by myself, I must be two! I woke up to the thought of me being by myself for one full year!

Since I finally woke up I decided to find some wild grass. After I ate my small meal, I decided to wonder, in hopes to find my long lost mother. After an hour of searching I decided to frolic around the beautiful meadow I like to play in.

After I lied in the grass for a while, I saw a butterfly majestically floating up and down. I got up as fast as I could. I tried to chase the butterfly. As it flew higher I would jump and pounce to try and reach it.

After a while, I got bored of chasing the butterfly. I went to lay down in the soft wild oats. As I lied down I started to graze on the sweet oats. After a little while, I started to doze off. All of a sudden I heard a big booming noise.

I looked up into the sky. The booming noise was thunder. I started to run as lightning set a tree on fire. I ran off in time. The tree fell down and set the oats on fire.

All of a sudden, a horse flew out from the trees. I was watching it as it ran, turned around at the burning tree and ran back for the woods. I noticed the horse had piece of leather on it's back. It's mouth also had a piece of metal held in it's mouth by leather straps.

It had fear in its eyes as the tree branches sparked and crackled. I thought it must have been the work of a human. I tried to follow the horse but then lost it as I entered the woods. I wanted to know where the human was.

I froze at the sight of the human. It was a girl, also the youngest human I have seen. She stood up and brushed herself off. I looked at her with my wild eyes and she stared back. She broke the silence by sticking out her hand. I was curious so I walked up to her hand and nudged it. She then pulled out a carrot.

She fed it to me then cooed me to keep me calm. She grabbed something from behind a rock. It was brown and shiny and smelled of leather. She then took a I rope and put it over my neck and then hooked it.

She then started to put the leather thing on my head saying," It's just a halter it won't hurt you," to me.

Then I heard a click, I flinched. Yet again the girl calmed me. I liked her she was nice and smelled of sweet oats. I love oats. I felt like I trust her, like she is the lead mare of the herd, like I could call her best friend or should I say... Sister. It doesn't matter that I am a horse and she is a human, what matters is on the inside.

While I was away in my thoughts I heard another click, but this time I didn't care. All of a sudden she smiled. She noticed that I dozed off in thoughts. I sighed, and as I did I smelled something tasty. I sniffed again. The smell was coming from her pocket. I gave her front pocket a nudge.

She laughed and said,"Silly girl, you smell my granola bar."

She then started to lead me. As the storm turned to rain and the rain turned to sun. We passed trees, flowing streams, and rocks covered in green moss.

We finally left the woods and entered a place with cars and a big cement road. Across the road was a big sign that said "Equine Acres". She kept looking side to side, when she saw no cars she walked me towards the big sign. She unlocked a green gait, then led me through.

She led me down the long road. The long road led to 8 round pens, 6 barns, 10 sheds, ten pastures with animals, 6 riding rings, a whole bunch of weird looking jumps out in the open, and a big house with a lot of windows.

She took me to one of the 8 round pens and said,"You get comfortable and I will be back later".

Then she unhooked the halter, then left. A few hours later she came back. She brought a bright orange halter made of fabric, a long white rope, and a black stick with a long black string on the end of it. She slipped on the halter, then she clipped on the lead rope.

She introduced the stick and rope to me as a whip.

She said,"This is a whip, it won't hurt you".

Then she started to rub the whip on my back, butt, stomach, neck, and legs. Once I was used to it she started to swing the rope. That's when I got antsy. I was scared by it, but she would calm me down. I noticed it won't hurt me, that's when she started swinging the rope over my back. Once I was comfortable with it all, she unhooked the lead rope, then she hung it over the fence.

Next, she started to swing the whip near my butt. So I started to trot, every once in a while, I would throw in a buck. When I did buck, she would make me switch directions and trot the other way. I would lope also. When she stopped swinging the rope, she would stand still. When I went to her, she fed me a treat and pat me. She then started chasing me the other way, then repeated the stopping.

Then at the end, she said,"Good job on your first training session."

She then led me to a barn that had stalls in them. In those stalls were horses. At the end of the isle was an empty stall that had a gold sign that said "Skie".

She put me in the stall with a few flakes of hay, a bucket of water, and a salt block, then she came back with a round treat that was on a rope. She set it in my stall with the salt block. All of it was tasty. Then I dozed off into a deep sleep.