Walker: Surrender

Chapter 17

Cordell sat in the truck, watching the horses milling around in the holding yards. After they’d apprehended the horse thieves, the mustangs involved had been seized and impounded, being held in these tiny, overcrowded yards at the only currently functioning BLM corral to await their fate. All of the mustangs were three strike horses, meaning that they had been put up for adoption three times and each time, hadn’t been adopted. They were out of chances. This was the end of the road for them. Without another chance at finding a home they only had one destination awaiting them; a long ride across the border to a slaughterhouse. Unless…

Leaning back in the seat, his eyes fell on the palomino pinto stallion that appeared to be the leader of the group. Too wild to be adopted, his papers had said. Everyone wanted him because of his unique coat and he’d had a lot of interest in him but when potential adoptees came to see him and saw that he was the wildest out of the bunch, no one wanted to take the time needed to train him properly. It was a shame, really. Even though Cordell didn’t have experience personally working with mustangs he could visibly see that the stallion’s behavior was normal for any wild stallion. They might be able to take a mustang out of the wild but they couldn’t take the wild out of the mustang, especially not this stallion. For a moment the stallion looked towards his truck and their eyes met then with a snort, the stallion began prancing around the yard again, attempting to find a way out. 

Even though what the horse thieves had done had been wrong, Cordell couldn’t blame them for trying. 

These horses didn’t deserve to be loaded onto that one way truck next week. 

They were young, strong, healthy horses. They just needed someone who was kind, patient and gentle to work with them and train them. 

They needed someone like Maddie…

He looked over the rest of the horses in the yard with the stallion, a pretty buckskin filly catching his eye. She seemed calmer than the rest of the mustangs, choosing to nibble at the round bale of hay left in the center of the corral. Picking up the file he’d borrowed from the office he opened it to read through her file. Three strikes were against her, one for the adoptee withdrawing after choosing to take a different horse and then the other two times simply because no one wanted her.

Reading through the rest of the information on the mustangs he could easily identify the number one reason they had all failed to be adopted; no one wanted them. There just weren’t enough people wanting to take on wild mustangs. No one wanted to deal with wild horses. 

But Maddie would… Liam too. 

Even though his brother had only had two sessions with the equine therapist, he had already been able to tell a difference with him. It had helped him, that was obvious to see. That uncomfortable talk he’d given him on Tuesday night had really made him stop and take inventory of the last couple months. Liam was right with everything he had said. The only problem he had now was what to do about it?

Closing the file again he laid it down on the passenger seat beside him, turning his attention back to the mustangs. There were thirteen of them, the paint stallion, six mares, two two-year-old fillies, a yearling colt and three foals; and they were all headed to the slaughter house across the Mexican border come Monday morning unless a miracle happened in the meantime. 

It wasn’t a solution to his problems with Liam and Maddie but maybe, maybe, helping these mustangs could help them. What else could he do? He didn’t know. He’d been pondering over it the past couple of days without finding any answers. One thing he knew though was that someone had to put their hand up to help these mustangs before it was too late for them. 

The paint stallion came around closer to his truck again and stopped, looking at the truck with pricked ears as he rolled the window down. The stallion was a majestic beast, his long white mane cascading down his muscular neck. Their eyes met again and the longer Cordell looked at him, the deeper the pull he felt towards that stallion. He knew how he felt. He knew what it felt like to be taken from his home, to be held captive. To be unable to protect his family.