The Brink(ley) of Extinction

12

          Beth was up with the sun the next morning, determined to go see her filly.

          Papa was sitting at the breakfast table when she went down.

          "Are we taking the gelding back today?"

          Papa raised an eyebrow, "Good morning to you, too."

          "Sure Papa," she helped herself to a generous plateful of food. "Are we going today or not? It's been almost two weeks. I'll explode if I don't get to check on her soon."

          Papa chuckled, "How about this afternoon? I'll take a quick nap, then we'll see how far we get on fixing that fence line in the north pasture."

          Beth nodded, too busy shoveling food in her mouth to bother with a verbal answer. Mama clucked in disapproval as she bustled in from the kitchen.

          Finally, when the sun was about three hours from meeting the horizon, Beth tacked up Fern, Jericho, and Hamilton's gelding. She brought all three mounts out to the house to wait for Papa. When he emerged, he was holding a tin of ointment. They both mounted up and trotted off. Papa handed the ointment over to Beth to dab on the scratches and cuts she'd received during the afternoon's fencing. Beth tied the gelding to her saddle horn and complied. She held back a hiss at the sting of it.

          The ride over to Hamilton's took nearly an hour at their pace. Beth's stomach tightened with every kilometre that they travelled. By the time they rode through the big gates, she was so nervous she thought she might piss herself.

          Presently, the big barn came into sight and Beth gasped at the size of it.

          "Is that it? Is that where our foal is?"

          Papa smiled a little and nodded.

          "Oh, my." She breathed.

          It was easily the biggest barn she'd ever seen, and she'd been inside Mr. Stokes's Thoroughbred Barn. As they grew closer, Beth started to see a few interesting details that she hadn't ever seen before; the lower four feet or so of the barn walls were made of stone. That in itself wasn't the interesting part, it was a pretty common practice used by farmers and ranchers when rebuilding after their barns had burnt down. The interesting part were the Dutch doors in the outside wall that opened into small pens built onto the side of the barn. A few of the doors were open, horses shuffling around in their pens.

          The pens were by no means large, merely large enough for a horse to trot three or four paces in each direction. Still, Beth was —begrudgingly— impressed.

          They rode slowly into the yard, both trying not to stare. Papa, with greater success than Beth.

          Papa nodded toward a grove of evergreen trees some fifty yards away. The road they were on was rutted and lead around the side of the copse. Beth followed Papa away from the barn. She kept glancing back over her shoulder at the structure she was now so curious about.

          They rounded the thicket and Beth turned to face forward.

          The house they now approached didn't look as large and impressive as Beth would have expected, judging by the size of the barn, but then, she didn't know this family well. Only that his father had died some years ago and his mother's health was failing. She had once thought that Hamilton had a brother, but she hadn't seen the man in what seemed like ages, so she wondered if maybe he had simply been a friend come to visit for a while.

          Beth dismounted after Papa and looped her reins loosely over the hitch rail in front of the house. She waited by the horses, petting Hamilton's gelding while her father went up to knock on the door. She focused on the horses as she heard the door open and voices converse. Then, footsteps came down the stone walk. Beth stepped aside as Hamilton's big hands came to rest on the gelding's neck.

          His hands didn't stay still for long, they patted the animal a few times before starting to roam. He felt the horse's legs and chest, taking extra time around his hooves and cannon bones. He checked all of its feet before coming back up to its head and taking the lead rope from Beth.

          She handed it over and stepped away, uncomfortably aware of his proximity. She pulled Jericho's reins free and backed him out of the way. And waited. Papa and Hamilton started back toward the barn. Beth followed. Jericho nudged her arm as they walked, and Beth slung her arm over his neck and rubbed his favourite spot behind his ear. Jericho nickered and groaned with pleasure, making Beth smile.