A Soul Rider's Horse - The Stories of All My Horses

Midnightjumper

   I loved taking late night rides on the beach with Ruby. Ever since I'd first come to Fort Pinta it had been my favorite way to spend time with Ruby. The moon was full and sat high in the sky on this particular night, when I saw another rider. I watched in surprise as the brown haired girl whipped her horse hard. The horse reared up and I could see the look of fear in his eyes. I dismounted Ruby and whispered "Wait here girl". I snuck closer ducking behind the edge of the championship ring she was riding in. From this closer view I could see the horse looked a bay quarter horse. In addition to the whip she was wearing spurs. The moonlight reflected off of the them and I saw there was something red on them. "Give me a leg yield you stupid horse!" The girl yelled. She wasn't even asking him the correct way, she continued to whip and dig the spurs into his side. The horse cried out and tried to throw her, which resulted in another strike from the whip. I couldn't stand it anymore, this wasn't right. I stood up and ran into the ring. "Stop! Your hurting that poor horse!" I shouted at the girl. She looked at me like I was stupid. "Well it's his fault, he won't do I want" she snapped. "Well maybe you should ask him correctly, I could report you for abuse and put you in jail!" I retorted. "You have no proof" she said smugly. But I did. The entire time I'd been hiding I had been recording with my phone. I pulled out my phone, clicked play on the video and faced it towards her. "Ugh, just take him, he's a terrible horse anyway!" She yelled annoyed before stomping off into the night. I looked at the horse she'd left me with. I reached out towards him but he shied away. "Shh it's alright" I whispered. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the carrot I'd originally brought to surprise Ruby. I stepped closer to him and held it out. He looked reluctant to take it but after a moment he did. While he munched on it I reached out and touched his neck. The horse flinched before realizing I hadn't hurt him. "It's alright, your safe now" I assured him. I fingered the black bridle on his face, it was way to tight on him. I undid and pulled it slowly off his head while at the same time grabbing Ruby's halter out of my bag. I was surprised when he let me slip it on. The halter was big on him, but it would be fine for now. I then turned to the saddle. The saddle didn't fit him right at all, it was pinching on his withers. I pushed it off him on to the ground, I wasn't taking that with me. I ran my hand over his side noting he was a little underweight and felt something wet and sticky where the spurs had dug into him. I was enraged, who would treat a horse like this? I clipped a lead rope to the halter and guided him over to Ruby. He seemed to calm a little seeing how she trusted me. "I never even learned your name" I said to the horse. I looked at the bridle that was slung over my shoulder and saw a name tag. Traditional Jorvik names, were composed of two words, and while the first word was too faded for me to read I could see the second was 'jumper'. "So something jumper.." I said to no one in particular. I looked up at the moon and saw it looked like it was just past midnight. "What about Midnight?" I asked the horse. "That's the time we met". I decided to keep the second word the same, as odd as the name Midnightjumper sounded, it was unique and I would always know the meaning behind it. The horse seemed to like it too. "Let's get you to the stables" I told the horse before grabbing my phone and calling Thomas Moorland to bring a trailer.