I heard the familiar noise of Samson chewing as I followed Dad into the stable. The smell of hay wafted into my nose and the old, dry straw crunched under my farm boots. Even though I've only been in here once, I felt at home.
"Oh, my!" Dad gushed, in pure shock.
"How long do you think he's been here?" I asked sadly.
"Well the real estate agent told me no-one's lived in here for weeks." Dad said, tapping madly at his phone.
Dad put his phone to his ear and spoke in his ultra-serious voice.
"Hi. RSPCA?" He said.
I wondered over to the other side of the stable. There was 4 wooden stalls with stacks of hay opposite the first 2. The last 2 had a set of cobweb filled stairs and a wooden door. As Dad chatted away behind me, I strolled over and let myself into the dusty room. It looked like it hadn't been used in months!
To my right was a large the window that ran along top half of the wall with hooks underneath. On the right was 6 saddle racks spread across the wall with a saddle pad rack underneath it. On the wall in front of me was about 20 different grains and large, round trays that looked like they were for feeding. On each side of me there was all sorts of organisation boxes and such that held whips and brushes and lots of things I'd never seen before.
I turned towards the one, lone saddle on the closest rack. Peeling of the pink and blue polka dot cover, I stared in awe at the pretty English saddle before me.
"Wow." I gasped, brushing my hand against the leather.
It looked almost new, I mean, I didn't know that much about saddles but it was better that the ones from when we went trail riding. The shiny black leather was beautiful! I moved over to a few bunches of leather straps hanging from the hooks under window. They were all tangled up and it just confused me so I headed back to Dad.
"How did it go?" I asked him when I noticed he'd finished his phone call.
"Good." He answered, grabbing a black rope halter from the inside of Samson's stall door.
He open it up and slid it onto Samson's head before clipping a matched black lead rope onto it and leading him away from his hay.
"Where are you taking him?!" I cried, jumping in front of them both.
Samson threw his head in the air and pointed his ears at me.
"The RSPCA are coming to take him," Dad explained, pushing past me and leading Samson away.
"But..but can't we look after him?" I called after them, my voice shaking.
"No, Teag, he needs a lot of medical attention. We can't do that here."
My stomach dropped. I really liked Samson. I stood there, destroyed and watched Dad walk him away. When they were out of sight I went over and sat on the half eaten hay bale in Samson's stall. I never realised how much I wanted a horse until I had one...for about and hour. My phone buzzed in the back pocket of my jeans. I pulled it out from underneath me and saw a text from Anya.
What happened? Why didn't you Skype me back? Everything ok?
I checked the time. 5:30! It's almost been about an hour since I skyped Anya! I got too caught up with Samson that I just totally forgot.
Yeah everything's fine. The building was a stable/barn thing. Found an abandoned horse there and Dad just took him to the RSPCA. I'm really bummed because he was really sweet but anyway :(. I texted.
What?! Are you kidding me I would have bashed my Dad for taking a horse away from me! Having a horse has been my dream since I was in year 4! Anya texted back.
Yeah I didn't even know I liked them until I met Samson. I told her.
Samson?
Yeah he's the horse :)
I turned off my phone and shoved it into my back pocket then let myself out of the stall. It was getting late so I left the barn and headed back to my room. What an eventful day.
A/N So this is what Samson looks like. Thank you to Ellequestrian for letting me use her photos of her adorable horse Cash who will be Samson in the story! You can find her on Instagram or YouTube :)
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