The Horse By The Picket Fence

Chapter 21

I let Prince rest for a month, he does not seem to enjoy his resting time and is getting restless. My phone rings and I grumble before answering it.

"Brian you-"

"Sam you get better to get your butt down to the barn Prince is hurt!"

I fall out of bed putting on a robe and waking up Teddy.

"Saaaammmm." Teddy whines.

"Prince is hurt!"

Teddy's eyes shoot open he throws on a robe, and we drive speeding down the robe.

"What do you mean he is limping!" Brian yells at the poor jockey.

The vet comes behind us. I run to Prince who looks slightly confused, I walk him, he has a limp, and I get nervous.

The vet runs his hand down Prince's leg, he whinnies and picks it up. The vet continues to feel around until he reaches the spot it hurts. He presses a bit and Prince flinches away.  He looks closer moving away surrounding fur.

"He has sprained a muscle, Linda can you hand me some wrap and ice boots.?"

Linda hands him wrap, the vet puts the cooling boots Prince's legs and then wraps them up. A groom hands him a cooling wrap which he applies on top.

"No racing, running anything four weeks let it heal, I don't want this to turn into a bigger problem." 

I sigh but agree.

"Excerice him walk him around, no paddock, graze him on a lead. Hot and cold treatment, 15 minutes hot, 15 minutes cold. I will prescribe him some pain relief, thankfully this was not extremely major."

The vet leaves and I look at Brian. 

"I may take him back to the bachelor pad, are you ok with that?"

"Yeah, that might be best."

I wave goodbye, "See you in 4 weeks I guess."

"Yeah," Brian looks disappointed.

"Swing by and check on him once a week would Ya?"

"Sure thing."

Liam grabs Princes stuff and Teddy goes to get the trailer. When he comes back we load in Ace and Prince being careful about his leg, I can still tell he is in pain. We drive back in silence. When we get home Prince's ears perk up recognizing his old home.

"Here is home Prince," I murmur carefully unloading him.

"I wonder how long he has been in pain," Teddy says unloading Ace.

"I don't want to know."

I walk slowly not wanting to hurt Prince, we all seem to over react when he is hurt. We all care too much about our colt. I walk Prince into his stall and take off his shipping gear. I give him a flake of hay and decide I will do a hot and cold treatment in an hour.

"Do you think we have been him working too hard?" I ask Teddy.

"No, he probably did something in the pasture, don't worry about it, Sam."

I sigh and look at him.

***

Four weeks was plain misery. Prince hated being walked like a pet, I could not blame him. The hot and cold treatments were the only highlight in his day and stall rest was terrible, for both of us. The vet came by to look at him. He ran his hand down Prince's leg, Prince did not flinch, we walked him around and the vet approved light work outs and then ease back into things, we still wanted to keep polo's on his leg to prevent further injury. 

I tacked him up, the energy buzzed off him like an electrical circuit. He danced around, the training jockey eased on and Prince lifted his head, his nostrils flared. He trotted in place when we got close to the gate when the doors swung open Prince sprinted as fast as he could, his legs were a blur. All of his extra energy he burned on this run. Brian made the jockey stop at a mile and Prince reluctantly listened.

"He had a lot of energy," Teddy says smiling.

"He was in his stall for four weeks."

"Touche."

Prince ran small laps at lighter speeds before finally cooling off.

"He did great today for not running in four weeks," Brian commented scribbling some stuff in his notebook.

"Yeah, he did."

We walk back to the stables with him and Brian looks at me.

"Are you planning on running him in the Derby?"

I pause, the question catches me off guard.

"I had not really thought about."

"Well, I have," Teddy says plopping down next to us.

"Shortie has arrived." I say.

"I think we should," Teddy says ignoring the nickname.

"Sam?"

"Let me think about it."

Brian nods and looks at Prince.

"I am agreeing with Teddy on this one." He says quietly.

I look at my colt, he perks his ears up and snorts.

"I think it is decided then, what race next?"

"I'm thinking the Arkansaw Derby."

Teddy nods, "That will get us in."

"We need to start looking into sponsors," I say running my hand through my hair.

"And things to say at conferences." Brian murmurs.

"I'll start making calls."

Teddy nods and we go back into the truck waving Brian goodbye.

"What did I just get myself into?"

"A miracle," Teddy says keeping his eyes on the road.

I say nothing letting that sink in.

================================================================Sorry for not updating last week this chapter would not load and it finally just did so here you go! Tell me what you think in the comments and don't forget to vote!