Midnight

My last customer

                                                     30 years later

            As soon as I was done my very last customer I was going to retire so today I was getting my very last customer before retirement. I am now 50 years old and believe it is time for me to retire along with Midnight and Lucky. They had both now retired. My next customer was a kind girl named Lucy with a horse name Cloud, A very skittish dapple grey arab mare. She sounded beautiful and I could not wait to meet her.

      After breakfast and grooming Midnight and Lucky, Lucy arrived. She opened the trailer door and out bolted a terrified dapple grey mare. I could see her wide eyes, he shaking legs and ears twitching at every sound. She was covered in mud making her look like a brown mare. The mare was beautiful underneath all the cuts, scrapes, whip marks and bruises she had. I felt horrible for her, never even knowing what kindness was. I left Cloud in her pasture for about a week just letting her get used to the place. He terror in her eyes had left her. She was at least used to the place. But still not me. She backed away into the far corner of her pasture when ever I would come in with her bucket of grain.  She was a hard last customer. 

      One night it was raining hard. I had tried to bring the mare inside to stay dry but she would not even let me come close. Then I tried slipping a blanket on her, she freaked when my hand touched her. I had tried for about an hour, by the time I gave up I was soaked. I went back inside, got dressed and fell asleep still worried about the mare. But the next morning I peeked out my window and there was the mare, grazing peacefully in her pasture perfectly safe. I approached the mare carefully that morning after giving her the food.

"Easy girl I won't hurt you." I reassured her

      It was as if she understood me because she stepped closer to me, still afraid. I would pet her for a bit and take my hand off when she grew afraid. I did this for about two hours just getting her used to my touch. After a while she liked to be pet.

      One day I approached her with a grooming brush allowing her to sniff it first. When she was used to being brushes I bathed all the mud off of her. She hated the water at first but was fine with it one I got her used to it. In fact she loved the water once I was done. I uncovered all the mud to find what looked like a whole new horse. Beautiful dapples of grey all over her and bright blue eyes shined on her face. Jack even came up and admired the whole new grey horse.

"There we are girl, does that feel better?" I asked her petting her

      Once she was all ground trained I carefully pulled my old body up onto her back.  She jumped at first leaving me in her dust. But a few more tries got me on. I was surprised I had not broken any bones.  I trained the mare on her back until she was perfectly fine with me up there. We went through long rides everyday. Finally Lucy came back. I was sad to see her go. But she was a whole new horse now. Lucy admired Cloud, running freely and trusting her to pet her.

"Wow! At first Cloud would never even let me in her pasture." Lucy said happily

      Lucy loaded Cloud into the trailer, Cloud was fine with that. Lucy put her in a drove away after paying me. Cloud was a hard horse to train, but a total sweet heart once you got her love. I was glad I never gave up. Now I could finally retire and join Midnight and Lucky in the world of retirement.