Heart and Soul (rewrite)

Chapter Nineteen

Molly and I became stars. As we understood each other more and more, and formed a deeper bond, our performances improved. We moved up the levels, mastering half passes, haunches in, shoulders in, walk and trot pirouettes, rein backs, turns on the shoulders and haunches, and flying changes (these were my favorites). We'd even begun to train tempi changes. I liked dressage, and I loved Molly, but none of this felt right. None of it felt natural to me.

It was a Monday, when Molly loaded me in the trailer and we started off down the gravel drive, to what I assumed was another dressage show. The weather had taken on a chill so I wore a cooler, and the paint Molly had decorated me with had begun to dry and itch under the wool. After a twenty minute ride we turned into the wide entrance of the horse park, a place I knew well. As we crawled up the narrow driveway I saw riders on horses weaving through trees, pushing oversized balls, throwing things in baskets, and laughing in groups. A horse strutted past the trailer wearing a cardboard box painted with bricks, and his rider was covered in a pink suit. I nickered, confused. What a strange show.

When we found a parking spot Molly unloaded me only to nearly lose me when I wheeled around, spooked by a towering draft horse wearing wings. The rider apologized to Molly, who laughed it off and pointed out that I was a Thoroughbred. The mounted woman nodded knowingly.

"I've got a nutcase on stilts back home. They've got heart, just wish they had the brains to match."

With that Molly wrestled me to the trailer, tied me up, and settled the saddle on my back. She hung plastic bowls on either side of the saddle and put a stuffed cat in one. On my crown piece she tied a pointed hat. Then she vanished into the trailer. When she came out she had a hat to match mine over her helmet and a long black cloak.

A strange show indeed.

She mounted me, and we met up with two of Molly's friends, a blonde girl called Abby on another Chestnut named Slide, and a girl with short, dark hair Molly called Olivia on a dark bay dubbed Jack. We set off together, the girls talking and laughing, Slide trying to graze at every opportunity, and me, spooking at a flag caught in a bush. We meandered through the woods as the girls solved riddles and got lost, until the forest opened up to a wide, green field.

There was something familiar about that field...

We were halfway through it when Abby pointed to a log and asked Slide to canter. As we watched she steered him towards the makeshift jump and crouched over his neck as he soared over it. The next thing I knew Molly was circling me and the jump was a hundred feet in front of us. She asked me to canter with a light aid and I picked it right up, arching my neck and running my tongue across the bit as Molly asked me round.

As we got closer I sped up, unsure what to do. Molly half halted, sitting up, and rode me to the very base of the log before running her hands up my neck in a two point. I jumped the little log awkwardly, landed hard, bucked, and tried to take off, but I only managed a few strides of a gallop before Molly pulled me in.

We resumed our leisirely ride through the woods for about an hour before more jumps appeared. Molly took me over a small brush jump and we walked through a water jump, Molly even let me paw.

"Hey Mol!" Olivia called. "Try Charm over the ditch, I bet she'll refuse!"

Molly snorted, circled me, and asked me for a canter. I gladly obeyed, tossing my head a bit just to let her know I wanted to run, bad. She half halted, strongly this time, and steered me between two vertical poles. It wasn't until we were almost before it that I noticed what it was. The gaping hole in the ground brought back memories. Bad memories. Of coyotes and stinging pain and blood and screams. Of tears and falls and fear. I planted my hooves, but I was too late. Too late.

I slid off the path and into the ditch, stumbling as my forelegs crumpled beneath me and Molly flew off my back. I scrambled, trying to find momentum, and my nose cracked into the wood poles on either side of the obstacle. Blood trickled out of my flared nostrils.

Then I was up and off, galloping wildly, blind with terror, nicking myself with my shoes as my strides grew uneven and desperate. I passed through fields, galloped across the asphalt, dodged unmounted attendants trying to grab me, and galloped out of the park, slipping on the road and nearly getting hit by a car. My heart pounded, but still I galloped.

I spotted a barn across a wide expanse of open field surrounded by road, and associated it with safety, and protection. I headed straight for it. After narrowly avoiding an angry driver for the second time I scrambled down a low mound of loose dirt and sand, kicking up dust in my wake, and leaped for the field.

Then I fell.

I should have stayed up, I judged everything as well as I knew how, but when I landed, my front end didn't stop. It went right through the ground. I sunk through, then I couldn't breathe. Choking and struggling, I felt myself descending into the darkness below. Then something grabbed my bit. I followed the tug, finding a way to move in this strange enviornment. Then I broke the surface, coughing and sputtering, water streaming from my face. I looked at my savior, a red head. The hair color, so familiar...

He tugged me to shore and I followed him, exhausted, coughing, and freezing cold.