It's Only 8 Seconds

Chapter Five

Friday came around quicker than I had expected, I put River in her car seat and packed a few things into my trailer before I set off on a four-hour drive to Huston. I hadn't driven this far since the rodeo circuit two years ago, where this type of driving was normal. Snow began to come down just as I left the driveway, I was so thankful that Apache had his shelter and would now wear a rug. River fell asleep almost straight away, I decided to go to Starbucks to get coffee for the road trip and get a bite to eat, I packed River some small snacks in her little bag the night before so I didn't have to worry about that.

The drive felt dragged out and when we arrived at Peter's property I felt drained and lacking in energy. 

''You must be Ail.'' Peter held his hand out, I shook it as I held River on my hip closely. Peter took me into his beautiful stables, they looked like something out of a movie. Around the back of the stables in a small round pen was the mare, and when I laid my eyes on her I felt all of the energy I didn't have just fill my body. Her eyes were bright and her buckskin coat was shining even though it was lightly raining. I hadn't seen a horse with such a personality like that before, just looking at her you could see the potential right there in her. 

''I can hold the girl while you take a look at the mare?'' Peter gave me a warm smile as I passed River to him and stepped into the mare's pen. Her eyes followed me as I walked around to see her. 

''Hey, girl,'' I whispered to her, I stood in the middle of the pen and outstretched my hand towards her. I was so glad that I drove all this way, she was so worth it. The mare took a few steps closer to me and rested her nose on the top of my hand. I was definitely taking her home with me. 

The little mare loaded onto my trailer quite well, River was extremely tired from the day's adventure. We travelled back to Collinsville and arrived back around dark before I took the mare out of the trailer I checked on the horses in the stables and checked Apache. There was a small pasture on the side of the stable away from all the other horses, and there was a shelter in there for her to escape the weather. Once I checked all the horses and set up the pen for the new horse I unloaded her straight into the pasture, where she trotted around with her head held high for a little bit. There was something really special about her.