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“”Oh no, not again”

16 year old Josh watched in dismay as his 4 year old black stallion, Trotter, jumped the corral fence and headed for his mothers garden. This was the 4th time in the last month that Trotter had escaped. The second time he broke out he discovered the Sugar Cain Josh’s mother is experimenting with in her 1 acre garden.

“KAYLA!” Josh shouted towards the barn.

“What do ya need Josh?” she asked as she peeked her head around the red wooden doors.

“Trotter escaped again.”

“Your kidding” she said, her blazing red ponytail bouncing as she strode over to him. “I thought Dad added another plank to make the fence higher.”

“He did, but obviously it’s going to take more then that to stop Trotter.” Josh said running his fingers through his dirty-blond hair, a habit he got from his father.

“Well, standing here isn’t fixing anything, and unless my eyes are deceiving me, Trotter is currently enjoying himself while munching on Mom’s experiments ” she said pointing to where the mischievous horse stood in their mother’s garden, enjoying the sweet, crunchy taste of Sugar Cain.

“Should we get Hope and lure him back to the pen?” Josh asked his twin.

“Do you know of any other way to catch him besides using my filly?” she asked sarcastically.

“I guess not, considering that that elusive horse is impossible to catch any other way.” Josh said, his voice fading as he jogged towards the pasture fence.

“I’ll get Hope, while you hold the gate open, if that’s okay with you.” she said after she had caught up with him.

“Of course.” Josh said slowing down to a brisk walk. “Shouldn’t we get her bridle and saddle first?”

“Why? I can ride her bare back easily.” she said, seemingly surprised that he would ask such a question.

“Don’t look at me like I’m crazy Kay.” he said laughing. “You seen to forget how my horse behaves when ridden.”

“Your right.” she said giggling. “Your horse is a wild bronco while mine is a gentle mare.”

As they approached the pasture fence, the 3 year old painted filly cantered towards them nickering.

“Hey Hope” Kay said stroking her horse on the nose. “You ready to go Trotter catching?”

Hope answered with a low nicker. Kay climbed over the fence and jumped onto Hope’s back. Grabbing on to the mare’s chestnut mane, she guided her beautiful horse towards Josh as he opened the pasture gate. Kay rode out of the pasture and stopped to let Josh close the gate after her.

“Climb on” she said looking down at him.

Josh grunted as he climbed onto the filly’s back, immediately feeling the horse’s excitement.

“She’s excited.” Josh told his sister.

“Duh, it’s not every day she gets to lure a stallion out of a garden.” Kay said with a smile.

“Only her beauty could accomplish it.” Josh said.

Kay smiled in gratitude at her brothers remark.

******

Trotter looked up from his munching to see a painted filly crossing the dirt road ahead of him. To his delight, he realized it was Hope, but to his dismay he saw that on her back were Josh and Kay. After a brief pause, he gave a loud nicker a trotted over towards the three, deciding that Hope was more important then Sugar Cain, even with the 2 riders upon her back.

As he came to a halt next to the painted filly, he touched her on the nose with his snout. He was so happy to see Hope that he barely noticed Josh climb onto his back.

******

Josh warily climbed onto to the back of the gigantic horse. He had done this many times, but 98 percent of the time, he had been bucked off. He was surprised when Trotter didn’t look up from his gaze on Hope when he put all of his weight on the stallion, Josh didn’t even get the “don’t even think about it” glare that he usually got from the tenacious black horse.

“And you said he was wild.” Kay said giggling with amusement.

“He usually is.” Josh said bewildered. ” Your horse seems to have captured Trotter’s complete attention.”

“Well, we better take them back to the barn before it get’s dark. Dad and the rest of the family should be back soon with Chia, and I need to get dinner made.”

Josh remembered how his older sisters had decided to go with their parents over to the far pasture to pick up Kay and Josh’s pregnant mare, Chia. Chia had come to them as a under kept, buckskin filly that was extremely thin when she was 1 1/2. She was given to Kay and Josh for their 11th birthday with the job of making her healthy again. She unexpectedly became pregnant after one of the other buckskins, Titus, escaped from the pen and was later found grazing with Chia. It hadn’t taken long to realize that Chia was pregnant, due to her rapid growth in size. Chia was due to foal anytime.

“Okay” Josh said, returning from his thoughts. “Lets put them in their stalls for the night.”

“It’s a little early.” Kay said looking towards the sun that was setting slowly.

“I know, but I’m not going to have time to put Trotter in his stall later.”.

He saw her qizzical expression and explained, “After I put Trotter up I have to clean out the Birthing stall and prepare it for Chia. By the time I’m done with that it’ll be time for dinner. After dinner we’ll clean the kitchen. Then I will go out and check on Chia. After that I have to shower, and get ready for bed. By then it will be “peace” time and I have to lay in bed and read. Can’t get up after that!” Josh said. “Besides, going to his stall an hour early isn’t going to kill him.”

“Wow. I never thought about it like that.” Kay replied. “I guess it would be smart to put these 2 in their stalls now.”

Hope started off towards the barn with a small nudge from Kay. Trotter followed the younger filly eagerly while Kay and Josh continued their conversation.

“It’s lucky you have a smart older brother.” Josh said a few seconds later.

“Your only 47 seconds older then me.”

“That still makes me older.”

“But not by much, and you may have gotten a small portion of the brain, but I got most of the brain and the all of the looks.” Kay said teasing her brother.

“You know what, I think your right.”

“You know what I think?” Kay asked her brother as she turned her head to look at him.

“What do you think?” Josh said looking into his sisters sparkling green eyes.

“I think that you are the greatest 47-second-older-with-only-a-small-portion-of-a-brain brother in the entire world.” she said smiling.

“Wow, that’s a mouthful.” Josh said returing the smile. “I’d like to hear you say that tomorrow morning when I wake you up at 5 am to feed the horses and do the morning chores.”

“I’m sure you would.” Kay said as they entered the barn.

Josh watched from Trotter’s stall as Kay walked to the tack shed to grab Hope’s harness. Although she could have easily led the horse to the stall by calling her, it was their father’s rule that the horses have a harness on when in the stable. Josh started to lead Hope out of the stall when he heard a happy yet suprised screech come from the tack shed.

“Josh!!! Oh my goodness!! Josh, you have to come see this!!” Kay yelled excitedly from around the corner where the tack shed stood.

Josh slammed the stall door shut, locking both horses in the large stall. Josh rushed over to the tack shed to find his sister standing at the enterance holding a small black lump that seemed to be moving slightly.

“What is that?” Josh said pointing to the ball of fur that Kay held.

“Umm, do you remember the big black, shaggy haired dog, the one that seemed to be a stray that came around our house a few months ago? Remember how Zebra took a liking to him and Dad just said to ‘leave ‘em be and he’d leave’? Well, he, uh…” Kay said looking behind her.

Josh followed his sisters gaze to see his dad’s 3 year old, pure bred Australian Shepard laying on the pile of saddle blankets nursing 7 newborn puppies.

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