A Horse's Tale, Chapter 11, A copy of Horse Racing Weekly.
"Well ladies, I have chores that need to get done, talk to you all later.", with that Steph gets up, and walks to the door. "Bruno, you want to come help wash some water barrels?" Bruno looks up, "No too tired, need sleep." Truffles and Moo jump up ready to help. "Ok, let's go." With the little dogs chasing each other, Steph walks to the back, "I'll do Spirit's barrel first, I need to talk to him anyway."
As she gets closer, she notices that Spirit is laying down, in kind of an awkward position with something between his front legs. He's looking very intently at whatever it is. As she gets up to the pen, Spirit moves his head down and with his lips turns a page of a magazine or something.
She steps up to the rail, "Spirit what you looking at?" Spirit looks up, "Winter Coats." Steph, nods, and walks to the gate and goes in. "Spirit may I look at it?" Spirit very gently gets up, making sure not to step on the magazine, he reaches down and picks it up and hands it Steph. Steph takes the magazine and looks at the cover. "It's a catalog from Horse
loverz.com." Spirit walks around behind Steph, and looks over her shoulder, "Winter Coats." Steph turns the pages, at one page, Spirit says "There winter coats." on the page are dozens of blankets and sheets in a range of colors. Steph turns her head and looks at Spirit, "We have blankets for some of the older horses, it doesn't really get cold enough so that everyone needs blankets. Spirit, horses, young and old, grow a winter coat, your hair will get longer and thicker. You don't need to buy a winter coat." Spirit nods, very carefully using just the tip of his upper lip, points to a plaid blanket, "I want to grow that one." Steph smiles and hands the catalog back to Spirit, "I need to clean your barrel out." Spirit nods and very carefully places the catalog away from the water barrel.
Steph proceeds to clean the water barrel, after removing two damaged Mr. Smiley balls, she fills the barrel, and looks around. Spirit is over eating, "Well who next, ahhh Justice." She heads over to Justice's pen, and he his laying down also, in nearly the same position that Spirit was in. Steph walks up to the rail, "Are you looking at winter coats also?" Justice very carefully lifts up the magazine, and this time it is a magazine, "Horse Racing Quarterly." Justice very carefully smiles, as to not drop the magazine, and proudly says "I want to be a race horse."
Steph smiles, "Justice, I don't think you will ever be a race horse." Justice hands the magazine to Steph, "Look horses." Steph opens the magazine and thumbs through the pages, "Justice there are different types of horses. Race horses are bred to run." Justice looks at Steph, "I was bred to run." "Well horses are bred to run, some are just slower. When you finish growing you will be a very big horse, and that doesn't help in racing." Steph hands the magazine back to Justice.
As Steph finished her chores and walks back to the house, "I think I need to find a picture of a draft so Justice can see the difference. I wonder where they are getting these magazines and catalogs from?" Rob is out working on the tractor, Steph walks up, "Spirit wants to grow a plaid winter coat." Rob looks up, "What are you talking about?" "Well he has gotten in his head that the horses need winter coats, so he got a horse catalog and was looking at different blankets. I explained to him that horses grow winter coats, and that he didn't need to buy one. He pointed to a plaid blanket and said he wanted to grow that for a winter coat." Rob shakes his head, "Poor horse has been keeping his head under water for too long cleaning toys..." Rob stands up and walks over to Steph, "Was he actually planning on buying blankets for all the horses?" Steph nods and Rob continues, "How is he going to pay for themmm... ahhh, I don't think I want to go there." Steph smiles and walks back to the house. Rob yells at her as she leaves, "Heck three quarters of the horses wouldn't wear them anyways..."
Just before she gets to the house, she turns back to Rob, "Oh, and Justice wants to be a race horse."
Steph clears the table, careful to keep all the notes from the doctor together. Rob walks in, Steph asks "What you want for lunch?" "hmmm, something light, but no salads." "I can make you a sandwich, and I will have a salad." Rob nods and goes to the bathroom to clean up. Rob yells from the back of the house, "Where are these horses getting all these weird ideas?" Steph finishes Rob's sandwich, and prepares a small salad for herself, "I have no idea, and to be honest, I don't know if I want to know."
Rob pushes his chair back, "I am going to get some gas for the truck, and stop by SMF, and ask about the wagon, and try and track down where the beer was bought. Someone must know something or seen something." Steph nods, "You are braver then me." Rob smiles, "People will think it's because I am a farrier, just kicked in the head too many times."
Rob heads out to the truck, prays it will start, it does and he heads off, "First gas, then questions.", he drives out to the highway gets some gas, and heads back to Shadow Mountain Feed. He pulls in the front, and walks in. Immediately Patti yells across the store, "How's that old wagon doing?" Rob looks walks over to the counter, "Doing fine, got it painted up and everything.", Patti smiles, "Glad it worked out. Ole man Brenner, ya know the old man that lives out in the desert, he was looking to sell it, and we had it out back, didn't think anyone would buy it, it was pretty beat up, must have been 50 years old." Rob nods, "I wasn't the one that picked it up, how much did we end up paying for it?" Rob crosses his fingers.
Patti smiles, "The old man had a sign on it for $200.00. When we went out to move it around front we found a Wal-Mart bag with $212.27 in coins in it." Rob nods, "But how did you know it was from us?" Patti answers, "Oh, the business card, let me remember what it said, oh, From the Horses and Mules at Miracle Horse Rescue." Rob says, "Well that narrows it down."
Patti smiles, "It was so cute, and old man Brenner, was so happy that it sold, Oh, you said you had it fixed up, did you do the work?" Rob answers "No, again not sure who did the work." Patti nods, "Well Steph must be keeping you in the dark on a lot of things." Rob replies "And the horses." Patti nods, "I hear, that ah, let me think of his name, Oh, Mark Flannigan, does great work on those kind of things, he does it like a hobby. "Thanks Patti, oh, you don't happen to know who sells Budweiser in cases around here?" She thinks a bit, "I would think most of the stores do." Rob continues, "I mean like 30 cases." Patti shakes her head, "figure the only one would be a distributor out of Las Vegas."
"Thanks I guess that answers all my questions." Rob turns to walk out, "Ahhh, do you know of a goat named 'Fred'?" Ron walks up behind Patti, "Rob how are you doing? How do you like the wagon?" Rob looks over, "I am doing fine, a bit confused, but the wagon is doing great." Ron says, "Heard you ask about Fred the pygmy angora nanny goat, she is owned by Pete Wilson, down on highway 372 just as you leave town. Seen her once, good looking goat. What's your interest, she doesn't need shoes?" Ron says laughing. Rob answers, "Just heard her name sounded interesting."
Ron looks over, "What you do to your wrist?", Rob, "oh, nothing just bumped it when we had Electra down at Desert Pines, she had a fever, so had to postpone the surgery till the 22nd." Both Ron and Patti, frown, "ah, that is too bad, well lets us know how things turn out." Rob turns again to leave, "Thanks for help, we will keep you up to date on Electra."
Both Ron and Patti, look at each other as Rob leaves the store, "Yep kicked in the head one too many times."
Rob gets in to the truck, "Let's see, One, Wagon bought from a local recluse for cash (coins actually). Two Mark Flannigan, Wagon Wright as a hobby may have fixed up the wagon. Three Fred the pygmy angora nanny goat, is owned by Pete Wilson, down on highway 372, and no real idea where the Budweiser came from. I need to go check the Jiffy Mart to see what they might know about buying 30 cases of Bud...."
With that he pulls out and heads to the highway, and turns south. Just a few blocks down the highway, Rob pulls into Jiffy Mart, it's the normal convenience store, a couple of gas pumps outside and the essential grab items inside. There is a young man, still in his teens behind the counter, Rob walks up to the counter, "I have a question." The young man looks over, "Yes Sir." Rob smiles, "I was trying to find a place I could buy 30 cases of Budweiser?" "Sorry Sir, we don't normally have that many in stock, in fact the night before Halloween we did sell 30 cases of Budweiser to a guy dressed up in a horse costume." the young man begins to laugh, "It was so funny, he actually had a red horse drawn wagon outside. He paid in cash, so the boss said it was ok. I think you might need to check one of the Horizon Markets if you are interested in that many cases, ya know with a holiday coming up."
Rob smiles, "yeah, know what you mean. Is the boss around?" The young man looks around, "He was here a few minutes ago, let me look. Yeah he is out back, if you want to talk to him." Rob says, "Thanks for the information, and enjoyed the story about the guy in the horse costume." With that, Rob walks to the back of the store.
to be continued:
Author: SAMM
MHR PMU horses
