A Horse's Tale, Chapter 22, Ahhh, a winter wonderland.
Steph types into chat. "it is coming down heavy now, right now 1 inch on the ground 8:33pm." Steph turns to Rob who is all warm and comfy in his chair, "I am going out to look at the snow." Rob looks around, "Steph its snowing outside." Steph nods, "I will put on my boots." Steph looks around the living room, "Do any of you guys want to come outside in the snow?" Eight dogs look up at Steph with the kind of look of "are you nuts", Steph says "Ok, I see you don't like me anymore." She turns and heads for the door, Bruno gets up and follows. Steph puts on her boots, coat, gloves, scarf, and little beany hat. Opens the door and steps out. "Oh, what a wonderful night." She walks out on the patio with Bruno following. He looks up, "ITS SNOWING." Steph turns back to him, "Yes it is don't you love it?" Bruno takes a few steps and starts shaking his paws with each step. Steph leans down and pats Bruno on the head, "Are you going to stay with me?" Bruno looks around, "ahhh, yes, I am a brave dog." Steph smiles, "Yes you are. Its only snow."
Steph looks around and listens, the joy of a snow fall is out quiet it gets, you can hear for miles. She can hear some horses moving around, a few horses moving around but all is quiet. Steph turns to Bruno, "Isn't it beautiful, all the snow?" Bruno turns to look up at Steph, he has the 'what are you thinking look.' "Oh, yes very nice, can we go back in now?" Steph nods "In a bit, I want to look around some more." Bruno look out toward the coop, "You mean out there?" Steph reaches down pats Bruno on the head, "Yes, I want to look on Tootsie." Bruno looks up, "You mean the lion? She is the tax house." Steph looks down "What do you mean tax house?" Bruno looks over to the Tack Shed. Steph nods, "Right understand. How do you know she is in there?" Bruno looks up, "Well I walked by there earlier and smelled her, and she hissed at me. Lions are dangerous, ya know." Steph reaches down to pet Bruno and hears a noise off to the left. Both of them turn, not knowing what to expect. Steph listens, Bruno is smelling the air, that is what dogs do.
Off in the distance, Steph hears, "On Donner, On Blizter, On Sheila, On Ruben..." Steph looks beyond the light and tries to see what is going on. Approaching from the distance are two horses, stirring up the snow as they approach. Steph looks down at Bruno, "What can that be?" Bruno shaking one paw to get the snow off, looks up, "I have no idea. Sounds like trouble to me." Steph nods, "You are probably right." They both wait to see what is going on, again over the clear night air Steph hears, "On Oliphant, On Shopping Cart." Steph looks at Bruno, "Well that Justice doing all the yelling, not sure who the other is?" Bruno looks into the dark and answers "Oh, that is Spirit. I think he is pulling Justice." "Well I am going to wait to see what is going on, you can go back inside if you want." Bruno looks up, "oh, no, I need to see what trouble the horses are in."
Steph and Bruno wait for whatever Justice and Spirit are up to. It’s not a fast process, in fact as they get close, it is obvious that Spirit is having a hard time. As they near the edge of the patio, Steph see's that Spirit has a rope in his mouth, draped over his shoulder and is pulling with all his might. Following the rope back, Justice has the other end in this mouth. The only unusual thing is that Justice is standing on four ski's, doing a snowplow of sorts, which doesn't help the forward progress of either of them. "OK OK, what are you two up to?" Spirit stops, and thusly, Justice slides to a halt. "We are skiing." Spirit replies. Steph looks at both of them not sure what to say. "Well Justice may be skiing but you are pulling." Spirit drops the rope, "Well we have pretty flat land around here.", Steph nods, "Yes we do. Spirit if I may ask, why do you get to pull things, like 'b's Boat or Justice on his ski's?" Spirit reaches down to pick up the rope, and looks over to Steph, "cause I like to help out." Steph walks up to Spirit and leans down and picks up the rope, and places it in Spirits mouth. At which point Justice yells out, "On, Roger, On, ahhh, Penelope." and off they go, "Justice if you put the skis facing forward you will move better." Justice looks over his shoulder as they start to pass out of sight, "Thanks." Steph looks down at Bruno, "See everything is normal." Bruno looks up with a really puzzled look. "This is normal?" Steph turns to return to the house, "Well lately it is."
Steph stops just before the door and turns to the fading shadows of Justice and Spirit, "Who the heck is Penelope?" Justice turns back, as they fade into the dark of the winter snow, ", "Oh, she is a filly I met at the bar the other night.
Author: Samm
To Be Continued.
MHR PMU horses
