A HERO OF A HORSE
Copywrited to Alicia,1996

Ebony was a city horse. He always had been. He wasn’t certain, now that he was able to look back at that life, if he’d ever really liked, or disliked it. To him, it was just life. He’d never known anything else, so he’d never had anything to compare it to.
But now he was confronted with a totally new life. First they’d loaded him into the strange new trailer, and then they drove for a long time, until, finally, they stopped and led Ebony out into this totally new and unfamiliar place. A nice girl he’d never met pet him, and then he was led into a big, open place. As far as Ebony could see, there were no stall walls or corralling.
Ebony stood very still and looked all around. Behind him, he saw that the unfamiliar people were still watching him from the other side of the fence. Looking back, he saw that the corral seemed to narrow as it wound past the big yellow house leading toward the barn.
Ebony turned back, looking over the endless open space. The buildings were more familiar to him, but this... Ebony gazed uncertainly into the openness, with nothing but the wind rustling over the grass for as far as he could see. This was something new.
His ears perked up. Was this what his old friend Ace had told him about? Ace had been brought into the stables, where Ebony had lived, from someplace far away. “Somewhere wonderful,” Ace had told Ebony, where there is a big long pasture and plenty of grass. You can eat all day if you want to.” Ace called it the “country”. Ebony had asked what a pasture was, and Ace had told him it was like one of the corrals at the boarding stable, only ten times bigger. “You don’t hear any cars racing past or horses banging on their stall doors,” Ace had described his former home wistfully. “There are funny little furry things with fluffy white tails that hop all over the place, and these other strange little animals that bark and growl and whine that are fun to play with.”
Now Ebony raised his head, all senses alert. He couldn’t hear anything- no cars, or people yelling or impatient horses screaming. This had to be the place Ace had been talking about!
All at once, Ebony was in full motion. He ran and bucked playfully and then ran some more, reveling in his new found freedom. What fun the country was!

But with his freedom, Ebony also found loneliness. At the boarding stable there had always been other horses even if some of them weren’t Ebony’s friends or he didn’t know them very well. But here, there was none else, just the endless expanse of land. Sure there were lots of the strange little furry things Ace had told him about, but they would never stop their fast hopping to play with Ebony. And he couldn’t find any of the strange barking animals.
His new masters were nice, but they only rode him once in a while, not every day like the people at the stable had.
But most of all Ebony missed the companionship of other horses. Ace had lived in the country without other horses, but it was okay, he’d said, because his little barking friend “Buddy” would race and play with him. But Ebony had no one else to play with. So, much of his time was spent grazing or hanging around the house of his new family hoping they would visit him.

Then one day, while minding his own business, Ebony was grazing near the house when horror of horrors!! A strange animal walked right up to him! Ebony nearly jumped out of his shiny black coat. Staggering backwards he scrambled to get away from the little monster surely coming to eat him alive!
Then he stopped to look again. This thing wasn’t such a fiend after all. In fact it was as small or smaller than the fluffy-tailed hoppers. The little animal slowly picked its way over to Ebony. It held it tail straight up in the air and looked at Ebony with wide green eyes. Ebony’s eyes were big too. The little gray furball stopped a little ways from Ebony and sat down. The two just stared at each other for a while.
Very cautiously, Ebony slowly moved towards the tiny animal. The furball stood up and stepped closer to Ebony. Ebony could see her very good now because he had his head down. The two touched noses. Ebony jumped back but the creature moved forward to touch noses again.
Then to Ebony’s surprise, the animal rubbed on his nose! After that encounter the two became fast friends.

The animal was called a ‘cat’ and her name was Penelope, but he like to call her “Penny”. She belonged to Ebony’s family. She was very nice. Penny and Ebony spent lots of time together and she showed him all the ‘secret places’ in the pasture. When they would go someplace, Penny rode on Ebony. She would sit quietly on his broad back, and if he was very careful and didn’t go to fast, she wouldn’t use her claws to hold on.
Penny was always fun to be with. Ebony wish Ace was there so he could show him his little animal, that made as good a friend as Ace’s barking friends (which Penny called “dogs”). Ebony wasn’t lonely anymore. Whenever his new family saw Penny the cat riding on Ebony the big black horse, they laughed. Sometime Penny would even ride behind the saddle when one of the masters was riding Ebony. Ebony didn’t mind the laughter; Penny was a good friend.

Penny was missing!! Ebony hadn’t seen her for several days. His family seemed very sad and the little girl came to the pasture, crying and calling for her kitty. Ebony thought the little girl must miss Penny as much as he did. He was lonely without her. Where could she be?
One day when Ebony was walking dejectedly around in the pasture, he stopped at the little creek that flowed through the property to get a drink of water. And then he smelled something. It was Penny, sure as anything! Her scent was so familiar, he knew it right away. But Ebony didn’t see her anywhere! She was there, somewhere, but the problem was, where was she? And then he heard it. It was pitiful, and it didn’t sound like Penny at all, but yet it had to be her! “Mew.” Where was she? Ebony looked and looked. Then, he saw it. It looked like a pile of mud at first. But then Ebony saw that it was a ball of wet, matted, and very muddy fur!
He nudged the fur ball with his nose and he could tell by smelling that it was Penny. “Mew.” Penny was very weak. She couldn’t walk. How could Ebony get her on his back? He couldn’t. But he had another idea. Very gently, he picked the little cat up in his teeth and carried her home.
Once he got to the corral by the house, Ebony put Penny down , and then he whinnied loudly for someone to come. He called and called until finally the little girl came out to see what was wrong.
Ebony picked Penny back up and carried her over to the girl. She gasped as she took Penny from Ebony. “She’s still alive!” She cried. She hugged the little cat, and then, at the same time, she flung her free arm around Ebony. “Oh, Ebony! Thank you! You’re a hero of a horse!” Then she ran back inside, calling, “Mom! Dad! Penny is alive!”
Ebony went out to stand on the small cliff from which he’d first surveyed his new domain. The wind blew his long, silky mane and tail. He stood proud and tall as he once again looked out over the green richness of the open pasture-land. He was very glad that he’d found his dear friend and that he’d made his mistress happy again. He and Penny would soon be back to their old games, he knew. He could hardly wait.
Ebony hadn’t been sure about this strange, open land before, but now he knew - this was his home. It was no longer unfamiliar to him; it was like a part of him, a second nature that he never, ever wanted to leave. Ebony raised his head into the crisp, cool air and whinnied long and loud, as if saying “hello” to his home for the first time. The noise drifted away on the evening air and seemed to echo back to Ebony. A hero of a horse...

Info on the writing of this story


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