CHAPTER FIVE

A Stormy Night

It didn't take long for me to get used to Birtwick Park being my new home. Ginger and I often pulled carriages together, and because our parents had been strong racehorses, we too were just right for riding, as well.

I liked the days when we all went out the most. Ginger always carried the squire, while I was responsible for his wife. Of course, Merrylegs and Sir Oliver always took the young women because they were older. And together we would all have a nice run for the morning or late afternoon.

The squire's wife really knew how to ride horses well. She could guide me with just the slightest and most gentle of movements.

One day, while we were all out for a ride, I saw that Sir Oliver's tail was quite short. By this time, we'd all become close friends, so I felt it safe to ask him about it. I assumed that he had been hurt somehow.

"Hurt!" he shouted. "Hell yes, it hurt! I was young at the time. And they just tied me up, legs and all, and cut it off. And do you want to know the reason for it? It was all for 'appearance'. But the pain eventually went away. What never went away were the damned flies. I've nothing with which to chase them away now. That's the saddest thing about it. You should he happy that short tails are no longer considered attractive."

"And I had to wear that horrible bearing rein for the same reason." Ginger put in. "In the cities it's still quite popular."

"Lucky for us, few people do that around here, because of the squire and his wife. Whenever they see horses in bearing reins they always tell the driver how unnecessary it is to make them wear it."

Hearing this, my opinion of the Gordons was now even higher than before. And from that moment I was always happy to pull their carriages no matter how far.

A couple of days later, the squire had John harness me to one of his wagons to take him into town for business. It had been raining most of the day, so the roads were very muddy and there was a strong wind blowing. I managed to pull the wagon pretty quickly, until we arrived at a wooden bridge. The worker there came out to greet us with a few friendly words.

"It looks like it's going to keep raining all day and night. You take care along the way."

It was good advice, for the water often came as high as my knees in some of the lower areas. I had to slow down at these moments, but the master didn't seem to mind, and we soon made it to the town.

The master must have had some very important business to take care of, because he didn't come back out until late into the afternoon. By this time, the wind was blowing even harder than before, and there were many more pools of water in the road now.

I was doing well at keeping a good speed when suddenly there was a loud breaking sound and then right in front of me a huge tree fell onto the middle of the road, blocking our way. John got off the wagon to see if he could move it, but it was too large.

"Sir, we're going to have to go another, longer way to the bridge. It's going to take us six miles out of our way."

The squire told John to do what he thought was best. So, a while later, when we had reached the bridge, it was almost night. When I took a step onto the bridge I stopped immediately, feeling that something wasn't right.

"Go on, Beauty," said the squire, trying to gently urge me forward with the whip. Seeing that I wasn't going to move further, John jumped off the wagon.

"What's wrong, Beauty?"

I wanted so badly to speak to them, so they could understand that something was wrong with the bridge.

A moment later the bridge-worker saw us and started running our way, yelling: "Don't move! The bridge has a large hole in the center! You'll get killed if you try to cross!"

"Thank you so much, Beauty!" shouted my master.

Much later that evening, we arrived back at Birtwick Park, where we found the gardener standing in the yard waiting.

"Mrs Gordon was so frightened, she ordered me to search for you."

"Well, go on now and tell her we're all safe." said the master. "Let's go to the stables, Beauty."

But we didn't get very far, for suddenly Mrs Gordon came running out the front door toward us.

"I was so worried!" she cried. "Is everything OK?"

"Thanks to Beauty, everything's OK." Replied the squire.

As a reward for doing such a good job, John gave me a special dinner with a few extra oats and he made an excellent bed for me that was so soft and comfortable, I fell asleep as soon as I lay down.

(end of section)