Post by symphony on Oct 25, 2012 23:36:57 GMT -5
Amy Hastings, Looking Glass and Royal Call
Amy was knee-deep in martingales, bridle pieces and oil when Selena came rushing into the tack room, looking very worried. Before Amy could even ask the girl what was wrong, the words, "Cloud's gone!" had rushed out of her mouth, making Amy sigh. Cloud, Marie's yearling colt, had taken his half-brother Ollie's trouble-making to an entirely new level, teaching himself to open both latches on the stall doors and to jump the 5 foot fences that surrounded the pastures.
Honestly, when that colt was finished racing, she was going to turn him into a show jumper.
"Have you checked in the pastures and up by the house?" she asked Selena, standing up carefully and stepping through the mess of leather to reach the door. The other girl shook her head frantically, looking panicked.
"I've checked everywhere! He's just disappeared!"
"Calm down Selena," Amy told the girl, grabbing a normal English saddle from beside the door and pushing past to reach the stables. The closest horse was Smoke, dark head hanging over his stall door as he watched them calmly. He would be her best bet for this mission; he was fast, being a GII racer, and wouldn't at all mind the English saddle. Smoke tended to take everything in his stride, in that calm, lazy way he had. His bridle still hung by the stall door, as the dark bay had been one of the last horses out and Amy had instructed Darren to leave it there until she had some of the other bridles sorted out - at that point she had had no less than seven almost identical bridles in pieces around her.
While Selena went for one more check around the yard for the missing sabino, Amy tacked Smoke up, apologizing as she slipped the still-dirty bit into his mouth. As she led him out into the yard, Selena came skidding back in, startling several of the other horses though Smoke didn't bat an eyelid.
"Don't run near the horses, Selena," Amy said, throwing her reins over Smoke's head and mounting. She didn't need to ask the girl; it was obvious from her face that she hadn't found anything.
Though they needed to hurry, Amy let Smoke fall into his usual ambling walk as a warm-up, turning him towards the meadow trail. She had a feeling that was the path Cloud would take, seeing as several times before he had been caught skulking around near the rough trail that had been forged between it and King's Park. When they had gone far enough along the trail to lose sight of the house and stables through the trees and Smoke was beginning to pick up on her hurry, she let him trot and then canter along the trail - a big, long, rocking canter that almost made all her worries about Cloud melt away. Almost.