Broken [In Revision 2023]

Chapter 4 - Round-up

As the weeks passed, the distance maintained between the copper stallion and Caleb, with his buckskin stallion body, decreased until, to the untrained eye, they may well have been one family unit.

Caleb dozed in the early morning sun, his hip cocked and left leg resting. His ears twitched in the direction of a buzzing sound in the distance. It grew louder until there was little doubt it was heading in the direction of the herd. He lifted his head and scanned the horizon for an approaching threat.

Something hovered in the sky like a giant predatory bird, swooping and climbing, twisting in the air as if it was hunting a large animal. The ground started to vibrate with the sound of its engine, the bushes rumbled as it scurried towards the ground. Towards Caleb and his new family.

Hooves, hundreds if not thousands of hooves all thundering on the dry earth and kicking up a monstrous cloud of dust that was barrelling down on the copper stallion's herd. The dust was so thick it threatened to choke any animal unable to lift their head above it.

Caleb flared his nostrils and snorted his contempt at the helicopter, but it did no good. A torrent of wild horses was fast approaching, it swallowed his small family, pushing them from their territory and into the seemingly endless stream of hot equine bodies. He had no choice but to follow, without a sense of where they were heading, angry at this blatant assault on nature.

Crest after crest, galloping over rocky outcrops that bruised their feet, the stampede continued. Sweat slicked their sides and steam rose from their backs as they kept running, blinded by fear of the whirling monster above them.

Caleb was deaf to the noise that chased them, he was too thick in the crowd, pain and fear were all he had left. The ground sloped downward, the mountains funnelling them towards something large and shiny in the distance. He tried to stop, but the force of the horses colliding into him from behind kept him moving, moving closer to the mouth of the trap. He was going to lose his freedom.

He screamed a warning and tried to break free of the pack. He hoped that at least a few of his new brethren would follow his lead and get themselves to safety. Panic, however, had deafened them and fear blinded them to the fence panels and flag-waving humans.

A bottleneck formed at the opening of the corral and Caleb saw his one and only chance of escape. He spotted a low point in the fence and jogged towards it, cantering at the last moment to get the momentum needed to sail over the top. Perhaps if he had had the years of experience of his fellow horses he would not have stumbled on the sloped ground on the other side of the fence. He tried to right himself, but gravity was determined to see him fall.

Dazed and winded, he lay there his ribs sore and his knees throbbing. Above him he could hear humans shouting, he thought himself safe until a shadow moved above his head. Adrenalin surged through his veins, allowing him to swat the ground with his legs and heave his exhausted body from the dirt. He trembled for a moment as he took in the sight.

The human was sat astride a horse with no life in its eyes. The horse's head hung low and there were traces of blood on the chapped skin surrounding a twisted wire bit. The man encouraged his horse closer, thrusting his spurs into the poor animal's sides.

Caleb flattened his ears and bared his teeth.

"You are mine mustang," The man stretched forward for his rope, "So don't fight me, or else I'll be sure that you end up on a truck to Mexico."

Caleb could feel the blood trickle slowly down his leg from the scrape to his knee. He was still blowing hard from the roundup, and his sweat was doing little to cool him off in the midday heat. As the strange horse drew closer he saw his opportunity. He sunk his teeth into the tender flesh of the horse's leg just above the knee. He had seen the foals do this in play and knew what would happen.