Moonlit Mayhem

14

Chapter 14: Emie

"Emie, go turn out the horses," Becky said sternly. "I'll get the grain and previcox."

Emie nodded, not even bothering to argue, even though it sounded like an accident waiting to happen. Did Becky know nothing about pecking order in herds? She did know that if they turned the horses out first, those at the bottom of the pecking order would just have their grain stolen by those at the top, right? Not to mention having prescribed medicines and supplements for the horses that needed it, when there was a chance that a horse would steal it from them. Emie was too tired to care. If things went south, it would be on Becky and Becky alone.

Emie made their way outside to the paddocks and did a quick once-over of the fences to make sure that none were close to breaking. With the geldings and mares side-by-side, one could never be too careful. Returning back to the barn, Emie began taking horses two at a time down to their respective pastures. Following the usual order, she began with those in the small of the three paddocks.

These horses could stand to lose a couple of pounds. After all four of the large horses had been turned out, they began to take out the geldings. There was a significantly larger number of geldings than the rest of the herds, and therefore they had the largest pasture, including two run-in sheds and a couple of trees or shelter. Trip after trip she went back and forth, turning out horses while Becky prepared their grain and previcox.

Each time Emie passed the grain room, Becky would make some comment, this round it was: "I can grab four horses at a time. Two at a time will take forever."

Emie had had enough. They set her jaw and marched to the four remaining horses—a stallion, gelding, and the last three mares—and let them outside. Only halfway to the pasture, Emie realized that this was a horrible idea. The stallion and geldings were practically falling all over themselves for the mares, which made the walk down to the pastures a difficult one. Finally reaching the paddock, Emie decided to get the mares out of the way first, that way she shouldn't have to deal with the full flock of geldings rushing to the fenceline.

Emie undid the chain holding the mares' gate closed and led the three mares in while trying her best to keep the others on the opposite side of the gate. Unfortunately Sunfire—the stallion—had other ideas. As soon as Emie took the lead shanks off the mares, Sunfire took off in a furious canter, wrenching the rope from Emie's grasp. In fact, it was so strong that Emie fell forward, flat on her face. The gelding—seizing the opportunity—followed Sunfire's lead.

Thankfully, the gelding was considerate enough not to step on Emie while they were on the ground, however, that did nothing to change the fact that there were now six mares running around in an open paddock with a stallion and gelding. Emie shut the fence behind themself and headed over to where Sunfire was, his lead rope dragging behind him. Emie tried to find the goods in this situation, one of the good things was Sunfire was quite a people person, so instead of having to have some long and legendary chase, Sunfire trotted up to Emie, most likely looking for treats.

The mares were a whole different story, however; they despised the fact that Emie was trying to steal away their favorite horse in the entire barn. All six of them had their ears back, if they were people, they would be giving her the most menacing glares and possibly even flipping them off. Emie made their way up to the gate, where Becky had appeared, grain in hand.

"Leave it to you to mess everything up," Becky chided, trying to catch the gelding—Triggerheart.

Foolishly, Becky had left the gate open, so when Trigger saw the window of opportunity, he bolted for it, heading straight to where the stalls were located. Emie sighed as Becky sprinted after her full-time lease. It didn't take Emie long to put Sunfire in his designated pasture. They were just about to leave, when she noticed a thin trickle of blood, falling down Sunfire's front left leg. Emie reclipped the lead rope, to keep him from running away, as she grabbed a hose that was conveniently filling up his water bucket. They let the water wash away the blood, so she could see how big the cut was. His cut was a good scrape, probably from the fencing but not deep or long enough to get stitches, it just needed some alcohol to disinfect the wound and he would be back in business.

"Emie!" Becky's panicked voice rang out. "Call the vet!"

"I've got it under control!" Emie shouted back. "Don't worry!"

"Wait, no," Becky took a minute to take in what Emie was doing. "Not for Sunfire, for Triggerheart!"

"W-why?" Emie stuttered. Had he caught himself on something too? Surely Becky was just being overdramatic as always. As soon as she was finished with Sunfire, Emie would take care of Triggerheart. He probably didn't even need stitches anyway. Emie unlatched the lead rope from the halter, clipping it to the other side of the fence and pulling the rope through the noseband so the rope wouldn't drag on the dirt. She hurried all the way down to the stalls, where Becky was walking Triggerheart back and forth, while he nearly dragged his nose against the cement floor.

"What are you doing?" Emie demanded. "He is injured!"

"About that..." Becky said. "He got into the grain, as far as I can tell, he's colicing."

Emie swore that their heart stopped for a moment. "I'll call the vet!" she shouted as she ran towards the office where Kayleigh had called them only two weeks earlier. "Keep him moving!"

Sorry not sorry bout that cliffhanger. Anyways who's excited for summer?