Heart and Soul

Chapter 3

The next morning I was running in the first race so I was up early, warming up on the track. Boss was impressed with my times and said I would be a great racer if I wasn't 'such a mare'. However I was a mare, and a mare's gotta be a mare.

As soon as the fog had dissipated from the grandstands they began to fill with eager spectators. I was pulled out of my stall, tacked up, and paraded around for all to see. I was up and ready to win today, this would be a different race with different horses, all of whom I intended to beat. I had trouble loading again, refusing to go into the gate and unable to ignore the sense of impending doom.

I was right to be afraid, while we were waiting a wind picked up and blew right under my tail, causing me to toss my head. My jockey wasn't paying attention to me and was talking to the man holding my bridle, and when I threw my head it caught my jockey square in the nose. He fell back, the gates opened, I shot off, and he slid off my back.

Outriders came galloping out to stop me but I was going to run my race, and I was going to win. My reins were flapping loose and my stirrups were clapping against my sides but I drove on, pushed by a deep rooted instinct to win. I passed the horse in third, the bay in second, and finally the black in first, and there I was, nothing but empty track ahead of me.

When the cheering reached a crescendo I slowed down, shaking my head and throwing the reins forward so they rested on my poll, but when I saw the outriders still running I figured the race must still be on, so I took off again. I was feeling real good and confident of my lead on the other horses, so I threw in a buck, and that was what started it all.

The reins flew over my head and I stepped on them, jerking my mouth hard and throwing me off balance. If that wasn't bad enough I was going sharp around a corner. I felt myself tipping and I went down to the gasp of the spectators. When the sandy ground came up to meet me my head smacked against the rail and I saw stars. Outriders were at my side in an instant and I pinned my ears, I'd lost the race. But I didn't want to run anymore, I just wanted the pain in my leg and my head to go away, and to never race again.

The outriders got standing and led me off the track to Boss. A man called Vet came and felt me all over, then talked to Boss. Boss was mad, but he tried not to show it in front of Vet. Vet said I was okay but would definitely need time off. Boss was practically fuming. Mirror Twin came in a close third and Angel won her second race of the weekend so he brightened up a little bit  but he wouldn't pet me when he came past my stall anymore. In a few hours I was feeling better and Vet said I was good to travel.

My sore legs were wrapped and my travel sheet was thrown over my back. This time I was too tired to spook at the hanging thing that brushed against my back and too tired to listen to Mirror brag or Angel shyly tell of her victories.

When we arrived back at the stable after several hours I was exhausted and ready to lay down, but when I was unloaded I was loaded right back into another trailer. I was alone so I called for Blue, worried and unsure. He called back and I kicked the sides of the trailer in an attempt to escape. Blair came shuffling out of the barn and reached through the open window, a cookie in his hand. I took it and snuffled his hand, seeking comfort in its usual smell. With his presence I calmed down, rested my head in his hand.

"Alright Miss, I need you to listen closely. You're going somewhere I don't know, you don't know, Boss don't know, maybe da Lord don't even know, but you'll be a good girl, you know dat? You a good girl, but you still a baby. Just try your best Miss, and you'll do fine." His hand stroked my muzzle one last time before the truck lurched forward and the trailer followed, taking me with it. I screamed for Blair, for Blue, for Angel, for the life I once knew. Blue yelled back and from the slats of the trailer I saw Blair, just standing there in the middle of the road.

The trailer turned onto the road and Blair was lost to me in a cloud of dust and foul smelling exhaust. I whinnied one more time, but no one called back.

For the next few years I was bounced back and forth from race to race, only ever winning once or twice. When I was nearing my fifth year I was entered in yet another claims race, but I wasn't claimed. My owner at the time, I think his name was Joe, was cruel to me, he raced me as much as he could and fed me as little as possible. My sides became sunken in and my ribs and hips jutted out prominently. I fell lower and lower down the racing pole, losing lowly Casino races against horses in as bad a shape as me by the time Joe decided to send me to the auction.

Over my years of racing I'd learned to hate men, bits, girths, spurs, whips, stalls, vets, farriers, starting gates, needles, and the drugs they injected me with so I'd run better. I became accustomed to hiding in the corner of my stall, the darkness was calming, but the day Joe wanted me gone he just brandished his whip and I skittered right onto the trailer, blowing and spooking. The door closed and darkness flooded over me, forgiving, concealing darkness.

I lowered my head as the trailer leaped and bounced under my poorly shod feet, my ratty mane falling over my thin neck. I'm not sure how long the ride lasted but we eventually arrived at a dirt lot. I was led into a barn and put in a stall made of tube fencing and deeply bedded with wood shavings. I lowered my head with a sigh, wondering if my short story ended here, when a girl and her mother came up to me.

"Hey Mom, look at her! She's beautiful!"

"She's thin," The woman noticed.

"So?" The girl questioned. "Crystal was thin when we got her, and she turned out fine!"

"I don't know, polo season's starting soon and I'd like to buy a horse that can play right away, she looks too thin."

"We have a fat supplement! And look at her, if we don't buy her no one else will, and you know what happens then!"

"Fine, but if the bidding goes above ten thousand we're not getting her."

"Yes!" The girl exclaimed, then she looked in my eyes and smiled. "Don't worry, Girl, you'll be safe." I wished I could believe her, but I found that hard.

A few minutes later a man tried to pull me from my stall but I put up such a fuss that I knocked him over and trotted out myself. I cantered into the sandy arena and stopped in the middle, looking around at the crowds. Several men were trying to catch me so I cantered away, kicking up my hind legs. Even in my thin state I could still canter fast enough to stay away from them.

The auctioneer wasted no time and as he watched the chase his voice boomed over the mike: "And we'll start the bidding at two thousand."