Heartland

Every Step of the Way

"Here you go girl," Amy Fleming said to Hero the chestnut mare. "Go, have fun." the horse's ears perked up at the sound of Amy's voice, and she walked away from the girl as Amy unclipped the lead rope from the halter.

Amy leaned against the gate, watching Hero join the other horses that were already grazing, as the sun rose over one of the Heartland fields.

Heartland was a horse sanctuary created by Amy's mother Marion Fleming. Marion and her husband Tim were Olympic show jumpers, but one fateful day, Tim and his horse Pegasus hit a jump wrong, and both horse and rider were injured and emotionally traumatized. Marion came to the small cow ranch owned by her father Jack Bartlet, and turned the farm into the horse sanctuary that is now Heartland. Unfortunately, just over 3 years ago, Marion died in a car accident, leaving Amy to carry on her rescue work.

Amy stood thinking about this, but was brought back down to earth when she heard the crunch of footsteps on the gravel behind her. She turned to see Ty Baldwin. Ty had come to work as a stable hand at Heartland five years ago when he was fifteen. He and Amy had been dating for more than two years.

"Here," Ty said, he wrapped an arm around Amy's shoulder, and handed her a cup of steaming coffee. They stood and watched the sunrise together.

"Still up for the ride?" Amy asked after a while. It was Sunday, and tomorrow was the first day of school for Amy's senior year.

"Yep," He replied. Amy, Ty, Amy's older sister Lou, and Lou's fiancé Scott Trewin were all going on a trail ride and picnic.

When the two had finished their coffee they headed up the gravel path to the farmhouse, (where Amy lived with Lou and their grandfather). No sooner than they'd reached the door that a car followed by a jeep came up the drive.

"You go saddle up, I'll get Lou." Amy said taking both the coffee cups.

"Thanks," Ty said, he put his hand momentarily to the small of Amy's back, and then walked off in the direction of the tack room.

As Amy walked to the farm house, she saw the vehicle's passengers make their way to the kitchen for coffee.

"Hey Amy," Soraya Martin, Amy's best friend said, she was pulling out milk and sugar for the coffee.

"You're lucky we're here to do all your work today," Matt Trewin joked as he went over to help Soraya, his girlfriend with the fridge.

"Is Lou up yet?" Amy asked her grandpa.

"I'll go check," Nancy, the girls' grandpa's girlfriend said putting down the coffee pot.

"I'm here!" Lou said, coming down the stairs, tying her short hair back with an elastic band. "Don't need to go looking for me."

"Is everyone here?" Grandpa asked. "Where's Scott."

"He already went to tack up, Lou we should go to." Amy answered, and tacked the end on with her eyebrows raised to stress the point.

"Where's Joni?" Lou looked around.

"Down here!" The girl said, she was sitting at the table behind Lou.

"Ok, we're set," Amy said, picking up the picnic basket from her grandpa. "You'll all be alright then?"

"Go now or you'll never leave!" Soraya joked, propelling Amy out the door. Amy laughed, because even though she wanted to go out, she knew what Soraya said was true. She and her sister walked down to the back barn to get their own horses.

"Who do you want me to ride." Lou asked as they entered the barn.

"I've already got Andy tacked, he's ready to go home, and I'm going to ride Spork, She's going home on Wednesday. A bit of a treat before they leave." Amy added with a smile. That's the way things worked at Heartland, as soon as a horse had been cured, it was sent back to its home, or re-homed.

The two girls walked the horses out to the yard, retrieved their horses from their stalls, and met Ty and Scott on the driveway.

"Ready yet?" Ty asked from where he was, mounted on Mercury. Scott was beside him on Barret the buckskin mare.

"Riding Mercury, he'll like that, lots of jumping." Amy observed, mounting Spork the black gelding, and walking her over to Ty and Mercury. The two horses touched noses.

Amy remembered with a smile that Mercury was just boarding there, and had no real problem, unlike all the other horses being ridden. He however had, had a problem a few years back, he had been rapped with a bamboo cane to make him jump higher for competitions, which squandered his love for the sport. But with some help from an old friend, Huten Whitepath, Amy had solved the horse, and he was now there only as a special favor while his owners were out of the country. Amy felt a wave of sorrow momentarily wash over her at the memory of Huten who had passed away at the beginning of the summer vacation.

"Well, I'm not sure about jumping..." Ty trailed off.

"You can't disappoint him!" Amy said sarcastically as they were off, pushing down her unhappy thoughts, and focusing on the day ahead of them.

"We'll see." Ty smiled, a small twinkle in his eye.

&

The day turned out to be very nice, the sky remained blue, and there was a slight warm breeze to keep the bugs away. The party stopped by a stream on the other side of Clairsdale Ridge for lunch, letting the horses graze while they talked about the upcoming year. They left around four o'clock so they would get back for supper and be able to help with the evening chores.

"Come on Ty!" Amy begged, "Just one jump."

Lou looked back along the trail from where she was riding along side Scott. "Take him over, he's looking really restless."

"Oh, alright!" Ty sighed dramatically, and turned the horse towards the fallen log. Mercury had been dancing after seeing another horse already jump, he was very competitive.

Amy watched from the other side, for she had already jumped. Ty pushed Mercury into a canter and awed Amy with his graceful, fluid movements with the horse.

As Mercury approached the jump, Amy heard a branch snap behind her. She turned and looked into the woods, she saw two blaze orange jackets, just past the tree line at the road's bend. Amy watched as one raised a shotgun, a shot rang out, followed by a crack and then a dull thump.

"Shit! I thought it was a---" A muffled voice said.

"RUN!" The other cut him off. There was loud crashing, as the two ran off into the brush.

Amy turned her head but her view was blocked by Mercury running past. Lou lunged and caught the horse's reigns, a puzzled expression on her face, the saddle was empty. Scott turned Barret, in a circle as she shied violently from the loud sound. Amy looked over to the log, but Ty was no where in sight.

"Ty?" Amy said craning her neck. Still she couldn't see him. "Ty?" She repeated a bit louder. She dismounted and began walking towards the log, she heard Spork snort in surprise then follow her.

Grasping the tree for support, Ty stood up. Clutching his right arm he looked towards Amy. Amy quickened her pace. Ty's pale face contorted in pain as he let go of his right arm, and put his hand to his stomach. Amy reached him as he hit the ground, clutching his middle. Amy grasped the air for his arm.

"Amy?" Lou asked trying to sooth Mercury. The horse was squealing frantically searching for his rider. "What's wrong?"

Realization dawned on her. "SCOTT!" Amy screamed, dropping to the ground beside Ty. "SCOTT COME QUICK, TY'S BEEN SHOT!"