The horses cantered around the paddock, legs flying, tails streaming. There were four in all, a sleek dapple gray, an elegant dark bay, a fiery red chestnut, and her yearling filly, a midnight black with a stripe trickling down her face like spilled milk. Three were mares, the filly, the chestnut, and the dapple gray. When they finially pulled up, a man was walking toward them, carrying four feed buckets. He dumped them on the ground just inside the paddock, about five feet away from one another. All four trotted up to the fence and began to eat. The dominant mare, the gray, called Blizzard, ate first, with the bay stallion, Twilight. The chestnut mare, Fire Heart, and her yearling, Maximus, ate last, nibbling up the last of the grain. In about 20 minutes, the man came back. In his hand, he held four halters. He walked up to Blizzard and strapped a scratchy rope halter onto her fine thoroughbred head. He led the prancing mare to the fence, where a small boy was waiting. "Tack er up and take er out to the track" He ordered. "Yes, Mr. Wallace" The boy stammered, tugging at the persistent mare's lead, trying to get her to move with him, but she did not want to leave her other horses. Next, Mr. Wallace approached the stallion. He haltered Twilight as well, leading him over to another short boy. "Follow Den," He ordered, and the jockey complied. The mare and filly went together, the filly, being a year and a half, was currently being trained. The short boys, called Den, a small, unusually muscular man, Fred, a light, black haired 16 year hold, Karl, a jockey who was almost to heavy to be one with brown hair, and Dan, a young boy with extraordinary balance and coordination, led their mounts out to the small training track on George Winston's start-up racing barn in southern Kentucky.
"Take the adults round once, just a slow gallop" George instructed. "Den first, then Fred, then Karl, and Dan, take er at a canter far behind" The jockeys nodded, and mounted up.
It is now that I will describe George Winston. He was a tall, heavyset man who loved only three things, money, gambling, and barbeque ribs. He had decided to become a horse owner slash trainer about a year ago, and only because he saw money in the race winnings, gambling horses away as winning bets, and juicy ribs at the track. The jockeys were entering the course now, and then lining up. "Go" George called, and the four horses galloped off. Den immediately pushed Blizzard to the rail, close enough that his stirrup irons almost scraped the white rail. Fred, knowing that Twilight liked to close in on the lead horse, and following George's instructions, positioned Twilight just off of Blizzard's outside flank. Karl, bringing up Fire Heart, drove her so that her head was by Twilight's inside quarter, so that, should this be a real race, the stallion would be unable to close the gap between him and the rail. Meanwhile, Dan kept Maximus to a canter far behind. She hated it. The thoroughbred did a mini rear and side stepped to the outside. Then she leaped into the air and flung herself back the other way. This was why Dan was in the saddle. He remained centered and calm, brining his mare back to the rail every time she left it. Finally, however, she almost threw him off. This got Dan, who, although had amazing balance and coordination, but a fine limit, very upset. He smacked the filly with his crop and she shot off. That is, she shot off, practically right off the track. She wheeled and galloped the wrong way, twisting her hindquarters into a buck at almost every stride. Dan was practically hanging off the saddle before Maximus stopped. Dan jumped off and led her to the side, where an angry George was waiting. "You know, Dan, a horse that bucks wont bring me very much money" he said coolly, practically seething anger. "Yes, sir, but she got spooked when I hit her with the crop" Dan replied, trying to defend himself. "Fine" George said, an idea forming in his head. "If she wants to run like she just did, lets see how she does with the adults, in their race simulation run" George smiled, and Dan looked worriedly at the other horses, now coming towards them, their jockey's looking so professional. Dan was the youngest one among them; He was a month younger than Fred, who, if you remember, was 16. But, anything that brought in a paycheck was fine. He mounted the prancing filly and rode to the gap in the fence. "We are now going to do a race simulation" George announced. "Everyone will start at the same time, and gallop half a mile. We'll see where we are then" The jockeys looked at each other and Karl spoke up. "What about Dan and Maximus?" He asked. "They will race too" George replied simply.
Since George Winston was to cheap to buy a modern, starting gate, he had bought an old, beat up one from local track that was closing down. He rolled the rusty gate onto the track and led the horses in. Luckily, all of the adult horses were already used to the gate, and did not put up any fuss about going into the strange metal monster. Maximus, however, had to have some coaxing, A.K.A, it took 20 minutes for her to get in. George pushed the button on the starting gate's bell, and it sounded, all the horses burst out of the gate.
Blizzard, as in training, took up the early lead. Twilight settled in directly behind her, and Fire Heart lined up behind him. Maximus trailed by about 10 feet. They went past the eighth pole, and then Twilight began to move up. Fred got the stallion's head right were he wanted it, by Blizzard's flank. Karl pushed Fire Heart into the gap by the rail, and Maximus, well Maximus practically threw Dan over the rail.
Twilight moved past Blizzard's shoulder, making up ground foot by foot. All the while, Fire Heart, got closer and close to Blizzard's hindquarters, taking Twilight's place on the rail. They flew past the quarter pole, and Den knew that his position as top jockey pout of these four was being threatened. He let his whip fall on Blizzard's shoulder, and the mare got her saddle pad away from Twilight's oncoming head. Karl, seeing Twilight's little speed falter, used Blizzard's speed to pull Fire Heart and himself up. As they neared the half mile pole, Maximus seemed to suddenly have a revelation. As Twilight faltered again, and Fire Heart pulled past him and into second, she acted on her own accord. Without a whop even needed, she stopped trying to get her rider off and started trying to get a win on. She stepped her speed up one gear and started making up ground. Stride by stride, she gained on the other three, until she was equal with Twilight's tail. Fred saw the filly, and almost fell off in amazement. Maximus charged past Twilight and Fire Heart, challenging Blizzard for the lead. The half mile pole was in plain view now, and Maximus blew Blizzard out of the lead, finishing in first, leaving Blizzard in 2nd, Fire Heart in 3rd, and Twilight in a close 4th.
George jumped at the rail. Images materialized in his mind, himself, counting his money after a successful day at the betting windows, voraciously eating barbequed ribs while raving about his black wonder. Dan rode the filly in. "Wow" was all he could say. "Walk er out fur maybe 10 minutes, and then put er back. Tell them that too" George ordered, paying no attention to Dan's recollection of his experience.
Back at the paddock, Blizzard, Maximus, Twilight, and Fire Heart were talking. "You did good today, Max" Fire Heart complimented. Max, or Maxy, was Maximus' two nicknames. "Thanks mum, if only racing weren't so pointless!" Max replied. "What do you mean?" Blizzard asked. "I mean, what's the point of just running in a circle your whole life, you just never get to do anything!" Max exclaimed, stamping the ground with a hoof. "Well, what would you rather do? Is there anything else besides racing?" Twilight asked. "I want to be an eventer" Max stated. "I want to run through the woods and jump obstacles, enter the ring and leap something taller than myself, and then go in again and perform dressage like no one has before" "You have quite an imagination, Maxy" Fire Heart stated. "I will become an event horse someday, I refuse to let my life waste away just running around without point!" Max was getting angry now. "That is true, thought" Twilight noted. "What do you mean, Twi?" Blizzard asked, Twi, like Maximus and Max, was twilight's nickname. "What I mean is, and you're really going to think I'm a loser for this, but I want to be a dressage horse" "A what?" Blizzard asked, confused. "It's when you gat to practically dance around the arena and perform to your max, when the spotlight is on you, not just the winnings" Twi told them. "So, let me get this right, Twi wants to become a dressage horse and Max wants to go into eventing" Fire Heart said, and Max and Twi nodded. "No problem with that" She concluded.
They relaxed for a little while, and then Twi showed them some of the moves he had seen when he was looking at a REAL dressage team back at his previous owner. It was amusing, and Blizzard especially liked the pirouette that Twi performed with amazing ease. Next, Maximus, eager for the spotlight, knocked down the loose fence board and leaped the three foot obstacle still remaining. She had jumped directly into the riding arena, where George's daughter, Marina, had been practicing jumping. She was gone bu the jumps were still there and Max cleared the two foot six inches course easily, before pivotting and jumping back into the paddock. Blizzard, Fire Heart, and Twi all whinnied an "appluase" and Max took an extravagent bow.
The next day, all the horses were taken out to the workout track.
"Everyone, this is not a race simulation, but we'll warm them up with a trot to the turn, then just canter um till the quarter pole" George instructed, and all the riders complied. On the trot over, Max was able to have a chat with Blizzard while their riders were conversing themselves.
"So, you want to be an eventer, right?" Blizzard asked.
"Yeah, why?" Max replied.
"Well, I was just thinking, I really don't want to run in a circle the rest of my life, either" Blizzard replied.
"What do you mean, Blizz?" Max asked, using Blizzard's nickname.
"I had a paddock buddy at one of my old homes that was a trail horse" Blizz said, "And she would always tell me about how fun it was to just go on for miles in the woods, and not have to worry about who's down in turn what, and who's wallet depends on which horse, its just you "
"So you want to be a competitive trail horse?" Max asked, and Blizz shook her buetiful head.
They were at the turn just then, so the horse's conversation had to come to a halt. Blizz cantered ahead of Max, who cantered on and threw in a little buck saying, hey, buddy, guess how far I can pitch you!.