Chapter 2: Confronting Fear/Brandon's Teenage Years
10-year-old Brandon Wishford rode on his Appaloosa horse, Brisket while his Pa, Austin Wishford accompanied his son through town. Dog-Town seemed to be somewhat lively due to the many cowboys that lived here. He saw through the saloon doors and looked at them as they drank, playing cards, and if it ever was rare, there were a few saloon fights that started over the most nonsensical reasons. Brandon also looks at the sheriff's office and sees the current sheriff of the town, 40-year-old Kurt Barkson, a German Shepherd breed who normally observes the town daily. When a saloon pateron informed Kurt that there was a ruckus going on in the saloon, he immediately walked over there to take care of the fight.
"Wow, the Sheriff's pretty brave… I wanna be just like him when I grow up," Brandon informed his dad about the Sheriff, taking a liking to him.
"Yup," Austin responds upon seeing Kurt take care of business, "Did I ever tell you that he stopped an illegal trading business from getting past our town?" He and Brandon both pulled the reins of their horses to stop outside of the sheriff's office.
"Ohhh! I didn't know!" Brandon curiously wanted to know about the story, "You gotta tell me, Pa! What happened?"
Austin chuckles when his son had wanted to hear the story about Sheriff Kurt's heroic actions. "Well, it all started 10 years ago, before you were born. Kurt was keeping a pretty keen eye on the town before he saw a suspicious looking wolf coming in on a cart with several bags on top. He was certain for sure that the wolf was smugglin' somethin' in town, believe me, it wasn't gonna end well."
"What did he bring to town, Pa?" Brandon was curious about what the wolf had brought to Dog-Town in those 10 years.
"Stolen bars of gold from our bank. Kurt didn't like those sneaky wolves comin' into town and getting away with money that didn't belong to them. The thievin' wolf snapped the donkey's reins to get him outta town, but Kurt jumped on the back of the cart to try and take the bags off. The wolf purposely had to leave the cart and unhitch his donkey to leave Kurt in the middle of nowhere, but that poor fool got himself injured, lyin' on the ground. Kurt knew it was a long way from out in the mesa to get back home, so he tried looking around for a stagecoach or asked for a lift if he saw any passing cowboys nearby."
"And then?" Brandon wanted to hear more about how Kurt survived and made it home. He was eager to know the whole story.
Austin knew that Brandon would hopefully be inspired by this next segment of the story. "He was surprised to hear the rumbling of an incoming herd of cattle headed his way. Kurt said that they were a lost herd that a gang of wolves had stolen from us in a span of a few days. Armed with only his lasso at the time, Kurt had to run a safe distance from the herd until he threw the lasso at the bull leading the cattle that chased him down. He had to pull it away from the town if they unintentionally meant to storm through it, but it was no use. Kurt hopped on the bull and rode it while it bucked around, but he wasn't gonna give in anytime soon. Finally, the bull calmed down as the whole herd stopped rampaging, which meant that Kurt had saved the town from their eventual destruction."
"Whoaaaa! That must've been amazing, Pa!" Brandon had loved the story, believing that Kurt was a courageous hero who wouldn't stand down for nothing. "Will he keep protecting the town like that?"
"Heh, for sure, Brandon," Austin felt very confident about Kurt's reputation, "As long as we have him in charge, no danger will come to this here town. Now then, let's go to that rodeo class you wanna get into that much." They both lead their horses to the wide rodeo arena, which was just at the end of their town in all of its might. Brandon goes over and leads Brisket to follow him along, as he sees five other kids with their own horses, all of them at the age of 10. There was a female brown collie with a shade of red in her hair, next to a tan colored American Quarter Horse. Next to the collie and her mare, there was a rottweiler dog who had a brown and white paint horse accompany him. The third student was a golden retriever who had a black and white Galineers Cob horse at his side. The fourth student was a bulldog who seemed brutish from up close as he owned a Standardbred horse who was a reddish brown. The fifth student was a female border collie with beautiful maroon colored hair, standing next to a black and white paint horse. Brandon came in as the sixth student for rodeo class, hoping to succeed along with his new peers.
"Howdy little youngins! I'll be your instructor for this year's rodeo class. Now then…" The instructor was a Boston Terrier dog who spoke in a friendly manner. He looks at the six students and asks for their names. "Could y'all be so kind as to tell me your names as well as your horses'? I'd also pretty much like to know which events y'all wanna compete in."
The brown collie goes up first, speaking in a soft, yet strong southern accent. "I'm Jesse Reinfield, and this is my horse, Justice. I wanna try barrel racing."
The rottweiler dog came up next and spoke with a hispanic accent. "I'm Rico Venezuela, and this is my horse named Hunter. I'm looking forward to roping, sir."
The proud golden retriever dog came up and spoke. "Howdy! The name's Dustin Evermore, and here's my horse gal, Annabelle! I'm interested in roping and bull riding like my pa!"
The bulldog goes up next to introduce himself. "Howdy, I'm Carl Brook, and this is my horse named Rawhide. Only one event for me, and that's bull riding!"
The female border collie goes up, her eyes rolling after hearing Carl bragging about his confidence in his event. "My name's Ellie Redstone, and this is my horse, Dottie. I wanna try bronco riding."
Brandon was surprised that one of the students was going to try out an event that he liked, but noticing that it was his turn to speak, he goes up and introduces himself. "Hiya, y'all! I'm Brandon Wishford, and this here's my horse, Brisket. I wanna do bronco riding too!"
"Ooooh, you and Ellie's gonna try the same event together?" Carl mocked the two of them by making a kissy face. This had disturbed Brandon, but Jesse came up to make him cut it out.
"Aw quit it, Carl! I bet you're afraid of gettin' kicked by a horse in the face!" said Jesse, hoping that it would shut him up.
"Okay now, let's settle down, kids." The instructor tries to lighten up the mood by moving along to the actual directions of rodeo class. "Now that y'all have picked out your events, there are a handful of certain areas in the arena that'll appeal to what you wanna do. Over there is a roping corral with a few cows. On the other side has a set of barrels if you wanna race your horse around them. Finally, there's the rodeo pens for those who wanna ride out bucking horses and bulls. Any questions before I let y'all train?"
Brandon came up and asked the instructor an important question. "Is it okay if we rode our own horses for rodeo riding practice?"
"Sure thing, kid!" He chuckles and tells Brandon about the horses already in the arena, "Some of those horses are gettin' warmed up to buck around and all. You can ride your own to train, but you can feel free to ride any of the buckin' horses here. Better be brave to take 'em on, kid!"
After that, there were no other questions that needed to be answered, with the six students already practicing their favored rodeo events. Brandon placed his arms and face on top of a small fence as he and Ellie watched Carl train for his bull rides. He turned to the female cherry-haired collie, asking her something that he wanted to know. "Ellie, right? Sooo… why do you wanna ride bucking broncos?"
"I wanna ride them 'cause it's a lot more fittin' than the job my Momma wants to assign me." Ellie told Brandon this since she felt free to talk about her feelings.
"What does your Momma want you to do?" Brandon asks her.
Ellie sighs as she responds, "Nursing at the hospital. It's kinda girly. I wanna be just like you cowboys."
"My Momma has me help with the flowers and the horses, but she didn't stop me from being a cowboy." Brandon had responded back. "But doesn't working at the hospital mean you save lives?"
"Yeah, true…" Ellie almost considered taking her mother's word for granted, "But I'm more into gettin' my hands down and dirty when it comes to rodeo. If I even get hurt from this, I… might do what my Momma wants best for me."
"Awww, it's not too late, Ellie. You can–" Suddenly, after Carl dismounted or was thrown off the bull, Brandon was interrupted as he saw the bull go towards HIM when the instructor couldn't distract the rampaging bovine away. "Ahhhh!" Brandon didn't have a lasso on his belt, so he tried running away from the bull as far as possible. It had chased him to the left east corner of the arena where he collapsed on the ground, curling up into a ball before it even tried to gore the poor collie. But all the sudden, his father came to the rescue and lassoed the bull by the horns to lead him away from his own son.
"Brandon! You okay?" Austin had the instructor take care of the bull as he looked up to his son, who was paralyzed with fear.
"..." The young collie couldn't respond, only whimpering as he had feared for his own life. Carl looked over to see Brandon already on the ground, pointing at him.
"Haha, wimp! Couldn't even ride the bull yourself!" He mocked Brandon as he laughed until Jesse slugged him in the arm. "Ow!"
"Don't ruin his first day already!" Jesse exclaimed after slugging Carl, "Aw shucks, Brandon's… I can't believe it."
Brandon believed that the bull might break out of those walls and come straight after him again, now developing his strong paralyzing fear of non-mutated bulls. It seems he needed some time to cool down when his Pa came over to give him a private chat.
"P-Pa… It was coming right for me, a-a-and it had t-these horns, and…" Brandon was stuttering after his near-death experience encounter with the bull, shaking.
"Brandon…" Austin had started, "Did I ever tell you that the sheriff was afraid once?"
"Huh?" He had stopped shaking for a moment and turned to his Pa.
"Kurt was afraid for his life just like you were. It was when he had encountered the herd of cattle that was stampeding towards his way. Yep, Kurt didn't expect that to happen, so he feared for his life by running away. Yet, the town had depended on their sheriff. They didn't want a cowering one to run away entirely. So, Kurt harnessed his fear in order for him to survive. He stopped the lead bull from destroying the town by confronting his fear, thus saving not just his own life, but the town as well." Austin finished up his story, placing his hand on Brandon's shoulder, "You said you wanted to be like the sheriff. So, next time a bull comes after ya, don't panic. Find a way outta it by facing your fears."
"But… but how, Pa?" Brandon had questioned Austin nervously.
"You should know how. I taught you this the day you picked out your horse." Austin began to remind his son about the lesson that Brandon may carry forever in his subconscious, hopefully remembering his words in the future, "No matter how many times you get thrown off, get back on the saddle again, and keep going."
With a spark of inspiration and hope, Brandon stood back up. Although he was still nervous about any future encounters with a bull, he still had to stay in the arena and train. Brandon felt a bit relieved to try again as long as the instructor and his father were both around. Carl grumbles as he sees Brandon reunite with the other young riders, but the other four kids, Jesse, Rico, Dustin, and Ellie all looked at Brandon knowing that he would be okay to train with them. After that day, and as time passed through the next span of five years, Brandon would be good friends with Jesse, Rico, and Dustin. For Ellie, however, he rarely sees her anymore after an accident that left her injured while training for rodeo. He wondered if he would ever see her again, but alas, time would go on…
Five Years Later….
The next five years of Brandon's life went by like a flash of lightning, with the young collie growing up overtime while dealing with the harder farm chores that were necessary. Yes, he still helped his mother, Maria, with the flowers as well as taking care of the horses. Not only that, he went through some rigorous training when it came to riding wild bucking horses with his father. One day, he was brushing his horse, Brisket, after he had accidentally fallen in a lake and obtained some minor injuries. Maria turned to face her son and asked him a question.
"Brandon, are you taking good care of your horse?" Maria said with a mildly concerned manner.
"Yes, Ma. I just didn't know he'd…" Brandon didn't want to mention the part where Brisket had fallen in the lake nearby and got himself hurt.
"He'd what, Brandon?" Maria surely wanted to know.
"Brisket umm… fell in the lake and got some scrapes on his legs." Brandon spoke up as he was trying to clean them off of Brisket's legs.
"Oh, honey… You gotta be on the lookout for your horse whenever you're out by yourself, okay?" Maria told Brandon this as a lesson that he shouldn't forget. "Otherwise, he won't come with you on the range anymore."
"Okay, Ma… Sorry for being careless." When Maria put those words in Brandon's head, he could understand that owning a horse was a huge responsibility for him in life. Nothing was ever that easy. The next time he and Brisket rode together, Brandon made sure to be careful along the way. But, one night, a fatal illness had strucken Brisket in early November which would leave Brandon devastated. His parents tried looking for some herbs from town as they hurriedly rushed to save Brandon's horse, but it was too late. Over the span of 4 months, Brandon was ultimately depressed as he felt like he'd lost an old friend. He couldn't even want to go into town anymore, staying at the farm to take care of chores instead to try and cope with his loss.
On his 16th birthday, Brandon still didn't feel like he was going to cheer up anytime soon. That was until his parents had showed up to sit down on the log with their son. It was time that they gave him a talk about moving forward from one's loss.
"Son," Austin began, "You've been mournin' his loss for a very long time. We tried helping your horse survive, but…"
"We couldn't save him in time, hon. I'm sorry…" Maria had comforted Brandon by slowly letting her hand run through Brandon's face.
Brandon still looked hopeless, not aware what his parents had to say next. "Wh-What… what can y'all possibly tell me?"
"There's something we would like to show you." Austin had said this to have Brandon wonder what it was. The family of three stood up and walked over to the horse barn, with Austin going into Brisket's old stall to reveal…
There was a black and white Clydesdale in the stall, with a long, white mane with his feathered hooves colored white as well. Yes, there were white spots on his black coated body, as he neighs holding up his head high. Austin and Maria had both surprised Brandon with a new horse of his own. The young collie covered his mouth in shock, a few happy tears came out of his eyes. Brandon finally smiled, going over to hug the horse's neck after he calmed down.
"What's his name, Pa?" Brandon simply asks his father.
"That horse's name is Ryder. I figured that you needed a horse who would keep ya company when you're much older." Austin told Brandon as he continued to share more about his new horse. "I just bought him from a friend's ranch to surprise you for your present. Maybe you can start over with him, eh, Brandon?"
"Heh, thanks… Pa." Brandon chuckles while he pets Ryder's face, looking at his blue gentle eyes, "You and I are gonna be best buds from now on, Ryder. Brisket would've been proud to have a brother like you…" The young collie feels relieved of his pain from four months ago, knowing this would be a start of a new friendship between farmboy and horse.
End of Chapter 2
Coming Soon, Chapter 3: The Tragedy
Author's Notes: This has been the longest chapter so far, so I might have to shorten Chapter 3 whenever I have time to work on it. See you guys in the next chapter soon!