Lightning had never felt so happy in his life, and he reared up nd galloped towards Summer.
The two horses nuzzled, and then Summer suddenly flinched.
"What's wrong?" Lightning asked.
"Dad will kill me if he found out!" Summer replied, her eyes wide with worry.
Lightning shook his head.
"He might not be, he seems really kind. Just don't tell him if you're worried. But it's really best if you do!" He added.
Summer nodded.
"Yeah, I suppose you're right, I mean, it would be weird if a foal just happened to turn up in 11 months' time. He'd get a bit…"
"Suspicious?" A voice behind the two horses finished Summer's sentence.
"Oh, Strider! It's only you!" Summer said, breathing a sigh of relief.
"Is that a good thing? I thought that with this ugly old face, you'd be frightened out of your lives!" Strider replied, laughing.
Summer and Lightning couldn't help but laugh.
"Well, I'd better get going, I'm really thirsty, so I'm going to head down to the river. Are you coming Strider?" Lightning said, turning round to gallop to the river.
"Of course, I'm really thirsty too!" Strider replied.
"Wait!" Summer hissed just as Strider was about to canter after Lightning.
"Please don't tell anyone! Especially not my dad!" Summer finished, whispering.
Strider smiled. "I won't. I promise." And with that, he half-reared, and followed Lighting to the river.
Summer stood on the grassy mound, and watched Lightning and Strider gallop towards the water.
"I don't want yu to tell him grandpa, because I'm not really having his foal!" Summer muttered guiltily. She felt ashamed. How could she lie to her stallion like that?
She had felt good at the time, because she didn't want to lose Lightning because of an argument, but now she felt terrible.
A tear began to roll down her long nose, as she trotted towards the top of the tall hill on the cimarron valley.
Looking down, Summer could see a long and round white rail. It was a track. She also saw some stables. But what were those strange gate-like things at the start of the track? Summer forgot about being upset, and cantered down the hill to take a closer look.
There was a girl there with a pony, only a little smaller than Summer. It was a roan mare. Summer whinnied to her, and began to gallop at full pelt through the gate, and stopped in front of the roan pony.
"Hi, I'm Summer. What is this place?" Summer asked.
The mare blinked in surprise.
"This is a racetrack, surely you know what a race track is? All domestic horses know what one is-unless they're stupid. No offence!" The mare replied, raising an eye at Summer.
Summer shook her head, and a bit of her forelock fell over her eye.
"Well, you see, I'm not domestic. I'm a mustang and I live in the cimarron herd." She replied.
The roan mare opened her mouth, and the bit looked as if it was about to fall out-if the bridle hadn't have been there!
"Do you know a dun coloured stallion named Spirit? He rescued me four years ago!" The roan mare asked, as her rider clambered out of the saddle to stroke Summer, which Summer didn't mind one bit.
"Yeah. He's my dad!" Summer answered.
The roan pony gasped and looked wide-eyed at Summer…