"Now that I don't think I would have believed if I wasn't here seeing it." Leo told Raph, Mikey and I as we leaned against the fairly new fence, looking into the paddock that was just put up recently. Gramps had finally gotten everything he needed together and had bullied us all into building a new barn that housed his goats...and the pain in the ass black creature that Cris called a horse. Cris actually helped out alot with that project. Figured that since Cris spent all of her time here anyway she might as well bring the big boy over here and Cris sold off some of her acreage to help with the construction effort. The result was one very large barn and half of it was given to the horse along with the new paddock. Dad even fenced off a large portion of land just for him...though he seemed happier if he had some goat companions to hang out with.

Cris did tend to baby him a lot. She loved the large nut and right now we were watching as she led Beast around with Thane on his back. The little turtle was laughing and grinning and Beast really wasn't living up to his name...for once. He loved the kids but us adults were fair game to his antics. Dad was about the only one beside Cris who he actually loved. Probably because Dad knows how to handle a temperamental horse like that and was the only one brave enough to go deal with him if Cris was unavailable, which happens in our line of...how should I put this...expertise?

Today the rest of us were just kind of hanging out as she led him around, watching with amusement at Thane's happy chirps of "Faster howrsie! Faster!" while he was bouncing in the saddle. "Go! Go! Go!" The three year old was immensely enjoying the fact that Beast was now living here and would always run to the barn or paddock to go see him when we brought the kids out to play. And if Beast heard us coming he would always meet us at the fence, head already stretched out over it and down as far as it could go to greet his little playmates. It didn't take Cris much convincing on their part to plop them onto his back and walk them around. Beast didn't seem to mind either. For such a big ass he was surprisingly gentle with them.

"If that big salami factory dumps my kid on the ground..." Raph grumbled from next to us.

"Oh hush." I told him, rolling my eyes. "Don't you think if he wanted too he would have done it by now?"

He just grunted in reply as he kept an untrusting eye on the big horse.

Leo gave him an amused look but wisely kept his mouth shut.

"Alright kiddo." Cris was saying to Thane as she helped him down. "I think that's enough for one day."

"Aw... But Mommy! I wants to ride more! Beast a good howrsie!"

Raph just snorted at that. Beast heard it and turned his head towards the sound, giving Raph an evil eye.

Cris missed it all as she put her son down. "You can ride some more tomorrow."

Thane crossed his arms and pouted, his lower lip almost out far enough to touch his nose. Beast brightened the mood again when he brought his head down and sniffed the boy, then snorted on him causing Thane to burst out in a giggle fit from the air tickling his skin. Raph hopped the fence to go get him. "Why the kids love that thing I'll never understand." He told Cris as he moved closer.

She was just about to answer him when Beast beat her to it. Now...Raph should really have known by now to not walk up behind a horse, any horse but especially this one, and Beast promptly reminded him why that was such a bad idea when his rear end did a little hop, both of his hind legs kicked out, and Raph went flying in the air before hitting the ground in front of the fence.

"You stupid mule!" Raph roared as he got up and the horse just snorted at him with a dismissive flick of his tail, then gave Cris the saddest look possible.

"See, now you upset him." She told Raph as she stroked the horse's long nose, and in doing so missed the look Beast gave Raph. Raph looked up from the dirt and caught that look, that seemed to have a lot of amusement in it. "The damn thing is laughing at me!" He yelled as he got up. Cris just ignored him as she kept petting Beast.

Raph just grumbled as he moved carefully closer to go get Thane. By now Leo, Mikey and I were trying really hard not to laugh. We almost lost that fight when Beast shifted his weight and promptly stomped on Raph's foot.

"Ow! God dammit!" Came the predictable outburst.

"Hey Raph...you're getting your ass kicked by a horse!" Mikey howled finally. He was laughing so hard he actually fell off of the top of the fence from where he was sitting.

"I swear woman, that horse hates me!" Raph grumbled at Cris.

"Don't be ridiculous Raph, you're just jealous."

"Of what? That walking fertilizer plant?"

Beast was giving us all that wide eyed "what?" look. I swear...this horse was doing this shit on purpose... It was funny as hell though.

Cris just rolled her eyes as she turned the horse and led him towards the barn to unsaddle him, and as Beast turned he managed to do so at the right angle to where his long tail flicked across Raph's face with a good swish. Raph just glared at the horse while the rest of us were trying to stifle our laughter. He picked his son up and he walked towards us, grumbling with every step. Then he glared at the horse as he put Thane down on the other side of the fence, watching as Beast kept rubbing his his head against Cris' back, making her stumble more than a few times and her laughter rang across the field. Beast returned that laughter with happy snorts of his own.

Raph was still grumbling under his breath after Cris turned Beast out to graze, then came to get Thane to take him inside for a well needed nap. We were all still by the fence, watching the horse graze alongside his little goat buddies as the kids romped around nearby.

"Dude, I seriously can't believe you are jealous of a horse." Mikey suddenly grinned. "That is sooooo pathetic."

"I am not!"

"Looks that way to me."

"Yeah? Well keep looking and you just might see my fist coming for your face if you don't shut the hell up."

"You know..." Leo grinned at Raph as he laid an arm around my shoulders. "I think Mikey and Cris are right. You are jealous of the attention he's been getting lately."

Raph just gave him a flat stare in return and I had to hide my face in Leo's chest to keep him from seeing me laugh. Leo just returned his glare with an impish grin.

"That is just stupid. Being jealous of an animal." Raph told us all again. "He's just a dumb horse anyway." Beast just got himself a mouthful of grass before he lifted his head up to look at us again, calmly chewing. "Besides," Raph continued, "he ain't half the man I am, we know who's got the woman and who ain't. So you just sit there an chew that grass Mr Ed. You ain't half the man I am."

Still watching Raph, Beast turned his body to the side, still chewing, and showed Raph exactly how much of a stud he actually was by showing off a certain part of his anatomy. Leo and Mikey's eyes got big as saucers as Beast dropped all four feet of his manhood down. Raph's jaw came real close to hitting the ground. "Should have had him gelded..." Raph mumbled as he turned and stomped away.

We couldn't hold it in anymore and we all lost it, laughing so hard tears were streaming down our faces as Raph stomped on. And it really didn't help that Beast watched him go, then let out a long, triumphant whinny at the retreating turtle's back.