Starlight And The Wild Brumbies

• Gracie Finger, Grade 3, Mistake Creek State School
• Short Story
• 2015

Excellence Award in the 'Read Write Repeat 2015' competition

The ground thundered under the horses’ hooves as it galloped across the rocky ridge.
“Faster! Faster,” Harriet yelled as she tried to get to the lead of the stampeding brumbies. She and her Dad had been tracking the mob for two days and they weren’t about to let them get away. Her family lived on a cattle station in the mountains of Central Queensland. They had been in drought for three years and the time had come to get the wild horses down to the grassy flats.

Harriet was riding a young silver filly called Starlight, but her dad thought Starlight was too wild for her to ride. He thought she wouldn’t be much use on the muster because he was too worried that Starlight would buck when she got stirred up. But when the brumbies started to race towards the cliff face, dad’s horse stumbled in a hole. His riding boot came out of the stirrup, he lost the reins and slipped off the saddle. He crashed to the ground.
“Whoa up! Whoa up!” Harriet called, once she got the front of the horses. The wild stallion flicked its tail and turned away from the cliff face. It swung the mob towards a clump of gum trees and safety. She tugged at the reins to go back to her father. He was lying in the dirt, plucking prickles out of his jeans.
“Well done, Harry. You’ve saved the horses. Maybe that filly of yours is good for something after all,” he said with a smile.
Harriet stroked Starlight’s neck and laughed. “I told you so!”