Sara's Pony

• Willa Stokes, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2016

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
Sophia turns around and groans as she hits her alarm off. Rolls out of bed, falls on her messy floor and gets up all druggish. She gets dressed into old clothes, grabs some apples and heads out to the stables. The horses hear the door opening and start to neigh.
‘Hey there, Misty’, Sophia says to her palomino horse.
Misty puts her head out of the stable door as Sophia passes her. Sophia gives Misty an apple and heads towards the feed room. The sound of crunching fills the stable and Duchess (who is a Shetland), and Spartan (who is an Arab) puts their heads out and she feeds them an apple each. She grabs a bucket of Lucerne chaff and oaten chaff and mixes it into three tubs. After feeding the hungry horses, Sophia heads over to the small but roomy tack room to get a saddle, bridle and saddlecloth. When Misty has finished her breakfast, she nickers to Sophia, who saddles her up for a trail ride. As she is tightening the girth strap, there are footsteps coming towards the stable.
‘Hey Sophia’, says her little sister Sara. ‘Can I come with you riding?”
‘Yeah sure thing’, replies Sophia.
Sara goes over to the tack room, grabs a smaller saddle, bridle and saddlecloth, and heads over to Duchess. As soon as Sara is finished saddling up Duchess, she takes Duchess out of the barn alongside Sophia. They mount the horses and heads out on a narrow trail. Misty is a bit spooked out from the trees swaying in the wind and Duchess is relaxed as anything, so Sara puts her into a trot.
‘Be careful’, warns Sophia.
‘I will, don’t worry’ answers Sara.
At that moment, she goes into a canter and heads towards a log that has fallen over on the path and flies straight over it.
‘Don’t worry Misty’, says Sophia. ‘We will be able to do that as soon as you overcome you fears and trust me enough to do that’.
Misty neighs as if she is replying to Sophia. After five minutes of walking slowly along the path, Sara and Duchess comes into sight and is coming at a great speed that Sophia moves out of the way in case they don’t slow down quick enough. Sara has a huge grin on her chubby face.
‘Guess what we saw’, says Sara.
‘Oh, I don’t know what?’ replies Sophia.
‘We saw another horse’, answers Sara excitedly. ‘And I have never seen it before. It’s like it is a wild horse.’
‘I guess you will have to show us’, says Sophia. ‘But don’t go to fast for Misty and me.’
Sara shows the way to the unknown horse. As they get closer Sara lets Sophia know with excitement. In addition, as they got closer, Sara slows right down to a slow walk and looks at Sophia.
‘We have to help her’, Sophia says nervously.