The Western Herd

• Lauren Spring, Grade 4, Park Ridge State School -
• Short Story
• 2018

Excellence Award in the 'Horizon of Dreams 2018' competition

One day there was a beautiful herd with beautiful horses. One of the mares laid down on a grassy little hill. A minute later there was a small little foal lying next to its mother. The small little foal stood up and followed its mother. They walked up a small grassy hill and began to graze.
The foal ate a few strips of grass until he saw... a butterfly. Before the little colt could run away to chase the butterfly in the cool spring breeze his mother called him. The small little foal pranced over. His mother had decided with the herd to call him Dusty.
After his mother had stopped talking Dusty ran off to look for the butterfly. Suddenly he found it. He started chasing the butterfly. About an hour later Dusty wanted to head back to the herd but couldn't. He found himself lost. The herd was nowhere to be seen. He started to shake. Dusty whinnied as he saw a brown glimpse of something moving in the sunlight. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was a little foal laying down on the grass. Dusty walked over. The foal stood up and said "Hi" to Dusty.
"How are you?', asked the other foal. Dusty didn't reply. He asked the other foal if he had seen a herd but the foal said no. The foal wanted to follow Dusty. "Ok", said Dusty. So they both set off to find Dusty's herd. Then they saw the herd but...they didn't know this but they had brought eight humans along with them. The leader of the herd whinnied. "Run" he said to the herd. They got away just in time.
About a year later Dusty and the foal grew up and became leaders of The Western Herd.