The Snow Brumby

• Carley Shephard, Grade 7, All Souls & St Gabriel's School -
• Short Story
• 2018

Excellence Award in the 'Write Along 2018' competition

Snow was a born on a cold, snowy winters night. She was a beautiful splash white filly which is very rare for a brumby. Her mum didn't think that she would make it through the night, but she did. Sadly, she wasn't though the worst of it as at only six months old Summer came and the country turned green. This was when she got kicked out of her herd because they saw her as a danger, her bright colours were easily seen meaning she could be followed by almost anything. Snow has been on her own ever since.
Snow was chased by hunters and catches of all sorts who fell in love with her colour. They say that when she galloped though the pure white snow, it looked like she was flying. People reckon that she would jump their wooden fence traps or out run their ropes easily and if they did rope her, she would pull them through the dirt until they let go. But I think that she is the last true brumby with her fighting spirit.
There was a time when she did get caught, she was racing through the snow then out of nowhere a hunter’s dog charged and latched onto her leg. The white snow around her turned red, blood red as she passed out.
When Snow woke up, she was tied up with fences all around her higher then she had ever jumped before and she wasn't sure what to do. But then she saw a young filly only about three months old, the foal was scared lonely and staving. Snow gently nickered to her, the foal was hard to see in the pitch black of the night except for a white blaze down her face.
In the morning Snow could see her as clear as day, a magnificent black with four white socks and a blaze. Snow heard a twig break, the foal bolted from where it was standing. The mare looked over and to her horror a man was standing there with a bucket of feed, but Snow did not know what it was. He walked up to her gently putting the bucket down in front of her, she tried to get away, but eventually, she understood that he meant no harm and every day he would bring snow and the filly food and water. In about three days the man came and let Snow go so she could wander around the yard, she heard him call the young filly Midnight.
A week or two later there was a savage storm with bright flashes of lighting, loud bangs of thunder and snow heard the fall of a tree onto the fence. Snow saw away out and quickly called to midnight and they left, racing through the night without being seen or herd. No one has really seen the mare or the black filly since. Some say they died, that it’s ghosts that are sometimes seen racing through the snow.