The Last Hope - Part 1

by Haley
(Thomasville, Georgia, U.S.A.)

I was starving in the field filled with horses. Some dead, some sick, some injured. Just yesterday I had seen my mom go down before my eyes.

Now as a young colt, I am all alone. I don't know what to do or where to go. Will I ever get out of the death trap? Or, is this the place I will always remember to be my home and to watch all of these older horses die everyday. I know my time will come very soon, even as a young colt. This is why I know, I must find a way to escape.

Yesterday, a mare died while giving birth to a little filly. They took the filly behind the barn yesterday and I still don't know what happened to her. I am terrified, what if they did something to her? What if they killed her?

I lay down to take a nap. But, just as I was falling asleep, all the horses started to run
around and rear up. I jumped up anxiously and started running with the other horses.

Two tall men walked into the pasture. They took one of the chestnut stallions out of the pasture. Everybody was curious on what was going to
happen. But I think I was the only one scared. One of the bay mares tried to bite the man in the blue checkered shirt.

He turned around and hit her cheek with a tree limb he found on the ground. The mare walked to the other side of the field with her head dropped.

I didn't like what he did to that mare, I ran out of the gate when the man turned around to close it. I ran to the other man and bucked him. I neighed excitedly, when the men ran up to me to put me back in the field, I ran behind the barn. There was the filly, she was in a stall by herself with food and water.

"Oh no!" I thought. They were going to use her to get wild horses to slaughter. I tried to open the stall but it was too hard. I almost had it when the men snuck up behind me and put a halter on me. They didn't put me back in the field, they
put me in a stall far away from all of the other horses. I got plenty of food and water though.

The next morning, I got moved to the stall beside the filly. I greeted her with a friendly nicker, I told her my name was Albadar. Her name was Brenda, she was the most beautiful filly I had ever seen. I was admiring her beauty as two men walked to our stalls. They both had halters, the put them on us and hooked lead ropes on each of the halters. They took us into a big arena.

The Last Hope - Part 2

by Haley
(Georgia)

We were trying to fight them when they were bringing us into this big area. I told Brenda that everything would be fine. One of the men left. There were still two men there though. One was short and one was tall.

"Are they ready to start training?" said tall man.

"I think so." said short man.

"They look really young. But I guess we can start early." said tall man.

They took the halters off of us. We tried to get away but, they held on to us. They put bridles on us and then saddles. When they put the saddles on us, we both quickly fell to the ground.

"Their legs still aren't strong enough. Maybe we should wait until they are about two years old." said tall man.

"Fine." said short man. They put us both in our stalls. I wanted to talk to her.

"Brenda?" I neighed.

"Yes, Albadar?" she neighed

"Are you OK?" I neighed.

"I'm fine. I wish we could just leave." she neighed. She started to cry. I saw a tear run down her cheek. I turned my head, my head was hanging low. I wish I could get her out of here. I want to be able to give her a better life.

Well, we are now two years old, we have to start training tomorrow. The men have already went to sleep. There was another horse in the other stall beside me.

His name is Duck. He is really old, that is why he is small. He is a brownish color. That night, he talked to me.

"Hey kid, are you and your girlfriend training tomorrow?" he neighed to me.

"Yes, and she's not my girlfriend. We're just friends." I neighed back at him.

"OK.... Whatever you say. Well anyway, I just wanted to say good luck on training tomorrow." he neighed.

"Why do we need luck?" I neighed.

There was no answer. I looked into his stall. He had fallen asleep. Brenda was asleep too, I guess I should get some rest for tomorrow.

I woke up with a loud bang. It was tall man. He took us both outside. Tall man and short man tacked me up together. Then, they moved on to Brenda. Both men had big crops.

Brenda wouldn't stay still, they hit her with the crop. A tear ran down my cheek, she reared up. I stayed calm, standing there, watching her. They put the tack on her.

They mounted us and kicked our guts while pulling our reins tight. We weren't sure if they wanted us to go, so down, or stop. We just kept going. We were running as fast as we could and they still expected us to go faster. We weren't wearing any horseshoes. Where they mad?

There was a giant oak tree that fell into the trail. There was no way to go around. They pulled back harder. We both halted, our heads hung low and we were breathing hard. They turned us back towards the barn.

But then, they turned us back to the tree, they kicked our guts even harder. They wanted us to jump. We had never even seen a horse jump anything like that. We didn't know how to do it!

We kept running. When we got to the tree, we lifted our feet and we were flying. But there was a big tree limb sticking up. Brenda's leg hit it and she fell over. She was on the ground. I reared and my rider fell off.

"Brenda!" I neighed loudly.

She got up but she didn't look so good. They finally found a way around. They took us back to the barn and put us in our stalls. We both looked awful. Her knees were bleeding. She had scratches all over her body. I thought she was going to collapse. But she just slowly went down and tried to go to sleep.

The Last Hope - Part 3

by Haley
(Georgia)

Hey guys! I am so sorry I took so long to post this but I have been very busy. Anyway, hope you enjoy it! :)

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The next day, I woke to find Brenda gone. I was very worried, I looked all over the outside of my stall door but, I just couldn't find her anywhere. I turned to my left and saw Duck in his stall, eating some hay.

"Duck! Do you know where Brenda is?" I whinnied.

"Who is Brenda?" he neighed.

"My friend!" I neighed.

"Yep. I think they took her out to find a couple of wild horses." he whinnied.

"What?! I have got to find her." I neighed.

"Good luck getting out." he whinnied.

"I don't need it." I neighed.

I started to kick the stall door with my hind legs. After about four kicks, I finally kicked the stall door out of it's place. I found some hoof prints on the ground, I went to a trot and followed them.

After a while, I heard some horses in the distance. I ran as fast as I could towards them. Finally, I reached them. It was tall man riding Elska, short man riding Fable, and trainer riding Brenda.

Elska is a chubby, dun Highland Pony mare. Fable is a strong, chestnut Quarter Horse mare with one stocking and a long stripe down her face.

Elska and Fable ran towards the wild horse and their riders took out their lassos and threw them around the horse's neck. The wild horse was trying to fight it, trainer was trying to force Brenda to gallop so that he could help them.

Brenda just kept rearing and backing up. Trainer hit Brenda and I galloped towards them. I reared up and as I was running by, trainer threw his lasso around my neck and I fell onto my back.

He lead me and Brenda back to the ranch. He put Brenda in her stall and me into the corral. He was fixing my stall door with new screws. When he was done, he didn't put me back in my stall. He left me in the corral.

Finally, tall man and short man came back with the wild horse. It was a grullo pinto Mustang stallion, they named him Monarch. I watched him walking with them, he didn't even bother trying to get away.

They put him in my stall, I was mad. I wouldn't be able to see Brenda anymore, I was furious.

Tall man walked towards me, I bared my teeth at him. He opened my gate and as he was trying to close the gate behind him, I bit his shoulder and stepped on his boot. He fell and started holding on to his foot. I ran towards Brenda's stall.

"Get back! I'm going to get us out of here." I said to Brenda. I turned around and right when I was about to kick her stall door, she said one think that made very sad.

"No! I don't want to go."

I turned around towards her with a sad expression on my face.

"I think I'm starting to..... like Monarch. He is very handsome and charming." she said. "But it doesn't matter anyway."

Short man walked towards me and put a halter on me. I didn't struggle at all, he led me to the field. There were only a few horses left alive. I walked to the other end of the field and lay down.

I wanted to die right there, Brenda had broken my heart forever. I didn't know what to do. I little brown pinto foal walked to me, his name was Poco.

"Mister? What is going to happen?" he asked me.

"I don't know. But I will get you out of here." I replied to him.

He gave me a small smile and lay down beside me. He fell asleep and later on, I fell asleep too.