July 2009 Story Contest

Heather by ging & crissy age 10

Not long ago there lived a 15.2 hand Bay, six year old Mustang mare. She lived in the wild, Snowy Mountains of Wyoming. (Well, they were snowy, very , very, very, snowy in winter. In spring and summer they were very sunny and had lot's of wild flowers!)

The mare had a foal and her name was Heather. She didn't belong to anyone, but she was born in a sunny clump of Heather. She had a blaze running down her face and one white foot. A cowboy was riding by then, and just as the herd ran away, he saw a chocolate brown foal; (with heather suck in her little mane and fluffy tail), galloping after her mother. So, now she is known as Heather and Heather, she will remain.

The valley which Heather was born in, is called Wild Horse Valley and is home to 13 or so Mustangs. Black, Bay, Pinto, Grey, Roan or even Palomino. It's grand to see them galloping and galloping. They belong there and many people hope they stay there. Every morning they go down the hill-side, manes flying like banners, tails streaming out behind them.

Many ranchers ride out on sturdy Quarter horses and try to catch them. The most popular horse, the one on the top of their list is....Heather! Of course it is! Heather gallops with an arched neck. Heather is the fastest runner. She's the prettiest and the hardest to catch.

There's an event, a competition which is: the person who catches Heather and tames her, will win 100 cows, 400 bales of straw and hay, 14 acres of land and 8 million dollars! Whew! What a lot!, but she's as quick and nimble as a fox with a hound on it's scent.! Even when a a big, powerful quarter horse gallops after her, she always is at least 40 yards ahead. Many say she's got Arab and Barb blood. There's also Spanish and Thoroughbred in her too!

Some years later, one misty morning, while the heard was still at the stream, Heather sniffed the air. MAN!... she smelled man!

She cantered back to the herd and neighed, then the whole lot of the herd galloped after the chocolate brown mare, (who was already far away.) When they reached Wild Horse Valley, they found Heather rolling in her favourate plant, heather. Heather snorted and trotted up to them. Suddenly she wheeled around and galloped off, terror showing in her eyes. Panic stricken, the herd of many colours galloped after her. A little while later, Heather and the herd were safely grazing on Wild-Goose Plain.( There were no wild geese on the plain, so it was a mystery why it was called Wild-Goose Plain!)

The next day, a man moved into a ranch which was near Wild Horse Valley and was 2 kilometers away from Wild-Goose Plain. The man had 4 barns, 9 corrals and 17 horses. One was his best. It was a black Thoroughbred Quarter Cross. He named it Sargent. Every day he and Sargent went galloping out on the plains and once, he saw Heather and the herd.

He loved the look of the other Mustangs, but his mouth dropped open and his eyes nearly fell out of his head when he saw Heather.

"Wow!", was all he ever managed to get out of his mouth...(which was still hanging open).....Oh! how pretty Heather looked! The sun was shining on her chocolate coat and was making it shine. Her long mane and tail streamed out behind her and her white blaze looked as white as newly fallen snow!

He wasn't the only one right there who loved the look of Heather, but his horse, (who was a stallion), thought, that that galloping mare looked like , something else! He pranced and neighed to her, but in a flash, the herd was gone!

Hummph!, he snorted, "If only that man sitting on me with his silly mouth still open would get a move on, we might see that scrumptious mare again"! He bucked violently and his rider fell off. Sargent galloped after the mare. When her reached Wild Horse Valley and saw the herd, he started to show-off.

But before I meet the mares, he thought, I must get rid of this stupid brown thing around my tummy, (the saddle) and that silly thing on my head which has half come off already. (the bridle). He rubbed himself along a tree and somehow got rid of the western saddle and bridle.

When he reached Heather she kicked out and trotted away! A Strawberry Roan mare trotted up and nickered at the stallion.

Heather will always be as wild as a coyote and no one can change that.

The End!