April Story Contest

The End of the Lead
By: Gypsy_Horse
Age: 10

“Pal?” I said while holding a black halter and lead because I couldn’t find hers. Whenever I called her name, she always came cantering towards me from the back of her paddock, but this time, no horses came up to me. I was planning to be going on a long trail ride at sunset, a big break from jumping, which was supposed to be happening then. I entered her paddock that had some of the older horses and shut the gate behind me. It was getting darker and cloudy, big gray monsters in the sky. I continued to call her name and walk around her turn out with a flashlight, but still, there was no sign of any horses. As I came nearer to the far end of the corral, I saw that the white wooden fence was broken and there were hoof tracks along the road. Luckily, I have another wonderful trail horse that cherished galloping.

I sprinted back to the barn, not even bothering to close the gateway behind me. I slipped on Ice’s trail tack and galloped her down the entrance and next to the street where the hoof prints were. After about forty minutes of non-stop galloping, I heard some neighing and saw the horses- Pal, Athena, Gypsy, Lady, Junior, and Hunter. I crossed the street so I was galloping across of them. I saw Pal leading the others in her pink halter and her “never ending” lead rope that I left on her by mistake (this was another reason why I wanted to ride her again-to get the halter and lead rope off of her). The horses began to slow down, and eventually started to walk. I dismounted Ice, tied her up to a tree, and ran over to the horses. I caught the end of Pal’s “never ending” pink lead rope. This was the only time I could actually ever see or grab the end of it.

I held on her lead with all my strength and mounted on up again. It was 8:30 at night now, so I guessed we wouldn’t go on a trail ride that evening. “Well, duh we won’t,” I said to myself. I loped back to the barn on Ice while holding onto the end of Pal’s lead and the others following. I turned her out into the other paddock with the horses right behind her. I took her halter and lead rope off this time. I lead Ice back to the barn and took her saddle and bridle off. “Ahhhh,” Ice imagined while I was grooming her.  I put her back into her stall and called the ranch owner to tell her what happened. The ranch owner thanked me and told me that she would get the fence fixed soon. I left the barn at 9:45 on Sunday and fell asleep right when I got home, at 10:00.