[Gift] Come on Home

Gravel crunched under Dawson’s boots, each step bringing him closer to the overfilled pens of the sale yard. Dawn was playing at the horizon, but had yet to break, and, except for a particularly ambitious rooster crowing, the animals held there had yet to stir from their slumbers. 

“What did she say she was looking for again?” The man asked, voice heavy with sleep. Only ten minutes prior, he’d dragged himself from his bed roll and pulled on his boots. “Some kind of Lakota horse?” The white-haired man scrubbed a hand over his face to dispel the dregs of sleep that clung to him. If he wanted any chance at satisfying their next customer, some posh lady from the north, he’d need to have his wits about him.

“Loshenka,” the slightly more awake man beside him said. Rick had been up through the night, patrolling the sale yard to watch for thieves. “Some northern breed. She said they don’t have a mane and their tails are like curtains - that we’d know a Loshenka when we saw them.” He shrugged and walked toward the first pen. “Auctions start at 7, but I reckon we can use something shiny to get an early bid in.” 

Dawson snorted and ran his eyes over the horses as they approached. Loshenka… it was a name he hadn’t heard before. Hopefully, they weren’t as difficult to work with as the last special request they’d had. 

“Alright, then. A Loshenka. What else did she say?” 

“She wants a horse fit for a lady,” Rick sighed. “Something quiet, with a good mind about it, but friendly enough to be around children.” He rolled his eyes as he spoke. “People don’t realize those horses come from training, not just existing.”

“True,” Dawson replied, moving on to the next pen when he didn’t spot any maneless horses in the group. “It helps when they have some common sense though.”

Rick didn’t argue, and together they searched the pens until they found a small group of horses slightly removed from the rest. It looked like they’d been grouped to be put in the specialty auctions, but, one thing was for sure, there wasn’t a mane in sight and their tails did look like curtains. 

“I’ll be damned,” Rick whistled quietly. “I half thought she was sending us on a damned goose chase.” He walked up to the fence and crossed his arms over the top rail as the sun broke over the horizon. Dawson joined him a moment later. “You think any of these look ‘fit for a lady’?” Rick chuckled. 

“Mmm,” Dawson waited to see if any of the horses would approach them of their own free will. A few foals looked at them curiously but hung back. A stallion snorted and pranced protectively between the strangers and what he’d adopted as his herd, and for a moment it didn’t seem like any of the horses would meet them at the fence. Then, a soft nicker sounded and a lone mare, mostly white with a few darker patches, crossed the pen to greet them. Her ears checked in often with her stallion, but her eyes stayed on the men. 

“Hey there girl,” Dawson greeted, reaching out a calloused hand for the mare to sniff. “You gonna be nice? Or you got some spice in you?” 

The mostly white few-spot appaloosa perked her ears forward and nuzzled the man’s hand, lipping at his palm in hopes of finding a treat. When she didn’t find one there, she let out a disappointed huff of air and raised her head, staring at him with baby doll-like eyes as if she were expecting him to pull a hidden treat from his pocket. 

“Sorry girl,” Dawson laughed, “I don’t have anything for you right now.” He could have sworn the horse looked disappointed. She was a pretty thing. She had bay-colored patches of fur in a few places on her body, around her eyes, and all four knees were nearly black, but the rest of her was brilliant white. Her tail, incredibly long and wavy, was unlike anything he’d ever seen before. “What do you think?” He asked Rick without looking at him. “Think this one is ‘fit for a lady’?” 

Rick snorted and reached over to stroke the mare’s maneless neck. “I think she’ll do. Now we just have to see how deep our pockets will have to go to get her.” 

Dawson grimaced. Knowing who ran this particular sale yard, their pockets would be significantly lighter after acquiring the mare. 

“You’re the better negotiator,” Dawson said, “go make it happen.”

“Will do,” Rick replied. Giving the mare one final pat, he stretched his arms above his head to relieve his aching back. “Wish me luck,” he said, then headed off to find the auctioneer.

Fate must have been smiling on the pair that day. Not only did they find a pen full of horses that hadn’t even gotten a single bid when they’d gone into the ring, but they were also offered the sweet mare for free if they would take the aggressive red stallion off the seller’s hands. Now the stallion was stallionish, that much was for sure, but neither Rick nor Dawson could tell what the seller was going on about when he’d said the “big red brute” was nasty. 

“He don’t seem too bad to me,” Rick said to Dawson. “Just a little skittish is all. Probably feral before all this.” The horseman gestured vaguely to the stockyard. 

They’d gotten the horses pulled from the pen and were preparing to pony the pair back to the farm. Both would have the day off to adjust, but the next day the men would begin evaluating the horses. Once they’d done that they could figure out a training plan. If they were lucky both Loshenkas, the red stallion with a light belly and regal face, and the sweet mostly white mare with bay patches, would be quick to train and easy to flip for a profit. 

“Not yet he doesn’t,” Dawson replied, eyeing the stallion warily. “Horses can change once they settle in, though. I wouldn’t throw caution to the wind just yet.” The weathered man swung into the saddle of his sweet-hearted mare, Solaris, who was a bright chestnut with three white feet and a broken blaze, and tied the lead of the new mare around his saddle horn. Rick did the same with the stallion. “It ain’t a long ride home, luckily. Just a couple of hours, but he’ll probably tell us a bit more about himself along the way.” He looked over at the new mare and she stared back at him with baby doll like eyes. 

“Guess we’ll find out if he’s as mean as they say or not, then,” Rick said through a yawn. “Let’s get home, though. We still got plenty of work to do once we get back.”

Dawson nodded and urged his horse forward, flicking the lead rope of the new mare. “C’mon baby doll,” he sweet-talked her. White ears and eyes with bay patches surrounding them flicked toward Dawson curiously, eagerly following after him and Solaris. Solaris, the bright red mare, snorted a greeting to Baby Doll and allowed her to walk beside them. 

Rick and the red stallion, Red Wolf the seller had called him, were not getting off to such a seamless start. With a nervous twitch, the stallion had begun to prance alongside Rick and his horse. Red Wolf would high step for a few strides, then trot in place or try and tug away, then go back to nervous prancing. It was like the horse couldn’t stand to be near the man, or maybe like the idea of being back out of a pen was too overwhelming for the beast. Auction yards weren’t always kind to horses - especially problematic ones, so neither man would be surprised if the stallion wasn’t a fan of humans.

“Easy boy, easy,” Rick tried to soothe the antsy horse. “We’re leaving. We gotcha a mare, too. There’s two of them, even, all yours for the trip.” The veteran pushed his horse into a trot, hoping the forward motion would calm the stallion. Unfortunately for Rick, it only made the horse more agitated and, before he knew it, Red Wolf had nearly yanked Rick from his saddle when he decided to leap forward and take off at a flat out gallop as soon as he touched back down. Dawson could only shake his head to himself as he watched his partner try to get the horse back under control.

“I told him, didn’t I Baby Doll? You and Solaris were here to witness it. I knew that damn horse was going to be trouble.” With a chuckle, Dawson patted Solaris’s neck in apology for what the ride would be like, then urged her forward to chase after Rick and Red Wolf, tugging the lead to make sure Baby Doll knew they were about to speed up. 

If the rest of the ride was the same as the first few minutes, it was going to be one hell of a trip home.