Word Count: 917 Words
"Hey Shine! I saw the new Stallion a couple days ago, but was never able to ask you how his arrival went"
I look up from the book I was read and smile at Josh and know what's coming next because he always asks questions about everything. "It went great! Though, that little stinker stole my wallet!" I laugh as I remember Thursday, the day the rambunctious stallion came to Stormy Hollow Reserve.
" Is he in good shape, and what did you name him! I see that he is a bit of a trouble maker, did you name him something really cool!?!" Josh's bright, excited eyes get wider as he asks more and more questions.
"Okay, for the first question: Yes, he is in relatively good condition, but he is underweight. For the second question, I decided to name him Surtur." I smile and before he asks what the name means I say "Surtur means world destroyer, I named him Surtur because I noticed he has a habit of chewing things up and being the prankster he is.
Josh's eyes grow even bigger as I explain Surtur's name "Whoa, that's awesome!" He says, then he goes back to his original questions "Okay, so tell me everything that happened that day! Start from when you woke up, did you get very much sleep? I know I wouldn't have because I would have been too excited, which I was, but because I was visiting my grandmother I couldn't come on Thursday."
I laugh "Okay, well just hold your horses. Here's what happened on Thursday, even from when I WOKE UP!"
I woke up that morning far before I set my alarm to get ready to see the new arrival. The second I woke up I was wide awake and smiling, bursting with excitement to see the first pony of many that would reside at Stormy Hollow Reserve. I jumped out of bed, got dressed and went down stairs to get some breakfast. After breakfast I put my jacket on and hurried to the barn to prepare it for the new arrival. But before I did any of that I first went and said Hi to Molly. Molly as she always is sniffed through my pockets to try and find the treat that she knew I almost always had. “ I’m sorry Mo, you can’t have all the treats today. There’s someone new that is coming.” I smile and stroke Molly’s neck. As I pet her I say “ I hope you like him, I heard that he gave them a bit of a problem with trying to take things.” I pause and shake my head “ But hey, you use to be like that all the time! I remember when one day I was searching for my necklace and come to find out, you had it all along hidden the straw of your stall!” I stop talking to Molly as I hear tires of a truck in the yard. “I bet that’s him! Bye, Molly!” I give her a pat good bye and rush out to the stable yard.
I come up to the window of the drivers side and wait as it rolls down “Hi Maggy! How did getting this guy go?” She smiles and says” It actually wasn’t that bad. He was a little reluctant at first to go into the trailer, but after we gave him some treats and we got him in fine becuase he just wanted more of those treats!” I laugh “Wow, looks like I will have to definitely get more treats for him” “Yep, how about we get him out of the trailer and get him ready for the vet.” I pause “The vets supposed to get her at 12” I look at my watch “Wow, you came here just in time! The vet will be here in an hour”
We walk to the back of the trailer and open the doors “Wow, he is underweight! No wonder he really liked those treats!” I say “Yhea, he is, poor things, but other than that, as far as I can tell when we picked him up, he looks pretty healthy. But don’t take my word for it, how about we just wait and see what the vet says?” Says Maggy “Agreed!” I say.
Over the next 10 minutes Both me and Maggy sat on the edge of the trailer, letting him get use to us as we talked quietly cence he seemed to get a little nervous when we got to close. When I was finally able to come up to him I softly petted his nose. “Hey, maggy, I’m gonna go make him some food, can you keep an eye on him while I go make it?” I ask quietly. “Sure, no problem” She replies. I went and made a short, easy to make mash for the stallion. At first when I gave him the food he was a bit cautious, be he soon changed his mind and gobbled up the food. “Wow, he sure was hungry wasn’t he!” I sat my jacket on the window next to him and said to Maggy “Lets wait outside the trailer and let him have some room to himself even though this trailer is pretty roomy.” Forgetting my jacket I went outside and sat with Maggy. I look down the road to see if I could see the vets truck and sure enough too, I see his truck! “Maggy, look, the vets here early!”
Word Count: 295 Words
I go and greet the vet, who introduces himself to Maggy as Mr. Jones. Maggy says hi and we head back to the trailer to show Mr. Jones the new stallion.
“Wow, he’s bit on the skinny side isn’t he!” Mr. Jones says. “Yhea, I made him a quick mash earlier to help him a bit.” I stop suddenly as I realize I don’t have my jacket anymore. Then I remember that I put it on the window next to the stallion. I look at the window, but my jacket isn’t there anymore. “Where did my jacket go? I had it up on the window…” I look around and Maggy laughs “Looks like I have the culprit! Look!” She points to the stallion. I know see what he has done. He had taken my jacket and put it behind the bucket that I had left him earlier and was nibbling on it. “Oh, you little stinker!” I laugh. I go and gentle get him to give it back to me. I see that he wasn’t nibbling on it at all. He was eating the treats that I had put in my pockets earlier. “That’s one smart pony, he’s been eating all the treats!” Maggy and Mr. Jones start laugh. “Okay, well let's get this little troublemaker out of the trailer and get a look at him.” says Mr. Jones.
After checking the stallion heart, lungs, and having some difficulty checking his hooves and so on, Mr. Jones says that the stallion is in pretty good health, seeing that he is underweight. Mr. Jones tells us the diet he wants the stallion to be on to slowly get him back to weight and leaves because he has another horse he had to check on that day.
Word Count: 451 Words
The next three weeks with the stallion of whom I had named Surtur for his sneaky ways was spent getting him use to his new home. At night he did great being stalled him the large stall next to Molly and the two have seemed to take a liking towards each other. I had even started letting Surtur go out the fenced in pasture that was meant for foals and older horses. I would let Molly go to the other side of the fence and they have seemed so far to do pretty well together. After two weeks I let Molly and Surtur be in the same pasture. Even though Molly is quite older than Sutur and isn’t as active, she has even played and bucked around with him. Molly has even taken it upon herself to show him around a bit. Molly is more like a mother towards Surtur and even though during those days of showing him around, she didn’t let him do things she knew he was not allowed to do. I have learned over the past few days that Surtur could be trained, and I knew I would train him.
After the first week I let him explore the vast area outside of the pasture that he would soon be able to go to whenever he wanted. He loved to go for long hours and explore, often letting Molly who is 12 hh, 2 hands shorter than him, lead the way since she new the area far more better than he did. And during that time I found out more and more about his personality.
Surtur has a very unique personality. He can be a little calm, then all of a sudden start bucking around and playing. I’ve even gone out there and gave him a big red ball, that at first he was afraid of and was unsure of what to do, soon started playing with. Sutur now loves playing with that big red ball and get so excited when in the mornings I bring it out for him to play with. He is also quite the sneaky stallion, he has more than once taken things that I had left for a moment and hid them. He has gotten quite use to me and lets me stand next to him for long periods of time when he is not exploring or running about. Though, when it comes to other people, he tends to be more cautious and doesn’t like when they are around him for long periods of time. Though, he has gotten better about it and I believe we won't be have to worry about that in a couple of months of working with him.
Word Count: 331 Words
For three weeks I had him explore the vast area, only letting him go out for a certain amount of hours during the day. Watching him when he went into the reserve as well as when he was with Molly was not all for fun and watching a AISP in his natural habitat, it was also to make sure he knew his way around as well as to make sure he wouldn’t harm Molly, seeing that she was an older mare. But I was less worried about Surtur harming Molly, than himself, because after that first week Surtur and Molly had become pretty close.. Surtur loves to explore and can often get stuck in small areas and during those weeks we wanted to make sure when he was set to roam on his own, he wouldn’t get suck. But today I think the little stinker is ready to go on his own without constant supervision to make sure he was getting along with Molly or doing something he really wasn't supposed to do. I will open the gate between the pasture and the actual reserve(Which was several miles long) today. Surtur will be able to come and go through the day as he pleases, though at night we will still have to go get him and bring him into the stables since it’s only him and Molly. Throughout the morning Surtur tends to stay in the pasture, following me as I do the day's chores. During this time this playful stallion usually gets me to have some fun time with me as well as always managing to steal something. Though, by now I have found out his little hiding place at the back of the pasture where he keeps everything. I often think doing this time how I will most certainly train him for some things such as sled pulling and trail rides because he is a wonderful pony, of course if you're not looking at his rambunctious and prankster ways.
