
Username: MiloThePitBull
Show Name: Broken Records Don't play New Tunes
Barn Name: Brochan
Gender: stallion
Colour: Smokey Grullo Sabino
Genotype: EE/aa/DD/nCr/nSb1
Halter Colour: faded black with silver bullets shooting across it
One extra: Short story
Someday I'll make it to the end, but for now I am here for good. My coat may grow grey but heart will forever stay young. I may slowly loose my vision and my hearing may fade away from reach but one day the war will be won and i will join them in my forever home. For now i am alone, but it is nice here, the wind is gentle and the little stream is cooling as it trickles down my throat in the heat of summer. I remember being young and forever moving onward, now i just want to stay here where i know i am safe, i know the dangers of the world and this place here is a safe haven.
But they will come for me again, clip my bridle up to whatever they need to be moved and i will see my partner again, we will use our last strength to make the final journey before we are allowed to make our final sleep, in the next safe haven. And i can't wait to see my human again and feel her soft hands rub my forehead and give me a carrot like she did when I was young. I wonder how she turned out, she was only a child when I last saw her. She was a little child, blonde hair always in braids and her green eyes always sparkling with happiness, until the day I was sold. I saw her green eyes fill with sadness and I felt the warm drop of her tears as she gave me a final hug. Her sweet little voice whispered "I will find you, and we we'll be together again." as her father ripped her from my side, I called to her with frantic whinnies but she never returned, just looked back at me.
From that day on I vowed to make it back alive, I didn't know where I was heading but I was told that it was dangerous and that not many of us will come back. My heart sunk every night as the ship sailed further and further from my homeland, I used to drown myself in sorrows but know I realize that it just makes things worse.
I remember spending days, weeks or even months on that ship, surrounded by the other horses who I was told were war-horses. I didn't know what that meant and I was confused, scared and excited. But I should have known better. For years I have spent carrying soldiers across broken and rocky ground, I never really had the same man for more that two months as I became used to the sound of guns and grenades, I because used to the sound of men hitting the ground and horses falling to their knees. It was cruel out here, the sun was harsh and many of us developed heat stroke. We arrived with hundreds of thousands of men and horses, who knows how many we will return with, the numbers of dead are unknown to me, but all I know is that I am not among them, at least not yet.
I don't know how long I have been away from home for, where is home anyway? Is it out here where I have spent most my life? Is it at the soldier camps where we rest and have final drinks? Or is it back in Australia where my human lives and where I wish to be everyday? The word home doesn't have a true meaning, home is supposed to be where you are happy, where you are safe, but I am told I am home when we reach the camps where the sound of guns echos through the coal black night. My nature has changed out here, once I was care-free without a worry in the world, now all I do is hope that the next day on the battle field won't be my last, all I think of is the sound of thundering hooves and the mimicking answer of gunfire.
Many men have sat upon my back and have entrusted their lives in me to carry them to our next stop. The first time I charged against the guns I was terrified, my heart pounded out my chest and I could feel the fear of my rider. But I did as I was told and galloped head-long into the death trap and watched horse and men alike fall and lay still on the ground. I remember clearing fallen bodies as my nostrils flared with exhaustion and feeling the brave soldier upon my back drop my reins and fall, I was trained to keep running and so I did.
But know those are just memories and I will wait for my turn again. Now they are just bad dreams that I wake to with a thundering heart and quickening breath when I will startle to my feet and realize that I am still alive. Until then I will do as my master pleases and will walk until I drop to my knees and can no longer stand. My heart still longs to be back in my on country after all these years at war with who I am still uncertain. My heart often skips a beat as I hear a distant gun shot but my body doesn't jump anymore, once upon a time I would have shied at such a sound but know I am a true war-horse, battles no longer scare me as I have seen too many but the sound of gun shots will forever remain in my head and will keep me awake at night. But until they load me back aboard that ship I will pay my duties and will stay a soldier's mount, and until then I will always long to be back in my warm stall, listening to my human sing her songs and tell me that she will never let me go. But until then I am here, where my eyes are filled with dust and dirt and my ears are filled with the sound of terror. Because I am forever a war-horse and this place is forever home.



