The Life Of A Horse

Chapter 6

After Ashley sets up camp she lays her sleeping bag out and gets in it. Soon she is snoring so I am left alone to think. Why would Ashley run away? I know her parents are seperating but really? Running away? And why did she come to my yard? Maybe she wanted to talk to me but found a horse instead so she took the horse without talking to me. Or like I said earlier maybe she heard that I was missing and came to try to find me and saw the horse. Was she possibly going to look for me on horse back or did she give up her plan? Of course all of these might be wrong. I can't read her mind obviously.

I don't know. I'm too tired for this nonsense. Maybe I will wake up and be me-Sasha. As a human. Then we can both go back home and continue our boring lives. And maybe this is just a really vivid dream? Eventually I find myself drifting off to sleep with all of these unfinished thoughts in my mind.

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I wake up and find myself next to a tree. Why am I by a tree? I suddenly notice the rope and look down. I'm a horse?! I calm down after realizing that this happened last night. I look over and see Ashley packing her camp and kicking dirt over the coals of last night's fire and she turns to me. "Good morning Beauty," she says before giving me a hug. She turns away to pack her last few things and I try to pull away from the tree. I need to exercise my legs. "Calm down. I will untie you in a minute," she says without looking back at me.

I suddenly hear something in the distance. We both look in that direction. Her eyes widen in fear and she turns to her stuff. She packs it on my back quickly and unties me in lightning speed. She hops on me and we walk before jumping into a trot. We have to trot to warm up. I feel her body shift on my back as she turns her head around. I feel her relax.

I turn my head to see my horse. Sunstruck! I neigh to him. I do not know if he knows it's me but he acts like he knows me. No, he doesn't know its Sasha. I suddenly feel the urge to spit everything out. I haven't talked to anyone in what feels like forever.

I decide to tell him that my name is Dakota. The name Ashley gave me. Ashley dismounts and takes an extra rope from her bag. She puts it around his neck and ties it to my rope. She takes a saddle from her bag and puts it on me. Where did she get a saddle from? I don't know. It's a special saddle so she can put her bag on it.

"This saddle was meant to be for Sunstruck so Sasha and I could run away together, but she went missing, I found you, and we didn't have time to look for her." So I was right. She was planning on running away with me, but she knew her parents would be looking for her, so she needed time to get far away.

"We can't ever go back so if you haven't met Sasha, then you won't ever be able to," Ashley says sadly. This one sentence makes me feel bad for her. She thinks she won't ever see me again. I don't understand how she is strong enough to run away with just a horse. Ashley hasn't ever really been a strong person. She is more sensitive to the world then I ever was. But maybe she is okay right now because of me. I have always tried to make her tougher.

We continue our journey in silence with her riding me and Sunstruck walking beside me. We decide to talk. "My name is Dakota," I say. "What's yours?" He sniffs me and says, "I recognize your smell. And my name is Sunstruck. My old owner gave it to me. I feel bad leaving her but I felt something bad was happening to her so I kicked down my stall door to come find her and then her friend captured me. Maybe she is bringing us to my owner."

I really want to tell him but I can't. It's not safe. He is just a horse anyway, he would not understand any of it. But no one would, not even a human. We continue our walk in silence. Then Ashley nudges me into a trot and then canter. We are in the perfect gait. I kind of enjoy being a horse. The feeling of cantering and the wind blowing your mane. I sigh which as a horse comes out as a snort.

And I suddenly feel the need to run as fast as I can. A free horse. I gallop and Ashley isn't expecting this. "Dakota! Wooooooooah." I decide to stop to keep her from falling off. I canter instead and lift my head high and have the wind take my mane. I feel so free, like I am one with the wind and sky. This is my home. I slow to a trot but then I decide on a slow canter. We have been in a wide open meadow for over five minutes now with the mountain peak far to our right, a forest a few hundred yards ahead, and nothing but more mountains to our left. My human home is directly behind us, miles away.

After we cross the open field and reach the forest ahead, Ashley pulls on her reins and we come to a trot, walk, and finally a halt. She walks me around for a few minutes to cool us off. "What was that earlier?" Sunstruck asks. "I don't know, I just needed to stretch my legs," I answer. Ashley halts us and dismounts.

It is around lunch time and she probably didn't think about bringing horse food. I can't even imagine eating that. I have had a little grass but I got used to it quickly. Thankfully my rope is longer so I stretch my neck down to get some grass. It tastes good.

I guess she realizes I'm thirsty because she says, "I'm pretty sure there is a river over here somewhere." She looks around and notices a little river about fifty feet to our right. She unties us and leads us over there. Then she reties us to two trees where we can reach the water and eat the grass. I bend my neck down and drink. It tastes good.

She brings us two apples and feeds it to me and Sunstruck. "Good boy," she says to him. "Good girl Dakota." I decide to take a nap. And it isn't long before my eyes close and I drift off, thoughts of open meadows fresh in my mind.