"…Going once…going
twice…sold, to the girl in the white shirt! No, not
you, the one that’s jumping around!"
Laura swore she’d
always remember those words.
“5”, Jackie kept muttering. "5. We had to borrow Casey’s
two trailers to haul the other four! And you had to buy the
weanling! What if she takes after Stella, huh? Then what are we going to do? And by the
way, I can’t believe how many times you changed that yearlings name! It’s gonna be
permanent soon! And what are you changing the weanlings name too? 'Cause I know you are,
and you’re thinking about it right now! And that means you’re ignoring me!"
Laura
was ignoring her. She would rename the black weanling, who had
been sold as Hellbound, to Spirited Away. That was, if the name wasn’t taken already, but
she’d have to look at the registry later. Right now, she was unloading five prospects, and
one young one.
“Ok, here comes the weanling. We’ll call him Spirit”, Laura said as she
carefully lowered the colt down. He was beautiful, but that didn’t matter. He had already
been weaned from his mother’s milk, so no need to worry about that!
"Put him in with
Stella."
“Oh, no! Well, don’t blame me when…”
"Jackie, he’ll be fine! Yo,
Casey, a hand?"
Laura’s middle school pal and her still true-blue bud, Casey, sauntered
over. “Jacks, he’ll be fine! C’mon, little boy,” Casey said as she led the colt to
Stella’s paddock.
“Ok, bring my favorite out!”
“Laura, which one?”
"Coscoroba,
of course!"
Jackie unloaded the 3 y/o filly. Laura sighed and wrapped her arms around
Coscoroba’s neck.
"I’m soo glad I was the only one bidding on you, girl. You and
Universal will get along fine, I promise!"
Coscoroba nuzzled Laura’s auburn hair and
blew softly. Jackie watched, knowing there was an attatchment between the girl and her
filly.
“Ok, Casey! Uh, Casey?”
Looking over, Laura saw Casey, standing grumpily as
Stella galloped around with Spirit’s lead rope dangling from her mouth. The little colt was
enjoying all of it.
Jackie looked smug. “What’d I tell you?”
"Oh, just unload the
bay!"
“And his name would be…?”
"Tripped Too Fast. A.k.a Prince, 'cause he sure
acts like one!"
Indeed, the mahogony bay colt stepped out onto the mountain as if Reina
Meadows was his kingdom. With a toss of his head, Prince let out a neigh, and an answer came
from the trailer as Laura then emerged with the dark bay filly, Top Secret.
"Ok, then.
She’ll go in the paddock next to Coscoroba. I think Casey finally has Stella under control.
Coscoroba’s in the paddock, and in case you didn’t notice, she’s got Prince. He’s going
in the paddock next to Universal’s. And Spirit’s all set…and who’s that?"
"Did you
forget?" Laura laughed, “This is SinisterPass. A.k.a Sinni.”
“Sinni?”
"Hey, it’s
catchy!"
The brown colt tossed his head and went up on his hindlegs. Laura turn him in a
circle, forrcing him down.
“Whoa, fiesty! He’s 3, right?”
“Yep”, Laura answered
Jackie as she led the colt to the paddock by Secret. After he was set, Laura went to
Universal. He was cantering about, snorting and nickering at all the new arrivals. And Dark
Side could care less. The broodmare just grazed, she probobly wouldn’t stop if a dragon
came in and started blowing up the barns. But Laura watched the chestnut colt as he sniffed
noses with Coscoroba, a fellow chestnut.
“Hello boy, so many new smells, huh?” Laura
asked the colt as Coscoroba squealed and trotted around, tail high. Universal watched her
and nickerd.
“I smell love, boy! And it’s coming from both directions, isn’t it?” the
girl asked her colt as he watched the filly flirt. If they thought of each other while
racing, maybe they would win… 
