Bradshaw’s Horses

Chapter One

“Tighten up your reins and hang on. The horses are going to jump.” Kiersti heard her friend's voice getting higher pitched with each word.

Twelve year old Kiersti had only sat on a horse three times in her life and now she felt herself slipping off as Amanda danced in a circle. What if she fell and got hurt just like that boy who used to be in her class last year? She didn't have time to think about Dennis other than a flash of memory of the sixth grader wearing a cast on his arm.

To make matters worse, Amanda belonged to Mr. Bradshaw who was gone to Albuquerque for three days. He'd given Kiersti permission to ride Amanda, his bay Morgan Horse mare, in the pasture. He had not actually said it would be all right to go out on the paved road a half mile away from the house. Dorothea had come by with her Quarter Horse mare, Rhonda. The neighbor girl assured Kiersti that it would be all right for them both to go “out riding.” Because she was fourteen and in high school, Kiersti was sure she was obviously wiser than a twelve year old like Kiersti who was only in junior high.

“It's that house. The horses hear Janet moaning and they're scared.”

Now that both Amanda and Rhonda were tossing their heads, dancing sideways, and breaking into sweat, Kiersti was scared. Not only would she probably come out with a broken arm but then her parents would know she'd taken Amanda out of the pasture. The thought flashed. “You bet we're all going to get in big trouble now.”

“Sit up straighter.” Dorothea ordered. “Get a good hold on Amanda's mane.”

Now that Kiersti had the reins in the palms of her hands while clutching the thick long black mane of the Morgan Horse mare, it looked like she could pull herself back toward the center of Amanda's back and get a better balanced seat.

Rhonda reared up. Her front feet were off the ground which made her spine slope like a sliding board on a children's playground. Dorothea leaned forward into the neck of the yellow mare so far that the snow white mane curled around the teenager's head. In the same moment, Dorothea lost track of the reins which fell to the dirt below. A second later, Rhonda's front feet were back on the ground and she was galloping along the shoulder of the road.

The reddish brown horse Kiersti was on snorted because she wanted to go along with her friend, the golden palomino that was now a runaway. The only thing Kiersti could think of at the moment was to give a jerk on the reins to stop Amanda. Faster than anybody knew what happened, Kiersti was on the ground lying on her right shoulder. What she hadn't thought of was that her own body weight was less than Amanda's neck mass so Kiersti had simply pulled herself off the broad Morgan's back. Amanda lowered her nose as if examining her former rider. As much as she wanted to run to the other mare, Amanda had a strong motherly character and had always been careful of humans, especially people she thought of as vulnerable. Amanda lifted her head and looked in the direction where Rhonda was still running with her head high. The palomino's tail was now straight up in the air like a flag.

Amanda just stood quietly next to where Kiersti was starting to get back to her feet. The good thing was that when Kiersti had fallen, she'd landed in the sand beyond the shoulder of the asphalt street in front of the haunted house. Other than a pain in the shoulder and an abrasion on her knee, Kiersti was fine.