“Here we are,” he said. “Pretty crowded today. But I think I see a parkin’ space.”
Willie pulled the big rig into the parking lot and maneuvered it into a space between two other trucks. Mary and Jody looked out the window and immediately saw two horses being led toward the sale barn. Others were in the process of unloading from the many trailers, and there were people riding horses in the parking lot.
“How many horses are there going to be?” Jody asked, watching as a pair of gray ponies was unloaded from one of the trailers.
“Oh, about two hundred or so,” Twister answered nonchalantly.
Two hundred horses! Mary and Jody could hardly grasp the enormity of it all. They stepped down from the truck just in time to see a horse-drawn buggy driven by a man with a long beard enter the lot.
“Those are the Amish,” Willie explained as they watched the man drive the horse into a shed where two other buggies were parked with the horses hitched to a long rail. “They still abide by the old ways, and they don’t have cars or tractors. They depend on horses to do the farm work and provide their transportation. We’ll see a lot more buggies in here by the end of the day.”
Mary and Jody were speechless as they walked across the parking lot toward the sale barn. All manner of horses and ponies, mules and burros, and even a pair of llamas were traveling with them to the wide entrance into the building. But once inside the cavernous structure, an even more astounding sight met their eyes. In the first section of the building, to the right and left, on either side of a wide aisle, stood a long, continuous row of horses. Their halters were secured by short ropes clipped to rings on the wall, and their hindquarters faced outward to the aisle. Some were munching on the hay provided in a long trough at their heads, some were stomping or shaking their heads nervously, and others whinnied impatiently to each other.
“Now be careful walking down the aisle—stay right in the center,” Willie warned. “Some of these horses are kickers, and there’s not much room to get out of the way. We’re goin’ to walk you through the whole barn, and then I want you to take a seat in the risers along the sale ring. Me and Twister have work to do.”
Mary and Jody tried to follow Willie and Twister down the very center of the aisle, but it was difficult not to bump into all the other spectators who were attempting the same route. The awestruck girls, elbowing their way through the crowd, gazed from right to left at the array of horses of all colors, shapes, and sizes. They finally made their way to the end of the barn, where a wide exit opened into an outdoor courtyard. In this long rectangular space were even more horses, these with riders showing off the horses’ abilities to prospective buyers. Willie and Twister stopped for a moment to watch, then continued around the corner to the second section of the barn, which looked much like the first, with two rows of horses tied in the same manner. The one difference was in the size of the inhabitants.
In the long row on the left were donkeys, miniature horses, and ponies of all colors. On the right stood the draft horses: Belgians, Clydesdales, Percherons, and Shires, their enormous hindquarters towering above the heads of the girls.
“Oh my gosh, they’re huge!” Mary exclaimed. “Look how big their feet are, too!”
“And their heads,” Jody marveled. “I think that one’s head is as big as half my body!”
“The Amish use them in the fields to work up the ground and harvest the crops,” Willie explained. “They hitch them up four across.”
“And look how cute the ponies are!” Jody continued, turning to the other side of the aisle. “Oh,Willie, can’t we squeeze in next to one of themand pet him?”
“No goin’ between two ponies,” Willie warned. “But you could pat that one at the very end of the row there.”
The pony on the end was the color of butterscotch with a cream-colored mane and tail and odd-shaped white patches on various places over his body. When Mary reached out and patted him on the shoulder, he turned his head as far as his rope would allow and rested his chin in the crook of her arm, gazing up at her with liquid brown eyes.
“Oh, Willie, can’t we buy this one?” Mary beseeched. “He’s adorable!”
“I knew this was gonna happen,” Willie mumbled to Twister. “Mary, we can’t buy everything we see that looks cute. We’re lookin’ for some real specific horses here today, and that ain’t gonna be one of ’em.”
“Ooh,” Mary and Jody cooed, stroking the neck and muzzle of the butterscotch pony. “Well, maybe we’ll get something else just as cute.”
“Speakin’ of that, the sale’s about to start. You girls git a seat up in the risers by the ring there, and me and Twister will be along shortly. We have to do some more lookin’ around.”
Mary and Jody made their way with much of the crowd to the rows of wooden bleacher seats rising along either side of another long, rectangular space, this one inside the building. A thick bed of sand covered the floor inside the space and a four-foot-high fence separated the ring from the potential buyers. Mary and Jody found a seat about halfway up the risers, across from a raised platform where the auctioneer sat.
“Look, Mare, there’s a lot of the Amish people here that Willie told us about,” Jody observed, looking around at the crowd. “The men all have beards and straw hats and wear black pants and jackets.”
“And the women all have their hair pulled back with those little white hats on,” Mary added. “Look, even the little girls wear the bonnets.”
Before Jody could reply, the girls’ attention was drawn away from the wardrobe of the Amish to the voice of the auctioneer.
“Test, test,” he said into the microphone and then cleared his throat. Mary and Jody searched the faces in the crowd standing along the ring fence, trying to spot Twister and Willie, but they were nowhere to be seen.
“I wonder if Willie is out back watching the…” Mary began.
“Good morning. Welcome to the New London Sales Stable,” the auctioneer interrupted. “We have a big crowd here today, so we’d like to ask that you keep the noise down so we can all hear what’s going on. We’re going to start today with riding horses, then drivers around noon, and finish up with ponies. In between, we’ve got a few llamas coming in and a shipment of wild horses from out west. Keep your bidding numbers handy.”
“Oh, I wonder if Willie knows he has to have a bidder’s number?” Jody wondered aloud.
“I’m sure he does, Jode. I think Willie’s done this quite a few times before.”
“Now we’re going to get started,” the auctioneer continued. “If we guarantee a horse to be sound, and you take him home and he’s not, you bring him right back here, and we’ll take him back. If we say a horse is ‘as is,’ that means you take a chance on what you’re getting. No complaints.”
The auctioneer took one last look around the crowd to make sure his message was understood. As if from nowhere, a short Amish man with a long gray beard appeared in the center of the ring.
“I wonder what he’s doing there?” Mary wondered aloud.
The auctioneer tapped his gavel and raised his hand. “Let’s go. First horse.”
The first horse to enter the ring was a short, stocky chestnut in Western tack.
His rider, a thin man with a handlebar mustache wearing jeans and a plaid shirt, reined the horse to a halt opposite the auctioneer’s platform. Mary and Jody strained to hear above the din of the crowd as he described his mount to the auctioneer.
“This is a twelve-year-old registered quarter horse, quiet, sound, used on trail rides and in Western lessons. He has all his shots and was just de-wormed. Good for any kid to ride.”
The auctioneer repeated the description into the microphone and began the bidding.
“Six hundred!” he shouted. A woman sitting directly across from the girls immediately raised her hand. When she did, the Amish man in the ring hopped in the air and yelled, “Yep!”
“See, she don’t know what she’s doin’,” came a voice from behind the girls.<
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“Twister!” Mary exclaimed. “We didn’t see you coming. Where’s Willie? And why doesn’t that lady know what’s she’s doing?”
“Will’s standin’ down there by the ring so’s he can see better. And the woman don’t know what she’s doin’ because she should’ve waited for the auctioneer to come down a little bit from six hundred before she put her hand up.”
Mary and Jody looked at each other, confused by Twister’s explanation, but didn’t pursue the matter. They were more interested in watching the Amish man hop up and down, shouting “Yep!” each time someone’s hand went up to bid. Then, as the bidding continued on the first horse, another horse and rider entered the ring.
“Twister, why are they letting the next horse in before the first one is even sold?” Mary asked as the auctioneer’s voice droned on. Three people were bidding on the chestnut quarter horse, and the price was up to eight hundred dollars.
“Makes the sale move along faster. This way people can get a look at the next horse before they start the biddin’ on it. It also gives people a chance to see if the horse is going to act up in the ring.”
In that instant, the auctioneer’s gavel came down with a bang at nine hundred dollars for the quarter horse. But when the gavel came down, the second horse in the ring went up, rearing so high that it seemed he might fall over completely. Mary and Jody gasped along with the rest of the crowd as the rider grabbed for the saddle horn and managed to stay on.
“See what I mean?” Twister said calmly.
“Twister, does that horse belong to the man riding him?” Jody sputtered.
“Probably not. The sale barn has people who ride the horses into the ring. The owners usually just pay the riders to ride in for them. That man’s probably never seen that horse before.”
The horse was down on all four legs then, and the rider had him under control, cantering him up and down the small enclosure. Although the horse was a nice-looking gray, the bidding started at only three hundred dollars, probably due to his “acting up” in the ring. Still, there were two people bidding, willing to take a chance on him, and the price was steadily going up.
“Twister, isn’t it really risky to buy some of these horses for the movie?” Mary asked worriedly. “How do you know they’ll be good? Maybe we’ll get them home and they’ll misbehave like that one just did.”
“You’re right, Mary. When you buy a horse at auction, it’s always a chance you take. The movie people normally wouldn’t allow it. But this time they are, and it’s all because of Will.”
“What do you mean, Twister?” asked Jody.
“Well, they trust him. He’s known for having the best eye in the country for horseflesh. If anybody can pick out a nice, quiet, steady horse, even out of this rangy bunch, it’s goin’ to be Will.”
Mary and Jody nodded in admiration, remembering that Mr. Crowley had said the very same thing about Willie.
The second horse was sold for five hundred dollars. As he turned to leave the ring, the auctioneer began the bidding on the third horse, a rather gangly Appaloosa horse with a skinny neck. This time the rider merely nodded to the auctioneer, who simply said, “Good, sound, broke, and ready to go,” and started the bidding at four hundred dollars.
Mary and Jody spotted Willie standing at ringside and watched him anxiously as each horse came into the ring. They hoped to see him raise his hand to bid on some of the prettiest ones, but Willie stood stock still, eyeing each horse carefully, his hands in his pockets.
“Twister, what if Willie doesn’t see anything he likes? Will we go home empty-handed? What will the movie people do?” Mary asked breathlessly.
“Don’t worry, he’ll see something. There’s over two hundred horses here today. He just hasn’t seen nothin’ he likes yet.”
Just as Twister finished his sentence, there was a sudden commotion at the far end of the ring. Mary and Jody gasped along with the rest of the crowd as the side gate was flung open to allow a whole herd of six horses into the ring at once. But these horses were different from the others. Their manes were long and tangled, and their forelocks hung wildly, covering their eyes. They snorted and pawed, and their nostrils flared as they bucked and kicked around the ring. They were almost all the same dull brown color, except for the largest one, who was nearly black.
“This must be the wild bunch the auctioneer talked about,” Twister said with a grin. “Now, watch, here comes a rider in the ring to try to round ’em up and calm ’em down.”
Mary and Jody watched with mouths open in amazement as one of the sale barn riders on a small-boned bay horse rode directly into the midst of the chaos. The rider made a “Shhhhh” sound with his mouth as he maneuvered the little bay around the outer edge of the ring, herding the wild horses together until they were settled and moving as one in a unified circle. The herding horse trotted calmly, keeping his head high and his ears forward, gazing curiously at the ragged bunch without the least bit of fear in his eyes.
“All right, boys, what’s your pleasure on this group?” the auctioneer asked, tapping his gavel lightly on the tabletop. “Straight off the plains, they are. We’re selling them by the piece, take one or all. Two hundred!”
The horses continued trotting in a relentless circle, but no one would start the bidding.
“Come on, boys, they’re here for sale. Don’t take much to calm ’em down. They’ll be like kittens in no time.”
Mary and Jody gasped as the side gate was flung open to allow a whole herd of six horses into the ring at once.
The crowd laughed then, but still no one took a chance.
“One hundred, one hundred apiece. You can’t lose at that price, folks,” the auctioneer pleaded.
A lone hand went up at ringside. Mary and Jody craned their necks to see whose hand it was.
It was Willie’s.
Even Twister gasped this time. “What the…” he began.
“Yep!” the Amish man yelped excitedly, pointing at Willie. But Willie shook his head and simply pointed at the bay herding horse.
“He’s for sale, but not yet, we’re bidding on the wild herd,” the auctioneer said insistently. “What do I hear for the wild ones?”
Still no one bid. Willie raised his hand once again and all in one motion lowered it, pointing his finger at the bay, who was still trotting easily around the wild horses as though they weren’t even there.
“All right, then,” the auctioneer said in frustration. “We’ll let the bay horse go and then we’ll sell the others. Keep your eye on them, boys. Look, they’re calmin’ down already. Six hundred on the bay!”
Willie didn’t raise his hand this time. The auctioneer glared at him and then banged his gavel. “All right, then, five hundred!”
Willie simply nodded.
“Yep!” went the Amish man.
“Five fifty! Who’ll give five fifty?” A hand went up across the ring, and the bidding began. The auctioneer launched into the bidding at such a rate that it was hard to understand him. Several hands were in the air, all bidding on the bay horse, as the little Amish man hopped up and down with each bid.
“What’s he saying, Twister?” Jody whispered. “He’s going so fast I can’t understand him.”
“He’s up to eight hundred already,” Twister said. “I don’t know how far Will’s going to go on him.”
There were just two people still bidding at nine hundred dollars, and one of them was Willie. The other was a man sitting directly behind the auctioneer wearing a black cowboy hat and a shiny black rodeo jacket.
“Oh, I hope the rodeo man doesn’t get him,” Jody said anxiously, biting her fingernails.
“Nine fifty!” The auctioneer shouted.Willie nodded.
“One thousand! One thousand! Do I hear one thousand?”
The Amishman spun in a circle, scanning the crowd for another bid. The rodeo man turned questioningly to the man sitting next to him, who shook his head no. The auctioneer asked once more for a bid of one thousand. Then
the gavel came down with a bang.
“Nine fifty! To number one twenty-three. Now, I need a bid on these wild ones!”
Mary and Jody watched as Willie turned abruptly from ringside. He strode as quickly as he could toward the rear of the sale barn, following the bay horse and rider as they left the ring. In an instant, the girls were on their feet and making their way down the bleachers so as not to lose sight of Willie.
“Hey, wait for me!” Twister grumbled, excusing himself for almost stepping on the woman in front of him as he descended the bleachers in pursuit of the anxious girls.
By the time Mary and Jody pushed their way through the crowd and caught up with Willie in the back alley of the barn, the new horse was nowhere to be seen.
“Willie!” Mary panted, “we watched you buy the horse! Where did he go?”
“Oh, him?” Willie said nonchalantly. “I resold him already.”
The girls’ mouths flew open in shock at this statement until they saw Twister and Willie exchange amused looks.
“Willie! You did not! Can we go look at him? Please?”
“Well, hold yer horses. We’re just ‘bout ready to load up and go home,” Willie replied, turning toward the sale office.
“Go home?” Jody said, bewildered. “But Willie, you only bought one horse. I thought we needed at least three.”
“Well, I bought three others straight from the owners before they even went in the ring. Sometimes you get ’em cheaper that way. And I was able to have a good long talk with the owners so’s I’d know what I was gettin’. And I rode each of ’em a little bit out in the back here.”
“You rode them? But, Willie, we’ve never even seen you ride! Why didn’t you come get us?”
“Come get you? I didn’t have time for no foolishness. Now let me be so’s I can go pay the bill.”
Mary and Jody in the Movies Page 6
