by Connie Foss
Donnie has a pretty good arm on him, for as I watch he launches a sparkly thing through the air to land just in front of Bill. I wonder what the big deal is about that, for it seems to be pretty small and glittering just a little in the dirt.
When there’s a loud explosion and Bill shoots out of his chair, I
that Bill could move quickly, I would never again, for he is out of the tack
“You young twerp! Don’t you have any brains in that big head of
your dad shows up, he’ll get to do that, and I hope he does it well. In the meantime, you come sit in this chair and don’t you move until your dad comes. You other guys, get lost. I don’t want to see your faces in this aisle the rest of the show. Got that?”
“He did what?” Donnie’s dad was furious when Bill told him what had happened. And he didn’t disappoint Bill, for he gave Donnie a good lesson.There’s no doubt, Donnie will never again try that stunt.
Other than that excitement, things are pretty quiet and well ordered in Barn B.As dusk approaches, Bill pulls the buggy into the aisle, while Lilly gives me a good grooming.This Fine Harness class will be a
it.Those days of being a carriage horse, that I thought were a lost part of my life, are now proving to have had some worth.
Apparently there aren’t too many Half-Arabians involved in Fine
as far as I’m concerned. Though we don’t canter when we’re pulling a buggy, I like to move on out at the trot when it’s called for. With only
“My, don’t you clean up well, Bill,” Meg says as Bill comes out of the tack stall. Drivers in these driving classes usually wear English attire, so since we’re used to seeing Bill in Western show clothes, his appearance is rather a shock. He’s a good-looking man to begin with, tall and slender, but in his forest green driving suit, he is eye-catching.“The two of you are going to capture the audience with your looks alone.”
“Oh, I know, but that’s the reality, so don’t give me a rough time, gal. It’s how sensational and outstanding, exceptional even, our performance is that will give us a standing ovation.” Bill puts a spin on this to add to the fun…and possibly to help himself relax a bit.
Bill and I have practiced this enough that the process of getting into position to hook my harness on to the shafts goes smoothly. In
“Just a minute, Bill, I want to get a picture of you two on your maiden trip,” as Meg grabs her camera. “Let’s get out of the barn so I have room for a better shot.”
“There, that should be a good picture for the album. Now I need to help Nancy get Whisper ready, but I’ll be in the arena when your class is called. Good luck,” and Meg stretches up to give Bill a peck on the check and me a pat on my rump.
The Fine Harness class is quite uneventful, different than a drive pulling a carriage.We don’t stop to see the scenery or to pick up a new rider or two.Actually, other than Bill’s excitement, it seems like a lot of fuss for a few trips around the ring and a blue ribbon. However, when we’re back at the stalls, the interest the class caused was reason enough for doing it. Not only was The Chocolate Farm crew happy, but as the evening progressed, I heard several visitors asking Meg and Bill about training their horses to drive.That was reward in itself.
Chapter Forty-Nine:
Elliott
By November the show season has become a thing of the past, and the stable settles into a more relaxed routine. Some of the seasoned show horses go home for a rest, and there’s a constant source of new
Tonight as I doze in my stall, with Percy and Patches sound asleep next to me, Mr. O awakens me with his Hiss Hoo. He’s perched on my stall door, his piercing eyes boring into mine. Something must be up.
“What are you Hooing about, Mr. O? It had better be something really important, or I’m going to be ticked off. I need my sleep, or I’ll be grumpier than a one-armed paper- hanger. Just because you’re a night owl, doesn’t mean I have to be, too.” Sounds like I’m already on the grumpy side.
“Hiss Hoo, can you come? Tom asked me to get you.” “Why? Tom knows I don’t make housecalls. I don’t make a habit of unlatching the door. I only do it when it’s necessary to help someone. Is something wrong with Tom?”
“Hiss Hoo, no, it’s Ten.”
“Well, make up your mind, for heaven’s sake. Is it Tom or Ten?” I’m getting grumpier by the minute, and I don’t like being this way.
“Hiss Hoo, shut up and listen!” Uh-oh. This must be really important or Mr. O wouldn’t be that up tight. “Remember that jump, the new jump that you call the Monster?”
“Oh, get to the point, Mr. O, or I’m going back to sleep. Of course, I remember the Monster.”
“Hiss-hoo, Tom was on his regular nightly prowl, making sure everything at The Chocolate Farm is as it should be, when he got to the outdoor jumps. He found Ten there, hanging from the top of the jump, just dangling there. From a distance,Tom thought Ten was playing, and Tom hollered at her. But as he got closer, he realized Ten’s head was missing. She’s dead!”
“Oh,no! Not Ten! We need Ten.She’s part of our family.Whatever happened to her?”
“Hiss-hoo,Tom doesn’t know but he needs you.Tom is carrying
Bubba?”
“Go check on Hap, Mr. O. If he’s sound asleep in the tack room,
I can sneak out.”
In a minute, Mr. O is back with the all clear sign, and I unlatch my
stall door and quietly go out the back door of the stable.
It’s dark, but peaceful, with the last of the fall crickets puncturing
the quiet. I hear the horses moving around in the pasture and a breeze
I know the way to the jumps so well that darkness doesn’t slow me down. As I get farther from the stable, I increase my speed and soon come upon Tom at the base of the Monster.
Looking up, I see a horrible sight…our friend Ten, or what is left of her, just hanging there, his tail caught in a crack.
“Oh, Tom, I’m so sorry. It won’t be the same without her. But who could have done this? Everyone liked Ten, even Bill and Meg.” I’m sad but also mad.
“I know who the heck done it, that low down good for nothing scum bag Elmer from down the road.” Tom has an ugly twist to his mouth as he says this. Actually, he doesn’t just say it but spits it out. “That’s why I need help from you two. His doing this to Ten and then
going to get one!”
with you,Tom. Just say the word, and I’ll do whatever needs to be done. Do you have a plan?”
“No, that’s where you come in, Bubba. How can we teach Elmer a lesson he’ll never forget? I don’t want him dead. I just want him gone!”
I don’t have an immediate answer.“Tom, you know I’m with you, but let me give this some thought. Mr. O, you are wise.You can put your
stall now and put our heads together, okay?”
Chapter Fifty:
Neighborhood Betterment
With Tom sitting in my feed box and Mr. O perched on the door, we begin brainstorming how to rid the neighborhood of the cat Elmer. I’m surprised at how many walking resources we have, from a raucous
Bill, too, but this is something we need to do ourselves.
to The Chocolate Farm. So, any suggestions?”
I’m glad to see Mr. O taking over, organizing the meeting. He has a good head on his shoulders.
“I’ll spread the word amongst the horses that any time they see Elmer, they are to chase him off. I’m sure nothing looks quite as lethal as a horse’s hoof coming down on your tail.” With further thought, I add, “Can you imagine the scare that would run through you, if there was suddenly, out of the blue, a screaming bird landing on your back? Chatty will love this, and Boo, with his ferocious bark, can scare most anything to kingdom come.”
“Good plan, guys, but it ain’t enough. That just takes care of keeping that varmint away from here. That just won’t cut it.” Tom is right. Having Elmer even close will not do.The quiet of the stable seems to take over in my stall, as we each go i
nto our heads and look for possibilities.
“Hiss-hoo, Hiss-hoo! I’ve got it.” For Mr. O to be excited, this must be a gem of an idea. “Remember all of the little owlets that gave you guys problems as they were growing up? Guess where two of them hang out? Yes siree, in the rafters of the farm where Elmer lives.As you well know, we owls are swift and deadly when we want to be.We keep our beaks sharp, for they provide our food. If I tell my sons to make Elmer’s life miserable, they’ll know exactly what to do. And if there is one thing I taught them, it’s to listen to their pop.”
“That’s great, Mr. O,” says Tom. “That’s a crackerjack of a plan. Bubba, you tell Boo and Chatty, and get all of the horses on board. Be sure to report any sightings of that creep Elmer, and we’ll knock him out of the county.”
As Mr. O and Tom leave me, I hear Mr. O say he will let all of the owls in the area know about Campaign Elmer.
“Hey, that’s great!” Tom seems really pleased with the whole plan. “But, guys, we can’t leave Ten’s body just hangin’ there. Could you help me get it down? Then if Boo’ll dig a hole, we can give Ten a decent burial.”
Several mornings later, I hear Meg holler at Bill. “Bill, there’s something after the horses in the pasture. It’s probably that pesky coyote. Can you grab your gun and get him? He’s bothered us long enough.”
When Bill comes back to the tack room, he tells Meg, “That wasn’t a coyote, it was a yellow cat. Every single horse out there was after him.You always hear about a dog tucking his tail and scampering off, but this cat looks like he should have tucked his tail if he wanted to keep it.Too late.”
“Oh, Bill, the poor thing. Should we try to catch him and help?”
“That’ll never happen.That cat is over the moon by now, he was
grabs the Western saddle and bridle and goes to work.
Well, that will be something to tell Tom the next time he comes around. At least Elmer will most likely avoid The Chocolate Farm from now on. If the owls do as well as the horses, Elmer will be out of the county soon.
Chapter Fifty-One:
Campaign Elmer
It’s not just a time of rest and relaxation but also a time of anticipation.There is much to look forward to, especially for Annie and me. In a few months, Annie and I will successfully become parents. I wonder if we’ll have a boy or a girl.Without a doubt, it will be a foal who will grow up to enjoy jumping like we do. Sometimes waiting seems the hardest thing to do.When something comes along to occupy my mind so time seems to pass quicker, I dive right in. With Christmas coming, change is in the air. It’s just what I need, a new project on which to focus.
Robin had heard at pre-school.
“Meg, have you heard about the Christmas parade the city
fathers are planning? While I was brushing Robin’s hair last night, she
mentioned that she will need a costume for a Christmas parade. I don’t
think they’ve ever had one before, but it might be kind of fun if we can
have some of our horses in it.Then Robin’s costume could be her riding
“It’s news to me, Lilly, but if it interests you, look into it for us. Getting the horses out in the public eye is always good advertising.” Meg doesn’t sound very interested, but she’s probably thinking about something else.
As the days grow shorter, the longer nights become a time for
about Annie’s and my baby that it’s hard to sleep. Other nights my
thoughts stay with her and all of the wonderful times we had together. I
stable, I know there is more joy coming.
It was that kind of a night last night, so when Tom comes rubbing up against my legs, I’m glad to see my old friend.They say that being a friend is hard work, but when the friend is Tom, that’s not true. With him, it’s easy as pie.“Tom, what have you heard about Campaign Elmer? How’s it going?”
“I ain’t seed hide ner hair of that bum, but I haven’t had a report from Mr. O either. Let me go see if Mr. O’s up on his rafter.”
Soon both Tom and Mr. O show up, and we hash over the Elmer situation. Mr. O tells us just what we want to hear. “My son Oliver and daughter Olive, two of the younguns over at the next farm, were all giggles the last time I checked in with them. It is such a great story, that I can’t imagine I forgot to tell you about it. But here goes.”
This is the story Oliver told his dad, Mr. O.
“Well, Pops, we did what you told us to do, and the last we saw of that yellow cat was his stub of a tail going down the road lickety split. We did a good job, didn’t we? And we had a good time doing it,” Oliver
day and night catching every single mouse and rat we could stuff in our tummies. Maybe you’ve noticed how fat we’ve become, Daddy,” says Olive, demurely lowering her eyelids.
“Well, that didn’t work so well, for those mice multiply like rabbits, and we just couldn’t eat any more.” Oliver continued the story of Campaign Elmer. “We decided to take turns pestering him. Sharp pokes on his head by one or the other of us began to take their toll. He was never safe and could only sleep when in the culvert under the driveway.
“I thought it great fun to dive bomb him, didn’t you, Olive? He would be running from the shed to the barn or some such, and suddenly one of us would come dropping out of the sky at top speed right at him. If it hadn’t been so much fun, I could have felt sorry for him. He was so helpless against us.Yet he was still hanging around.”
it was going down but had to wait for the right moment.” Olive has a
sneaking around the back of the barn, it was perfect. Swooping down from the roof, he picked Elmer up, his beak poking into the scruff of the ridgepole of the barn. Elmer, spread eagled, eyes as big as ours, and a yowl blasting our ear drums, slid down the metal roof, quickly gaining speed and soaring into space, before dropping like a rock into the water tank.”
“Ever seen a wet cat trying to get out of a water tank? It’s a hoot,” chortled Oliver.“Olive and I sat on the roof and watched Elmer,
out the drive and down the road. So, Pops, Elmer’s been gone for weeks now. I think we did our job.”
Chapter Fifty-Two:
Parade Coming Up
It turns out that the Christmas Parade is the real thing, and Meg and Bill have decided to pull out all the stops. “The Chocolate Farm is going to be the talk of the town, or at least of the parade,” Bill says.
Winter is on full blast, so we all have grown warm coats, in spite of being in the stable and wearing blankets.“We’re going to have to give all of the horses we’re taking to the parade full body clips a week before the parade,” Meg plans. “I hate that, but it won’t be any harder on the horses now than in the spring, when we clip them for the early spring shows.” I don’t mind the clipping, but I don’t like the itching as my coat grows out again.
The parade is to be the Saturday morning before Christmas, so plans are gelling and we are on count down.“Bill,” Meg says,“since we’re going to have Bubba be a reindeer pulling the buggy, are you going to be Santa Claus driving his sleigh?”
“Who, me, dressed up in a costume? Surely you jest, Meg. I will
“Aw, Bill, you’re no fun. Get with it,” and Meg drops the subject. Huh, I am going to be a reindeer? How am I going to do that?
I’ve never even seen a reindeer.
“Mr. O,” I ask when next he perches on my stall door to pass the
time of day,“How can I be a reindeer?”
“Hiss-hoo, Bubba, why would you want to be a reindeer? You
should be perfectly happy to be a big, strong, jumping horse. Do you
know what a reindeer looks like? He’s got bones sticking out of the top
of his head, so he must have a stiff neck carrying those around.” “How do you know that?” I am constantly surprised by how
much Mr. O knows about everything.
“Last Christmas I saw one. Well, it wasn’t a real one. It was
out in front of a store at Chris
tmas time.They had a big sale going on,
so they had a Christmas tree set up with a stuffed Santa Claus and a
stuffed reindeer. I suppose a real reindeer might be a bit different, but
still he would have to have those bones sticking out of the top of his
head, or he wouldn’t be a reindeer. But, again, why would you want to
be a reindeer?”
“I don’t know as I do, but I heard Meg say that I am going to be
a reindeer in the parade.”
“The parade? Since when is there going to be a parade? Nobody
told me.” With that, Mr. O pulls himself up into his most regal posture,
“Am I to be excluded?”
“Gosh, Mr. O, I’m totally in the dark about the parade.All I know
is I heard there is going to be one, and Lilly wants Robin to be in it, and
I am to pull the buggy. I’m dying to know everything about it, so could
you check it out? You’d like to be in a parade, wouldn’t you, Mr. O?” He stared at me for the longest time. Those big, piercing eyes
looking right into my brain.“I sincerely doubt it. Life has not yet become
so boring that I feel a need to stoop to such frivolity.” With that, the
I don’t know if he’s interested enough in the parade to even learn about it. He’s a strange bird for sure. But as time passes, even without Mr. O’s help, I begin to piece together what is being planned.
Tonight, when Hap arrives to start his night watchman job, Meg greets him and asks,“Hap, did you know there’s going to be a Christmas parade downtown a week from next Saturday? The Chocolate Farm is planning to have a lot of horses in it. Would you consider driving Bubba?”
Hap, his cheery smile opening to a huge grin, says, “Miss Meg, I would be honored! It’s been years since I drove a horse, but I expect it’s like riding a bicycle. Once you’ve done it, you never forget.”
“You’re right, and since you and Bubba are already good friends,
you game?”
“No need for the suit because I already have one.You see, I go
