“Hey there, Apple,” I told the mare.
She turned slowly and carefully, still hesitant to use her foot much. I opened the door and went to meet her. Mollie gracefully hopped on top of Apple’s wide back and stretched herself before settling to sleep on her new best friend.
“You girls are so silly,” I told them, then gave Apple her piece of carrot she deserved for being a good girl.
The mare was some sort of a draft cross. Theo thought maybe Clydesdale and thoroughbred. Something bred for cross-country.
She’d come to us from one of those slaughter auctions. Theo hadn’t meant to get her, but Barry who had been accompanying him had seen her in one of the pens and just stopped in his tracks.
She’d been headed for slaughter, because she was apparently useless. Just because she had a small fracture in her leg and her hooves hadn’t been trimmed correctly. She also suffered from malnutrition, but that was pretty much a given for these horses.
We’d had her for three weeks, and Seb would bring his portable X-ray thing next week to check her leg. So far, he thought she was healing well; she just couldn’t go out yet.
The worst thing was that there was nothing anyone could do but to make sure she had the best nutrition—but not too much food to keep her weight low enough to not put extra pressure on the leg—and take care of the hooves.
Even the hoof-trimming needed to be done in careful, short batches so that she wouldn’t have to put weight on the fractured leg.
I found her sweet, even temper amazing after what she’d been through. It was clear she’d been hit, too. There were old scars on her skin here and there, as if someone had tried to whip her into being whatever they wanted her to be.
It had taken Apple the six-hour drive and half a day at Twin Star to realize she was safe. She’d gone from skittish to friendly and nervous to calm. Mollie had found her the very next day, and now they hung out constantly.
I hugged Apple carefully, and she pulled me in with her massive head. I chuckled.
“You’re such a good girl,” I murmured.
My phone dinged in my pocket, and when I looked, I saw a notification from Instagram.
I opened the app and saw a like and a comment on the photo. It was one of the only people I’d been even remotely close to at school, Dani.
So youarealive?
I just hearted her comment and let it be. Then I muted my phone.
“Rey?”
I stepped closer to the door and waved a hand over the partition. “Here.”
Jack’s large guy steps carried him to us quickly and pretty loudly, too.
“Hey,” he said, leaning his forearms on top of the door’s bottom half. “Who’s this beauty? Hi, Mollie.”
The cat chirped at him in greeting, which made Jack grin.
“This is Apple.” I turned to the mare. “Apple, meet Jack.”
“She’s gorgeous.”
“Yeah. She looks better now. She has a fracture in her leg and we’re keeping her indoors. She’s a good girl about it, but I get that it’s boring, so I try to visit her a lot.”
Jack peered into the stall. “The toys are a nice touch.”
We had all sorts of things tied to the stall’s bars. There were both actual horse activation things and ones that Barry and Theo had cobbled together to keep her occupied.
Apple put her head over my shoulder again, pulling me in for another hug.
“Okay, okay.” I hugged her, then gave her a few scratches. “You good now, girl?”
She sighed deeply, then nodded as if she was answering my question.
