Snip’s hooves pounded the ground as Ben gave him his head. Dust and gravel flew behind them as they raced across the open plain, bounding over tussocks of dried grass. The wind tore tears from Ben’s eyes contradicting his yips of glee as he turned to shout. “I’m going to beat you, slow coach!”
Clutching the stitch in her side Louise galloped up alongside Ben. Jake, the stockhorse she loved to ride, stretched his neck out as they drew level to Ben and Snip. “No, you’re not!”
The pair of horses sweated and strained as they fought for the lead. A copse of trees blocked their path ahead. At the last minute Ben swerved around a large gum and leant back, allowing his black gelding to spin to a halt. “That was awesome! I haven’t had a run like that for ages.”
Louise panted as she stopped next to Ben. “I think that must be a tie. I would have beaten you if I hadn’t had this stitch.”
Ben swung his right leg over the front of the saddle and slid to the ground. “Yeh, you reckon. Snip wasn’t even trying. I could have pulled away from you any time.”
“In your dreams. Jake is much faster than Snip.” Louise also dismounted and loosened the girth. The friends walked alongside their horses as they all recovered their breath.
Ben thrust one hand into the pocket of his jeans. “I didn’t want to tell you earlier, but it looks like Snip and Jake will have to be sold.”
“No! Why?” Louise halted and rubbed Jake’s bristled neck where Ben had recently hogged his mane.
“Dad isn’t getting any better. He’s thinking of selling the farm so he can invest the money to give him a retirement income. We’ll have to move into town.” Flicking at a fly with the end of his reins, Ben hoped Louise didn’t hear the catch in his voice. He couldn’t bear to cry in front of her like he had last night after his parents had broken the news to him over dinner.
Louise grabbed Ben’s arm. “That’s terrible. There must be another way to work things out. You and John are doing all the work anyway.”
“Yeh, but the farm can’t pay all of us. It was different when we were at school, but now I’ve finished. We can’t afford for me to go to college, and John has to leave too. We can’t get jobs and run the farm. So that’s it. The horses have to go.” Ben started walking again, hiding from Louise on the other side of his horse. He’d known she’d react like this and couldn’t cope with her sympathy.
“Not Brandy too? There must be some way you can keep him. After all your work and getting him better after his accident, and beautiful Peach being born.” Louise ran to keep up with Jake trotting along beside her.
Ben refused to answer. The thought of selling his stallion had kept him awake all night. Who wanted a scarred, wild horse? Even with the obvious success of Shadow’s foal, people would be put off by a brumby with a damaged leg.
The pair walked in silence until they came to a creek. The horses dropped their heads and guzzled at the cold stream. Ben crouched and splashed water over his face. The joy of the gallop had left him. Maybe he shouldn’t have told Louise yet.
Louise swigged from her water bottle before replacing it in her saddlebags. “I have bad news too. My dad’s contract with the local hydro company has finished. We’ll probably have to move as well.”
Shaken from his own worries, Ben slumped onto a rock. “What about school? You’ve at least another year to go. It’d be terrible to change now.”
“I know. It depends on what work Dad gets. I guess I’ll have to wait and see. I hope we don’t move back to a city. I think Honey would hate to be stabled all the time or only in a small paddock.”
Tossing stones into the creek, Ben kicked at the bank with his heel. “It all stinks. You might have to sell Honey.”
“Don’t say that! We’ve got to find a way to keep our horses.”
Ben straightened to his feet and threw Snip’s reins over his neck. “Come on, we’d better get moving or our horses won’t be the only worry. Have you thought about what we’re going to say to Mr Cartwright about the brumbies from being shot?”
Grimacing, Louise tightened Jake’s girth. “Maybe we could offer to do a muster again. Selling the horses, even for pet food, is better than them being shot from the air. I can’t bear to think of them lying injured.”
“Why do adults always ruin everything? I bet we won’t stuff up the world like this when we’re in charge.”
Having remounted, Ben urged Snip into a brisk walk alongside the creek.
The friends rode in silence as they contemplated their futures. The horses, settled after their run, strode along on loose reins. The clop of their hooves on stones accompanied the gurgling of the creek. A small flock of sulphur-crested cockatoos screeched overhead, skimming the treetops and riding the air currents.
A low buzzing attracted Ben’s attention. “What’s that? It sounds like bees. Mum always likes bush honey. It’s great for wounds as well as being good to eat.”
Riding away from the track, Ben followed the noise, which grew louder at the edge of the forest. Gnarled snow gums caused him to bend down to avoid branches lashing his face. The dim light under the canopy made him squint. A large shape took form as he pushed Snip further into the tangle of dead branches and old bark that littered the ground.
Realising the noise he’d heard came from a swarm of blowflies, Ben leapt from his horse. “Don’t come any further!”
Millions of flying insects buzzed and rose in a black mass as Ben approached a stinking body. The mare lay covered in blood from a shoulder wound, her head twisted back at an impossible angle where she must have broken her neck. Her tangled legs seemed to move as the flies resettled and continued their feast.
Snip snorted and tugged back on his reins, pulling Ben off his feet. “Yeh, good idea, let’s get out of here.”
Back where Louise waited on the edge of the woods, Ben tried not to gag as the cloying smell of death stuck in his throat. “It looks like we’re too late to stop the shooting. That’s a dead brumby. Don’t look. She’s not feeling any pain anymore.”
Louise wiped sweat from her face. “How did she die in there? She must have been shot out in the open and kept moving.”
“She must have been in a panic to crash into thick scrub like that. Come on, let’s get out of here.” About to remount, Ben heard a faint whicker.
Louise must have heard it too. “That sounded like a horse.”
Holding up one hand to ask Louise to remain where she was, Ben handed her Snip’s reins with the other. “Take these guys away. They’re already spooked and we don’t want to get in the way of an injured horse. I’ll go and have a look.”
Climbing over a rotting log, Ben made his way through the undergrowth to where he thought the noise had come from. His eyes adjusted to the gloom as he snapped twigs and branches with his forearms to break through, trying not to get scratched. He still couldn’t see another horse. Maybe the creaking trees had played tricks with their imaginations. About to turn away, he heard a feeble gasp of breath and a fluttering of nostrils.
The sounds came from close to his feet. Looking down, he realised the mound he thought was an ant nest was a small body covered in ticks. The blood-sucking insects clung to the foal’s skin like scales. As Ben crouched down beside the stricken filly, she opened her eyes and struggled to raise her head before letting it collapse back to the ground.
Ben dragged the last of the fallen branches away from the foal to clear a space to drag her free. Apart from looking weak from starvation and tick infestation the filly didn’t appear injured.
Louise scratched in circles at the base of the little one’s neck like a mare would with her tongue. Apart from emitting a deep sigh the filly didn’t react to the presence of humans or their touch. “How will we get her out now that we’ve cleared a way?”
“If we tie her shoulders to Snip, he can take the strain while I support her weight.” Hefting the foal on to her side, Ben grunted as he tried to prop her upright.
Louise undid the lead ropes from both the riding horses and made a loop that wouldn’t slip. She secured it behind the filly’s front legs before returning to Ben’s horse. “Come on, Snip, pull.”
With the gelding heaving on the rope and Ben pushing from behind, the foal lurched to her feet and tottered a couple of steps before falling. After trying a few more times, Ben called a halt. “It’s no good. She’s too far-gone. There’s no will to live left in her.”
Louise stroked the tiny face and straightened the tangled forelock. “We can’t leave her here to die. There must be a way to get her out.”
Extracting his penknife from its pouch, Ben tested the blade. “I don’t think this is sharp enough to put her out of her misery.”
“No! Can’t we drag her home behind one of the horses like we did with that injured hiker?” One winter Louise and Ben had found a couple of tourists trapped in the old mines. They had made a travois and managed to get the lady to the information centre to meet the ambulance.
Ben struggled with his desire to help the horse and the practicalities of trying to save it. “The snow made the going smooth then. I doubt we could secure a foal on a drag the same way we could a human. She’d probably struggle and come off. Anyway, I think she’s too sick.”
From the look on Louise’s face Ben could see she wasn’t convinced. He had another idea. “Maybe we could lift her onto Jake. He’s used to carrying sheep. He might be alright with her.”
Louise brightened. “Let’s give it a go.”
Ben and Louise tried to roll the foal into a position to lift. One of her long legs stuck out and caught on a trailing vine. As Louise disentangled it, another one caught on a branch. Snapping off the obstruction, Louise gave up as the filly’s legs flopped and tangled together. “This is hopeless. I wish she’d stand for herself.”
Ben removed his belt. “Tie her front legs together with this. I’ll get the hobbles off Snip’s saddle to use for her hind legs.”
Once the foal’s legs were secured the friends found it easier to manoeuvre her body. Between the two of them they managed to heft the orphan foal onto a log. With Louise supporting the fragile head and neck, Ben bent his knees and groaned as he strained to lift the foal onto Jake’s saddle. “Quick! Go around the other side and grab her front legs.”
Louise did as asked. Grabbing the tiny fetlocks she heaved and dragged the foal across the saddle as Ben struggled to hold her up against his chest. Both friends puffed with the effort. The day had started to heat up and sweat dripped from their faces. Jake stood still as they pushed and shoved the filly into position. Once balanced across the stockhorse’s back Ben adjusted the hobbles to fasten her legs beneath the horse’s belly. “That should stop her thrashing and kicking Jake. I guess I’ll have to walk alongside to prevent her slipping.”
Untying Jake from where she had secured him to a tree, Louise stepped back to his offside shoulder. “I’ll go on this side and lead from here. That way there’s one of us on either side.”
“No. You’d better ride Snip and go to the signpost tree. We’ll need help from Harry if we’re going to save this one. Write a note and ask him to come to the farm as soon as he can.” Ben twirled pieces of ribbon bark together as he spoke, making extra ties to hold the filly in place.
“Aren’t we taking her to the information centre? We could phone a vet from there. We need to talk to Mr Cartwright and get the shooting stopped. If he sees this foal, surely he’ll understand it’s cruel?”
Ben could see this whole venture was turning into a mammoth exercise. He wished they hadn’t found the foal. It would have died soon anyway. Being from the city, Louise didn’t have the same attitude towards animals. She wanted to care for every creature regardless of how hopeless it might be. She had a magpie at home that she had rescued after it fell out of its nest a year ago. He thought she should have let nature determine whether it was strong enough to survive or not.
Also, he knew neither of them had money for a vet. Harry was their only hope. “It’s much closer back to the farm. I’ll ask Mum to ring Mr Cartwright. At least we have proof of what’s happening out here. Anyway, I can probably get some milk out of Shadow. Peach will have to share.”
Louise seemed to accept this solution. “Do you think Shadow will adopt her? It’ll be like raising twins.”
From past experience Ben knew it was unlikely that the old stockhorse would accept another mare’s foal, especially one that was a few weeks old. “No, but we can still use her milk until we can get this foal onto something else. We need to get fluids into her straight away. From the way her flanks are sunken she’s really dehydrated. I expect she’s been without milk for days.”
As if to support his words the filly groaned. Threads of mucus hung from her nostrils and mouth. Her eyes closed. Her coat stared, matted and dirty, with bare patches from the ticks and where she had lain. Her ribs protruded over an enlarged belly and her neck seemed to be all bone.
Having led Jake out of the trees, Ben started to walk back, the prone body draping over Jake’s saddle. Despite their efforts to get the foal to safety he doubted she would be alive when he reached home.