My legs stretched as fast as they could, chewing up the ground I’d raced over so many times before.
Aunt Cassie saw me charging past the barn, her hand raised then dropped, realising where I was going. “Jacob, no.” She shook her head. “Don’t.”
Mid-sprint, I merely shrugged and kept on running.
I bolted down the driveway, vaulted over a wooden gate, charged across the front small pasture and over another fence until finally, I slowed and snatched the rope halter off the ground where I’d tossed it last.
Forrest, my trusty roan who had mood swings like the devil and wings in his hooves, snorted at my sudden arrival. Prancing away from me, he didn’t like the blast of my nervous energy.
“Don’t be a dick.” I grabbed a handful of grass and lured him toward me. “Come on. Ten minutes. Then you can come back and stuff your face. Deal?”
He eyed me with a snide, almost exasperated look.
I chuckled, giving him a scratch as he let me loop the halter over his velvet nose and fasten it. “We’re a bit too alike, you and me. And that’s not a good thing.”
He let out a massive breath, his lips fluttering and green goo from mulched grass spraying my chaps. “Great. Thanks.”
Tossing the lead rope over his neck, I tied it back on itself to fashion basic reins, then fisted a handful of his mane. “Ready?”
Forrest side-stepped, already getting antsy.
“I take that as a yes.” Lurching myself upright, I folded over his bare back, then pushed upright.
The moment I found my centre, he took off.
Wind instantly howled in my ears as we went from zero to warp speed. Grass blurred, and the fence came closer and closer.
My thighs squeezed, my hands clutched rein and mane, and I kicked on the final stride, encouraging him to scale the obstruction, sailing us up and over as smooth as a cresting wave.
“Good boy.”
My praise meant everything, and his entire body shivered. He put his head down, activating more muscles to run faster.
Me and Forrest…we were an enigma. He’d come to Aunt Cassie to be broken in after other trainers had tried and failed. No one could get him to move forward. He’d just prop on two legs or scurry backward until he fell over or the rider hopped off.
Cassie had tried to fix him. Even Mom had had a go. But no one could get through to the mess of him.
He was never meant to be mine.
It’d happened by pure stupidity on my part.
I’d had a bad day at school. Dad had only been gone two months. I was sick of crying, sick of missing him, sick of worrying about Mom.
At three a.m., I’d found myself running from my demons, desperate to find somewhere to shut up the voices and grief inside my head, only to run into Forrest’s paddock.
He’d been called Speckles then.
He’d galloped away from me, and because of the rabid mood I was in, I’d chased him. Wanting him to be afraid of something, just like I was.
I was afraid of everything.
Dying.
Loving.
Family.
I chased him for hours until I finally had nothing left and collapsed jelly-legged in the grass. Dawn crested, and as the moon lost to the sun something amazing happened.
Forrest came toward me, nudged my panting, sweaty body, and didn’t leave my side until I was ready to sit up in my pyjamas and stroke his nose.
I patted him for ages before I hauled myself upright on aching bones, knowing I had to head home before Mom noticed I was missing. She’d have a breakdown if anything happened to me…especially after losing Dad.
Only, the horse followed me. He didn’t let me out of his sight.
By the time I got to the gate, he wuffled and nickered, and the loneliness in his eyes matched the loneliness in my heart.
And I couldn’t leave him.
I climbed the fence and waited for him to come close enough, then threw myself onto his back.
I fully expected him to buck me off.
Instead, his nose turned to snuffle my foot, his body twitched for command, and his ears stayed forward and attentive.
I’d squeezed my legs.
Bridleless, saddleless, fearless.
With no experience other than on a silly pony and no tack to control, I gave my life to the creature as we broke into a gallop.
No walking or trotting for us.
We ran.
Ran from things we didn’t fully understand. And unlike me, who was exhausted from chasing him all night, he had energy to burn.
So we did.
We flew around that paddock until the grass churned into mud with hoof prints.
I forgot about everything.
The demons in my head fell quiet.
But then Aunt Cassie and Mom found us, and I’d been grounded for a month. In the end, I’d offered up my entire lifesavings of pocket money to buy him because I overheard Aunt Cassie on the phone saying Speckles wasn’t suitable and would end up hurting someone.