Sapphire: New Horizons (7 page)

W
hen Emily got inside, her dad was yelling into a pay phone, sweat trickling down his forehead. “At least thirty horses! Call the cops, call 911 and get over here with the van and the trailer. We have to get them out!” He slammed down the phone and whirled toward Emily, his face red and the veins in his neck bulging. “Aunt Debby's on her way with the van. We're taking these horses out.”

Her mouth dropped open. “We're stealing them?”

“Hey! What are you doing on my property?”

Emily spun around to see a tall, lanky man with long hair in a ratty ponytail slouch around the corner. He was wearing torn overalls and a cowboy hat and was
sucking on a red Popsicle.

Her dad's eyes narrowed, and he seemed to swell to twice his regular size. “Is this your barn?” His voice was deep and rumbling with an intensity Emily had never heard him use. “Are these your horses?”

The man nodded. “What's it to you?”

Her dad shouted, and charged at the man.

“Dad!” Emily screamed as her dad tackled the man, shoving him through an open stall door that was flooded with gross, black water. The man went flying and landed with a huge
sploosh
as muddy water exploded up into the air and sloshed against the walls of the stall. Her dad slammed the door shut, shoved the bolt home, then grabbed a lead shank and tied it shut.

“Hey!” The man let out an outraged roar, and there was the sound of splashing as he fell, then he was at the stall door, his hands grabbing the bars. Black water was streaming down his face, and he looked like he had a chunk of manure wedged between the top of his ear and his head. “You can't lock me up!” He shook the door then slipped and went down with a yelp and another splash.

Emily couldn't help but stand and gawk as her dad double-checked his knot, then turned to face her, his mouth grim. “Okay, Em. Let's go round up these horses
and start to bring them out front for Aunt Debby.”

She stared at the stall as the man scrambled to his feet again and started shaking the door and shouting. “You're going to leave him there?”

Her dad glanced over his shoulder. “Yeah. Why? You think I should toss some manure in there with him?”

Emily giggled. “Probably.” A horrible odor began to drift in her direction, and she pulled her shirt up over her nose. “Is that coming from the stall? What is it?”

“It's him. He stinks.” Her dad grabbed a few lead shanks. “Grab whatever you can find. Halters, lead shanks. Anything. I'm going to start retrieving the horses. You find what you can and bring it to me.” And then he took off at a run to the back of the barn.

Trying to ignore the owner still yelling at her dad, Emily hobbled over to a nearby trunk. She yanked it open, saw two little eyes staring at her, and screamed. She leaped back as a tiny little mouse skittered away, disappearing into a hole in the wall. She winced and bit her lip as she tried to catch her breath both from the scare and the throbbing in her ankle. “Dad?” Her voice was embarrassingly shaky. “Why don't I wait outside?”

“Here.” Her dad was suddenly behind her. “Take this horse out front.” He thrust a lead shank in her
hand, grabbed three that were sitting in the trunk, and took off.

Emily stared at the horse he'd handed her, her heart tightening when she realized she could see all his ribs through his ragged brown-and-white coat. He looked like a white horse that someone had throw brown paint on, or she suspected that's what he'd look like once he got a bath. “Oh,
sweetie
.” She hugged him, then gently tugged the lead shank, leading him slowly across the barn floor, trying not to step in the piles of manure and mud.

The horse lifted his head to look at the shouting owner as they passed him. The man grabbed the bars and yelled at the horse. The horse suddenly pinned his ears and charged at the door, jerking the lead shank out of Emily's hands. The horse bared his huge teeth, and the man screamed and leaped back from the door as the horse slammed his teeth down, grazing the tips of his fingers. “He bit me!”

“You deserve it!” Emily grinned as she gathered up the lead shank. “Good boy. Just for that, you can have all the hay you want when we get you home.” The horse faked for the door again, and the man jumped away, then he yelped, and there was a splash as he fell into the muddy water again.

Emily patted the horse's neck as she led him outside, clunking awkwardly along in her cast. “I think I'm going to name you Jaws because you're so brilliant with your teeth.” They stepped out into the bright sun, and Jaws stopped, blinking against the bright light, as if he'd never been outside before. “Oh, you poor baby.”

He dropped his head and pressed it against her hip, as if to hide from the bright sun, and she scratched behind his ears, wincing at the thick layer of dirt on his coat. It ground under her fingernails, gritty and hard. “I'm so giving you a bath when we get home—”

A siren wailed suddenly, and Jaws jerked his head up and began to dance. Emily tried to calm him as a police car whizzed down the driveway, bouncing over the ruts, the blue lights flashing and the siren wailing so loud she flinched. Right behind the police car was the Running Horse Ridge van.

The police car stopped, the van screeched to a halt, and Aunt Debby was out of the truck and sprinting toward Emily before the cops had even gotten their doors open. “Oh, Emily! This poor horse! Are there more?”

“Yeah, in back. My dad's—”

But Aunt Debby was already racing past her, and she let out a loud screech once she got into the barn.
And then she was shouting, and Emily could hear her slamming something against wood. Emily grinned at Jaws. “I think she found the owner.”

The cops jumped out and hurried past her, shouting at Aunt Debby to calm down.

Uncle Rick came tearing up the driveway behind Aunt Debby, driving a pickup with a two-horse trailer. He jumped out and ran up to Emily. He barely nodded to her before he started running his hands over Jaws's legs and checking him out.

“His name's Jaws,” she told him.

Uncle Rick muttered something under his breath then stood up. “I think he's good to go. Load him up.”

“Load him up?” One of the cops came outside. “You can't just take him.”

Uncle Rick set his hands on his hips and glowered, looking completely tough and intimidating. “Look at this horse. Look at him!”

The cop looked and he paled.

“Now tell me I can't take him,” Uncle Rick growled. “I dare you.”

“I gotta call my chief.” The cop ran over to his car and dove into the front seat as another siren began to scream in the distance.

Emily grinned at Uncle Rick. “That was great.”

He shot her a brief smile. “I get mad when people mess with horses. You know how to drop the ramp and load him up?”

“I do.”

He nodded, glancing at the barn, where Aunt Debby's voice rang out as she shouted something at the police officer who was still in there. “If Jaws gives you any trouble, stop and wait for us. But if you can get him loaded, great.”

“No problem—”

But Uncle Rick was already running into the barn.

Emily waved at the cop as she led Jaws by the cruiser. He glanced at her but didn't try to stop her. Who would, with the way Uncle Rick had glared at him?

Jaws stood patiently as she loosened the ramp and lowered it, but before she'd gotten him into the trailer, two more police cars showed up. The cops ran right past her into the barn, leaving the lights flashing. Jaws started to prance again, and she had to walk him in a circle to calm him before trying to load him.

By the time she finally got him loaded, her dad came out with two more horses, Aunt Debby behind him leading three more. All the horses were so skinny she could see their bones, and three of them had nasty-looking wounds on their backs. “Emily!” Aunt Debby
said. “Drop the ramp on the big van. We're loading up these guys.” There was a cop right behind her, and he was frowning.

“Debby, I don't like you taking these horses like this. The owner's throwing a fit.”

Emily's dad and Aunt Debby both whirled around to glare at the cop. “For heaven's sake, Jesse,” Aunt Debby snapped. “Write up the seizure form that the county's taking the horses due to neglect, write me down as guardian, and stop getting in my way.”

“I'll pay any fees for paperwork,” Emily's dad added. “Just get it done.”

“Do it.” Another cop showed up behind Jesse, and she had an air of authority. “The owner just tried to knock out an officer with a water bucket, so we're arresting him and taking his horses.”

Aunt Debby flashed the cop a grin. “Thanks, Linda.”

Linda shrugged. “I don't like people who mistreat animals, and I really don't like people who try to drown my officers in nasty water. I'll make sure you get temporary custody.” She walked to the van, grabbed the ramp, and hauled it out. “And I'll help you take them away.”

“Great.” Aunt Debby handed a lead shank to Emily. “We're saving this horse until the end. She's too upset by all the noise. I need you to take her on a nice walk away
from the noise and let her calm down. I'll call when we're ready. It'll be at least an hour, maybe more.”

“Sure thing.” Emily grabbed the lead shank and looked at the horse, gasping when she realized the horse was hugely pregnant, her sides so distended she looked like she'd swallowed two elephants and a hippo for lunch. She was a light brown, but the exact color was hard to tell because the mud was so thick on her coat. Her legs were coated with shiny, wet mud, as if she'd been standing in it up to her ankles, and her ribs were sticking out. Her head was up, the whites of her eyes showing, and her nostrils were flaring. “Oh, you poor thing.”

Another van turned into the driveway, and Aunt Debby waved. “It's Judi and Mark. They're going to help us transport.”

The mare snorted as the van approached, her eyes rolling back in her head. Emily quickly turned the horse's head to the right and led her away from the barn. The mare kept dancing, her breath coming short and fast as she staggered to keep her balance. “Okay, sweetie, you need to calm down.” Emily patted her neck, wincing at how thin it was. “I'm sure you feel awful right now and everything, so I'm going to call you Precious, because that's what you are, even if your owner didn't treat you right.”

Precious snorted and jerked her head as one of the horses clattered up the ramp into the van. Emily started to worry that the mare's skinny legs wouldn't survive if Precious kept jumping around, so she started to sing to her. Precious swung her head around to look at Emily, then her ribs expanded with a huge sigh and her head dropped down in total exhaustion.

“There you go,” Emily sang, making up a soothing tune. “Now we'll find a place for you to rest while we're waiting, waiting, waiting.” She almost laughed at how bad the song was, but Precious seemed to be listening, so she kept talking and singing as she led Precious away from the frenzy to a shady tree to await her turn.

T
wo and a half hours later, Emily helped her dad lift the ramp on the trailer, latching it shut behind Precious. Emily wiped the sweat off her brow as she looked around at the now-empty barn. All the horses except Precious were now at Running Horse Ridge, getting cleaned and fed and checked on by Uncle Rick and Aunt Debby. The cops were gone, the owner had been carted off to jail, and the humane society had come down to document the condition of all the animals. Judi and Mark, the neighbors who had brought their van to help transport the horses, had offered to foster some of the horses, but Uncle Rick and Aunt Debby had insisted on taking all of them until they could check them over.

Running Horse Ridge was packed now, and some of the healthier horses had been turned out in the back pastures to run so the injured ones could be put in stalls.

Only Precious was left. It was almost over.

Emily's dad walked around to the back of the trailer and checked the latches. “All set?”

“All set.” Emily was so tired, and her clothes and cast were covered in dirt. She was worried that the plastic bag she'd wrapped around the cast wasn't doing enough to keep it from getting drenched with mud and manure and other stuff she didn't want in her bed.

“Let's go, then.”

Emily limped over to the front of the truck and climbed into the cab. Her dad eased the truck into gear and slowly started the tires rolling, so as not to jar Precious. They'd had to shift the divider to the side so she'd fit in the trailer, and even then, it had been tight.

Emily let her head drop back against the seat and closed her eyes. “I'm so tired.”

The truck rolled to a gentle stop at the end of the driveway. “How are you holding up?” her dad asked.

Emily opened her eyes. “I'm a little freaked out,” she admitted. “That barn was…awful.”

Her dad pulled out into the road. “I know it's hard
to see the animals neglected like that, but they're all going to be taken care of now, thanks to Trooper breaking out and leading us to them. He's a hero.”

Emily grinned. “He is, isn't he?”

Her dad looked over at her. “We think he hurt his leg when he broke free, but the wound on his side had been infected for a long time.”

Emily rubbed her jaw. “So he hurt himself to get all the other horses free?”

“He did.”

Emily thought about that as her dad drove them back to the farm. “Trooper should have a medal or something.”

Her dad smiled. “I think he'd like that.”

“I think he would, too. I think I'll make it out of carrots so he can eat it. And maybe apples, too. “Just thinking about doing something for Trooper made her feel better. “So, um, if I hadn't taken Sapphire out and fallen off, we might never have found Trooper, huh?”

Her dad raised his eyebrows at her. “I understood why you took Sapphire, but he's not my horse. You're going to have to talk to your aunt about it. She hasn't forgotten.”

Emily sighed. “Yeah, I figured as much.” She leaned her head back and looked out the window, watching the
fields go by, when suddenly there was a crash and the truck shuddered and she realized Precious was freaking out. “Dad! Precious will hurt herself!”

“I know.” Her dad slammed the brakes on, jammed the truck into park, and jumped out of the truck and raced back to Precious as the whole trailer shook even harder.