Some see crazy where I see love; (Tall Grass Prairie)

Nadeem was such a nerd – in the cute, endearing way, not in the unsocialised basement-dweller way. Jacks couldn’t help but smile as he enthusiastically started listing the many things coyotes liked to eat, momentarily distracted from worrying about her son. Sammy was listening too while stroking his cob’s neck. It was impossible not to listen to someone deliver on a topic with such passion regardless of what the topic was. Nadeem cut off abruptly when his horse snorted. Not knowing enough about horse body language, Jacks missed the cue that something was off.

“I thought coyotes’ favourite food was road-runners?” She asked with an air of innocence, the note of play only slightly perceptible beneath a joke otherwise delivered in almost deadpan manner.

It was a joke which might have elicited a rare smile from her cartoon-loving son, but Sammy was either more observant or better in tune with the animals than his mother, and he wasn’t far behind Nadeem in realising what was going on. The two mares had also stopped, and Sammy’s cob had her ears pricked forward in the most alert expression she’d had all day. A rich, mahogany-brown house appeared over the crest of the hill, nostrils flared and tail swishing. Sammy’s jaw went slack. Nadeem tried to settle his horse and Jacks, who had finally cottoned onto what was going on when the wild horse appeared seemingly out of nowhere, gripped the reins tightly with white knuckles. Her attention went straight to her son, who was leaning forward a little in the saddle as though keen to be closer to the wild stallion, who in turn was inching closer to the trio.

The wild horse’s hoof struck the ground and he arched his neck, his ears flicking forward and back. Sammy’s cob dipped her head and shifted her weight between her hooves, while Jacks’ chestnut mare decided it was safer to stick as close to Abhay as possible. Against Jacks’ will, her mare snorted and danced as close as possible to Nadeem’s gelding, a couple of steps behind him but almost brushing flanks. Jacks tugged on the reins to no effect. Sammy, now behind the two adults, leaned sideways in his saddle to try and maintain his view of the wild horse.