A few weeks later, after my insadent with the man in my stall, I was ready to be let out into the paddock with George. The humans were happy that we had made friends enough to not want to try and be the top dog in the herd and not fight which made me very happy. Although I was not let out properly, to keep me from losing my mind they had installed a fence so that they could lock the main door, slid the other door across and let me out so I could trot around the isle without getting out. Also today was the day that Sherline, the lady who rescued me from the stable block, would give me a proper wash and groom. She had been practising in the stall with me with a brush by rubbing it on my sides and letting me sniff and nibble it, I knew it would not hurt me and infact it gave a pretty good scratch on the ol' itch! But most people didn't even know what colour I was behind the wall of mud.
Sherline opened the door clucking to me softly, her voice sounded like silver bells ringing in the background gently, it was a delight. She pulled a grubby old head collar over my ears and fastened it, she then lead me out of the stall to the drains outside and tied me up short as to keep me from being to frightened of the water, as it would be cold, and then she said that she would loosen it soon. She places 3 different bottles of liquid on the wall out of my reach, one was labelled SHAMPOO another CONDITIONER and the last had no label. Next she got the hose and turned it on at a low setting letting it trickle down my leg. It was cold but it felt good and soon my leg got used to the cold and began to warm in the warm air. She began on my legs by getting them wet then rising till she reached my back then the elbow grease started. Roughly she pushed her hands through the thick coat of brown pulling bits of grass and mud off of me and bits of week old pooh. Next she used the bottle labelled SHAMPOO and spread it over my coat making it turn a thick heavy brown in soup suds. I began to dose off as I sighed and cocked my leg, Sherline worked away on my coat and by the time she was washing off the second bit of Shampoo I was half asleep.
When I awoke both bottles were on the floor and there was a slight numb pain to my flanks. Sherline was gone and I was alone in the sun, water dripped off of my body and steam rose off of my back. The heat made everything more pleasurable than before. I turned my head to whip away dribbles of irritating water and was shocked to see a very glossy light brown coat. I snorted surprised. I flicked my tail and saw my long black tail glisten in the light and I could even see the black stockings that engulfed around my legs. My body felt good and I felt like a spry foal ready to play with his mother. Sherline wandered back around the corner with an assortment of creams and she was followed by a dapper young gentleman who kindly offered his hand for me to sniff curiously. He smelt of fresh hay and warm gruel. Sherline pulled out one bottle called Sudocreme and then she pulled out a few more and discussed on what would be the best to use. The man meanwhile shook his head and began picking out a few remedies for my sore ass. Finally they both agreed on using Aloe-Vera to sooth the scabbed fresh wounds and use Sudocreme on the old cuts to help keep them from rubbing. Next they began making me a part white horse.
Sherline stood around my backside gently smothering Aloe-Vera on my cuts making sure to use her fingertips as to keep herself from leaning on the sore points and in no time she was done. Mean while the gentleman had covered my scabby spots in Sudocreme and was busy placing bits and bobs back in the box. She wildly clambered close to him and hugged him tight, "we shall make a fine horse out of this one yet" Sherline said.
Back in my stall my coat admiringly made George look me up and down as if he were trying to print an new image of me in his head for memory sake. It was still around the afternoon time with plenty of daylight left so after a few rough words were spoken by the man who was with Sherline he came out of a door with 2 light looking blankets. Sherline took one and entered my stall letting me sniff it curiously, I looked over to see George stood proudly bearing a smart dark green rug with a light green trace along the bottom. Sherline gently place the rug on my back and let it fall over me, I began to quiver and shake as I had not been accustomed to wearing a rug and the feel of it was un-natural and restricting, but I did however keep my cool enough to let her do it up and clip a rope onto my headcollar. Sherline led me out of the stable with George behind me and we just plodded along by each other in the cool afternoon breeze. We were both placed in a small yet open paddock that had a oak tree at one end towering over our heads and enough grass to feed us for the year alone. The wind in my mane felt great and the chills of the air got my spirits high. George was let go first but he stood and waited for me before galloping off to eat on the tender, sweet grass beneath our feet.
My headcollar came off and I went for it. Legs in the air, feet constantly leaving the ground, loss of breath and powerful strides. the open field was a place of glory, no, a piece of heaven...
