[EAR] Coming Home

The whole thing would be very simple, Stormy thought.

Bring a foal home, care for it, and train it. It was nothing they hadn't done before. They had four foals at the moment, in fact - Cali, Valor, Aiden, and Aaron - and they were going to have to train all of them. They'd raised Sapphire successfully, hadn't they?

Yes, very simple.

They'd arrived at the Equine Angels Rescue nearly at dawn. The claiming started at ten o'clock sharp, but Windswept been invited to take home their first pick, since they'd helped found the rescue.

Stormy, of course, knew who she wanted right away. The flaxen chestnut colt had been abandoned by his breeders, but it wasn't his history that had attracted the girl to the orphan - it was his eyes. The sport pony had electric turquoise eyes, accented by his knee-high white socks and charming star, snip, and white chin marking. Stormy picked the colt out, and River agreed. It was time to take him home.

They knew the colt was practically untrained, of course, and had shown up prepared supplies-wise. A foal-sized purple-and-white blanket, which Stormy had remarked looked adorable against his chestnut coat, and a soft fleece-covered nylon foal halter. They managed to get it on him with little trouble. Covering the colt's eyes so he wouldn't freak out, River carried him up into the two-horse trailer and set him down amidst a deep bed of soft straw.

They didn't hear a peep from the sport pony (whom Stormy had decided to name "Traveling Soldier", or "Troy", for his current predicament) the entire drive home. Luckily it was only a matter of hours for them, though they pitied those who had to haul their orphans for days to reach home.

When they finally arrived back at Windswept Acres, they parked near the barn. As they opened the back of the trailer, beginning to praise the colt for his patience, a chestnut-and-purple blur shot out from inside and took off.

It took them half and hour to corner and catch the terrified colt, who seemed to become more and more worked up as he went. Eventually they managed to grab him and take him to his stall. Confused as to the foal's actions, they pondered why he had gotten so scared.

Thinking about when he spooked each time, they finally reached a conclusion:

Troy was terrified of his own shadow.

Foal: #002

Name: Traveling Soldier

Call Name: Troy

Art, Troy, Equine-Angels-Rescue belong to SaandStoorm

Reference: fav.me/d22ayax