A Bell for Justin

Chapter 1

Charlie

The trailer lurched forward and we were off. I had been in a trailer only twice before, once when Leah took me to a horse show and another time when I had to go to the horse hospital to have my eye surgery. I never liked riding in a trailer, although I knew that some of my friends did. “You get to go out to the woods on a fun trail ride,” they would say. “Anything to get away from the boring old barn!” I liked the comfort of my stall, the grass in my pasture, and my friends. I didn’t want to go anywhere new, especially when I couldn’t see out the window too well. It wasn’t easy getting around with one eye. A lot of the other horses just didn’t seem to understand.

I braced my legs as we went quickly around a curve. The window in the trailer was open a little crack and I smelled the cool air and sniffed all the different scents along the road. Leaves were falling from the trees outside. I turned my attention to the hay bag, which had a little bit of hay in it, but it tasted old, like it had been in the trailer a long time. I wish I knew where we were going, I thought. This is taking so long. After a while, I felt the bump of the tires along the pavement slow their pace and we soon came to a stop. Finally! I stuck my nose at the window crack and tried to figure out where we were. The scent of manure filled my nostrils. And pine trees. And mud.

I turned my head to see the back trailer gate swing open. Leah hopped in, clipped a lead rope to my halter, and led me out. My legs felt a little wobbly, as they always did when I got out of the trailer. She led me down a dirt road where I could see a small barn in the distance. And a whinny! A friendly voice was calling to me. Good, I thought, maybe there is a friend here for me. I whinnied back in my friendliest voice. Out of the barn walked a very large horse, a big blonde Clydesdale. He trotted toward us in his pasture, each big hoof splattering mud as he came toward the fence. I tried to pull toward the fence to meet him, determined to investigate this big guy. But Leah pulled me back. “Justin, you will get to meet Charlie soon enough.”

Leah held me with the rope as she talked with a little old lady who had come out of a small farmhouse just near the barn. I kept looking at Charlie and Charlie kept looking at me. After what seemed an eternity, Leah finally led me into Charlie’s pasture. Charlie’s head hovered over my back, sniffing all down it, and I proceeded to sniff Charlie’s side. He was so tall, I could have almost walked underneath him. He didn’t have his ears pinned back. I guess he seemed nice enough. Okay, so I got to meet Charlie. I’m ready to go, I whinnied to Leah, and I walked over to the fence line. Leah had gotten back into the truck and was driving away. Whoa, I thought. Is this an overnight visit? Or is this my new home?

As the day wore on and the sky grew darker, I realized that I just might be staying at this place. Charlie and I walked around the pasture together that night, talking about our lives. “I see your one eye is missing,” he said. “What happened?” I told him the whole story about how Blackie, a mean stallion living in our barn, had kicked me in the head about five years ago, and how it took a pretty long time to adjust to living with one eye. “Leah didn’t ride me much after that,” I said. “What about you, Charlie? Where did you come from?”