Runaway Earns His Name

So this is just something small I'm doing when I get tired of working on my super-detailed show entries. Here's little Runaway, being a terror Yay for super sketchy backgrounds!

Story: 

Catcher's black colt wasn't quite a week old yet, but Kaity was still at a loss for a name. Nothing sounded right,either too plain or too forced, and so far even a barn name hadn't come to her yet. Scott's odd name certainly didn't lend itself to many good names. One morning, she went to the broodmare barn, checking on mothers, babies, and the other broodmares, fed them, then turned them out in their respective paddocks. After watching them for a minute, she headed on over to the training side of the property, as usual. She chose Cowboy to work first, and saddled her up after giving her a good brushing. The red mare was doing well under saddle, and Kaity was hoping to introduce small jumps soon. She was doing well with poles and slightly raised cavaletti, with surprisingly good maneuvers with her flat and dressage training. Sometimes a little tough in the mouth, but nothing serious. The red chestnut had certainly been a pleasant surprise after a rocky beginning to her training.

She led the playful mare to the outdoor training area, where she had a course made out of poles already set up, and started to warm her up, bending, flexing, working on full-body strength. She then started out over the poles, first trotting, then cantering, then working on adjusting stride length. She even did lateral movements over a few at the end, working Cowboy's muscles and brains. Satisfied, she walked the mare, looking around. Jake was at a friends, so he nor Colonel were around. Baili was in the indoor with the yearlings, and Michael nor Colton hadn't arrived yet. It was rare to have such solitude on her farm anymore As she turned one of the corners of the arena, she spied movement by her barn. Wondering if her puppy, Dixie, had gotten out, she reined Cowboy in, looking over. But that wasn't a small spot of yellow by her brown barn walls: here was a lanky black and white foal. Catcher's colt. She instantly hopped off Cowboy and hauled her quickly indoors, barely taking the time to throw a halter over her bridle and tying her in the cross ties before running out to try and corner the colt.

It was a merry chase of about twenty minutes or so before Kaity cornered the angry little colt. Thankfully, he was still small enough she could physically move him around, and spent another ten minutes or more getting him into a stall so she could find a lead rope to take him back to his mother. It took another half an hour just to get the struggling colt across the yard to the broodmare field, where the usually relaxed Catcher was frantically pacing the fence, calling out for her missing son. After letting the colt inside, she searched every inch of the fence, looking for a fallen or loose board, and triple checked her gate before she left, still clueless as to how the black colt had escaped. She gave up, and headed to untack poor Cowboy, giving her an extra good rub down and a peppermint in apology for ditching her for so long like that.

Two days later, Kaity was out on the cross country field with Mina. The mare was on one of the lower courses, which was familiar enough that she didn't often spook here anymore. Mostly Kaity was working her speed, asking her to really gallop before reining in just the right amount to jump safely. For the nervous mare, this was a rather scary task, and Mina kept trying to refuse even two foot jumps, preferring her brakes to trusting herself to jump. By the time both mare and Kaity were exhausted, Mina finally took a two and a half foot plank wall at a controlled gallop, and Kaity thankfully allowed Mina to stop. They walked the rest of the course, both enjoying the shade of the trees, skirting the open meadows to remain in the cool tree line. They were just getting to the last meadow when Kaity saw him: black and white legs happily investigating this new playground. Once more, Catcher's colt had escaped...and traveled much further this time. Trying not to imagine what would have happened if she hadn't been schooling, Kaity hopped off Mina and unattached her reins, not having a lead rope and not wanting to risk losing the colt further. Thankfully, this time the colt seemed to have played long enough that he didn't put up much of a fight, only making Kaity chase him around for a minute or two before approaching Mina, who had stood still thankfully. After Kaity looped the reins around his body, she slipped a finger under Mina's bridle, and carefully led the two out of the trees and towards her property. Once again, she checked every inch of the paddock Catcher was in, but couldn't find a way the colt was getting out. She resolved to discuss it with Jason, and let the colt out.

The next day, the colt did it again, but was caught before he even made it to the driveway that split the property by Baili, who was just going to show some prospective buyers the Knabstrupper foal. When Baili told Kaity, Kaity found some recording technology, and started to set up the cameras so that she could see most of the paddock. Before Jason could fix whatever was allowing the colt to get out, they had to know exactly how he was doing it. Thankfully, he tried later that day. First, bored when his mother stopped playing, the colt reared a few times, trying to get his hooves over the top boards. Unable to do that, he started to paw at the boards until his hoof went through the space between the bottom and middle board. This he repeated with the other hoof, then lowered his body. Carefully, he managed to move his body between the two boards, then pulled himself through. It wouldn't be possible for most foals, as it required much more time and flexibility than most cared for. It was rather like watching a dog get under a low fence. But, the colt was determined to be free, and did so. He was caught quickly, and he and his dam placed in a stall while Jason added another board between the bottom two, completely solidifying half the fence. Hopefully, he wouldn't be able to get out now.

The next day, when Kaity turned him out, she chuckled as he immediately started to inspect the new fence boards. "That's right, no more runaway foal..." And then it hit her. Runaway. She liked the name, and it fit him pretty well so far. The colt was certainly very independent. And so, his name of The Last Runaway was born, as hopefully the only running away in his future would be linked with a win.

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