David Thornwood's Arc

Chapter 2 of 3

The stallion came back to the clearing three mornings in a row, but it would not let David inside twenty feet of it. Each time David stepped forward, the horse wheeled and bolted into the timber, favoring the bad hoof. David left berries on a flat stone and watched the horse eat them only after he was gone. He could not build trust across a treeline. He needed walls, or rails, or something that held the animal in one place without breaking it. He rode down to the valley that afternoon to find the man people spoke of when a horse would not be handled. Colt Merriweather was saddling a bay in front of his refurbished barn when David rode up. David explained the stallion, the wolves, the bad hoof, the bolting. Colt listened without stopping his work. When David finished, Colt tightened the cinch and said, "You can't gentle a horse in open country. He has too many exits." David asked what he needed. "A stall he can see out of. Open rails, not a box. He has to choose to stay, and see that he chose it." David asked if Colt would come up and help build one. Colt shook his head. "I'm going after a mare in the high country. Been gone three weeks. She's more scared than yours." He paused. "But I'll draw you the stall before I ride out." Colt took a stick and drew in the dirt. Six posts. Rails set wide enough that the horse could put his head through and see the ridge. One side open to a small paddock so the animal never felt boxed. Feed trough at the far rail so the horse had to stand still to eat. "Put it where he already comes," Colt said. "Don't make him learn a new place and a new man at once." David memorized the drawing. Colt swung up on the bay and rode north into the pines without looking back. David worked four days on the ridge above his cabin. He cut posts from the timber the stallion already knew and sank them at the edge of the clearing where the berries had gone. He set the rails wide, the way Colt had shown him. On the fifth morning he filled the trough with oats and berries and walked back to the trees. The stallion came at dusk. It circled the rails twice, ears flat, then put its head through and ate. David did not move. When the horse finished, it stepped inside the open side on its own, stood a moment in the frame of posts, and walked out again into the clearing. It did not bolt. David had his safe ground. Now he had to stand inside it with the horse and find out what the animal would do when the man it feared was on the same side of the rails.