Twilight and I reached the quarry, hot and tired. I didn't trust the ground, large clods of dirt and sand piled up into hills of debris from the quarry machines. We rode closer to the winding climb cars where whizzing uphill. A barbed wire fence prevented us from riding further. I turned her up the hill and Twilight arched her neck, nostrils billowing open and suddenly we were flying up the hill, her hooves digging into the dirt followed by her back legs moving simultaneously. She leaped higher and higher as the hill became steeper and steeper, her mane slapped my face as I leaned over her neck urging her towards the peak of the hill. She was a wave cresting and collapsing with each beat of her hooves, powering, stronger than any locomotive. Then we reached the top, she was panting, but I think, pleased with herself. I looked to our left down the hill to the plane we had just left and to the small tree dotted haven that was Trina's barn. To our right without end was the barb wired fence. We followed it, tried to break it, look for a safe place to cross, but there was no weak point. We lapped the fence, so close to meeting yet so far. We went down and looked for a place to ride next to the road, but their was no shoulder of gravel that I felt would be safe to ride Twilight on. We were reduced to waiting, about 45 minutes for Margrith and the large sweaty mammoth to come and meet us from the other side of the quarry. I felt like I'd betrayed Margrith, we had not been able to come through for her and Sunny. We were reduced to sharing apples with our horses over the fence and then turning and riding in our separate ways.
It took a while to find the trail I took out to the quarry again, a lot of the ride back was following fence lines and just guessing. We could see our goal, but the plains were unending. A maze to the mind there are not landmarks or differentiable sights on a plain just undulating hills of white heat bleached grass and crooked old sage brush clumped together.
No comments:
Post a Comment