Ten Year Grudge

Ace took the word paranoid to a whole new level. He watched closely at the booth both when I was around and when I wasn't. I tried to force him to go off and look around and he kept refusing.
But his watchfulness seemed to be unwarranted. Drake didn't come near the booth all weekend. The colt I'd brought up had proven to be a pretty simple one to train and I'd raffled him off to a young girl who'd been hoping and praying to win the colt as he first horse. The two seemed to get along fine when I'd taken them out to an outdoor ring to let the girl ride. She also lived in the area and her parents promised to bring him back to me for training if there were any problems.
"I'd call the weekend as success," Ace declared as we were packing up.
"Yep. One more horse out of my barn, several training requests and a few covering requests. Of course the Fish and Wildlife agency is trying to load me up with even more horses..."
"They know you keep them running like they're in the wild. They're just looking for good homes because farmers want the wild mustang's grazing areas."
"I keep telling them they just need to geld all but a couple of the colts out on the ranges and the mustang population would drop dramatically."
"Inbreeding," Ace pointed out.
"Too late," I retorted. "Oh well, the only thing I could do about it would be to get on the board and I have no time for politics."
It took us until nearly midnight to pack everything up and get back home. Tribute followed us around as we put everything back in its place, then moseyed out to the field where I heard him and Becca squealing and getting reacquainted. I checked all the stalls to make sure they were clean. Not that I didn't trust Vic, I didn't trust anybody.
As if reading my thoughts, Ace asked, "you have trust issues don't you?"
I glanced at him over my shoulder. "I've never been able to trust anyone but myself. Old habits die hard."
"You don't even trust you're own family?"
"I had shaky trust even before the divorce. After it I just started looking at people differently and realize that they all lie or they all turn on you. If you trust people, they're eventually going to let you down."
"You've had to have trusted someone before."
"The one time I trust someone he let me down. Just proved myself right." I didn't tell him how I'd been in denial when I'd found out about Drake, how desperately I wanted to trust someone. How I'd practically begged Drake to tell me it wasn't true. But Drake hadn't even tried to cover it up when I confronted him. He'd shrugged it off like it was no big deal, but since I knew, it made breaking up with me easier.
"That's a dark view of life Nik."
"I believe I've had this conversation many times before when many different people. I'm a pessimist."
"Obviously."
"Look I have to get up early tomorrow and so do you so goodnight," I said, effectively ending the conversation.
I headed back up to my room, an overenthusiastic Max trotting in behind me. The dog had obviously missed human interaction. "It's easy to be a dog bud," I said, rubbing his ears.
I got ready for bed in record time and surprisingly, had no problem falling asleep.

But what seemed like no time later, I awoke to Max barking.
"What the hell?" I mumbled, sitting up and looking around. The clock read 3:37. Then I listened past Max's barking to hear one noise I hated to hear: horse's screaming.
I bolted out of bed and was shoving paddock boots on when Ace stormed into the room wearing just blue jeans.
Without a word we both bolted out of the house with the two dogs on our heels. My first thought was that the two remaining colts were fighting, but a glance into their paddock proved me wrong.
"Where's it coming from?" Ace demanded.
I stopped and listened, but the dogs helped me out. They went barking madly towards a small lower pasture where Talegha was turned out. Normally he went out with my other horses, but when Becca got closer to delivery, she turned a little mean and victimized the gelding.
"Get the lights," I commanded, running for the field.
I ran through the horses in the middle field who were snorting and keeping their distance. I reached the gate that led into the field. Tribute, was banging on it trying to get in. I shoved the stallion aside and fumbled it open. Right as I freed it, the light blazed and I caught a flash of chestnut along with the flash of red on black. Leah's crazy stallion was beating on Talehega.
The two dogs were barking madly but steering clear of the flying hooves. I grabbed a nearby tree and struggled to break off a good-sized branch. While twisting the green wood, I noticed part of the fence was down where the stallion must have gotten in. Finally, the wood broke free, just as Ace came through the gate with a lunge whip in hand. Without even sparing me a glance, he ran for the horses. Taking quick note of the situation, he cracked the whip once. It distracted both horses and they looked over at him. Talehega, breathing heavily, took off in the other direction, limping badly. The chestnut however, turned to face Ace.
My blood iced over and I was sure my face lost all color. I'd once seen a rabid wolf while helping out a friend in Wyoming, and it's eyes had looked tamer than the horse Ace was facing now. I knew the horse was going to charge even as I ran towards Ace. Ace cracked the whip in an attempt to warn the horse off, but the stallion kept coming, rearing on his hind legs and crashing them down on top of Ace. I caught movement out of the corner of my eye as I reached Ace and pulled him out of the way as the horse came for another swing.
I grabbed the whip from Ace's hand and swung it at the horse. I aimed at the horse's hooves and wrapped the nylon rope that was the end of the whip around one leg and pulled tight.
While it didn't topple the horse, it unbalanced him and he swung towards me. I prepared for the charge when suddenly, there was another horse in the mix. This one a big strawberry roan.
Toledo grabbed on to the other stallion's neck and knocked him off balance. The stallion's attention turned from me and the lunge whip ripped from my hand. I scrambled to my feet as the chestnut bolted for the break in the fence with Toledo not far behind him. Leah's stallion jumped clumsily over what was probably a three foot section of the fence without the top rail. Toledo sailed over it. I heard them crashing through the woods but my attention was diverted.
I ran back to Ace and sank to my knees next to him. He had a gash on his forehead that was bleeding profusely, and his eyes were closed.