Excerpt
7
mares that had been carefully monitoring his activity. Standing
at their sides stood twelve of the best looking little colts and fillies
you could imagine. There stood this year’s crop of foals. Born in
either March or April, the young stock was still only a few
months old, but already you could see the attractive features of
these animals. Joel couldn’t help but ponder how they looked like
miniatures of the three-year-olds he was currently working. No
wonder. Same sires and same mares.
Joel continued to head up the old trail that seemed to follow
the ridges toward the big hill at the back of the pasture. After hiking
for thirty minutes or so, Joel came to a cliff above one of the
biggest coulees in the pasture. Not only was this coulee long but
it was also deep. It must have stretched for at least a mile until it
petered out into the meadows in the flatland below. From where
he stood, he must have been at least a hundred feet above the
floor of the coulee. The steep walls of the coulee were covered by
long, thick, and lush prairie grass that probably was that way
because the steepness made for tough grazing; livestock would
have to practically wear spiked shoes to safely access the hillside.
That and the fact that the dozen mares and foals that were running
on the pasture weren’t enough to even start to make a dent
on the grass growing capacity of these hills. Tough-looking
scrawny trees covered the floor of the coulee, or maybe they were
bushes that looked like they were either half alive or half dead. It
was hard to tell, but in this part of the grasslands anything that
stood more than a foot above the ground was considered a tree
and was properly respected for its hardiness.
As Joel continued his walk toward the peak of the highest hill
at the back of the pasture, he startled a doe and two fawns from
the woods of the coulee. They scampered up the far side of the
coulee with a series of graceful leaps. After stopping to inspect
him for a moment from the safety of the ridge on the far side of
the coulee, the deer turned and bounded away.
He had noticed the faded No Hunting signs on the fence posts
and he sensed that they had been doing some good. He was starting
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