# Random Short Story



## Stichy (Jan 25, 2013)

Still adding on to the story, it's not finished yet! Doesn't have a name at the moment, the one I was thinking of is cheesy xD
Sadie was small. There was no denying it. But she didn't care, she was perfectly built to do what she'd always wanted to do: Be a jockey. And thats just what she did. She started off in the small, but soon grew popular in the racing community. Eventually, she ended up marrying her boss, Clint Stenner. He bred the horses, she raced them. She enjoyed racing all horses, but grew particularly fond of one, Bouquet of Roses, a 12 year old bay mare with a heart of gold. Clint bought Rosie as an 8 year old who had raced a few times then retired to have one foal. Though no one truly understood her potential, Sadie managed to get Clint to buy her anyways, convincing him it would be one of the best buys yet. Sadie proved to be right. In her new racing career, she's had 10 starts and 10 wins. She was unbeatable. She'd won the Derby by 10 furlongs and the Preakness by 3, and she was now on her way to the final leg of the Triple Crown: the Belmont. 

_Beep! Beep! Beep! _
Sadie groaned and woke up. She looked at the clock. 5 already? she thought. She quickly smiled, thinking of being able to see Rosie. She quickly threw on some clothes and headed down to the barn.
"_Rooosssiiieeeeee_" Sadie called out. She heard a nicker in response. She grinned at the horse. "Up already?" She asked her. "Ah, well you know what they say, the early bird gets the worm." She said, giving her a couple sugar cubes. Sadie opened the door to the stall and gave Rosie a hug. "Now, the _real _reason why I'm here an hour early, is because I wanted to give you a little pep talk and spend some time with you before the big race. I just wanted to let you know that even if you don't win, I still love you, and you'll always be my girl. And if you do I'm going to call you my Triple Queen." She said, grinning at her horse. Rose nudged her and sniffed around for more treats. Sadie sighed. "Oh, Rosie. You're so special, why can't anyone else see it? I swear sometimes you really understand me."
"I figured you'd be in here." A familiar voice called out. 
Sadie jumped. "Oh, hi, Sandra. What are you doing up so early?"
Sandra shrugged. "Nerves, I guess. You?"
"I wanted to visit with Rosie before we left. Hey, what time is it?"
"'Bout 5:30. We should probably get back and get ready soon, someone needs to wake up Clint."
Sadie nodded. "Be there in a sec."
Sadie rubbed Rosie's forehead. "Love you girly, I know you're gonna do great today. You always do." Sadie left the stall and headed inside. She could smell coffee. 
"Wow, you're actually up?" Sadie asked Clint.
Clint grinned. "Yep, figured I'd get up early and get you guys breakfast, but I see you already beat me." He said, nodding to Sandra with her bowl of cereal.
"I was hungry and you were slow." She said through a mouthful.
Sadie laughed. She really did have the perfect life. Perfect horse, perfect husband, perfect mother in law, perfect stable, perfect everything.
Sadie and Clint grabbed breakfast quick before heading out the door. 
"Got everything?" Clint asked. "Not forgetting any tack or horses?"
Sadie checked the back of the trailer and saw two big butts, one Thoroughbred and one Quarter Horse. The Quarter Horse belonged to Sandra. She usually calls him Fat ***, but his real name is Doc. Doc used to be a reiner, but retired to ponying Sadie to the gate at races.
"Nah, we got everything. Ready?" She asked
Clint and Sandra nodded. Sadie couldn't believe they were doing this. They were actually competing in the Triple Crown, and it looked as if they might even have a chance at winning.

Sadie looked outside the window of the jockey's lounge and day dreamed about winning and retiring Rosie, and maybe getting a couple foals out of her. 
There was a knock at the door. 
"Ready? It's almost time to mount up." Sandra said.
Sadie jumped. "Oh, yea, coming."
They walked out to the stalls where the horses were being kept. She didn't exactly remember much of that morning, but she remembered mounting up and heading to the track. 
Rosie wasn't acting right. Something was...different. Sadie wasn't exactly sure what, but something was wrong.
"Sandra? Does Rosie seem ok to you? She's not acting right." Sadie asked.
Sandra watched her. "Seems fine to me, probably just nervous. I think she understands what a big race this is. The crowd's larger than normal."
Sadie shrugged, not entirely satisfied with the answer. "Eh, yea I guess."
They approached the gate.
"I...I don't know. I don't know if we should go through with this." Sadie said
"Shh, it'll be alright, you're just scared. You'll both do great." Sandra said, patting her on the shoulder.
Sadie was brought into the gate. She let out a deep breath.
_3...
Wrong. Wrong. This is very wrong.
2...
Deep breaths...Deep breaths...It's ok, it'll be ok.
1..._
The bell rang out and the gates flew open.
Wrong filled the air. The crowd was cheering for her but all she heard was stop!
Sadie shook her head. Maybe Sandra was right. She was nervous. 
Rosie's nostrils flared. She was taking shallow breaths. Her heart beat raced.
_This isn't right. This is all wrong. So wrong. _Sadie thought to herself. She was half way through, but she had to slow down. 
"Woah." She said in a shaky voice. No response from Rosie.
_Oh god..._ Sadie thought. This was Rosie's competitive spirit showing. She was in the lead, and she wasn't about to give it up. 
"Woah!" She tried again, this time in a firm voice. Nothing.
"WOAH!" She yelled. "Rosie please, oh god Rosie this isn't right! Something's wrong and you know it! You need to stop! Please baby, please I can't have you hurt...Please baby just stop please..." Rosie's ears flickered back, but gave no intentions of slowing down. 
Sadie was beginning to panic. What could she do? What should she do? She can't put her horse at risk like this...but she won't stop. 
Sadie could see the finish line, and Rosie could, too. Sadie glanced behind at the competitors, the closest one was at least 6 furlongs behind her. Rosie's steps faltered as she neared the finish line.
"Rosie...Please...Stop. Something's wrong!" Sadie begged.
They had just barely crossed the finish line when the big, old mare, who gave everything her all, couldn't give anymore. Sadie remembered hearing screams of horror as the horse went down. The last thing Sadie saw was the back of her beautiful, beloved Rosie, crashing down on her.

Sadie's eyes fluttered open. She took a deep breath. 
"Hey, sleepy head." She heard Clint say.
"Rosie...Rosie...Where's my Rosie? I need to see her." Sadie said, shooting up before her eyes were completely opened. 
"Hey, hey, hey. Take it easy." Clint said, holding her down. "You have a broken leg, and it's not pretty. You're supposed to move as little as possible."
"Where am I?"
"You're home. But that doesn't change the fact you can't move. The hospital rules still apply."
"Rosie...?"
Clint and Sandra exchanged glances. Clint shook his head and walked out the door.
Sandra glanced down, then grabbed Sadie's hand.
"Sweetie...Rosie didn't make it...Her heart...It just...You were right...I'm so sorry."
Sadie's eyes widened. "No...No she-" she couldn't finish her sentence. _Oh, god this is all my fault. I shouldn't have raced her. I knew something was wrong. Oh god why? Why her Rosie?_
Sandra began to talk, but Sadie cut her off. "I want to be alone." Sandra nodded.
Sadie looked over at the framed picture of her and Rosie and the Derby. They were both so happy...It wasn't true, it couldn't be! It must be a joke, right?
Sadie slid out of bed and took a step. Pain shot up her leg. She winced in pain, but took another step. _I can do this_.... she thought, as she quietly made her way to the barn.
She picked up the pace as she approached Rosie's stall. Empty. Sadie felt like she wanted to vomit. She traced the name on her stall. 
Sadie heard footsteps.
She turned around. "Is she really-" Sadie stopped. The lump in her throat prevented her from talking.
Sandra ran towards her. "Oh, honey. I'm so sorry. You did the best you could. She knew you loved her, she really did."
Sadie collapsed into her arms. She didn't want to believe it.


----------



## Stichy (Jan 25, 2013)

"Did she suffer?" Sadie asked
Sandra sighed. "No sweetie, she didn't. We're going to bury her tomorrow, would you like to be there?"
Sadie nodded. "Of course." She was still in disbelief. She knew Rosie wouldn't live forever, but she didn't expect her to die like that. Not with her riding. Not with her being the reason she's gone.
Clint walked in. "Hey, I got something for you." He pulled out a bracelet that had locket on it. It was made from Rosie's tail hair, and had a picture of the day they brought her home inside.
Sadie looked at it, a little stunned. "How did you...When did..." she couldn't finish. She began crying again. Her baby...she was gone. 
Clint sighed. "You should go back to bed."
Sadie nodded. They all began to walk to the house when a truck and trailer came flying in.
"Who the....Did you get another horse? Did we sell one of our colts?" Sadie asked.
Clint frowned. "I don't remember buying or selling anyone. Mom?"
Sandra shook her head. "No...Who would be coming in at a time like this?"
The truck pulled to a stop and a man jumped out and ran to them.
"Sadie Stenner?" He asked.
Sadie gave him an odd look. "Yea....Who are you?"
"Todd. Todd Jones. Boy do I have a surprise for you!" He replied excitedly, running back to the trailer. "Y'all wait here!"
Sadie heard the back unlatch and hoofsteps clopping on the pavement. 
She turned to Clint and whispered "Who the heck is this guy? Should we be worried?"
Clint shrugged. "Guess we'll find out."
Sadie looked back just in time to see the filly come out from behind the truck.
Her jaw dropped. It was a carbon copy of Rosie, with a more youthful appearance. Her star was a bit different, and she had a sock on her left hind foot. But she was the exact same shade of bay as Rosie. She had her same head, different eyes though. They weren't as kind as Rosie's were. Her legs were a bit longer, and she was a little taller than Rosie had been, maybe taking after her sire.
"Is this...." Sadie began to ask.
Todd handed her the lead rope and nodded. "I've been following you and Rosie for months. This is her filly. She isn't registered yet, but we've been calling her Lucy. You can name her whatever you'd like. Here's everything you need to register her. She's three now, and we haven't started training her yet. We weren't going to race her, just use her for breeding, but you can use her for whatever you'd like. Here are the transformation papers, she's yours now."
"How did...what...why? Why are you giving her to us?" Sadie was confused. She couldn't think straight. 
"Like I said, I've been following you and Rosie for months. You two we're great together. I know you did your best to help her, and I know it must be hard for you to lose her, so I decided to give you her filly, seeing as it's her only one."
Sadie shook her head in disbelief. This all felt unreal! "Thank you! Thank you so much! Clint, can you take her to a stall? I'd like to talk with Todd for a bit."
Clint nodded and took Lucy into the barn.
Sadie began to grab her checkbook. "What do you want for her?"
Todd shook his head. "Nothing like that. I want you to make her the best she can be."
Sadie smiled. "Are you still breeding?"
Todd nodded. "A little here and there, but not as much. We lost a lot of funds after we lost our stud, can't seem to get back up from there."
"Well...We have colts here, one of them is trained and ready for the track, we've been looking for a great home for him...I can go get him if you're interested?"
Todd smiled. "Well, now I'm curious. Sure."
Sadie ran into the barn to grab Jet, but paused when she got there. Rosie's stall was no longer empty. "Clint!!! What are you doing?!? Why would you put her there?!?"
Clint stood, a little stunned. "I'm sorry....I- I didn't think.."
"No, you didn't!"
Sadie angrily grabbed Lucy and put her in another stall.
"No one, and I mean no one, gets Rosie's stall. Got it?" She said to him.
He nodded. "Yea...sorry."
Sadie threw a halter on Jet. "Hey, good boy. Might have found you a home! Ready to go meet him?" She said to him as she led him from the barn out to Todd.
Todd looked him around. "Wow. I just...Wow. This is a really good looking boy. What's his temperament?"
"Really nice, hasn't offered to buck or bite, he has a stall next to one of our fillies and doesn't seem to mind at all. A couple people have thought he was gelded."
Todd nodded. "I'm really liking the looks of this boy. How much?"
Sadie smiled. "Nothing. You gave me Rosie's only baby, even though it could put a bigger dent in your business. The least I could do is return the favor."
Todd hugged her. "I'll take him. Come visit anytime, maybe we'll even see you on the track!"
Sadie smiled. "Maybe!"
They said their goodbye's, and Sadie went back in to see Lucy. She still couldn't believe she had Rosie's baby. Her only baby.
"Hey Luc....How are you doing girly?" She asked her.
Lucy looked up, but went back to her grain.
_Rosie would have..._ she began to think
Sadie's heart dropped. She wasn't Rosie. She was nothing like Rosie. She never would be.


----------

