Excerpt
This is a story about a horse without a name. This little horse lived on the ranch with two sisters and his Mother. He was a very small horse, so small that some of the other horses made fun of him. They said he could not run fast because he was too little. The bigger horses never played horse games with him because he was so small. But I will tell you a story about this little horse. His name is “Pokey.” He did not have this name in the beginning of this story, but I will tell you how he got his name, and how he became a hero, and how he saved his little friend who lived on the ranch. But I'm getting ahead of the story that starts on a cool morning on a big ranch far-far away in Nevada.
Pokey was a pretty brown and white horse known by the cowboys as a “Paint horse.” He spent his days playing horse games and dreaming of being bigger some day. He had a friend that also lived on the ranch; a pretty little girl who made his heart feel as light as a feather whenever he saw her playing in the yard. He loved her very much. She was small just like him and she would run and play and laugh just like he did. All the other horses liked her too; they would show off when she would come to the corral to sit on the fence and watch cowboys train the horses. She came to the corral almost every day; he made sure he was done playing horse games so he could be with her.
His heart would flutter every time he saw her and he felt joyful to hear her laugh. He wished she could speak horse-talk but she only made human sounds. Besides, she would never stand still long enough to learn his horse language. Once, he tried to get her to talk. He nickered to her and hoped she would understand, but she just laughed and he felt good to see her smile. To his eyes, she was very pretty. She had light brown hair and lots of freckles on her face. Her eyes sparkled when she laughed. She was always laughing and having fun just like him.
One day she brought an apple with her. When she put her hand through the fence, he walked over and carefully tasted an apple for the very first time. It tasted so good that he licked his lips with a loud smacking noise. She laughed with joy and he felt good seeing her happy. They became very good friends after that and shared many apples together.
It's true he was small and had much to learn; his two sisters looked after him along with an older horse in the pasture named Cobre’. “Co-bray,” meant copper in Spanish. His friend Cobre’ was a beautiful copper colored horse, and was a good friend and teacher. Cobre’ taught him how to be a good horse. Cobre’ taught him to stand tall; hold his head high and always look proud. Some evenings Cobre’ would tell stories about cowboys on the range and the adventures he had when he was a young horse like Pokey.
Cobre’ told him about range fires, mountain-lions, bears, rattlesnakes and how to watch for danger on the trail. He told him not to worry about being little because he could do some things that bigger horses could not do, and besides he could be as big as he wanted to be in his heart. Cobre’ told him to be proud of whom he was. There would always be bigger horses and smaller horses than he was. Cobre’ told him if he always did the right thing, he would be as big as any horse in the world no matter what his size.
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