Chapter Two

“That’s three times” I grinned, putting my cell phone down and looking at Sally, who chuckled delightedly. 

“So much for ‘Missy, I’m so clever, I can beat the system’ then! I bet she heads as far away as possible for her next attempt.” She picked up one of the Map copies Tony had printed out for us. “Somewhere around here”, her cute little finger tapped a spot about as far away from where we were seated as possible.

“Nope”, I shook my head, looking over her shoulder. “My monies squarely on the front entrance, exactly the opposite. Shortest run for home. That rain outside is settling in for the night. It’s not hard, but our cute little blonde commando or whatever she thinks she is must be pretty damn wet by now. One last desperate attempt, I reckon and then she’ll call it quits for the evening!”

Sally pulled a face and then searched through a pocket in her jeans, her tiny hand emerging with a one-pound coin which she deliberately placed on the table in front of me. “Long way round,” she said.

“Short way”, I responded and added. “My pockets are empty, so you’ll have to trust me, Honey” I gave her a big smile only to receive a suspicious look and a sniff in return.

“Nope!” the gorgeous little woman replied promptly, wriggling down off the sofa, crossing to the big Welsh dresser, and reaching up to run a small hand along till she found what she wanted. I habitually emptied my pockets on that dresser whenever I returned from a trip out. I’d never been much of a handbag girl, Cell phone, wallet, purse, coins, etc. It all went in the same spot my father had used; I wasn’t one of those people who could never remember where they’d left their car keys.

“Hey, that’s a two-pound-coin”, I objected when she placed it on the table and cuddled back against me. 

“All I could find, any way you can have that one of mine as change when I win the bet and, oh shit!” she exclaimed as a buzzer sounded and automatically the monitor we were watching switched from sixteen small images to a single big one. There was nothing to see now, but the movement alarm by the camera had triggered. I tapped on the keyboard to replay, and a moment later, we were both watching something larger than the local fox and badger population flit quickly past, causing Sally to mutter “shit!” again.

“Winner takes all”, I laughed, scooping up the two coins and Sally’s cell phone. “Just to the left of the main gate. Here, call up Miss Rambo and tell her that she’s been spotted again and to come in before she catches cold or jungle fever. That’s four failed attempts in a row! I’ll stick the kettle on the stove and brew her a hot chocolate or something.”

Young Suzy didn’t look a bit like Rambo or Sylvester Stallone, come to that, as she sat dripping on the edge of a stool, downing her chocolate and looking somewhat piqued. The Hollywood hunk wasn’t that cute nor as sexy for one thing, plus he’d have made at least three of her. We’d watched the movie a few nights back, one of those ‘it happened to be on’ and the three of us too tired and lethargic to bother turning the TV off. We’d half watched most of it, being too lazy not to, if you know what I mean!

Anyway, back to Suzy and her silly Rambo idea. The movie had evidently triggered an idea she’d probably already been thinking about. She had suggested that maybe Sally or I play a sinister intruder and see if one of us could defeat Tony’s admirable security cameras and alarms. ‘Bound to be a weak spot somewhere’, Suzy had remarked. The girl had suggested we wait till it was dark and then sneak around and see if we could creep right up to the farmhouse while she watched the monitors and kept an ear out for the alarms. She’d call us on our cell phones if we got spotted or triggered something. 

Just the right weather for it as well, and crawling around on our bellies might be fun; she’d gleefully implied. Sally and I had exchanged a dubious look. It was raining again, and had been sporadically doing so on and off for the past week. Moreover, it showed no sign of changing in the immediate future. That long look Sally and I exchanged summed everything up. Young Miss techie might find the idea of crawling around in the mud fun, but she was in the minority regarding playing Rambo! Besides, Sally and I still had to get to grips with the technicalities of the security system at some point! Why not tomorrow? Our animals would doubtlessly benefit and welcome a break from their training sessions for a few days. Their rumps especially!

The girl’s initial mock lack of enthusiasm hadn’t fooled either of us, and after a day’s tutorial, the little bitch was raring to go and find a few loopholes in the system she’d trained us to operate. She even took herself off into the city for an hour or so, returning with a man’s military-style camo-type jacket several sizes two big and a skin-tight pair of similarly patterned fashion leggings more suited to the disco floor than a battlefield. She’d even acquired several sticks of green and black face paint from a shop that specialised in military and costume-type gear.  She’d gleefully assured us the real stuff as though a couple of sticks of greasy face gunk would render her invisible to all Tony’s wonderful electronic wizardry! 

It hadn’t, and her enthusiasm had diminished by the time she’d squelched her way back to the farmhouse through the darkness after her fourth failed attempt, very much in need of a hot shower or even a bath. Crawling around in the mud seemed to have lost its attraction, nor as she gratefully supped that mug of chocolate did she exhibit any enthusiasm to repeat the exercise, even in good weather! 

As Sally had put it, four nil to Tony, handing the damp girl a smug smile along with the mug of hot chocolate, and young Suze had known the system’s capabilities and where all the cameras and alarms were situated, unlike a casual intruder.  I’d harboured quite significant doubts about operating a pony operation so openly and blatantly as Mandy did but in my own locality, even on a much smaller scale. My ‘Pony Ranch’ as it was now dubbed. 

Good news for us, I decided but very bad news for the unwilling occupants of my stable. The chances of anyone wandering onto my property, either innocently or by deliberate design, without being discovered were virtually nil. There was nothing I could do if the ‘authorities’, so to speak, got wind of my evil little empire and raided it. But unless someone somewhere blabbed, that was unlikely, I now realised. Accidental intruders were something else altogether, and the trick to them, as both Mandy, Suzy, and Tony had told me, was to prevent them from seeing something they shouldn’t while still having the freedom to do as I wished with my captive livestock. 

“Peace of mind, your mind not theirs” was how young Suzy had once put it, stabbing a thumb towards the stable with one hand while decapitating her usual breakfast egg with the knife in the other.

I admit I’d not been overly convinced that could be done at my place. I didn’t even have an old but high wall around virtually my property as Mandy had at her sizeable estate. I suppose I could have erected a tall razor wire fence, but that was likely to have the opposite effect. The equivalent of putting up a sign saying, ‘hey, look, I’ve something to hide here or something valuable to protect.

The girl had been right about my ‘peace of mind’ though. Sally had noted it in bed one night a few days after we’d returned from Mandy’s. Apparently, I was all tensed up and not the same chilled-out person she’d first shared a bed with back at Mandy’s big house. She’d done her best with mouth, tongue and tiny hands to improve the situation, which was naturally highly enjoyable, but it had taken a couple of weeks for me to settle down and fully relax.

When I thought back about it, I think I’d been living on a knife edge, maybe only a slight one, ever since that time Mandy made her unheralded entrance in the stable. Perhaps ever since I’d first snatched Beauty and Fluffy. Now I had an excellent security and alarm system courtesy of Mr Robert Montague-Smythe’s generosity. One which could still function thanks to its roof-mounted little wind generators, solar panels and battery backup through a month-long power outrage if such an unlikely event became necessary.

‘Overkill, I don’t know of a situation that would make you need a power backup for so long, Tony had admitted with a grin. ‘A nuclear war, maybe!’ Sally and I had looked at each other with raised eyebrows. Like maintaining our pony stables, security would be that important under such circumstances! It would, however, help to keep the running costs down, which as a girl of limited income, wasn't to be sniffed at!  

The downside was learning how to use the damn thing and all the extra gizmos they added to enhance the system, although that hadn’t been quite as painful as I’d imagined. Plus, I had this nagging feeling of gratitude to Bob and Mandy that tended to ruffle my conscience every time I thought about the cost. I knew they were both delighted at how happy Sally was, which tended to offset that. If Sally had initially complained that I wasn’t quite the same woman, she was equally transformed.

Was that me, the change of scenery, the shorter drive she had to work, or that substantial surly mare she had stabled? Her difference hadn’t applied to how she treated that unfortunate beast I’d noted. I concluded Medusa apart, probably a combination of everything else, but she had undoubtedly blossomed. That touchiness, that resentful barrier she had always seemed to shroud herself in, had evaporated, revealing a beautiful, constantly smiling and laughing butterfly in its wake as she tentatively spread her new wings—a delightful companion both by day and by night.

It was a double whammy for our animals, mine anyway! During my stay at Mandy’s vast estate, I’d been conscious of a sort of freedom I hadn’t felt at home. Guilt, fear, worry or whatever, but I no longer had that dark shadow lurking in a recess at the back of my mind. Thanks, I partly felt because of young Suzy, her effervescent personality and enthusiasm, and her absolute confidence in all the recently installed electronic wizardry. 

When the three of us discussed it, the reality was that it was total overkill. The chances of someone doing what Mandy had done were pretty damn slim, and it was only when we had a pony outside that the system came fully into its own. As Suzy had pointed out, it only takes one enthusiastic bird twitcher to hop over the old fence and point his binoculars in the right place at the wrong time to screw the lot of us. That’s why people have insurance policies. ‘Peace of mind when the unlikely happens!’

She was right. Peace of mind, peace in my mind was great, but of course, that meant for the first time my mind could focus one hundred per cent on my livestock. Like I said a double whammy. Not only had any chance of the cavalry arriving been thoroughly scuppered, but they were, as I say, the absolute centre of my attention in a way they hadn’t been before. Of course, they sort of had been, but I might have tended to hang fire a bit previously, although I doubt Beauty or Fluffy would have agreed!

It was about halfway through my third week back when Suzy decided to play commando or whatever those special forces guys are called these days. I decided it was time to take stock of my livestock, no pun intended. I was lingering over breakfast, the last man or, in this case, the last woman standing. Along with my new sense of mental freedom had also come a sort of physical freedom threatening to make me far too lazy. It wasn’t that I was no longer enthusiastic, far from it, but I always seemed to be the last one down in the morning, the last one to finish breakfast and last over to the stable.  I made a mental note to mend my ways as I rinsed my mug and plate in the basin and put them aside to dry. I was a natural air dryer; Sally, on the other hand, insisted on a tea towel and drying them on the spot, whereas Suzy hovered between the two and so invariably irritated one of us!

Suzy was raking out Candyfloss’s stall as I entered. The elderly mare was already fastened on the walker, plodding around behind the hulking figure of Medusa. It was one of Sally’s workdays, and she started early, having a walk-in clinic for those patients who arrived between eight-thirty and nine-thirty. Sally took her reception duties very seriously, as so she should. Nobody likes being ill, and doctor’s receptionists as a breed don’t have the best reputation for patience when it comes to being sympathetic towards the sick!

My diminutive lover was a paradox in that respect. She would be most concerned and sympathetic while gently extracting a tiny splinter from my finger with a suitable home sterilised sewing needle. Likewise, spending half an hour chasing a spider around and around the bathroom with a glass tumbler in one hand and a bit of cardboard in the other to capture and evict the intruder unharmed. Suzy or I would have batted the damn thing! Whereas over in the stable with Medusa, her attitude was completely different, and she hadn’t the slightest hesitation in batting Medusa or any pony, whether justified or not! Then again, were any of us much different?

The little woman seemed to have abundant energy and always leapt out of bed at the crack of dawn regardless of anything we’d been doing the previous night, and most nights, we seemed to be expending an awful lot of energy before we went to sleep. Sally quickly washed, dressed and departed after giving me a peck on the cheek that hardly registered. Breakfast was a quick cup of coffee and a slice of toast, usually consumed while checking on Medusa and giving her big beast something to remember her absent owner for a few hours! I was even a tad jealous of the giant animal. The beast got far more attention most mornings than I did!

“Heya”, Suzy gave me a friendly wave as I entered. The young blonde was another one who seemed to have abundant energy first thing in the morning. She hit the starter button and was up and running in top gear.  Then again, in her case, the girl was full on all the time, wasn’t she? “Early supper tonight! Sally said she fancied some fish and chips, so she’ll stop off at the village chippie. No need to do any cooking or anything!”

I grinned at her. That was diplomatic. “No need to do any warming up or microwaving is what she meant, at least in my case.  Sally could cook, Suzy could bake, and I could make sandwiches! Simple ones, Nuff said! Sally often brought something like that back, and I was putting on a little weight, so the bathroom scales informed me. I’d have to watch myself, unlike my two smaller companions whose lightweight bodies seemed impervious to additional calories!

I grunted and looked over towards Beauties stall.  We didn’t have a rota as such. On a typical day, the other two girls tended to their own animal, and whoever finished first would start on my second beast. I usually alternated every morning between Beauty and Goldie. No particular reason why but I’d just dropped into that routine.  Yesterday I’d started on Goldie, and because I was the least experienced, I was always the last to finish. That was my excuse anyway! Sally only worked three days a week, so if she was at home and by the time I’d finished, the other two had also done Beauty. Not entirely due to my tardiness, Goldie was still a very new and troublesome beast!

“You need to call Mandy, by the way,” Suzy’s blonde head popped up again as she peered over the stall, no doubt standing on tiptoe. “She called me half an hour ago wanting to know how things were going and wants you to call her” Sally paused and chuckled, “When it’s convenient, she said but then added in the next hour or so. I expect that means convenient for her”

“Why? She’s got my number!”

Sally shrugged. “No idea; I thought she was just being Mandy, you know what she’s like. Impulsive gets an idea and has to act immediately, even if it’s so damn early! I thought it was just a social call, but apart from a bit of general chit-chat, it was you she needed to talk to. Oh, yes, she did mention Penny, so that may be what she’s got a bee in her bonnet about! Actually, now I think about it, I’ll bet that’s what it’s all about!”

I blinked. Penny, that was a new name to me. “Who or what is Penny?” I asked an empty space for Suzy had bobbed back down. The blonde head reappeared.

“Sorry, my bad. I don’t think you’ve met her yet, have you? We didn’t have any other visitors when you stayed with us, did we? Leastways, I don’t recall anyone.”

I shook my head. “No, and no, or if you did, I didn’t get to meet them”.

Suzy decided to exit the stall and emerged, dusting her hands and leaning the long rake against the door.  “Less stressful on my toes this way and far more polite”, she laughed and added, “Ah, talking about Penny, the proverbial penny just dropped. Mandy asked if the other two stalls were still empty. I think I can fill in the blanks. I should have realised earlier, must have forgotten to put my head on straight this morning!”  she grinned at me.

I flashed a very dubious and suspicious look at the grinning girl, which only made her wink at me and broadened that maddening grin. My sour face must have had some effect, though, for she chuckled and said. “I’d call Mandy ASAP, but to satisfy your curiosity, Penny is a good friend of Mandy’s, or I believe her mother used to be. Sadly she passed on a couple of years ago, but Mandy’s always been a sort of unofficial aunt to the girl. One of those probably as much older sister as an aunt, you know what I mean!”. 

“What has that got to do with us, with me?”

Suzy reached for her rake and re-entered the stall. “If I’m correct, both you and Beauty! Maybe even Goldie, go on, give her a call, can’t do any harm, can it?” she grinned and returned to work while I glared after her and then stalked from the building reaching for my phone. The signal was always a bit better outside the stable for some reason.  Naturally, Suzy had a model that worked anywhere, whereas my cheapo device always seemed to turn its nose up or the electronic equivalent whenever I was inside the stable.

***** 

“Well, I asked? What do you think? What’s the final verdict? Doable?”

“Tight” was Suzy’s answer, looking first at the tape measure she was holding, then down at the large wooden frame she’d knocked up, and finally at the small clump of trees. “Tightest here, but yes, doable if she takes it slowly and don’t forget I added a few inches all around when I built it, so we’ll have a mite more room to play with in reality.  A couple of other places where she will have to go really slow and maybe shuffle a bit. Like backwards and forwards a little while, she heaves the wheel round but no big deal if the thing gets a few scratches. You can let go now,” she called to Sally, who was obediently still holding the other end of my big tape measure.

“What about the height?” Sally asked, joining us. “I’ve seen that huge thing of Penny’s a couple of times. It is pretty tall, you know”.

Suzy nodded. “Yeah, big, but not like it’s not a double-decker bus. I took that into account. It looks bigger than it is, and I haven’t seen anything likely to impede her at that level. I mean, it’s not like one of those massive ones they have over in the States. I saw some of them when I was on holiday there. Some were even towing a car behind instead of having a couple of cycles strapped to the rear like over here.  Penny’s is kinda medium small compared to those long monsters. I reckon the tight bends are all doable, even this one, provided she goes super slow, and we guide her around. Tony’s team cleared out a lot of the small stuff to get their truck up, I bet.  Trust me, I got all the measurements straight from the dealer’s website. It’s the interior that’s been altered to include that special pony compartment at the back. It looks like every other similar-sized camper van from the outside!”.

“Suppose she’s sold it and bought a different one?! Sally asked, joining us.

“Fuck off!” Suzy replied promptly, winding up the big old tape measure that I think went back to my grandfather’s time, and then she grinned at the small woman. “One bridge at a time. She turned to me. “You wouldn’t happen to have a chainsaw laying about, would you, as backup, I mean?”

“Nope, not even an axe!” I looked up. “There used to be many more branches growing across the track, but Tony’s gang trimmed all the substantial stuff. What’s left is pretty lightweight. It’ll just bend and then spring back, won’t even damage the paintwork,” I added but still turned to Suzy to ask one final time. “You sure you don’t want to share a room?” 

Suzy shook her head, laughing. “Oh, I’d be up for it especially, as there’s only room for that one big bed and not much else, but I can guarantee that Penny wouldn’t go for it!” she pulled a face. “I tried to get inside her knickers once, but that girl is as straight as they come. I was only half-serious, but she’s so gorgeous I had to try. I still got a right brush off, I can tell you. However, we’re still good friends, and you’ll like her. Lovely personality and is the last person to hold any grudge. Super nice, well, except to her ponies, of course!” Suzy finished with a giggle and added, " But aren’t we all!”

“Hmm, I looked up and down the track. If I’m to get many more visitors staying, I’ll have to build an extension,” I mused thoughtfully.

“Or buy a caravan”, Sally added, leading the way back up to the farmhouse. “A little one, maybe!”

Why not a bloody tent, very apt for housing a growing circus, I thought moodily, following behind. Well, I wasn’t going to pay for an extension to the house. Mrs Amanda Montague-Smythe seemed determined to keep turning my life upside down! I’d hardly got my feet back under the table, yet ‘here we go again!’ Not that I was ungrateful, I hastily thought of all the fun I was having, and no doubt the imminent arrival of Ms Penelope Mortimer would continue that delightful trend. An indignant shout from Suzy arrested me.

“Hoy, don’t leave me with this thing on my own!”

“Sorry”, I returned and took one end of the large but simple wooden frame she’d knocked up from bits and pieces of wood she’d scrounged. The primitive device was supposed to match the dimensions of my latest visitor to be’s camper van to see if it could negotiate my twisting narrow track from the road up to my farmyard. Evidently, as we carried the frame upwards, it would, just, so those ‘other arrangements’ Mandy had hinted at would not be necessary. 

I wondered what those other arrangements were as Suzy shouted to be careful with my end because it was twisting too much. Jeez, girl, we were carrying a huge floppy rectangle knocked together from bits of scrap wood, old, split and in some cases rotten! The girl had hammered it together using a variety of rusty nails and wrapped the last of my duct tape around the corners and weak points. Careful! It was a piece of waste junk that would be immediately dumped, not a valuable antique period piece, sheesh!

My mind returned to the call I’d made to Mandy the previous morning. As I’d expected, it was or seemed a good ten minutes before she got to the gist of what she wanted to say. She apologised that she and Bob hadn’t visited, but then as I pointed out, it wasn’t even a month since I’d left her place. Then she gave me the third-degree wanting chapter and verse about how everything was going. Hell, I mean, I’d spoken to her several times since coming home, plus she’d already spoken to young Suzy. I got the impression I was repeating everything she already knew quite needlessly, and then finally, we got to the meat in the sandwich. 

Perhaps I was being a little churlish again especially considering all the money she and Bob had invested into my property plus everything they’d done for me. Given their concern for Sally’s wellbeing and that Suzy was one of her employees, it was inevitable that she would feel a sense of responsibility. However, her curiosity seemed to extend beyond those boundaries, which initially appeared to be the conversation's theme. I thought that I was far more the focus than the other two.

Penny, she explained, was the daughter of an old and now sadly and far too early, departed friend. They’d been at school together and then modelled for the same agency until she met Bob and had quit that scene early to enjoy life on his estate. Penny was the result of a causal fling her mother had around the same time with a famous rock star.  Mandy had said ‘mentioning no names’ and then promptly done the opposite, adding who refused to take any responsibility, of course and not for the first time either!

Fortunately, her friend had been a popular cover and catwalk model whose choice of financial advisers was way better than her choice in bedmates! Plus, her parents were extremely ‘comfortable’, as Mandy put it moneywise, and owned a sizeable farm stroke riding school and stables. Mother and daughter had also been regular enthusiastic visitors to Mandy’s place, where they both availed themselves of Mandy’s growing collection of more exotic equines!

Penny had followed in her mother’s footsteps gracing numerous magazine covers and fashion shows, although she was a bit ‘picky’ as Mandy put it. Then again, since she’d inherited the farm plus a sizeable sum from both her mother and grandparents, then married a hunk who was well endowed in all aspects, physical and financial, so she could afford to be picky! Anyway, her other activities took up a lot of her time. That was why she was calling. Those ‘other’ activities were the reason for her call in the first place!

Out of curiosity, I’d looked at my watch at that point. I wasn’t sure when I’d called her, but I guessed she must have been talking and asking questions for at least ten minutes by then. Talk about going all around the houses to get to your destination. I wondered if Mandy knew that the quickest way from point A to point B was a straight line. As you may have gathered, Gossip was never high on my priority list and tended to try my patience. I’d been a great disappointment to my colleagues in my working days. Somehow, I could never get excited about whose marriage was breaking up, who was having an affair with whom, etc.

As I’d guessed, Penny’s ‘other activities’ involved two-legged equines. I gathered that she and her husband still ran the ridding school, more to keep busy than for financial reasons, but the farm or most of it had been left to pasture or allowed to return to nature. In addition to the main stable of four-legged animals, Penny housed a small collection of two-legged ones in a separate secure building and exercised them on the days when the main one was closed.  

At that point, I’d risked asking her what this had to do with me. I knew it would and that the term ‘fait accompli’ was about to be liberally applied to my life once more. I wasn’t annoyed, not even irritated, merely curious and grinned as she hastily assured me that she was only trying to help and that Penny was conveniently free now. Her original idea had been to invite her over while I was visiting her estate, but the girl had been competing at a couple of events in the Middle East and then that Russian business had unexpectedly popped up anyhow! 

By that time, as I replayed the phone conversation in my mind, we’d reached the farmyard, and I was directed to lay my end of the simple measuring cum manoeuvring device on the ground by the end wall of the stable. Young Suzy still protectively fussing with the wretched thing as though it had some value other than kindling for my wood-burning stove! Sally was waiting by the open farmhouse door. Her cell phone was clamped to her ear, already talking to Mandy. Presumably telling the woman that our primitive experiments had been a success and this Miss Penny person could enjoy the night-time comforts of her camper van rather than the big sofa in the farmhouse kitchen come living room. That being the only alternative to the sapphic risks of spending the night sharing a bed with young Suzy!

*****

“Of course,” Sally said, handing round the coffee mugs. “It’s not so much the accommodation. I mean, she could have stayed at the village inn. They do bed and breakfast, don’t they?”

I nodded. “They used to, and I think they still have that sign outside.”

Sally nodded. “Yes, I noticed that the first time I drove through.  The point is that Penny also uses that van to transport her ponies around” She stopped and frowned, looking towards Suzy. “You know I’ve never seen her use anything else, never seen her use a horse box, have you? Even when she stays in the house with Mandy and Bob, she still uses that thing.”

Suzy pursed her lips and blew gently on her steaming mug. “Nope, always that big camper van when she visits Mandy. I wonder which ones she’ll bring with her this time?”

Sally nodded. “Good question. It’s not like she’s coming on a routine visit. Not the sort of visit she usually pays on Mandy? I mean, there’s another purpose, a practical one; she’s not here to show off, is she or to run her eye over Mandy’s latest stock and get a bit competitive? Remember last time when she brought ‘Strumpet’, that look in Mandy’s eyes when she saw the filly!”

Suzy giggled. “Mandy wasn’t the only one with that green look, as I recall, but at least I got to groom the gorgeous creature. Wow, that was one lovely piece of pony flesh,” the girl added dreamily. “My bet, for what it's worth, Suzy added thoughtfully, “will be one of each. Something very docile and ultra-obedient like my Candyfloss and something with a bit of spark for her to ride” she paused and then continued. “Maybe not quite like Candyfloss. I mean something that still has a little bit of a spark in it if you get my meaning!”

That I thought sipping at my coffee was the reason for the last couple of hours' activity. ‘Something for her to ride’. I liked that expression, for It had always been my intention to throw a saddle over Beauty and ride my fine animal. It had been that mental image of myself atop a beautiful big whip-trained filly that had fired my latent sadistic imagination in this very room as I looked at those compelling images on my desktop pc. God, how long ago that seemed and yet it was not? I remembered being so sexually stimulated that I went frantically hunting for my little pink vibrator and recalled my delight in finding it and in the fact that it worked. 

I grinned at that memory. Boy, that cheap little device had earned its keep as I used the internet's vast resources to explore the erotically fascinating world of captive human equines.  It wasn’t even redundant! Sally had discovered it and put it to good use the other night as she started ‘warming me up’ as she put it! My imagination and practical experience had expanded since those first few days of fascinatedly surfing the internet. However, never in a zillion years could I have imagined that I’d soon be sitting here with two like-minded girls and have a stable full of captive two-legged equines. Nor would I feel so comfortable and untroubled by their horrible situation.

Well, four counted as full in my book, and if this Penny person did arrive with two more ponies, then my humble establishment would indeed be full! I was in danger of becoming blasé about the whole thing, wasn’t I? I glanced up to ask a question, but my two companions had their heads together, whispering about something on Suzy’s phone that, from the snippet I heard, was neither pony related nor about someone I knew. I refrained from interrupting the giggling twosome.

My mind returned to Mandy’s latest proposal, well, course of action, I suppose, rather than proposal since, as usual, it had already been signed and sealed and merely awaited delivery! That latter I assumed to be ‘incoming’ now Sally had informed the big boss lady of our morning’s successful experimentation with tape measure and Suzy’s silly contraption. If indeed it had been successful, they could leave me out of it if this Penny subsequently demanded compensation for damages incurred when navigating my twisty drive!

Good luck to her, I thought. I’d done it twice now, one going and once coming with a small horse box trailer, and that was ‘bendy’ at the ball towbar joint. I now had the confidence to do it again but certainly not in anything bigger than my medium-sized hatchback and that small horse trailer. The latter was parked beyond the stable, and I assumed we’d return that along with Candyfloss when the time came for Suzy to depart. 

My mind drifted back to my earlier conversation with my self-appointed benefactor and patron. If it was my ambition to ride my Beauty and Goldie, then Penny, I was assured, would be an excellent tutor. ‘Way better than me and my girls, ’ Mandy had told me. ‘We are all heavy-weight fatties and carriage drivers here apart from young Suzy. That girl can assist, she’s no stranger to the saddle, but Candyfloss is a very tame animal. I don’t think she’s ever ridden anything with spirit and certainly hasn’t broken one to the saddle! That’s why Penny’s your best bet! You’ll love her!’

Heavyweights and fatties! She was doing herself down a bit, not to mention the other girls. Sarah was probably the biggest and was far from looking like a Soviet-era shot putter. I gathered that this Penny was another lightweight, and when the girl wasn’t competing on the human equine circuit or strutting her stuff on the catwalk and posing for fashion magazines, her speciality was teaching youngsters to ride four-legged ponies.  A natural Mandy had assured me, so you’ll be in good hands and apparently very keen to help when Mandy had discussed it with her.  That last bit worried me a teeny weeny bit. I wasn’t sure I liked the idea of Mandy discussing my Pony Ranch with people I didn't know. Hell, even I was calling it that now!

I was still thinking about that when I walked across to the stable later, having declined an offer to ‘learn something useful!’ My two companions had happily set themselves to a productive afternoon surrounded by bags of flour, eggs, bowls, baking trays and various ingredients from the supermarket. I would certainly appreciate the delicious results but not if I’d had any part in the necessary culinary chemical procedures! I knew my limits. Not even Suzy’s cheeky shout from behind tempted me. “You can always lick the bowls clean if you’re a good girl!”

She was barking up the wrong tree aiming that remark at me. I took after my mother, who never baked and was very unimaginative meat and two veg cook. Rice was something you threw at weddings or put in a pudding, not on the main course plate, and I was fourteen before I discovered pasta! Only one bowl had ever got licked clean in the kitchen behind me during my childhood. The one belonging to the dog! 

I paused as I entered the stable to savour the atmosphere thinking that I hadn’t done that since I’d returned from Mandy’s, had I? Or if I had, then it hadn’t registered. Usually, I was with one of the other girls or both already at work. It reminded me of those first few days when Beauty had been the sole occupant. Naturally, that exhilarating odour of captive human equine was all the more noticeable with four such helpless beasts stabled. Also, four times the work shit and piss-wise, of course!

Thinking about her made me automatically head over to Beauties stall, the same one she’d occupied since I’d first walked my newly captured and tacked-up beast into her new and permanent accommodation. I wouldn’t say it was particularly deluxe, but it looked cleaner and more sterile than previously. I thought Tony’s gang had done an excellent job, absently wondering if there was an equine accommodation equivalent star rating.

They’d repointed all the old rough brickwork, sanded it smoother from the top of the pen to the floor, and then painted it a light orange. A little garish, but it did compliment the varnish they’d used on the new wooden partitions. The stall door was also a shade of orange.  It had taken me a couple of days to adapt, but now I liked it. A mix of new and old, for they’d left all the old red brickwork above the top of the pens, like the original heavy internal wooden beams. They had also retiled a goodly portion of the roof, so hopefully, the autumn gales wouldn’t wreak their usual havoc.

That was a little unfair on the original builders. There had been a few tiles missing here and there, and I lost a couple more each year to the winter gales, but the building had stayed predominantly dry. It hadn’t been that Beauties stall had been the one with the least clutter for me to clear out but also that it was the farthest from any leak! Practicality rather than compassion on my part. A damp pony with a permanent head-cold wouldn’t have been much use!

Beauty eyed me warily and shuffled backwards, her hooves scuffing up the dirt covering the stall floor. Well, I say dirt because it mostly was a sort of dirt. A mix of sand and sawdust with some absorbent cheap kitty litter thrown in, plus the inevitable bits of flattened straw from the animal’s bedding and other less savoury things often trampled into the mix. Pony's internal tail tubes had no regard for stall hygiene! 

The bedding straw we topped up every third day and mucked out the stalls daily. I was still experimenting on how often we should change the entire floor covering. At Mandy’s, they did it weekly, but Suzy thought that overkill. I tended to agree with the girl, and we’d decided on two weeks and maybe push for three. It wasn’t just the cleanliness and condition of the stalls I had to consider but also the necessity of getting the stuff. It was cheap enough, dirt cheap if you’ll excuse the pun, but getting it up to the farmyard was the problem. I suppose a small open truck like Tony’s could manage it, but I’d prefer they unloaded down by my gate. That, of course, would mean transporting the stuff up to where I wanted it.  Something else for me to think about security-wise: I could heave a bag onto a small trailer, but tiny Sally, no way! 

I’d mentioned buying a small trailer to fit behind my car, but Suzy had found that idea hilarious. ‘Get them to unload anything like that down by your gate, silly girl, and why bother with a trailer? Hey, that company Mandy’s involved with has a range of carts. Go online, and if they haven’t anything suitable, I’m sure they can adapt something. Won’t cost you a penny either. Mandy said to order whatever you need, didn’t she, and she’ll be hurt if you do otherwise. Think real horsepower girl in the two-legged sense. Much more fun as well to harness a couple of them to a cart and make them do the donkey work, so to speak. No one will see them from the road if you keep them behind that first set of bushes. Goldie, Medusa and Beauty, pair any two from three and bingo! Hell, Medusa could do it on her own! Maybe we can try something before I go, see just how much they can haul; with suitable encouragement, she’d finished with a wicked laugh!

I might have become more relaxed about my security, but not entirely. I was still slightly paranoid, I thought and with good reason. All of Tony’s excellent tech stuff would be useless if a delivery driver happened to get a peek into my stable. We all made mistakes, and familiarity did indeed breed contempt. If that happened, then Sally and I would be the ones occupying a small space and staring at the walls for the rest of our lives!

Anyway, that was a problem for the future. They’d left me with a massive pile of bags behind the stable that ought to last six months and more, so there was no rush and Suzy’s suggestion made sense.  No rush at all, I thought, leaning on the door and admiring my beautiful ponygirl. I even felt a slight twinge of guilt, I hadn’t exactly been ignoring her, but I had perhaps been a little preoccupied of late with Goldie and before that with the many varied delights on offer back at Mandy’s estate.

I chuckled to myself as I admired the beast. I’d just caught myself on the verge of making an apology to the animal for my recent disinterest. Silly girl, I mentally admonished myself as my eyes met her beautiful if sad ones. Why should I have to apologise to the animal? The creature was mine to do with as I wished without the slighted reservation was, she not? Anyway, ponies like her spent most of their miserable lives standing about waiting upon their owner’s pleasure, didn’t they? I suppose it was a sort of subconscious reaction because she was a two-legged humanoid, and I had a very polite nature. I grinned. Imagine if I’d done that and young Suzy were around! I’d get mercilessly teased for a month!

Ex-humanoid was more apt. Jeez, there was a certain something when you thought along those lines that hit me right in the clit every damn time. I’d tried talking about it to Sally and Suzy, but they’d become so used to it that it seemed like no big deal to them but me!  What must life seem like to these magnificent animalised creatures, helpless captives entirely at the whims of their merciless owners? Intelligent creatures yet denied even the simplest of stimulants, no books or magazines, no TV or internet for them. Nothing but endlessly shuffling their hooves in the dirt and staring at the same walls but far worse off than any convicted life termer!  What must that do to their heads, I wondered. They were living a helpless life, unable to do a thing for themselves, not even scratching an annoying itch on the end of their nose. 

I glanced down at my hands and automatically wriggled my fingers. Funny, one of those simple things you took for granted unless you had a severe accident.  I looked at those two big firm udders jutting above her harness corset and smiled as I eyed all the marks my toys had left upon them. Oh, so tempting when your fingers gripped a whip or crop! Beauty hadn’t been free of those since her capture, had she? Well, pony, if you will have such enticing orbs of flesh, you can’t expect your equally tempting rump to be the sole focus of my attention! I grinned, a bit like Goldie’s sizeable cock and big heavy balls! Tits and cock and an accompanying scream or muted howl were always more satisfying than when you wacked any other area! 

“Pleased to see me, pony?” I inquired even though her bit prevented any answer, plus the animal would have been foolish to reply had it not been there. That was still an ongoing lesson course, and Suzy had told me it would be for months to come but we would get there in the end. A little tiresome, she’d added with a sigh, considering we were dealing with supposedly intelligent creatures but apply enough leather and bamboo to their hides, and the message eventually penetrated!

Handling your animals regularly is another fundamental lesson I’d been taught, especially with nervous, freshly captured ones. I reached out and fondled Beauties prominent right udder, delighting both in the feel of the firm yet soft flesh and even more so that after an initial hesitant flinch, she accepted my hand with seeming stoic indifference. Outwardly anyway, her eyes told another story, the internal fire still burned bright, but my whips had already put a damper on that fire. We both knew who now owned that delicious chunk of flesh my hand caressed, and it was not Beauty herself!

Interestingly my gorgeous captive creature gave a sort of shudder at the exact moment I experienced one, although for highly different reasons. Mine was one of pleasure and deep sensual near orgasmic satisfaction, while hers was more from fear, anger and loathing! Beauty looked away as my hand moved to enjoy its ownership of her other udder and roll a pert nipple between finger and thumb. I resisted the temptation to squeeze hard, deciding that would be unnecessarily cruel. The animal had given me no reason to hurt it other than looking away. I reached up and gently pulled her head around and looked into her eyes again so that I could see that fire behind the closed blinds. I glanced across the stable to another occupied stall.  How different to that dull look in the eyes of Suzy’s Candyfloss, that animal had, well, not dead eyes but that spark I saw in my Beauties was missing.

I made a mental note as I released her head to chat with Suzy and maybe Sally about the longevity of ponies and their future life cycle. An area that must exist but thinking about it, I couldn’t recall ever hearing about it or reading any fictional story. Was there an equivalent to the old-style knackers yard, the slaughterhouse, the glue factory for aged two-legged equines? I gave Beauty a reassuring pat on her rump, thinking it would be a good few years before she had to worry about such a fate, or me for that matter. I flipped the stall catch closed and checked over the two empty ones while the first hint of that delicious aroma of freshly baked bread wafted in through the open doors.

 *****

As it turned out, all our careful measurements, Suzy’s vehicle internet research and handcrafted unique measuring device proved unnecessary other than confirming that my latest guest had an excellent sense of humour. Penny thought it hilarious, especially when I pointed out young Suzy’s wooden thing leaning against the stable wall.

“Sorry ladies”, she laughed, “Mandy should have told you. She warned me about your snake-like drive, and so I told her what I’d use for myself and the ponies. Did it work, Suze?” she nodded, grinning towards the frame. “Your, err, excellent and creative bit of carpentry?”

“Fuck off!” was again the prompt response from the seemingly sulking girl, then she smiled and stuck out her tongue. “Of course, it worked, numbskull, or would have worked, my end anyway. Although,” she sniffed. “That’s assuming the driver was sufficiently competent!”

Penny chuckled and threw the young blonde a mock salute before turning to me. “So it’s okay to leave it there?” she nodded to the smaller camper van and the horse box she’d efficiently parked beside it. 

I nodded. “Fine, you’re not blocking anything. I can get out for shopping trips and Sally for work. It might be a bit far though if you want to dash over in the middle of the night for a pee, also a bit muddy, especially if it’s pouring with rain,” I added. “Although I expect you have something inside you can use”.

Penny had surprised us by turning up with a smaller camper van than we’d expected. Still, a great deal more extensive than the original old-style Volkswagen camper vans, boxy, with much more room, if you know what I mean. The type had become extremely popular in the last few years, and quite a few companies hired them by the week. The girls had told me that the far end of her regular camper van had been adapted into a compartment for housing a couple of ponies during transit.  The van being her usual method of accommodating herself and transporting her ponies to various events, at least on the European circuit, whatever that was. 

Instead, she’d turned up with this smaller camper van towing a conventional horse box with two ponies inside. Trying something a bit different, she’d explained. Some of the kids she and her husband had taught were very good. They’d decided to compete at various junior Gymkhana events, so they bought a couple of conventional horse boxes and the smaller van as additional accommodation when needed. 

“Not your fault then”, Suzy offered the olive branch. “All Mandy said was, ‘better check she can get her big van up to the house. Of course, she didn’t mention which van!”

Penny grinned. “Probably forgotten what I’d said. You know how impulsive she is. So how about a brew then or even a cold beer?” She turned and looked thoughtfully towards her horsebox, then shrugged. “They can wait. I watered them before I set off, and it wasn’t a long journey, so I got here far quicker than I anticipated. Less weight perhaps than a couple of four-legged ones?” she mused.

Penny ******* was one of those breathtakingly beautiful girls, perhaps more women now than girl, I decided but still with exceptional looks. I suspected the sort she would carry well into her old age with nil need for any plastic surgeon to tweak anything. I knew she’d been the occasional face for a couple of major cosmetic companies but were they doing themselves any good when the canvas was already near perfect? Tall, with a mane of long dark hair hanging halfway down her back fashioned into a pigtail with a cute bow at the end. She possessed a waif-like slender figure, yet shapely with the natural, graceful movements of a trained dancer. She simultaneously managed to ooze sex appeal, classy elegance and a touch of the tomboy-like girl next door. Sally caught my eye, sighed and then rolled her eyes, grinning broadly, and I knew exactly what she meant. A few had it, and most of us didn’t, and we were both firmly in the latter class!

“Lovely, rustic and perfectly charming,” Penny said, looking around my big kitchen living area,” Very homey, my place is bigger but similar. That tech stuff is a bit overdone, isn’t it?” She looked from one monitor to another and then back to the alcove that Suzy had dubbed ‘mission control’.

“Blame it on Tony,” Suzy said after taking a swig from her can. “He did some work for you, didn’t he?”

Penny nodded absently, looking at the label on her beer can. Suzy had suggested I add a few packs to my shopping list as Penny was partial to a cold beer or two. A leftover from the year she’d spent with an agency in Oz during her gap year between school and university, although her modelling career had left the latter stillborn. I’d grabbed a couple of familiar names and hoped they would be alright. I wasn’t much of a drinker neither was Sally. Since returning, we’d cracked the odd bottle of wine, but young Suzy had probably accounted for more of it than we had between us.

“Several times” Penny nodded. “ He did the original set-up a few years back and has added and upgraded it a couple of times” she nodded to the monitor. “All my event training is done in the hangar, no, not quite that she added with a laugh seeing my expression.

“Although it could be used for that. The indoor training arena that I had built onto the back of the original stable building. The kids and their parents use the new one, of course, well away from it. The car park, paddock and jumping area are all down the other end.  My big aircraft hangar, as my husband calls it, is strictly off limits for obvious reasons!”.

I nodded, knowing why.

“I went there one time with Mandy”, Sally chipped in. “Hangar is right. You could park a couple of Jumbo jets in there, I bet and with room to spare!”

Penny nodded towards the monitor again. “Our place is a bit too open, too near civilisation, and we get far too many casual visitors. Ideal for the riding school and livery business but useless so far as any outdoor training goes for my more specialised animals. Even so, I have to be extra vigilant!” she pulled a face. “Nothing like kids for being curious!”

I grinned. “Plus, bored mums and daddy’s wandering about, I expect. Sorry!”

Penny had been taking another drink as I spoke and promptly choked as she tried to giggle at the same time, Suzy helpfully slapping her on the back.

“Thanks, Suze. No, not mummies. They never seem to get bored! They all hang around the stable taking millions of photos of the kids, then hang about en masse, watching them in the arena or wherever. If we go for a group trot, they all congregate in our little café for a natter. It’s always the dads or the odd one or two that decides to go walkabout.” She pulled a face. “Keep out, and private signs mean nothing to some people! Fortunately, my security routine ensures that doors are always locked, and there are no low-level windows to entice the over curious”.

Suzy laughed. “I’ll bet you’re no different; how are the twins?”

Penny unthinkingly whipped her cell phone out, started to tap on the screen, then stopped and peered suspiciously at the grinning young blonde girl. “Are you teasing me, missy?”

“Wouldn’t dream of it”, Suzy replied a shade too contritely, taking the phone off her. “My haven’t they grown!” she said, passing the phone over so that Sally and I could see the two cute little figures in identical padded red suits, red woolly hats and mittens clutching ski sticks.

Penny took the phone back, grinning ruefully. “Three and a bit now! Well, I suppose I’m just as bad as every other mum. I expect half my storage is full of photos of the twins. Not identical, although they do look similar. That photo was part of a shoot I did for a mag while we were on holiday in the alps a few months back, giving them their first taste of the piste. The clothing company supplied the gear and insisted on the lookalike duo shot, but I like that one!”

Suzy chuckled. “Of course, the other half of her storage is probably full of pony pictures! Which ones have you brought, by the way?”

Penny looked over to me and raised her eyes. “Does that irritating little blonde brat have to be here?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.

I grinned. “She has been sort of useful. I assume she means two-legged ponies, not ones with children on?”

Penny laughed. “No, although they might have enjoyed it. I decided to introduce them to my stable occupants from an early age.  They have gone with daddy on a lengthy visit to his miserable mother in Scotland. I was scheduled for a mag cover shoot in the Caribbean, but that fell through, and then Mandy phoned. A case of saved by the bell, or in this case, the ringtone. Granny and I don’t get on too well, so spending a fortnight here rather than kicking my heels at home alone appealed. Plus, I have a new or relatively new project to hand that I somewhat loathed leaving with my grooms.” She pulled a face and raised her hands in a questioning gesture. “How come so-called intelligent animals can forget so much in so short a time! Anyway, now I can kill two birds with one stone. Let's look at my beasts, and we can get them both settled into their new home. One of them’s likely to be a bit frisky and troublesome” she paused and winked at me. “But not for long!”