Lucky Thirteen Read Online Free PDF Page B

you arrived just in time,” one of the men said with a smile.
    I looked inside the stall to see that the horse inside was in obvious distress.
    “Is the horse alright?” I asked.
    “Of course, Chloe. She’s about to give birth, that’s all.”
    I gasped in astonishment. I’d never seen an animal this size give birth. I thought of the horrible mess involved and hoped that I didn’t get sick. As the mare paced within her stall, breathing heavily and snorting, her water broke, raining down her flanks into the straw bed covering the floor. After several more minutes spent pacing, she slowly lowered herself to the floor of the stall and rolled onto her side.
    As I watched I was presented with the miracle of birth. There was nothing disgusting to be seen as the mare strained and the birth sack began to appear. The mare breathed heavily and snorted from time to time. She rocked from side to side, alternately straining and resting from her exertions. Eventually her foal’s head and front quarters appeared. The stall door was opened and Miss Hightower led me in for a better look. One of the stable hands entered to help with the birthing process by grabbing onto the foal’s forelimbs and gently tugging. The remainder of the foal slid free. The stable hand pulled the birth sack away from the foal’s head, and beneath was a beautiful newborn colt. The infant was black, its hair slicked down with birthing fluids. The mare rolled onto her knees and looked back to see her progeny for the first time. Eventually she rose and turned to lick the birth sack from her foal.
    “It’s a beautiful new lassie,” one of the stable hands announced.
    I must have stood, watching in wonder, for close to an hour. By the time we left the stall, the foal was successfully standing on spindly legs set wide apart. I had to laugh, wiping tears from my eyes caused by the breathtaking sight I’d just been shown.
    “No matter how many times I see it, it never becomes commonplace,” Miss Hightower commented.
    “It was beautiful,” I replied. “What are you going to name her?”
    “I thought Chloe Girl might be appropriate. What do you think?”
    “I think that would be a fine name,” I said, laughing.
    The next couple of hours were spent touring the horse training facilities. All around us there were riders, trainers, and stable hands tending to the horses. We even ran across several more greyhounds gathered round the stables, dogs which Miss Hightower had adopted after Flying Miss Lady had proven her worth as a pet. There was so much work going on around me all the time that I half felt that I should roll up my sleeves and pitch in.
    To maintain the horses’ health and state of mind, there were numerous large paddocks provided in which the horses were allowed to run free during the day. In these open areas, horses of various ages ran, played, nibbled grass, or simply lazed around in the sunshine. Stables with large freshly cleaned and airy stalls were available to house the horses at night. And for the horses in training, there was an uphill gallop track, a training track, and starting gates on a sand track. We stood by to watch a thoroughbred being timed and I felt all the excitement I’d felt at the track welling up inside of me.
    “That’s my pride and joy, Soft Spoken Hal,” Miss Hightower pointed out as the horse crossed the finish line.
    “Lucky thirteen.”
    “That’s right.”
    “When does he race?”
    “Tomorrow at the same track where we met.”
    “Oh, how I wish I could be there.”
    “That can be arranged.”
    I was sorely tempted to take Miss Hightower up on her thinly veiled offer, but then there was Alex to consider. Miss Hightower stepped away for a few moments to have words with the man I assumed to be the trainer. I was leaning against the track railing with my chin on my hands when Miss Hightower surprised me with her next offer.
    “Chloe, have you ever ridden?”
    I was pretty sure she didn’t mean a