The Mystery Horse (2)

 by Sarah M and Zoey I.

1-  The Mystery Horse

One afternoon while fixing supper at Memory Creek Ranch Andrea Carter Prescott looked out the window and her mouth dropped open in shock. There was a horse running up to the house! It was a quarter horse and it was beautiful. Andrea (Andi) had never seen a horse so pretty, except Shasta of course!

Andi turned and dashed outside to the porch, Jared was out there playing and she wanted him safe inside while they dealt with the 'Mystery Horse' by that time the horse had run into the barn, "Riley!" Andi yelled. The horse heard her and trotted out of the barn, she was calming down already, just being near other horses.

Riley came running up "Andi? What's the..." He stopped mid-sentence, he had seen the horse. "Now, where did she come from?" 

"I honestly don't know, she just showed up a few minutes ago." Andi replied. 

Riley gave a swift nod and hurried to the barn, with Andi at his heels. 

 The horse was munching hay out of an extra stall. Andi slowly walked up to her, all the while whispering calming words to her. When she got close she saw the horse was wearing a halter. "She's wearing a halter, she must be owned by someone " Andi called behind her softly. Then she held out her hand "Here girl. It's alright." She said softly. The horse reached out her muzzle and gently mugged her hand. Andi then grabbed her halter gently and held her over to Riley; he had gotten a lead rope and clipped it into the horse's halter. They led her over the extra stall. Andi gave her some oats and grain and a pitchfork of hay. 

 Andi and Riley talked in the house, "I think we should ask around town whose horse it is." Riley suggested.

"I think so too..... I wonder where she's come from."

"Good, this evening we can go to Circle C and have supper and then we can head to town. Sound good?" 

"Sounds good!" Andi said, her mother had invited them and their family for supper sometime that week so that would be great!  

Andi and Riley got in their buggy and headed to the Circle C for dinner. When they got to the ranch house Riley tied up the buggy and they headed inside. Once they had sat down at the table Chad looked over at Andi and said “ What’s bothering you little sis?”

 Andi then realized that she had just been blankly staring. “Well, there was this horse that showed up at memory creek this afternoon and we don’t know who it belongs to.”

Riley piped in and said “ we were going to go into town and look around and see if we can find who owns her.”

 “Well, I reckon me and Mitch could take a little break and ride with you in town to try and find who the horse belongs to.” Chad said.

  So when they had finished their meal Chad and Mitch saddled their horses and rode back with Andi and Riley to their ranch. When they got to the ranch Riley hopped down and unhitched the buggy and helped Andi and Jared down. Andi went and stood on the back porch watching as Chad, Mitch and Riley rode off into the distance to go search for the horses owner.

I sure hope that they find who this horse belongs to, Andi thought. 

 

Riley’s POV

 After the hour and a half long ride into town they had finally made it. Riley turned to Chad and Mitch and said so, “Should we just split up? We may be able to find her owner easier.”

  “Sure that’s fine with us,” Chad and Mitch said. 

 As Riley was heading to his first destination there were a million things running through his head. If we can’t find her owner then what do we do with her? Riley thought as he rode along. He had been to several places and no one knew who the horse belonged to. I guess I better find Chad and Mitch and see if they had any luck. Riley rode back down the street and he met Chad and Mitch along the way. “Well, did you guys have any luck finding the horse’s owner?”

 “No,” Mitch and Chad answered.

  “Did you?” Chad asked. 

 “No, I couldn’t find anybody that knew anything about her. But I guess we better head back to the ranch, it’s getting late. I will come back to town and maybe ride out to some of the ranches and see if I can get to the bottom of this.”

 

Andi’s POV

 Chad and Mitch agreed so they went back home. Andi was waiting for Riley, “Anything?” But she could tell by the look on his face, nothing. Riley shook his head, “No, nothing. I will try to find out more tomorrow.”

Andi replied, “Alright, I will help you look tomorrow. Let’s go in.”

 Riley nodded so they went inside together. 

 The next morning Riley and Andi got up extra early so they would have plenty of time to search for the mystery horse’s owner. Riley went out and did the ranch chores and came back in for breakfast. “Ready to do some horse hunting?” He asked Andi, chuckling. 

 “I am ready! I will drop Jared off at Mother’s house and then we both can search. Do you think the horse was stolen or what?” Andi asked,

 “I’m not sure, I have never even seen that kind of horse, but it could be a mixed breed horse.” 

 Andi nodded and they had pancakes for breakfast, and set out. After dropping Jared off they went looking. They asked everyone they knew in town, but no one had ever heard of the kind of horse. They were going down a road in town when they saw a horse that looked just like the horse they found at Memory Creek Ranch! Someone Andi had never seen before was riding it! 

 “Riley, look.” Andi said in a low tone.

 Riley saw the horse and was shocked! It was like a copy of the horse they had found! He motioned for Andi to follow him and they rode up to the man and his horse.

 “Hello! I see you are new in town! Nice horse, where did you get him from?” Riley asked. 

 The man smiled and said “I just moved here two days ago. This horse is from Russia. I love its breed so I got two of them!” 

 Andi and Riley looked at each other in surprise, no wonder they had never seen this kind of horse! “Where is the other one? I think they are beautiful horses, they are so unique!” said Andi.

 The man sighed, “I don’t know, while unloading my trailer he spooked and got away. I have been looking all over for him but I can’t find him!” 

 Riley and Andi wanted to make sure the horse they found was his so they did not tell him right then and there. 

 Andi and Riley rode back to Memory Creek in silence, how were they supposed to figure out if this was that man’s horse?

 “Riley, how are we going to figure out if the horse at Memory Creek really belongs to that man?” Andi asked. 

 “I don’t really know but we will figure out a way, I just want to be sure that it’s his, with it having no brand it could easily be stolen. ” Riley answered. 

 “We will have to think about this….”  answered Andi.

 A few days later they still had not decided to tell the man they found a horse. They rode into town again to get supplies when they ran into a woman putting up signs that read “Lost! A purebred horse from Russia, he ran off 8 days ago and can’t find him. If found, contact me, reward!” And an address.  

 Andi and Riley looked at each other, now what were they going to do? Two different people were missing horses from Russia! They had to find out whose horse it really was.

 Andi and Riley went back to Memory Creek, when they got there they put their horses up, Andi stopped to look at the horse as she was walking back out of the barn. “I wish we knew who your owner was, pretty girl,” Andi told the horse. 

 They went into the house to have dinner, after they had sat down and started to eat, Andi turned to Riley and said “ how are we ever going to know who that horse belongs to, I don’t want to give her back to the wrong owner.” 

 “I’m not sure, but I agree I just want to give her to the right owner.” Riley said. 

 A while later after sitting and talking about how they were going to find out who her owner was, Andi and Riley went to bed.  Andi couldn’t sleep, she kept tossing and turning thinking about that horse. What if they gave it to the wrong owner, then the actual owner would never get their horse back. She finally fell asleep still thinking about the horse. 

The next morning Riley and Andi decided to tell the man about the horse first, they were going to ride the horse into town and go past the man’s house and see if he said anything, if he did not, they would do the same thing to the lady. If the horse was owned by one of them the horse should realize who her real owner was. 

 Andi saddled up the mystery horse and mounted her. She trotted over to where Riley was waiting on Dakota. “Ready?” he asked.

 Andi nodded and they were on their way! They rode for a while and then arrived at the man's house. The man had seen them from a distance and came to meet them, he saw the horse and came running up,

  “My horse came back yesterday! That one looks so much like him though!” He called out.

 Andi and Riley tensed up, the horse had to be the lady’s!

 They rode along to three lady’s house and before they could even pull the horses to a stop she came running out, Andi and Riley got off the horses and told her they had seen her posting flyers about her lost horse and that the horse had shown up at their ranch days earlier. 

 “ Is this your missing horse?” Andi asked the lady. 

 “Oh yes!! This is my horse! I have missed her so much!! After it being so long and no one had seen her I had lost hope that I would ever see her again. Thank you so much for bringing her back! I will go in and get your reward money.” The lady said. 

 Andi answered and said “ No! We don’t want the reward money, it’s reward enough to know she is back with her owner Miss—- 

 “Amelia, call me Amelia.”

 Andi and Riley gave her the horse back. 

 As the ride back home Andi turned to Riley and said “I'm glad she got her horse back.”

 “Me too Andi, Me too.”