The Breaking of a Wild Stallion

[~*♥Faith♥*~]

General Brooks was sitting on his horse, Coffee. It was a hot, summer afternoon and some of the soldiers were gearing up to try and break a new, wild horse they had just brought in.

He was a gorgeous palomino horse with blue eyes. He was very viscious and was trying to break free from the holding area while they saddled him up. They just sent a soldier to the hospital area from being kicked in the gut. General Brooks watched them struggle with one hand on his lap, and the other gripping Coffee's reins. Coffee was below smiling to himself. 'If only that horse would just calm down he'd be done a lot quicker!' he thought to himself, remembering the day he was broken.

Then Coffee felt a soft kick and an instant prick of spurs and began to walk towards the fence.

"Who will be first?" the General asked all of his soldiers.

[Freedom♥s Angel]

Chase Hallow looked up at General Brooks and thought about his question. This would be his time to finally get noticed, make something of himself. He smiled slightly and looked back up at the General.

He raised his hand up and said, "I'll go General." He said. He slowly approached the gate and waited for the General to say something.

[~*♥Faith♥*~]

"Alright!" Brooks said, dismounting Coffee and handing the reins to another soldier. He jumped into the holding pen and helped the struggling soldier shove the bit into the new stallion's mouth, and check the saddle. Right when the stallion was about to rear the General hopped out into safety. "Alright guys!" he shouted. "Chase is going to break first!" General Brooks grabbed Coffee from the soldier and mounted up again.

"You think you'll teach this horse a lesson?" he asked Chase Hallow. "He's pretty wild!" The General tossed the soldier a helmet and crop.

[Freedom♥s Angel]

Chase nodded and mounted the horse. He rode it out, the horse bucking wildly beneath him. He managed to stay on. He managed to look at the General for a quick second, but could not read his facial expression.

He didn't know when the stag would stop and give up, but Chase held on for dear life. The horse was starting to get tired, but he wouldn't back down that easily.

He almost threw Chase off once, but otherwise, the stag was unsuccessful. He slowed down and then pulled to a stop, breathing heavily. Chase dare not loosed the reins, in case the horse would try again to get him off. But he didn't, Chase looked at the General again and said, "What do you think General?" He was referring to 'is the horse broken?' and waited his answer.

[~*♥Faith♥*~]

General Brooks had a wide smile on his face.

"That was very good," he told Chase. "Walk him around the ring, do some circles and see if he takes your lead, or keeps trying to buck."

[Freedom♥s Angel]

Chase smiled at the general and said, "Yes Sir." He grabbed the reins and led the horse around the corral. He thought he was officially broken, he did not try to buck him off again.

A smiled came over Chase's face again as he led the horse around the ring with ease. Nothing was happening, so Chase looked over at the General to see if he should stop or keep going.

[~*♥Faith♥*~]

Brooks smiled at Chase Hallow.

"Very good!" he began. "The horse, has been broken!" The surrounding soldiers clapped approvingly at Chase. "Chase, please take that horse to the stables, we'll see if we can tidy him up, and give him a name."

[Freedom♥s Angel]

Chase smiled at the General once again.

"Yes sir." He said beaming at everyone clapping for him. He knew he could do it, but he didn't think that this stallion could be broke with only one try.

He led the horse down the aisle of the stables and attached him to the ropes to brush him off.
He took his time grooming him and twenty minutes later, the horse was in his new stall. Chase walked outside to find the general and ask him a question.

He found him by the corral and asked, "General, do you have a name in mind for the horse?" He asked, thinking about the name he thought of while grooming him.

[~*♥Faith♥*~]

The General looked at Chase and dismounted Coffee. He again, threw the reins over his face, and handed them to another soldier, who took Coffee back to the stables.

"First of all I'm very proud of you," Brooks said to Chase. "I've never seen a soldier break a horse on the first try! Let's go take a look at that horse. I haven't thought of any names yet myself, have you thought of any?" Brooks led chase into the stables and to the stall that was assigned to the new horse.

[Freedom♥s Angel]

Chase beamed at the Generals words. "Thank you General." He said as they walked to the stall.

"I have one, but I don't know if you'll like it....." he said as he looked at the stag.

"Flame." He said to the General as he continued to look at the horse.

[~*♥Faith♥*~]

Brooks looked pleased, yet again.

"I don't see why not!" he said. "I'll make sure that I tell the men straight away to make a name plate, and put it on his stall door. Would you like to keep the stallion? Or shall we give it to another soldier."

[Freedom♥s Angel]

Chase looked at the General and a faint smiled crept onto his face.

"Is it alright if I keep him?" The young soldier was already feeling a bond with Flame and he would prefer if he kept him, but if he couldn't, that was fine.

[~*♥Faith♥*~]

"Of course you can!" The General answere Chase. "A fine soldier like you deserves the horse he broke. It was a mighty accomplishment." Brooks went into the stall and picked up Flame's hoof. It was filled with mud and dirt. "What do you say we take him down and clean him up a bit?"

[Freedom♥s Angel]

Chase smiled gratefully at the General. He found himself smiling a lot.

"Yes sir. I just finished grooming him, so picking out and shoeing him, I'll take him to the farrier." Chase said.

[~*♥Faith♥*~]

General Brooks nodded.

"That is a fine idea," he said. He gazed out of the stables and noticed that the soldiers were tidying things up, and it was getting late. "Why don't you go take him down to the farrier now and go to bed. Tomorrow morning we'll put that horse into training and see what we can get out of him. How about it?"

[Freedom♥s Angel]

Chase nodded. "Yes Sir. I'll see you tomorrow morning." And with that, he led Flame out of the stable and to the Farrier.

"Good evening Mr. Hallow. What can I do ya for today?"

"My horse, Flame, needs his hooves taken care of. Could you possibly do it tonight?"

"Of coarse, this shouldn't take to long. First let me get his shoe size." The farrier said. He grabbed a couple of different size shoes and found one that fit. Then he made four of them and put them down to cool off.

He picked up one of Flame's feet and started cleaning it out and trimming it and all of the other things a farrier has to do. Then, he put the shoes on and stood up.

"All done."

"Thank you so much."

"No problem Chase. Come back soon!" He teased.

Chase nodded and led Flame back to his stall. He let him get comfortable before going inside to bed.