The Stingy Stallion

THE STINGY STALLION 4

The Stingy Stallion

Jeff Callaway

Advanced Creative Writing

ENG/495

Dennis Nilson

December 19, 2011

THE STINGY STALLION 4

THE STINGY STALLION 4

The Stingy Stallion

One misty morning a colt went to his father and asked him for some shoes so that he could keep up with his other foal friends who all had shoes. The stallion complained that shoes were expensive, but the colt countered with, “But father it is nearly Christmas. Surely I can have some shiny new shoes for Christmas.”

“We’ll see,” said the stallion.

Christmas day arrived and the stallion presented his foal a brand new set of shiny horseshoes. The colt stepped gently on to one of the shoes to see how they would look only to discover that the shoes were too big. “Thank you for the shoes father, but they are too big for me.”

The miserly stallion responded saying, “Yes, but if I got shoes that fit you just right, you would grow out of them by next year and you would need some new ones not having barely used these. ”

“But these will not help me keep up with my friends,” the colt whined.

“Yes, but by the time you can wear these shoes, all your friends will still be wearing their old shoes that are too small for them and you will be faster than the whole bunch of them,” the stallion reasoned.

His father’s rationale made sense, so the colt waited. Always the last one to the watering hole, always left to eat the patches of crab grass, all because he could not keep up with his friends. Two Christmases passed before the colt was big enough to wear the shoes. “Father, my shoes are now a perfect fit. Can you take me to the farrier so that I can have them mounted?”

“I don’t know,” the stingy stallion replied. “Nails are expensive.”

“But Father, it is nearly Christmas again. Could I not have them mounted as an early Christmas gift?” the colt pleaded.

The stallion reluctantly agreed and took his foal to the farrier. The stallion selected the cheapest nails available from the farrier’s extensive stock. “You do not want to use those nails,” the farrier advised. “Those are strictly for walking. They are far too brittle and weak to use on a young horse that does a lot of running.”

The penny-pinching stallion insisted, “So he throws a shoe. We can put it back on with some more cheap nails.” The farrier rolled his eyes. Seeing that there was no point in arguing, he shod the colt with the cheap nails.

When they arrived home, the colt darted out to the prairie to meet his friends and show off his new shoes. However, he noticed that all of his friends had new shoes as well and they teased him that his shoes were two years old. The colt stood with his head down dejectedly eating the sour crabgrass and wallowing in his sorrows.

All of a sudden, the ponies’ heads snapped to attention. The colt heard it to; the long loud bray of a wolf filled his ears and made the follicles at the base of his mane pucker up as if they had gotten their first taste of crab grass. The colt looked in the direction of the sound and saw a pack of wolves emerging at a full run from the forest.

The herd of ponies bolted in the opposite direction, and even though the colt was not able to keep up with them, he was thankful that he now had shoes because he knew that he could outrun the wolves with them. However, as quickly as the thought occurred to him, his right front and rear left shoes flew off like rockets blasting into space, the nails cracking loudly as they snapped off cleanly.

“Oh NO!” the colt cried. The remaining shoes were just slowing him down. As he awkwardly galloped along, he prayed that the other shoes would fly off too. “I’d be better off barefoot.” It was his last thought as the wolves quickly descended on him. The pack quickly overwhelmed him and all was lost.

The colt’s friends told the stallion what had happened to his foal. The stallion fell to the ground as if his leg muscles had ceased to exist. The father was stricken with grief and guilt. “If only I had paid for the more expensive nails,” he thought in his sorrow. He sobbed heavily and just wanted to lie there never getting up again.