Pearl Dreams of Being a Horse

Billy FuFu is a quiet-little-gentleman goat that never asks much from anyone. He follows the longhorns around most of the day. I’m not sure why, but they do kindof match. They’re all brown and white and they all have horns. Now that I think of it, they also have split hooves and weird stomachs. Billy and the longhorns don’t like to cause trouble and they mostly stay to themselves. 

Billy and Pearl got along fine until it was time to get the daily grain allowance. Pearl loves food. It’s her favorite and she doesn’t care what she has to do to get it. 

That’s where the story of Pearl gets interesting…

After a year or so of hanging out with the cows and Billy FuFu, some new folks showed up on the ranch. They were magnificent with beautiful, flowing hair and long legs. They were graceful and intriguing...they kinda looked like Pearl, but with much longer legs and their mane and tail flowed in the wind...Pearl’s did not. Pearls mane stood straight up and her tail was short and swishy...which is probably why they made a game about it. 

Those new folks seemed a little unapproachable so Pearl watched them from afar until the day she realized they got to have grain twice a day. She only got fed once a day like the cows. Pearl decided she wanted to be a horse. 

One day, Pearl put on her best show. She pranced around and shook her mane...as best she could. She ran around acting as gracefully as possible with her very short legs and did her best to make beautiful whinny sounds as she trotted along the bank of the pond. 

But she didn’t get a second helping of grain. 

The next day, she tried again. 

This time she even tried her best to whinny like the horses as the feed cart headed toward the barn. She pranced and snorted and closed her eyes tight, wishing to look and sound like a beautiful, glamorous horse.  

Still no grain.

Humph. I’ll just go help myself, she thought. 

So, Pearl became a pest. 

She may have been small, but she packed a powerful punch. Once she turned her tiny tail toward those big horses, they would get out of the way quick. Finally, Pearl was eating her fill of grain, plus some and her swagger began to show it. 

Little by little Pearl’s belly wasn’t so little. Soon, Pearl’s belly looked more like a barrel. 

One day, Pearl was feeling good as she rolled around in the warm sand. But, when she tried to get up, she found herself stuck and stuck good! As hard as she tried, she could not get off of her back. Jenny the palomino came along and tried to help, but she couldn’t get Pearl rolled over. Jasper the little mule tried too, but he couldn’t get Pearl turned over either.

For most of the day Pearl was on her back, stretching and pushing. Wiggling and writhing. She was stuck on her back, and she was scared. Mostly she was embarrassed. 

Pearl needed help. 

Pearl needed to go on a diet. 

It was hard at first. Pearl was hungry! 

She went around looking for crumbs dropped by the horses and then she checked to see if the cows left any. Turning over the troughs and checking under each bucket she frantically searched for any morsel of grain that she could get into her empty belly! Grass didn’t seem to taste as good. Hay just didn’t do the trick, she wanted the sweet and crunchy pellets of grain! And lots of it! 

Every day she marched into her stall and every day there was less and less grain. That made Pearl mad.

Some days her attitude was down right ornery. Other days she was just depressed, but she kept going to her bucket and thinking maybe this time her meal would fill her up. 

Soon, Pearl began to feel better. 

Eventually, she felt more like playing and running with the horses. And at night, she slept better and had dreams of flying through the pasture with flowing mane and tail, running gracefully with her head held high and the sun dancing off her shiny coat as her muscles pushed her gracefully across the green grass. She woke up happy! 

During the afternoons when the days cooled down, she ran with the horses and kicked her little feet high as she playfully froliced behind them. She was finally one of them. Although much shorter and with much larger ears. 

One day a tall handsome guy showed up at the ranch. Pearl swooned. (That means her eyes opened wide and got a sparkle in them before they rolled back in her head and she took a deep breath. Incase you’re younger than me and were wondering.)

“Who are you?” she asked. 

He slowly turned his head to see who was talking to him. Then, he slowly dropped his head down, down and still down until his eyes found Pearl. 

“I’m Henry” he said in a deep drawl. (That means he spoke with a very slow and deep voice that sounded like he was talking in a barrel.) 

“Well, Hidee-do there Henry. I’m Mini Pearl, but folks just call me Pearl.” she smiled from her tiny little mini-donkey lips on her itty-bitty mouth. 

 “Hey.” Henry seemed especially uninterested. 

Pearl decided right then and there to make sure Henry was her friend. 

Henry was a giant. And he was handsome. Dapple grey with black socks, big feet and a beautiful tail that blew in the wind. He had the kindest eyes Pearl had ever seen and there was just something about Henry that made her like him. Even though she tried not to, she couldn’t stop looking at him and she wanted to be where he was, so she followed him around.

As the days went on, Henry fell into the routine and got along with everyone just fine. He had big feet, big bones and big ears. Although his ears didn’t seem that big, probably because his head was so big. Henry was just big. And he was strong! 

Henry wasn’t a horse and he seemed just fine with that. He was a mule. A fine specimen of one too. He was strong, handsome and confident. Henry didn’t want to be a horse, he was very happy just being himself.

Pearl decided that she was happy being herself too- a donkey. A miniature, short-legged, big-eared, spikey-maned, little-tailed donkey. With a big belly. 

And that day, she was the happiest she could remember ever being as she brayed louder than ever when the food cart headed for the barn. 

Henry brayed too.