Phase 1: “Here Comes The…”

It had been a bet. A silly little sibling bet made while drinking.

Thatcher and his sister, Katy, were highly competitive, especially growing up in the equestrian world. Though at vastly different ages (29 and 21), the two competed like twin toddlers at times. Which brings us to how their mom's stables, Enchanted Manor, was entered into the Sagebrush Sanctuary Makeover Event for "undesirable" Loshenkas.

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"Um, Katy?" Thatcher called nervously to his sister from their small kitchen. When a few moments had passed without a reply, he shouted again, with more urgency. Eventually, the sound of her light footsteps on the hard floor came nearer.

"Who died?" She leaned against the doorway of the kitchen where she had come to a leisurely stop. She inspected her nails and chomped her gum in just the way her brother hated, hoping to get a rise out of him, but he seemed utterly preoccupied.

He turned to her with a pale face. "We did."

She scoffed and moved to peer over his shoulder at the letter he was holding in his shaking hand.

"What are you talking about?" Her eyes scanned the page with interest before she broke into gleeful laughter. 

"I don't see what is so funny about this!" Thatcher rounded on her, clutching the letter so hard it began to crinkle.

"HA! I knew if I entered the event, we would get picked! You owe me 20 bucks." She pointed an accusing finger at her brother, practically forcing him to go cross-eyed with how close it was to his nose.

"This is not funny," He said soberly, his pale face growing redder by the second and causing his freckles to almost disappear. "Mom is going to kill us for this."

Katy rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips. The stance reminded him so heavily of his mother when she was angry that he gulped, expecting her to charge in here at any moment and demand to know which one of them had sent the letter.

"I don't see how this is a problem for ME. You're the one who bet we wouldn't get approved! And now you owe me 20 bucks," She reminded him haughtily, holding her slender hand out. He slapped it away.

"Katy, I don't think you realize how serious this is," Being the older sibling meant he had more familiarity with consequences than his younger counterpart. "Mom threatened us not to bet anymore and now we have and we're getting a troubled horse and we're going to die--" 

Katy grabbed his face in her cool hands.

"Listen, it's FINE. Mom is not going to kill us because we're ready for this! We can help a troubled horse if we do it together," She released his face and flipped her brown hair confidently. Thatcher sighed heavily.

"You wouldn't be saying that if you knew which horse we'd been assigned..." 

"We know the horse?! That's even better! Maybe we'll have a leg up on the competition!" She pumped her fist in the air excitedly. Thatcher grabbed her arm and started whispering urgently.

"Do you remember that show we held in the spring? It was rainy and foggy all day, you fell in a puddle,"

Katy spluttered indignantly "I didn't fall, you PUSHED me!"

"Whatever. Do you remember that crazed appaloosa on the cross country course? The one who threw his rider at the first fence..." He let go of her arm and she stood back up, bringing her hand to her chin in contemplation. He waited for understanding to dawn on her.

Suddenly, she snapped her fingers. "You mean Kaboom!"

"Yes, Kaboom... He slid in the mud at the first jump and unseated that young rider... what was her name? Britney something? Anyway, he threw her at the first jump and her parents were furious."

A flashback of the event came to Katy vividly. The spice colored stallion had been careening down the hill towards the first jump way too fast, unbalanced, and crazed. When he had tried to slide to a stop, his hooves caught the mud and he slid farther than intended, almost slamming into the jump. Katy thinks of the rider, who was only 16, losing her stirrups and reins just as her mount had reared up, causing her to fall off his side and hit the ground hard. It had taken them 3 hours to catch him after.

"Yes, yes, I remember all that. What's that lunatic got to do with us?" her voice was beginning to waver uncertainly now.

"I guess Sagebrush Sanctuary was concerned enough with Kaboom's situation and... reputation to step in and take him under their wing... and guess which stable they chose to send him to for some R&R?" His green eyes met her wide blue ones.

"You can't mean..."

"Oh, yes, I do." 

The siblings let the silence stretch between them, no doubt thinking of all the ways their mother was going to punish them. Katy broke the silence first.

"How many homes did that horse have?"

"I believe the last count was eight." Their mom's australian accent cut through the tension so harshly that the pair jumped.

"What have you two gotten us into this time?" Her Australian accent had gone hard and she eyed the both of them with a flint-like stare.

"And now we die," Thatcher whispered.