Pony Ranch

Chapter fifteen.

I’d been about to say something sarcastic to my young blonde friend about that name. I mean Candi, come on, really? Even with an i, it was hardly what I’d envisage as a suitable name for a good-looking and rather hunky young colt. Then again, neither was Goofy, Penny's magnificent beast, although he was more stallion than colt. Not that I was overly familiar with the male half of the two-legged equine breed as yet. Bob, of course, had his huge pair Sampson and Hercules apt names for those beasts, but his smaller and less imposing lithesome colts were all named after flowers. My big boy, I’d called Goldie because of his ample body hair's delightful golden sheen when it caught the light in the right way.

It's a bit pretentious of me to say that about male ponies when my experience with female ones was hardly worth writing home about! Anyway, I’d scarcely opened my mouth to say what I intended to say to young Suzy about that silly name when that loud shout instantly truncated my musings on that subject.

“VIEW HALLOOOOOOO! Ho Mandy, Ho Sarah”.

We all turned as one, and I assumed the others were like me, cringing cringed slightly at the excessive decibel level. Sheesh, talk about making oneself heard! I expect that shout could have been heard on the other side of the Channel, and we were a good way inland from the English coastline, let alone the French one! A bit of an exaggeration, but my ears were certainly ringing.

“What this, Mandy? Ignoring me? What have I done to upset you? There I was, down yonder, talking to his nibs and waving like crazy, and you did not take the slightest notice! Who’s this splendid young colt, one of yours or more likely Bob’s, no doubt?

The speaker who hailed us was another big woman, not quite as big as Helga but still substantial. A cheerful-looking, plain-faced woman in her middle years but still somewhat more feminine-looking than the German woman had been. She had country ‘horse woman’ written all over her as well from her outfit. Tweed hacking jacket, beige jodhpurs, scuffed riding boots that had seen better days and a small bowler perched atop her head. Unlike the dour Helga, she had a warm smile on what I instantly deemed a very ‘motherly’ expression. She had the sort of face one instantly trusts and is comfortable with, whereas one look at Helga’s hatchet face had put me on edge straight away.

“And who are these fine-looking gals?”  she waved a large and somewhat sun-bronzed hand at Suzy and then me,  looking back and forth between us with amused interest, her bright blue eyes sparkling in a face even more tanned than her hands.

Mandy laughed. “Hi, Dolly; I might have guessed it was you trying to blast my eardrums out. My apologies: I never saw you; my attention was elsewhere. When did you get back? I thought you were in the Middle East or somewhere similar. Oh, this is…” She introduced Suzy and me. It was another case of wincing at a decidedly over-firm handshake.  

“Jolly good!” Dolly boomed, slapping her hands together in a somewhat hearty manner. “My, that’s a fine-looking animal you’ve got for yourself there, Suzy. A touch on the wild side judging by its truculent posture and the look in its eyes, but you look a capable gal. I’m sure you’ll handle it. Nothing like a bit of spirit in them to liven things up, eh?”

“Dolly is a trainer, one of the top ones” Mandy nodded towards Candi. “Stands no nonsense from the likes of that creature. She worked for me for a time but now takes commissions worldwide. Where is it you are now?”

“Saudi, I was in the capital, Riyadh, just outside there, to be strictly accurate. I had a short-term job breaking in a team of stallions. Well, more a case of assisting, really. One of the many Prince’s, and believe me, there are a ton of them out there. Do you know that they have their own terminal at the main airport would you believe? Six terminals, now I was told. The original one is undergoing renovation, the others domestic or international, and one is purely reserved for the comings and goings of all the various royals plus their ‘esteemed guests’—their terminology, not mine. I suppose I may count in that latter category to a certain extent, but not being a Royal nor an important foreign government representative. Besides, my favourite airline uses one of the other terminals,” she laughed. It was a deep, hearty laugh that might have rivalled a distant sonic boom. “Mind you, I probably went one better this commission. Private jet both ways and none of the usual immigration and customs crap well, not at their end anyway!”

I was amused to see Sarah make a…a what you might call behave your self-gesture quickly with one hand. It was aimed at the grinning Suzy, who was standing behind Dolly and mimicking, putting a set of ear protectors over her ears. I wasn’t surprised; the woman had the loudest voice I’d ever heard, even talking normally as she was now. At least, I presumed she was; I’d have bet all those ponies in the stable over yonder could hear every word. Suzy grinned and winked at me after sticking her tongue out at Sarah. At the same time, Dolly continued her narrative, oblivious to the goings-on behind her.

“My employer had just bought a quartet of handsome beasts for his youngest wife as a one-year anniversary present. He has three of them, wives, I mean, not beasts, which I was told is a bit unusual these days. I gather polygamous marriages, despite being legal, are going out of fashion pretty fast over there, and….” She paused and shrugged. “Well, that’s all irrelevant. You’d have been impressed with his stable setup, though, and he’s got more than three beasts stalled in there! Where are you guys staying, by the way, at the house with himself?”

Mandy shook her head. “No, we booked four rooms at the village inn”, she paused briefly before adding. “I deemed it wiser; I’ve stayed at the house once”. She stressed that final word I noted.

Dolly gave a short bark of laughter; the ground didn’t shake, but her whole frame did. “Wise move, girl, very wise. I think I’ve got the VIP suite this time, well, insofar as there’s actually a trickle of lukewarm water in the bathroom and the toilet flushes. At least it does if you persevere long enough, working the handle a few times, it does!”

Mandy chuckled. “That sounds like an improvement on my previous experience. Honesty, you’d think the old miser would spend a few pounds on the building, considering he lives there virtually full time now”.

“Dolly nodded. “Yeah. I’ve noted that certain rich folks seem to object to spending money on such things as mending the plumbing or fixing the damn holes in the roof. Probably one of them laws akin to Murphy's or Sods that says the more you got, the less you’re inclined to spend on basics. I expect there are a few who starved themselves to death rather than spend a few pennies on a loaf of bread. Well, maybe that is exaggerating a wee bit!”

“Quite a wee bit”, Mandy laughed. “He has splashed out on doing up the stables, not to mention that huge new training building and I heard all the staff cottages have undergone major renovation and modernisation”.

Dolly nodded. “I haven’t seen inside that new training setup yet. I was heading in that direction when he caught me just as I spied you lot. I thought I’d get young Charlie to show me around and maybe have a word or three about the house plumbing. She can usually twist the mean old rascal around her little finger no problem.

“Tell me about it,” Mandy chuckled. “She’s just done a pretty neat bit of finger-twisting on me!”

“There she is now, no, NO, stop it, you silly creature. NO!” Suzy yanked hard on the short leading rein she held and lashed out with her crop. “Behave, boy!”.

“Skittish”, Dolly observed, a touch of disapproval in her voice.

“New”, Sarah sniffed, eyeing the truculent pony. “The beginning of a beautiful relationship for one of them anyway!”

“Taking liberties with the merchandise, I call it”, Mandy said, eyes on the distant twosome. Charlie leading her pony girl out of her stall, heading for the new training building. Then she sighed. “Juvenile enthusiasm, I suppose, if I’d had….well, sometimes wonder what I’d have been like had I had the same opportunities at that age?”

“Even nastier I expect”, Suzy quipped and hauled on the rein. “Come on, you, no slacking. Let’s join Charlie and Pandora and see if we can find something to entertain us. I’m sure there will be something in that big building we can play upon and get to know each other better”.

“Pert girl”, Dolly chuckled as she watched our younger companion drag her reluctant young stallion away, aided by more blows from her crop. “Cute, plus a nice little butt on her” She gave Sarah a knowing wink.

“Hmmm, very on all counts”, Mandy grudgingly agreed. “I’m not sure about ‘that nastier’ though. That’s a bit cheeky, but then,” she shrugged again, dismissing it. “So how long are you back for, or have you finished over there?”

“Nope,” Dolly shook her head as we began to stroll slowly back towards the main complex of buildings. “I spent two months on that stallion job. Lived in the wives’ quarters, and that was five-star accommodation. Five-star plus and then a bit, and if you’ve ever heard of gold-plated taps in the bathrooms, they do exist! Bit of an odd situation, I mean, three wives all living together, but  I got on well with them, not just the youngster but the other two as well. I had an absolute ball there and got paid handsomely for the privilege”.

“Training a quartet of stallions? Not your preferred sex,” Mandy noted and turned to me. “Dolly and I share the same tastes in pretty ponies”.

“Beggers can’t be choosers!” Dolly chuckled with a grin and a shrug, and the money they offered would have filled a hundred thousand begging bowels with small and maybe not-so-small change! Besides, there were plenty of fringe benefits, and those stallions weren’t the only animals available. All three wives shared the same interest as their husband; indeed, young Halima confessed to me that the pony stable was the only reason she’d married the Prince in the first place. That was after about a month when we’d got to know each other a lot better, of course, and no, I don’t mean it like that!” Sarah had raised her eyebrows questioningly, and Dolly had caught the movement and accompanying look.

“That’s not to say they were strangers to a bit of girl-on-girl fun; all three were much more the opposite! As I said, they got on very well with each other and with the serving girls in the women's quarter, but they were also very loyal to their husband. None of that counted for anything in their eyes, but I was an outsider, so while we quickly became very good friends, nothing untoward went on. Not with them anyway, but they did have some delightful and dutiful young servant girls”.

She broke off and stared wistfully at Suzy’s retreating figure, moving faster than us despite dragging and encouraging Candi along. “Now that is a tempting backside” She glanced sideways at Sarah, “I expect you’ve…..” she sighed.

“More than once, yup”, Sarah laughed and smacked her lips together, suggestively delivering a slow wink.

Dolly sighed. “Maybe I left your place way too soon, Mandy. But…” she giggled mischievously. “However, there weren’t any prohibitions so far as the serving girls went, none at all in fact. Well, hardly any and none whatsoever, of course, in the stables”.

“Naturally”, Mandy added.

“Yeah,” Dolly nodded. “The Prince. He was a racing man; most of the guys out there are. They might prefer pretty ponies, male or female, but it's speed that counts first, second and right through to last so far as attributes go and talking about last, well, none of them like coming last in a race! Some of those guys can be….well, let's just say the ponies in their stables don’t want to finish last” She shook her head.

“And your employer, the Prince?” I asked out of curiosity.

“Oh, he was was alright. I liked him, a real old-school style gentleman. Educated over here, private school and then university. Oxford, of course, and not just on account of the family wealth. He’s a very clever chappie. No, it was the three wives that mainly scared the shit out of the ponies in his stable. They all had their own animals of course, their husband being very generous. The oldest wife was purely into mares and fillies, the second into both male and female and the youngest, all she wanted was stallions; the bigger, the better and big in all departments if you get my meaning!”

“And racing stock?” Mandy asked.

“Uh-huh. Some but not top-notch. The prince kept his ponies in a separate building and had a local guy in charge whose family had been training racing stock for generations. He was a bit iffy at first, but we got on great once he cottoned on to the fact that I was not trespassing on his preserve. I even learned a few new things”. Dolly shook her head. “Nope, the ladies did a bit of racing, low card stuff at meetings, but mostly they used them on carts riding around the estate, and maybe there was some informal racing that way. I say informal, but those ladies took it pretty seriously,” she laughed. “Maybe a tad too seriously at times, for the ponies anyway!”

“You said you liked him. Is anything wrong?” Sarah quizzed.

Dolly shook her head again. “Nope, all fine. I did my couple of months and was preparing to head home when I got another offer. One of his pals or, given the way they are all interrelated, cousins. Only one a bit higher up the scale. Got myself a lucrative, very lucrative, three-year contract as head trainer in the female section of his stable and boy is his stable big, likewise his not so little place out in the desert.” She waved a couple of fingers dismissively towards Mandy and chuckled mischievously. “None of your itty-bitty little out-of-the-way hidey holes in the English countryside. His is way out in the middle of nowhere, with nothing but sand, rock, and more sand and rock for miles, but of course, it comes with its own airstrip and all the trimmings, money being no object! Hell, a few years there, and I’ll probably be able to start my own operation. Maybe I’ll make an offer for this lot,” she laughed, waving one hand towards the training building ahead and then the stable block.

“Itty-bitty, really!” Mandy exclaimed with a reproving snort that made us all chuckle.

*****

As we approached, Mandy hailed a very good-looking and helpful young groom leading an enormous stallion out of the training barn. You could hardly miss the latter, for apart from his size, the animal was harnessed head to hoof in bright day-glow yellow harness tack to match the tuft of hair dyed a similar colour protruding from the top of his hood. “Eye-catching!” she observed.

The handsome young groom grinned in response, revealing a perfect set of white teeth on his tanned face. I wondered if young Suzy had met him in the building behind him and what she’d say. He was decidedly cute, you know the type and had  ‘boy band’ candidate written all over him. Our sadistic young Miss was very into such music, or maybe not so much the music as those who provided the vocals!

“Very”, the lad laughed, pushing the big stallion forward a pace or so. “He had a soft American accent that added to his boyish cuteness, which explained the gleaming toothy pegs. They go in for that sort of dental cosmetic effect far more than we do in Europe with our slightly yellower smiles, although that’s changing among young people due to influencers and the like.

“Herkie boy is distinctly eye-catching, Ma’am”, the lad chuckled. “and not just for his harness and top knot!” he reached around and hefted the stallion's impressive captive cock a few times. “Very popular with the ladies, I expect, in his younger days, not that he’s that old now. Maybe those days when you were somewhat less restricted, eh boy?”

“Short for Hercules, one assumes”, Mandy mused, appraising the big stallion. “Those ancient names are certainly popular, even apt when it comes to naming these big muscley brutes. He’s certainly in tip-top condition. How old is he?”

“Coming up to four years now, Ma’am. Four and twenty-eight and only just begun to settle himself this last few months or so. It hasn’t always been that way, though, has it boy. Turn and display, boy!”

The big, sullen creature obediently shuffled around in response to the hand that lightly slapped his rump. I knew what the lad's answer meant to Mandy’s question, for it was standard terminology in the world of human equines. Four years was its age in pony years, its time in captivity, while twenty-eight was its age in real terms, human years, although it was no longer considered human by the likes of Mandy and co. Well, it was and wasn’t, if you know what I mean!

Myself included, I reminded myself, for I was very much a part of that company now, wasn’t I? An enthusiastic and very wicked participant of what the dishy young groom was showing us with that lovely smile splitting his tanned face. His handiwork, I wondered, looking at Herkie's heavily scarred and brutalised skin wherever it was visible. Probably not, given the youth couldn’t be much more than twenty years old. I won’t say I was shocked, for I was somewhat inured to such tortured flesh by now, but even so, I’d never see quite such mutilated skin as on this poor creature. There were a few fresh-looking marks, no doubt from the meaty crop in the lad's hand, but compared to the others, mere ineffectual fly swats, I’d have thought, although undoubtedly they’d have hurt!

I was half listening to what was being said while admiring both the dishy young groom or stable lad, whatever they called them, plus his harnessed muscle-bound charge. The latter wasn’t in the same class build-wise as those two giant monsters Mandy’s husband owned, but it was imposing in a ‘Mister Universe’ kind of way. Impressive in all areas, if you get my meaning. Very impressive, even with his stainless steel restraint, which must have been an extra-large plus model!

“I’ll bet they don’t sell many of those steel cages”, Sarah whispered in my ear, noting where I was looking. “Whoever makes them, that is” and added with a laugh. “Not much call for that sort of size in my experience; the male of the species rarely lives up to such expectations!”

“This one does break the mould, Ma’am”, the lad laughed, flipping that captive impotent monster cock up and down with the end of his crop. “Makes all of us stable hands look a little inadequate, but…” he chuckled and winked at us. “Some of us are not exactly insignificant and talking of behinds…” he paused and emitted a slight effeminate giggle. “His front bit might not entertain the ladies anymore, but we stable lads certainly appreciate Herkie's rear. Now that took even more getting used to than the whip, eh boy? Not quite as proud as you once were, are you?”

“Well, they all settle down in the end, don’t they?” Mandy observed with a certain grim note in her voice. I noted both Dolly and Sarah nodded in unison. Four years though is a longish time; some owners would have taken steps” She nodded towards the stallion’s impressive manhood, or should that be horsehood, but…no, I told myself. That would just be getting silly, but I knew what my more knowledgeable friend was referring to and wondered if gelding the poor things made that much of a difference. I knew it stopped Tom cats from spraying everywhere and so forth, but this was hardly the same. If anything, I’d have thought it would have the opposite effect and make them far wilder rather than calmer. I felt my body give a little shudder. Jeez, the power we had over the poor things.

“The boss rarely goes in for that, Ma’am. He feels they lose something….” He paused and repeated that girlish giggle. “I mean loss of spirit when you do that to them,” he said in the same disapproving tone I’d noted that Mandy's husband had used once when the topic came up one evening during dinner. Perhaps uncomfortable would be a better term than disapproving, and I could understand why.

“Besides”, the youth continued, “that’s kind of a last resort threat, and you can only do it once, can't you?” he giggled again and roughly fondled the huge animal's sizeable ball sac. Hercules stiffened abruptly, and I could see his dull eyes come alive with anger, but he held himself in check, but barely, I thought, watching his muscles bunch and contract like a coiled spring. Despite what they'd done to him, the spirit they’d mentioned was undoubtedly unabated.

I wasn’t surprised; I’d seen and sensed the same in my Beauty many times, and now Goldie reacts similarly. They might be helpless, restrained captives, but give them the slightest….yeah! It was my turn to shiver slightly. Give them the slightest inch, and it would be a very bloody mile they’d take in revenge, wouldn’t it?

“That’s not entirely true”, Dolly disagreed. “That handsome sac you’re fondling has two plums within, and I’ve taken a knife to a few in my time. I’ve yet to meet a feral stallion that didn’t rapidly turn over a new leaf once you deprived it of fifty per cent of the ammunition in its shot locker. A couple of snips in the appropriate place can spare your arm a year's worth of whipping; take my word for it!”

The youth laughed and gave that most sensitive of male areas an extra hard squeeze before letting go, and maybe it was that or Dolly's casual words that caused Hercules to wince and shiver, more likely a combination of both. I noted that tenseness hadn’t left him as his handler’s hand moved up to caress a scarred rup cheek fondly, and I gained the distinct impression from that and the way he leaned into the animal that Suzy might be wasting her time if she tried using her nubile charms on this young man.

“Maybe,” the lad said, “but I kinda like our big boy here fully intact” He winked directly at me for some reason. “All the more fun when I’m washing him down….well, for me anyway”, he gave that girlish giggle again. That wink was another thing that reminded me of Bob and his particular preference for male two-legged equines. He’d once dropped a meaningful eyelid just like that when talking about how he exercised ‘His absolute Mastery’ over his two enormous brutes one time, and I didn’t get the impression he meant anything to do with whips either!

I caught Sarah’s amused eye, and she did the same thing in my direction, thus confirming my suspicion. I knew Mandy’s girls, or employees, if you prefer, were either lesbian or bi, but was that the general stable trend everywhere, I wondered. Were all Sir Jeffery’s employees similarly gay or bi?

“The usual fringe benefits I see?” Mandy observed.

The lad laughed. “Well, for one of us. No shortage of such benefits here, Ma’am,”  He said, grabbing another handful of whip-marked pony rump and squeezing hard enough to make his charge stagger slightly and wince into its mouth bit. With that hood covering its head, I couldn’t see its face, thus its facial expression, but what with bridles and bits, especially those with wider straps, you often can’t. Besides, such accoutrements tend to restrict or hamper such facial movements as they might involuntarily make.

Eyes, though, can tell a complete story, and it’s rare to see a pony fully blindfolded. Well, that’s not entirely true, for I’d run my Beauty more than once in that condition so that she learned to obey my commands and pull the reins rather than react to what she could see. Likewise, blinkers restrict sight and allow the animal to focus purely on what is within their narrow range of vision. I’d noted that Penny invariably ran her Goofy in them when she took him for a spin.

I tended to agree with young Suzy’s view that they were just an additional hassle for the handler or owner unless specifically needed. While buckling a pony, especially a frisky new one, into its new wardrobe could be fun, some things could become tedious. I wasn’t sure I agreed with her on that one, though, for I experienced a certain delightful thrill every time I yanked on a strap and buckled it home, knowing how much the animal hated me, hated what I was doing to it, and yet it was so deliciously helpless. That was the whole point of all those straps and fittings, was it not?

I wasn’t used to full head coverings and found the sight mildly disconcerting. The stallion was faceless, seemingly even less human than usual because of its leather hood. There were openings for practical purposes: one at the top to allow that tuft of dyed hair to spring up, two small holes under the nasal bulge and a larger one that allowed its mouth bit to fit. It was a very tight fit, I assumed, for the mouth opening didn’t seem very large from what I could see, and the hood was made of very soft, pliant leather that moulded to the animal's head. Only the two intelligent eyes peering out gave it that touch of humanity that belied its beastly, harnessed form.

Brown eyes were the only sign of life in its featureless, dazzlingly yellow leather hood. Sad eyes stared out sullenly at the world, its horrible world, and despite its restrictive posture collar, it was focused on our little group. I could read far more into those sad eyes than had they been closed or its face uncovered or uncluttered by bridle straps.

There was the usual anger and hatred that I’d become accustomed to, along with their resigned sadness and sense of hopelessness. Yet, they must retain a spark of hope, even in the most pathetic cases. I’d been warned about that more than once and even suffered or nearly suffered an injury from a moment of inattention once while grooming Candyfloss, that sad old mare of Suzy’s. Or rather ex, old mare as it was now on its way to Germany and a new, but I suspected, not very pleasant life.

Not that any pony's life was pleasant, I thought, looking at those sad brown eyes and shivering a little at the latent threat in them. Yes, I’d foolishly recently left a leg hobble off Candyfloss. I should have known better and only managed to avoid a viciously swung hoof boot by centimetres as the docile creature showed a rare spark of defiance and rebellion. Apart from berating myself, I’d been somewhat shocked. Another lesson learned but fortuitously minus the painful practical aspect, but I’d been surprised at how the broken and seemingly passive animal had reacted.

Maybe my grooming had inadvertently touched a raw patch of pony hide or something, but it was so unexpected from such a….well, to me, a creature that had been so long in captivity as to be more zombie than living human! Naturally, Suzy verbally berated me somewhat loudly that evening, but that was nothing compared to the beating she gave Candyfloss for showing such temerity.

 ‘Zombie’s are bloody dangerous, woman. Don’t forget that fact, ever!’ I learned afterwards that there was a whole genre of movies and video games on that subject, the existence of which I’d been blissfully unaware. Being an enthusiastic gamer and movie buff, Miss IT filled that gap in my knowledge!

My mistake and point taken. Candyfloss had never looked at me like this stallion was doing, as did many, if not most, of the captive creatures I’d come into contact with in the last few months and on the plus side, I was still scar-free. All owners and trainers, I’d been told more than once, carried marks of their carelessness upon their bodies somewhere. Suzy, I knew, had two very nasty-looking marks just under the kneecap on her right leg. ‘Same damn leg, virtually the same spot’, she’d muttered, rolling up her jeans and adding that’s why she always wore knee boots whenever working with ponies now rather than trainers. A good point but I tended to do that anyway. Aside from that, trainers, Nikes and the like don’t tend to go well with pony crap and accumulated stable floor coverings.

I remember feeling rather foolish at my naivety when I’d asked Sarah about trusting their docility one coffee break that time I’d stayed at Mandy's place. I’d said something similar to assuming it came down to their temperament and how long they’d been in captivity. Was there a time when you could trust them? Sarah had stared at me silently for a moment and then, after taking a sip of coffee, helped herself to a biscuit and said, ‘Yes, when they’re dead!’ Stark, brutal and right to the point, I’d thought with a chill.

All that tended to fast forward through my head as the big stallion, and I shared that brief moment of eye contact. What I once heard Suzy describe as a gigabyte of pure look, wherein a vast amount of data, for want of a better term, seems to flow within a brief milli-second when such contact is made. There was a whole parcel of other feelings and emotions beyond hate and anger I sensed in that shared moment. There was dismay, humiliation, shame, bitter shame as it felt the groom's propriety touch, and I knew the groom and no doubt other male handlers had done far more intimate things to it than that.

I’d seen that look in the eyes of Bob’s assorted stallions and colts, that look of shame, rage and abject humiliation as their helpless bodies were brutally sodomised for their Master's pleasure. I expect you’d see the same in the eyes of ponygirls, those that were similarly used. That didn’t apply in my stable, though, nor in Mandy’s, but doubtlessly, it happened regularly at stables elsewhere.

Curiosity was another strong impression that came over in that brief instant our minds were linked, and perhaps there was a certain hint of excitement. When had it last seen a woman, a fully dressed, normal woman anyway? Well, I considered myself and my companions normal, did I not? I mean, we weren’t naked and harnessed pony girls! I wondered if….but the young groom answered that question even as I thought of it.

“Sir Jeffry was considering putting him to stud for the appropriate fee. I mean, he’s a magnificent specimen, is he not?” the groom giggled, groping the stallion again. “But so far, he’s made no decision, which is hard luck on poor Herkie here. No gooey squirties for you, boy, that’s if you can even remember how! But that doesn’t apply to us stable lads, and big boy here is a popular receptacle in that respect”. This time, he was the one winking suggestively and giggled again.

Of course, I couldn’t see it, but I’d have bet a pound against a penny that the big stallion would have been blushing furiously beneath that leather head covering at the groom's mocking words. I could see his body tense against the restraining straps of his harness, but like all such creatures, he was helpless.

“Very popular indeed, I expect”, Mandy muttered, eyeing the stallion up and down with a speculative eye, “Sort of an in-between in terms of my Bob’s collection. Halfway between his pretty boy colts and those two big hideous brutes, he insists on keeping!”

The young groom grinned at her and said. “Well, Ma’am, the boss is fond of him too, so I doubt he’d be very interested in selling the beast” he chuckled and reached down to stroke the stallion's captive cock. “Mind you, I reckon Herkie wouldn’t mind a change of scenery, what with us stable lads using him regularly and then there’s young Miss Charlie and her whips. She’s a terror, that girl and big boy here has always been one of her favourites. She’s made a lasting impression on you many a time, hasn’t she, boy!” he finished with a laugh, grabbing another handful of scarred rump flesh.

“So we can see,” Mandy told him. “I….” she paused as a whip cracked loudly, immediately followed by a muted squeak from within the big building. “That sounds like at least one young lady is putting your splendid new facility to good use!”

“Two, by my count, Ma’am”, the youth grinned. “I reckon that young blonde who just came in with a ponyboy is every bit as….as”

“Nasty as young Charlie”, Sarah laughed and added, “Probably a lot worse; she’s had more practice!”

The stable boy chuckled. “Well, I’m damn glad I’m on this end of the reins in that case. Come on, big boy, time to put you back in your nice cosy stall, and maybe if you’re lucky, one of us will drop by later and give you the usual treat, eh?” he winked lewdly at us, adding, “And I’d be lying if I said he enjoyed that! Oh, if you're interested, there are a couple of mares on the far walker. They're getting a bit of exercise before the sale tomorrow. Now, if you ladies can excuse me”.

“Certainly,” Mandy smiled at him and then turned to the rest of us. Let’s see what the two young Miss’s are up to and check out these mares. I wasn’t intending to purchase anything on this trip, but… " She laughed and shrugged her shoulders.

“I’ve heard that one before, Boss”, Sarah grunted, leading the way inside.

 Mandy shook her head. “Well, who knows when opportunity will come knocking?”.