Pony Ranch

Pony Ranch chapter six

“I thought you weren’t that way inclined?”

“What way?” Penny replied with a yawn as we headed to the stable after lingering lazily over breakfast. Neither of us was seemingly over-eager to stir ourselves and set about the daily tasks that awaited us.

“Gay or bi”, I replied and nodded towards the stable's open doors, whence Suzy had preceded us by a good half hour. “I heard a certain someone come in last night, and it was late, very…no early, not late”, I amended, thinking back to when I’d rolled over and looked at the luminous dial on the old-fashioned alarm clock Sally insisted on using. “A certain person lacking in vertical stature!”

Penny laughed. “Oh, that one! Hey, one swallow does not make a summer, Hun!”

“Really, and what about one or more spanks on a cute little bottom” I jabbed a finger towards the open stable doors.

Penny laughed again and tapped her nose. “Mind it, mein hostess. Anyway, what do you think us randy model gals get up to when we’re stuck in some godforsaken dump in the middle of nowhere for a shoot? Play snap or monopoly all night?

“Really?” I stopped dead in the open doorway, but Penny just laughed and winked at me as she strode past.

“Bitch!” I muttered sourly.

“Heard that, gal. Come on, shake a leg, as they say. While enjoying a little R and R last night, I had an idea and want to try something with your Goldie and my Goofy today. They’re not exactly a matched pair, but they don’t need to be for some simple healthy outdoor exercise together. Let’s get them groomed and ready,” she half-turned and winked. “I’m in the mood for a little more right-arm exercise!”

I grinned at her and flicked my arm up and down. “When aren’t we?”

Penny threw her head back and laughed, offering me her arm, which I promptly took, and we entered the stable linked together, giggling like a couple of giddy schoolgirls, much to the evident disgust of young Suzy. She’d been bending down doing something in Candyfloss’s stall, and her head and upper body suddenly appeared behind the low door to look at us with a rather Queen Victoria, we are not amused expression on her pretty face.

“Yes?” Penny smirked at the girl disengaging her arm from mine. “Someone’s sexy little bottom still sore, or maybe that talented pink tongue is a tad fatigued?”

“Fuck off, bitch!” Suzy scowled, sticking out said tongue before bobbing back down, her voice floating up. “Some of us aren’t ageing old hags lacking stamina and desperately needing their beauty sleep! Some of us have been working for hours, you know, and some of us have already fed the ponies and mucked out a certain lazy bitch’s ponyboy and poor Chatterbox. You really should pay a little more attention to that poor creature, you know!”

Penny looked at her watch and mouthed ‘hardly hours’ at me before calling “, thank you, that’s one I owe you, kiddo but don’t expect me to overlook the ‘old hag’ part though!”.

“Looks like Sally has already attended to Medusa before she left for work”, I observed, peering into the big ugly mare's stall. Not that I’d expected anything else. She’s very conscientious”. I giggled. “Cruel but conscientious!”

“Yup,” Suzy called. “Just your Goldie left to do, boss lady” Suzy’s tousled head reappeared briefly, and she stabbed an accusing finger towards Penny. “Yes, it is fucking sore, I hardly slept a wink thanks to you, and that’s the last time I let you tie me up, ever, Bitch!” then she bobbed back down.

I grinned at Penny, who seemed utterly unabashed as she looked towards the space that Suzy’s head had occupied for a second before she shrugged and smiled at me. “I’m sure big Sarah has done far worse to that cute little bottom of hers back at Mandy’s stable. Come on, let’s get Goldie mucked out and ready for a little adventure. Do him good to get a bit of exercise!”

I opened the door to Goldie’s stall while Penny collected a wheelbarrow, rake and spade, then trundled them across to where I stood in the open door. Funny how she could still look like a million dollars while performing such a menial task, I thought with mild irritation, whereas I knew I’d look like someone about to shovel shit! I recalled what she’d said on the way over.

“So that’s what you randy overpaid glossy glamour girls get up to on those exotic photo location shoots?”

Penny giggled and tossed the rake for me to catch. “Trade secret and it depends on what we’re modelling the next day. You could hardly do a lingerie or a bikini shoot if our bottoms looked like a certain young madam did when I kicked her out of bed. Very silly of her to let me add those restraints,” she said with a very slow wink.

*****

“Honestly”, Suzy waved bother hands in the air. “You two, it’s not rocket science, you know! Didn’t you play with Lego when you were kids? I’d bet you’d struggle even to get a flat pack out of its cardboard box, never mind put it together, sheesh!”

“Oh, come on, kiddo, be nice”, Penny responded. “You’ve used the damn things before, whereas us two thickies haven’t! Anyway, I think you’re being very unfair to our host here” she paused and looked thoughtful. “Or should that be hostess? Anyway, from all I’ve seen and heard, she’s been pretty damn practical in all that she did here before Mandy stuck her inquisitive nose in!”

“True”, Suzy conceded. “Now, observe closely. This single-seat unclips like this when you push this thingy here, and the double seat then goes on like this. Voilà! Don’t forget to clip these supports into place; otherwise, you’ll be wobbling all over the place and probably capsize the damn cart. Then press here on this spring thingy for the backrest to release, and then fit the double extension. Just ensure this catch is fully clicked home; otherwise, you may end up tipping arse over tit backwards if it hits a big bump!”

“Painful”, I mused, watching her nimble fingers at work.

“Very”, Penny echoed. “We must ensure our ‘thingy things’ are all working properly. Don’t you just adore these technical terms!”

“Yeah, go ahead and mock. You’ll be the ones feeling sore, and even if you don’t get hurt, I’ll bet your egos will be! I doubt that you want to be giving your ponies a good laugh. Very bad for discipline!” Suzy chuckled, shaking her head. “There, pretty firm now, isn’t it?”.

“All those thingy’s locked in place, I assume, " Penny muttered, smiling sweetly in response to the evil look Suzy threw at her.

I reached out and shook the pony sulky she was adapting, and it didn’t feel that firm to me, decidedly shaky, in fact. Then again, it wasn’t exactly a robust structure, even in single-pony mode. Penny standing beside me did likewise, and we shared a questioning look before she smiled and shrugged her shoulders. I knew what she meant, and we were committed. Back out now, and it wouldn’t be ponies laughing at us but miss oh-so-technically competent Suzy!

Penny had explained her idea for exercising our ponies as we groomed Goldie and mucked out the areas of his stall he’d soiled in the past twenty-four hours. Goldie had recently become the chief contributor to the stinking midden heap behind the stable over the past week. Not much to worry about, my more experienced colleagues had assured me, just a gippy tummy, a touch of colic but nothing like as severe as in real equines. Suzy added more roughage to his daily feeds and a few spoonfuls of some off-the-shelf diarrhoea treatment she’d bought at the supermarket.

“Incontinence is a fact of life. Happens all the time back at Mandy’s,” she assured me, vigorously mixing his food in a separate container. “Especially with the new arrivals. They can be much more prone to tummy problems due to the new dietary regimen. Healthy for them in the long run, but it does take a little getting used to, and even when they do, you can expect these little relapses every so often. No big deal!”

Water was another essential addition. I was told to prevent the animal from getting too dehydrated like humans often did. She’d said that ‘like humans’ so seriously that I’d found it hard to keep a straight face, but she meant every word. Despite her age, she’d been around and handling two-legged equines far longer than I had and perhaps saw things differently. Anyway, he had to drink lots of water with a generous pinch of salt several times a day.

I’d pointed out that Goldie was not the most tractable or complaint of animals when it came to mealtimes, and most of the time, you had to stand over him with a whip to ensure his bowl was clean. Suzy’s response to that had been to roll her sparkling blue eyes at me, the rank amateur, and to demonstrate her technique for ensuring that not only could you lead the pony to water but also ensure it drank deeply from it. It was no different to my technique but a lot more ruthless.

We diligently scrapped, washed and rinsed their feed bowels after every meal. Not that there was much to scrape, not if they wanted to avoid an extra daily dose from whatever painful implement came readily to hand. Beauty and Fluffy had tended to leave far too much in their feeding troughs and bowls before I visited Mandy’s. Both they and I had learned there that all food provided had to be consumed, and the containers licked clean, no excuses. In this case, it wasn’t a case of an unenthusiastic animal biting the hand that fed. It was more the reverse, with that same hand providing savage and painful encouragement to stimulate said animal’s unappreciative appetite!

Diet-wise, it wasn’t as if we deliberately went out of our way to inflict extra cruelty on the captive livestock. I suppose we could have pampered the creatures with a constant stream of goodies and edibles tailored for the human palate, but why bother? They were no longer human in our eyes, certainly not in those of my three companions, and I was rapidly following them down that same route.

Sarah had laughed at me the first time I assisted in feeding Mandy’s herd, shaking her head and pointing out to the rookie pony owner that the creatures occupying the stalls were mere animals, would eat like animals and were on a healthy diet suitable for such animals. Serving up steak and fries or sausage and mash with onion gravy with ice cream to follow would be somewhat contrary to everything else they were doing, would it not?” 

I’d thought a little indignantly that she was over-egging the proverbial pudding in her example, but I got the point. I hadn’t exactly been over-generous quality-wise with my Beauties food since I acquired her, but her future diet took a change for the worse at that point. Besides, she was stabled alongside all Mandy’s livestock and making an exception seemed redundant and would only highlight my inexperience in this exciting new world I’d discovered.

As Suzy termed it, we went through the ‘water routine’ with Goldie several times daily. Unlike the food bowls, we only washed out their drinking troughs once a week. A couple of plastic garden watering cans minus the sprinkler rose served to top up as needed. I’d asked Sarah how often they washed their watering cans when I was at Mandy’s, and all she’d done was roll her eyes at me and shrug her shoulders! The look she threw at me made me recall a school trip to a fire station when I was about six or seven. A big burly fireman had just finished showing us one of the red engines and asked for questions looking straight at me. By nature, I was always a shy and retiring person who inevitably sought the anonymity of the back row. So finding myself at the front with this huge guy firing a question at me, I said the first thing that came into my mind. “How often do you change the water?”

Well, only a moment before he’d been going on about the water capacity of the damn thing, it seemed like an intelligent question. He didn’t laugh, didn’t even change his expression, merely replied in a slow even tone. “Every time there’s a fire!”  Even today, I can hear the titters of laughter around me and my teachers frosty-toned. “Does anyone have an intelligent question to ask the gentleman?”

Water, it appeared, was the standard norm for our captive animals. I’d been on the verge of asking Sarah if they ever gave them anything else to drink but wisely decided not to risk another ‘roll of the eyes’. I learned via observation that they were not very fussy about hygiene either. ‘A bit of surface dust and a few dead insects won’t hurt them’ had been Sarah’s lackadaisical response when I questioned the unsavoury appearance of a trough in one stall.

In Goldie’s case, Suzy deemed a regular intake of clean, fresh water with a dash of salt important in clearing up his case of ‘the trots’. She’d also done the eye-rolling routine when I’d pointed out his reluctance to get face down in the bowl or trough and promptly demonstrated how easy it was to achieve the desired object. One needed a wooden box, a short leash with a clip on one end and a meaty stable cane.

Goldie was a big stallion, especially with his hoof boots hence the box for me to stand on. The leash was clipped to his collar, threaded through an eye bolt just above the feeding shelf, and pulled tight. I wondered why Tony’s gang had bothered to fit those and then forgot to ask. Suzy pulled on the leash until his head was over his trough. The box gave me the necessary height to provide the leverage via my hands needed to ‘lead my horse’s mouth to the water’ while the cane in Suzy’s hand provided all the encouragement he needed to lap it up until she was satisfied. After all, as she said, there was nothing to stop him from losing the access liquid was there whenever he wanted. That’s what the absorbent floor covering was for!

There were times I’d noted when the girl could show tremendous patience with an animal and times when the opposite was true. In this case, the latter applied, as was the cane, and with a vengeance. Waiting on a reluctant animal to imbibe a suitable quantity of liquid was clearly an unnecessary chore and not entertainment for the girl. Short, swift and savage, but Goldie had no choice; after the first two sessions, he’d learned his lesson. Drink and drink until the little blonde demon behind him was satisfied! Yet another of those highly dubious, ‘cruel to be kind’ situations I supposed for our once human livestock!

Anyway, all that is beside the point. Apart from a tendency to dribble stinking yuk from his tail tube Goldie was deemed perfectly fit for a little outing around my mini estate. Mandy had kindly supplied several lightweight pony carts via her German company, but so far, only Sally had used them with her giant Russian mare and Candyfloss. Suzy had said something about them being easily adaptable a while back, but I hadn’t followed through on that. Now the girl demonstrated how to convert a single to a duo for pulling power and seating.

“Don’t worry”, she assured us, patting the seat. “It’s a damn sight more secure than you might think, honest!” she added the last word after Penny and I had shared another dubious look. The large bicycle-type wheeled conveyances were very lightweight and fragile looking in single mode, and now with two of us perched on the seat. Suzy patted it again and beamed at us before moving to the shafts.

“Now, as you both know, we normally use the ponies harnessed in a side-by-side arrangement; one pony is normally designated the lead, and the other matches its pace and motion to that one. A well-trained pair is a delight to drive and to the eye. Obviously, that arrangement won’t work with this special singleton style with only room for one between the shafts.”

“We both obediently nodded” I wasn’t sure if this was as new to Penny as it was to me or if she was merely going through the motions to keep me company—evidently, the former from what she said next.

“I was wondering about these. Mandy told me she’d ordered them for you because the tracks hereabouts would be rather narrow and some of the turns rather sharp.” She paused and chuckled. “As one of us found out to her cost recently!”

“Be nice”, I murmured. “That bend sort of jumped out at me when I wasn’t looking!”

“Hey, no talking in class, you two; otherwise, I’ll send you to the back!” Suzy giggled, waving a finger at the pair of us. ”Now pay attention. Watch closely”.

Penny sighed and muttered, “Lego time again and another springy thingy, I expect!”

“If you look, you’ll see we have two sets of harness attachment points here at the front of the shafts and then further down just past this point, here” her finger tapped on one long black steel shaft. Now there’s a little ball…” she paused and gave Penny a sideways look before continuing. “A little ball push thingy here like they have on crutches when you’ve hurt your leg. You know what I mean, those aluminium ones, and you press the spring ball to extend or shorten them. This shaft works the same way, watch”.

We did as requested while Suzy wrestled with the glossy black steel shaft muttering numerous oaths under her breath. Then did the same with the second one and added a very audible “fuck off” when Penny obligingly pointed out that one shaft was longer than the other.

“New”, Suzy said as she clicked the second shaft into place to match its neighbour. “Sticking a bit, but this one is easier to move. I’ll spray a drop of oil on them later, but you get the idea. Tandem in like a bicycle made for two rather than two side by side”.

“Interesting”, Penny commented as we drew near to look closer. “It’ll be much easier for the second pony to keep the correct pace with the lead animal.”

“In theory, but you're forgetting their posture collars tend to negate that advantage you’ll find.” Suzy nodded with a beaming smile toward the cart. “We might still need to adjust the length once we harness them. It’ll vary from pony to pony, depending on who we have between the shafts. The same goes for singletons to get the best fit, but you can put a scratch near the most appropriate hole or a bit of sticky tape to easily find the best fit next time it's converted from single to a particular duo. I think they’re pretty neat and, like I said, stronger than they appear”.

I wondered if she had added that last part because of the dubious look on my face as I gave the cart another shake.

*****

I stood back as my more experienced companions led out the two reluctant ponies, preparatory to harnessing them to our newly adapted transport—Suzy with my Goldie and Penny with her Goofy. I’d idly wondered when Suzy had mentioned aluminium crutches why the manufacturers hadn’t used that material for the shafts. One glance at our two stallions and the lightweight nature of the cart answered that question. Maybe for an expensive fetish toy for a loving hubby and wife to indulge their little consensual foibles but for a couple of strong feral animals like ours, even that lightweight steel construction looked far too lightweight!

As I’d anticipated, our two big unruly beasts took one look at the docile Chatterbox standing quietly between the shafts of a singleton cart where Suzy had parked her earlier and promptly exploded. That same look presumably took in the second cart next to her, with the realisation of who was destined to fit between those empty shafts and lose their cart-pulling virginity! Hardly surprising was it, for Goldie must have had a fair few grey cells between his ears before he’d become greedy and blotted his copybook, and now they were virtually redundant, of course!

Goofy, I realised with a slight start that I knew next to nothing about the pony’s life in the wild. Wasn’t that odd? I hadn’t even thought about it till now. He was just Penny’s young stallion, and I’d accepted him as that unthinkingly. I was settling into this new life, wasn’t I? Well, this little outing seemed an appropriate time to learn more about the animal. Hadn’t she said something about a bargain price that time when she’d arrived? His immediate reaction on being led from the stable was no different from Goldie's.

I’m no Einstein, nor did I need to be to decline Suzy’s request to lead Goldie outside after she’d finished with Chatterbox. I’d shaken my head and smiled sweetly, explaining that I’d probably learn more by watching the process this first time rather than participating. The girl just shrugged her shoulders and started to get Goldie ready, missing the broad, knowing wink Penny directed at me from where she was preparing Goofy. Penny, I realised with a slight qualm, wasn’t just a gorgeous face with a figure to die for, but she could also read me like the proverbial book. Anyway, I’d had my fingers crossed in a pocket, so my little lie didn’t count!

As I’d anticipated, the moment the animals emerged into the morning sun and spied the carts, they simultaneously erupted. I don’t know about Goofy and what he’d previously seen at Penny’s place, but it was certainly Goldie’s first glimpse of what was in store for him. I wondered what had been in his mind as I watched his violent reaction. How had his brain coped over the past few weeks? No doubt it had dawned upon him that this bizarre situation wasn’t some crazy game and that we were playing for real! I chuckled inwardly at that thought. How could it not register, given how I kept him and the daily pain our whips and crops inflicted on his helpless body?

Only yesterday, I’d watched as an irritated young Suzy delivered an on-the-spot beating to my big beastie boy’s golden hide. A hide that until recently had been hidden behind expensive hand-made tailored suits, given he’d held an important post in the Russian government alongside his secondary and presumably vastly more lucrative position in the Bratva, the Russian mafia. A luxury five-star, champagne, and limousine lifestyle regardless of which camp his feet were in at the time. How the mighty had fallen watching him dance and howl under the whip of a cute little blonde girl half his age and size. In this case, literally whipping the crap out of him, I noted, as at one point, he voided a stream of yuk from his open anal tail tube.

An Einstein, I might not be, but I was intelligent enough to guess what would happen the moment he saw my pony cart waiting for him. If the dumb fucker had assumed his new life would be confined to lazing around in his stall looking belligerent while squirting liquid shit out of his big ass, then the next few hours ought to convince him otherwise. I wasn’t lacking in imagination and could indeed find many uses for a big strong, healthy stallion like him!

Only the other night, after a sensual and mutually satisfying sapphic bout, Sally’s pillow talk had speculated upon making more use of the limited land I owned. A big rough pasture behind the house was well overgrown, so maybe it could be cleared, and we could even grow some of our food. Ours as in us or ours as in the animals I’d sleepily wondered but been too lazy to ask. I suspected I knew where my tiny lover was coming from with that one, for I’d once talked with her about that plough she’d made Hercules and Samson drag through the tough ground when the mood took her.

That had been primarily for their humiliation and an excellent excuse to flog their hides with that terrible whip stick of hers as they struggled to break up the unyielding sod. I’d asked her once if they ever did anything with the land they’d struggled to plough, but she shook her head and said no. Thinking back, I recalled that, no, had sounded a little regretful.

Wheeled carts in various forms explicitly designed for reluctant two-legged equines were not the only exciting items along those lines that Mandy’s excellent German company could provide or have made to order. Maybe I’d get Tony and his gang back briefly to erect another shed suitable for storing a range of uniquely adapted agricultural devices more suitable for a bygone era than the modern tractor age. My stable did house three sizeable strong, healthy beasts after all, didn’t it?

But for now, common sense dictated that I allow my more experienced companions the privilege of harnessing the two hapless creatures to the waiting cart. Both animals, I noted, were still hobbled as the girls led them from the stable, both beasts taking those small dainty little steps that always looked so cute. Forgetfulness or by design, I wondered, and then as I watched Goofy and Goldie explode concluded it to be the latter the way they threw themselves about and attempted to turn upon their respective handlers.

Just as well, the girls were nimble on their feet. Even so, watching their initial antics, I wouldn’t have known whom to put my money on if I'd been a betting person. Perhaps a foolish observation on reflection given that freedom of movement the girls had, and the ponies hadn’t, which quickly became apparent, plus both had armed themselves with meaty-looking riding crops. Given their pony's apparent initial docility, I might have been surprised, but not the two hellions wielding those crops to significant effect upon their helpless charges.

There was, I’ll admit, a small part of me that still felt guilty whenever I applied a corrective implement to pony hide. It was buried deep within me, very deep but still there, even though I blatantly ignored it, of course. Watching a pony jump and scream as you demonstrated your ownership and mastery over it was such a unique high, not to mention the effect it invariably had upon your wanton clit! Although as I watched Penny and Suzy in action, one didn’t always need to be the one wielding a crop to experience that same pleasurable effect. Reading about such had always had a decidedly arousing impact on me, and watching was at least fifty times better!

I idly wondered if those two also had that same guilty feeling buried deep within them but decided that if they once had, then it had long since vanished, as no doubt my own would be soon. I mean, I wasn’t without a conscience. I frequently saw things on the television news that made me cringe and even cry occasionally. It was just that…. well, I mean, ponies and the like no longer prompted the same effect, the same guilt trip as watching some unfortunate suffering a couple of thousand miles away from the secure comfort of your sofa. Somehow the suffering of those I kept captive less than fifty yards away counted for nothing!

Despite those two crops doing their wicked business, our two stallions seemed unenthusiastic about participating in our little outing, proving decidedly uncooperative. Penny settled the issue by dragging Goofy over to the fence and hitching him to it, then joined  Suzy, and between them, they wrestled Goldie between the shafts of the waiting cart. Penny bent to release my big boy’s hobble chain but stopped feeling Suzy’s crop lightly tap her on the shoulder.

“Better wait. Let’s get both these big bastards harnessed up first and then do it”.

Penny nodded her agreement, and a moment later, Goofy was between the shafts as the lead animal, but by design or pure chance, I wondered, joining the girls as they tugged at straps and adjusted buckles. Goofy hadn’t shown much enthusiasm as they’d led him into place, but neither had he shown any significant continued resistance. Watching them deal with Goldie had convinced him that the two girls plus the two vicious crops was not a winnable proposition. How long would it be before both big brutes realised they were both on a losing streak destined never to win a single game, let alone a set or match, I wondered?

Somewhat cautiously, I  took my seat beside Penny planting my bottom on the cushioned seat slowly as the lightweight equipage creaked and swayed rather alarmingly, my hand automatically seeking the security of the side rail. The ones I’d driven before at Mandy’s estate probably hadn’t been much heavier. However, they’d been purpose-built as either singles or doubles rather than adapted and been substantially sturdier. This one, as I recalled, had been assembled from a large cardboard box by Suzy a couple of days after we’d arrived home.

I wasn’t the only one thinking along those lines, I thought, noting the cautious look in Penny’s eyes as she passed me the reins and lifted the long carriage whip from its socket and gave it a couple of casual flicks to one side.

“Your idea, Honey!” I reminded her a touch tartly. “And why am I driving?”

Penny chuckled and then expertly flicked the whip forward, catching Goofy’s left buttock, making him jump and inevitably causing our lightweight convenience to shake even more.

“Steady on!” I cautioned.

Penny laughed. “Your bat and your ball, Honey. So it’s only fitting you get to play first,” she quipped, “Besides, I’m probably the more experienced whip hand, and I think our two reluctant ponies are going to need quite a lot of motivation.”

“Meaning I’ll miss the target half the time”, I muttered, watching young Suzy deftly removing their hobbles and avoiding the instinctive kicks aimed at her. Handicapped as they were by those posture collars holding their chins up, heads proudly high, their aim was intuitive. Not particularly accurate, though, I noted, and besides, the girl was far too nimble and experienced to be caught by a flailing hoof boot.

“Now, just you stop that, Missy!” I shouted at the grinning girl a moment later as she passed the hobbles over to Penny and gave the cart a mischievous shake with her other hand.

“Going to be a wobbly ride”, she giggled. “Perhaps I ought to load that big first aid box into my cart just in case”.

“Ignore the irritating little brat”, Penny suggested. “Let her follow along behind the great and the good, ready?”

I took a deep breath and nodded, eyeing the two big restless stallions before me. Well, Beauty hadn’t been broken, had she the first time I’d taken her out for a spin. She still wasn’t come to that. That spark was still there, not as bright as it had been but definitely still there. Somehow though, I’d felt far more confident on that occasion than I did now behind those two potential troublemakers. I glanced towards the whip in Penny’s hand.

“Don’t worry; we won’t thrash them well, not speed-wise!” Penny giggled, catching my sideways look. “Not for their first outing, just a gentle walk and perhaps finish with a short trot. Even if they do manage to crash or capsize this thing, I doubt we’ll take much damage” she paused and pointed with her whip. “Unlike those two animals who will find me stripping the flesh off their fat rumps inch by inch with a steel-cored bullwhip should such an accident occur!”

She would as well, I realised, and without much thought about their well-being. My beautiful, charming companion with the wickedly endearing sense of humour wouldn’t hesitate in carrying out her threat. Penny had raised her voice slightly as she made the threat, and I knew she wasn’t speaking just for my benefit. Yes, I was the odd one out for harbouring those slight qualms of guilt, for I doubted Penny, Suzy or any of the others felt the slightest twinge of conscience when wielding the whip.

A gentle nudge from an elbow into my ribcage galvanised me into action. My mind still ruminating on the potential savagery my elegant and poised companion had so calmly promised those two big boys should any untoward misbehaviour on their part cause an accident. Did she have a steel-cored bullwhip with her? I wondered, for I certainly didn’t possess one. I half turned and received a friendly nod, and despite the reassuring smile, I noted for the first time just how ice cold her eyes could be as she glanced contemptuously towards our unsettled restless duo. Both carried visible marks on their hides of our authority, but there was a marked contrast between the two animals; maybe one of them had already felt the kiss of such a terrible whip more than once!