Pony Renaissance

Mustiness and a chorus of loud yappy barks were my immediate impressions. I don’t know how old the building was, but the patches of moss on the exterior stonework and faded red roof tiles were well established. The dust-covered windows down the left-hand side were almost certainly original but hadn’t felt the touch of a wash leather for a generation or more. The iron posts and heavy wire mesh that formed the right-hand side of the corridor were much newer additions.

“Come on, slowcoach”, Sally urged. “Nothing interesting to see here by the entrance.  Just a storage area on the right and then a little kitchen, well more of a kitchenette, really.”

She retook my hand and pulled me past the storage area with its assortment of old cupboards and drawer units, heavy wooden free-standing that might have once graced kitchens in the first half of the previous century. The kitchenette was little more than a dank cubby hole containing an ancient and stained deep ceramic basin with a single cold tap, a limited work area and some wall cupboards that looked like they’d been salvaged from somewhere else.

 The only other things to be seen was a large old fashioned electric food mixer, a cheap plastic bucket with the handle ends of some stainless steel kitchen utensil peeking out of the top and a dozen or so four hundred gram tins of cheap own-brand dog food from a well-known supposedly superior supermarket chain. 

“Only the best”, Sally laughed, seeing where I was looking. “Well, you don’t expect Mandy to be pushing her trolly around the likes of  XYZ or ABC and the like, do you?”  She mentioned two popular chains that people of Mandy evident status and wealth would never have patronised.

I didn’t tell her that one of them was the one I always used and not just because it was the nearest big one to my place. I wasn’t the least bit fussy when it came to food, and of course, quality was irrelevant for my two pets. Eat or beat was all that they need be concerned about! Then again, a thought occurred to me. Maybe that expensive ‘own brand’ would contain some higher quality off-cuts, which would be better for these unique pets or would it? But did I care all that much?

“One of the girls or maybe Susan will have been over earlier and fed them…QUIET,” she suddenly roared. “QUIET, quiet down now!” she looked at me, raising her cute little eyebrows as those frantic yapping sounds abruptly died away. “That’s better. I’ve told Mandy that there is such a thing as ‘over training’, but I don’t think it's registered. “Greeting your owners when they hear the door open is one thing, but there’s no need to go on and on! Still, Mandy likes them that way, and they are all her doggies, and so…” she finished with a shrug.

“I kinda like the sound of it too. Extras, I take it” I nodded to the bucket.

Sally giggled. “More a case of the other way around. Doggies, our type anyway, cannot live purely by can’s and dry food alone! That’s the doggie bucket from the kitchen with the bulk of their delicious and nutritious brekkie, usually a mix of leftovers from the house and stable apartment, plus some suitable additives. They mush it all up in a mixer either in the main kitchen or over here and spoon it into their bowls, then add a few dollops of meaty chunks in gravy or jelly, whatever. An additional twice-daily reminder of their status as if they needed it” she giggled again, pulling me along to the first pen.

It was a standard-style enclosure like you’d probably see at any kennel or rescue—a shallow rectangle behind the front bars built of heavy untreated rough timber and wire netting. At the rear, an oversized cat flap style wooden doorway allowed the occupant access to the exterior run.  A small wall camera surveyed the interior; a scattering of assorted dog toys, a couple of stainless steel bowls and an oversized circular dog basket were the only things of interest on the rough concrete floor. 

A small, inexpensive blackboard was fastened to the front of the enclosure just like the whiteboards at the rescue I’d got Raven from as a puppy. The name Rufus was chalked at the top, 32/0.8, which I knew stood for human and dog age and then in a small neater hand, someone had written no sugary treats and no heavy solids until teeth seen to by vet and underlined it twice. The pen had no occupant, and the oversized cat flap to the outside also closed.

“Empty, I’ll bet young Suzy was on feeding duty this morning”, Sally observed. “She and Rufus have a rather special relationship. The girl probably took him over to the stable block with her this morning. Not outside; all the doors are down. They are independently operated by switches back there,” she gestured with a laugh. “Reminds me of a movie I was half watching late one night set in an American prison. “Open number twenty-two”, she mimicked in a terrible attempt at a deep-voiced male American accent!

“Why special,” I asked, looking around the spartan space.

Sally was about to move on but stopped and giggled instead. “Oh, Rufus was a very naughty boy a while back, well say seven maybe eight months back,” she said, nodding at the blackboard. Suzy and a couple of the girls were in town enjoying a girls night out when a certain ‘dipstick’  with too much booze in him took an interest in them. Idiot became somewhat over-familiar or tried to be with Suzy, not just once. Very embarrassing, I gather. The idiot even insisted on giving her his card with his phone numbers on it. Worked as a travelling sales rep for some company or other!”

“What happened?”

Sally giggled again. “As I said, Rufus was a very silly boy, and he really shouldn’t have pissed young Suzy off like that. She ripped the card in half, but Sarah had a word with her, and it wasn’t about chucking litter on the floor.  He’d also pissed Sarah off as well, she was with one of her girlfriends, and the tipsy idiot made precisely the wrong sort or bigoted lewd remarks about their relationship, moron!

“I can imagine”.

“Well, fast forward about three weeks, and dumbo got a phone call from a certain hot little number apologising for her attitude that night! Told him she was with a couple of rather possessive colleagues that night, but she wasn’t a bit like that herself, blah, blah and several more suggestive blahs!

I nodded. “I’m getting the picture. I think I can guess the rest.” I grinned.

Sally laughed. “Yeah, well, when the randy fucker  turned up for his hot date at some discrete location, our some-time resident vet Judith had a needle in him before he could blink.  Then, when he went sleepy-byes, the three of them dumped him into a van, and Suzy drove back here while Sarah delivered his car to one of Mandy’s shady acquaintances. One who could ensure that such a vehicle is swiftly reduced to spare parts with no questions asked!”  

I eyed the primitive accommodation somewhat thoughtfully. “Maybe I should have left an address with a trusted friend! Mandy seems to have rather a dubious collection of contacts!”

Sally giggled. “Oh, you’ll all right, silly. Quite safe, I promise, although” she trailed off and wagged a finger at me. “I very much doubt if you will do anything foolish, but pissing Mandy off is not something I’d personally recommend.”

I shivered. “I’m beginning to realise that. So young Suzy has her own dog as well as a ponygirl?” I recalled something the sexy but so sweetly innocent-looking young girl had told me during my previous visit. Sally’s small hand grasped mine again as she pulled me towards the next enclosure. 

“Not quite. She and the boss lady share it fifty-fifty. Only fair after all since Mandy provides all the kennel facilities full time, don’t you think?”

I nodded. “Seems fair to me. Do you have a dog as well?”

Sally shook her head. “Nope, I don’t even have a pony of my own. “ she paused and then deliberately winked at me. “Not yet anyway”, then laughed at the puzzled expression on my face. “Anyway, you’ve seen my taste in plus-sized ponies. You can imagine the size of doggie I’d go for! Shit, imagine midget me with something that size on the end of a leash! It would have to have so many restraints it would take me all day to go for even the shortest walk, wouldn’t it?”

It was my turn to chuckle, although I also noted it was the first time I’d heard my diminutive companion refer to her size. I was about to remark that fact but changed my mind. I liked and respected this tiny woman, and I didn’t want to sour our embryonic friendship unnecessarily at this early stage. That slow mischievous deliberate wink, though, certainly intrigued me. I changed the subject.

“That sounds a bit rash; I mean what you just told me about Suzy’s doggie, acquiring it, I mean?”

Sally stopped and shook her head and looked serious. “Don’t take people here at face value. You won’t find any empty-headed bimbo types among the girls here. Judith, as you know, is training to be a vet. Did Mandy tell you she used to be a model in her younger days?”

I nodded. “Yes”

“Well, she first did that to fund her way through university. She also has a first-class honours degree in psychology from Oxford, no less! Sarah speaks at least six languages to my knowledge, including both Mandarin and Cantonese; the other girls are all similar, even young Suzy. She chose to work here full time rather than go to university; she’s doing her degree via correspondence.  She might appear to be an empty-headed cute little blonde sexpot, but she was a whole year ahead of girls her age at school! Quite the budding Einstein in maths and physics, I believe!”

I must have looked suitable impressed for Sally suddenly laughed and added. “I’m the local on-site thickie when it comes to lack of brains! Anyway, the point I’m making is that nothing happens, such as the acquisition of  Rufus, without some careful thought going into it. What may seem casual never is!”

I nodded thoughtfully, recalling what Mandy had hinted about my acquiring Beauty and Fluffy a couple of times. I had been fortunate, all things considered, hadn’t I. I wondered if she’d been entirely truthful about what had led up to her unexpected appearance inside my stable door?

The sound of Sally snapping her fingers then slapping her thigh and calling “Here girl, here, here” served to focus my attention on matters immediately to hand as we drifted along to the next pen, an occupied one. I watched as a puppy girl immediately rolled off her oversized round doggie bed and waddled up to the bars, her stumpy little ‘elbow and knee’ legs moving with considerable alacrity. 

I was impressed and made a mental note. My little puppy seemed to take an age to get anywhere on her cute little legs; I’d have to find out what the secret was.  “She moves very quickly”, I observed, turning to my companion.

Sally shrugged indifferently and thrust one gleaming child-sized leather riding boot between the bars clicking her fingers as she did so and pointing. “They always do at first”, she answered, nodding at the puppy girl now lapping energetically at the toe of her boot.”They soon learn that tardiness is not advisable here!”

I looked down and wondered if it was something to do with the puppy suit restrictions or was it and perhaps more likely the harsh punitive treatment those scrawny buttocks of hers had received. Frequently received judging by all the scars that covered them. A mass of scar tissue all over her exposed buttocks showed the whip had seriously kissed her on many occasions.

“How long has she been here?” I asked as Sally withdrew one foot and thrust the other through the bars to receive similar oral attention. “She’s a bit old”, I added regarding the rather sad wrinkled figure with its lean body and the extra-long dull grey hair that trailed along the ground as it moved.

Sally repeated the shrug. “Oh, ages and ages, leastways it seems that way. Not exactly the sort of animal Mandy takes pride in, are you Prune” she sneered and withdrew her foot and used it to kick the grovelling creature in the face. Not hard enough to hurt but hard enough to make her point, then she snapped her fingers again and offered the toe of her boot for more attention.

“Mandy is very fussy in respect of her ponies. Leastways those that she owns. She prides herself on having a good eye for pony flesh, and heaven help any attractive female who catches her eye! Whereas the kennel is nowhere near as high on her agenda. She tends to treat it as a dumping ground for those idiots who cross her path and are not deemed worthy of a place in the stable!”

I nodded as I watched the bobbing back of the woman’s head as she earnestly applied herself to her task of lathering Sally’s dainty little boot with her tongue. I could see pale skin through her thinning, lacklustre grey hair. Out of curiosity, I bent down to see her sagging, flat, wrinkled udders hanging down to the concrete floor. I noticed as I straightened up that they bore almost as many scars as her skinny rump.

“I see what you mean, at least quality-wise. How come she ended up in here”. I gesticulated around with one hand.

“Bobble hats!”

“What?”

Sally laughed and withdrew her boot, looked critically at it, and then thrust it back in the puppy girl's face, snapping her fingers simultaneously once again. 

“Bobble hats. You know, walkers, ramblers, lovers of the great outdoors and all that crap. This dumbfucker and her equally dumb husband hailed from one of the more aggressive, fanatic branches of countryside lovers’ union. There used to be a right of way many years ago before Mandy’s time across the estate, but it was challenged and legally terminated in Bob’s mothers time. This mutt and her husband decided to challenge that and exercise a right of passage they no longer had. Came by bus to the village and aimed to walk over to the next via  Mandy’s private property, idiots!”.

“Spotted by all that security then?

Sally nodded in part. “Yup but not before they’d managed to gain entry via a tree left growing a bit too near the wall, and then when they were halfway spotted one of our pony carts out for a trot neat the perimeter. Silly idiots should have done a bunk there and then. They’d triggered an alarm and been spotted by then and were still gawping open-mouthed when Mandy, Bob, and a couple of others turned up. Bob with his shotgun. That’s one of his hobbies, and he’s quite a few of them!”

“What happened then?” I asked, although I could guess the answer merely by looking down or listening to that sound of tongue energetically lapping upon leather. “Silly question, I suppose”, I added.

Sally chuckled. “Well, no doubt this lowly bitch regrets that piece of stupidity. There are way worse things than a magistrates fine that can happen when you trespass on private property, eh bitch girl?” The boot withdrew and lashed out, this time hard, making the woman wimp.

 It wasn’t a question that Sally expected an answer to, and I suspected that had the woman done so, a few more scars would have been swiftly added to that battered unappealing abject figure.

“No one ever came looking for them then?”

Sally shook her head and withdrew her foot. “Nope and the fools told Mandy that when she questioned them. They hadn’t told a soul where they were going or what they intended to do. Way too arrogant, she said, and they seemed to think that there was nothing Mandy could do to them, anyway!”

“Big mistake!”

“Mega big. They might not have been very desirable in the looks and body department, but they provided everyone with a good deal of fun for a few weeks!  Hup girl, hup,” she ordered, standing with her legs apart, her hands on hips, the very image of absolute sexy female authority albeit in diminutive form. I thought it was so darn cute!

 I watched as the pathetic lifeless creature raised on its hind limbs and allowed her to pat its head. I noticed no expression in those dead, almost lifeless eyes set deep into her face, a white pasty corpse-like face. Looking at all those deep wrinkles, there was no need to ask why they’d named her Prune! Sally’s thoughts evidently ran parallel to mine, for she reached between the bars and grabbed the creature by its collar, shaking it violently.

“Come on, you pathetic bitch”, she snapped, loosening her grip on the scuffed leather dog collar and holding her tiny hand in front of the animals face. “Lick! Let's see a bit of animation, show the visitor how much you adore your sexy little mistress, show us that there is still some life left in the old dog, eh? Or would you rather I come in and liven you up a bit, eh, bitch Or maybe it's time for you to follow poor old hubby?”

The threat was sufficient to change the neutral expression on the dogs face. A little life returned to those sad eyes. However, I doubted it was due to adoration, and a red tongue emerged between yellowing stained teeth, rapidly flicking over the proffered fingers, making Sally giggle with malicious delight.

“What do you mean by follow her poor hubby?”

“Ticklish, Sally laughed and twisted her hand so the tongue could pay its respects to the other side of her outstretched hand. “Oh, Mandy got rid of him a couple of years ago. Sent him to a friend of hers who specialises in taking in all the old or sick animals that their owners no longer want.”

I thought about that for a moment as I watched Sally, noting her obvious enjoyment in exercising power she had over that grovelling caged creature. It was an avenue that I knew must exist but one I hadn’t thought over much about. My two animals were young and healthy, but what did one do with an old or very sick human animal? I had a strong suspicion that if I asked, I might not like the answer even as I asked the question!”

“Putting them out to pasture, a sort of retirement respite sanctuary, you mean?” Even as I spoke, I suspected Sally’s response and felt foolish for phrasing my question that way.

Sally gave a loud shriek of laughter. “Hardly that, I’m afraid” she withdrew he damp hand, looked at it and then put it back through the bars and wiped it on that lank grey hair before turning to me with a sombre expression on her pretty face. “Perhaps friend was the wrong word, say an acquaintance of Mandy’s. The woman has a remote farm and takes in all the old and sick cast-offs regardless of their previous employment or role. I’ve never been there, but Sarah has, and you’ve met Sarah, I expect, not exactly the compassionate shrinking violet type, is she?”

I shook my head. “I didn’t get that impression, no. Competent, demanding, authoritative and so forth, but  I don’t see her being overly compassionate to any of the ponies over there” I nodded in the direction of the stable.

“She isn’t, far from it! I’ve known her take on a new and rebellious pony and break the animal in a single week!  Mandy took her to that farm once, and she’s been over there by herself a couple of times to drop an animal off, and she comes back rather subdued. I gather it’s not a very nice place from what little I’ve heard. The woman that runs it has a very specialised clientele, and compassion is not high on anyone’s agenda. I gather they pay a premium price to put the various creatures out of their misery and to take their time doing it!” Sally sighed and beckoned me to follow her along to the next pen.

“Yes, I agree with you.” She whispered, looking back at my face. “I’ll be the first to put my hand up and admit that I am an evil, cruel, nasty little sadist of the first order, but even I can be shocked just as you look. Of course, Mandy would never do such a thing with one of her own ponies. She will never admit it, but she does get rather attached to them.” Sally paused and shrugged her shoulders. “Her feelings don’t extend to the kennel occupants or to ponies she stables owned by other people, though”.

I looked back along the bars to Prunes pen. “So she knows what happened to…to her husband?”

Sally sighed. “He got very sick very quickly; Mandy had Judith examine him. Yes, I know she’s training to be a vet, but she’s also pretty good with our particular livestock as well. Clever girl reads up on medical books as well as her vet stuff.  Turned out he already had a long-standing medical problem, and his life here didn’t exactly help” she made that whip-cracking motion that I was becoming familiar with.  “Neither Sarah nor Mandy has ever gone into detail about anything they’ve seen, but they have given out enough hints.

She gave a wry smile. “Naturally, the girls here use that farm and its terrible owner as a sort of bogey man, or bogeywoman in this case. They love to drop all sorts of made up nasty little titbits when grooming the ponies. Scares the shit out of them, literally sometimes,” she giggled, breaking the sudden serious mood. “Doggies and house servants too! Come on, let’s not dawdle too long in here”.

*****

Emerging into the fresh air and sunlight was a welcome change after the kennel building's gloomy and rather dank atmosphere. Although housing in many respects, identical occupants, I thought it interesting that the building smelt entirely different from how I recalled the newer stable. More animals in the stable maybe, or was it something to do with diet, age of the respective buildings or a combination of factors? Not important anyway, I decided as I stopped in mid-stride as Sally shouted at me.

“Hey, lady, long legs! Its, not a damn race; slow down, or I’ll end up strangling this delightful bitch of yours!”

I grinned and waited for her to catch up. Despite what she’d said about not dawdling, that intention had flown out the window, or it would have had any of the old grimy glazed apertures in the kennel been open. Personally, I doubted if those rusted metal frames had been opened in half a century! Anyway, that casual urgency my tiny companion had shown took a nosedive the moment she saw my little Fluffy!

The poor little animal was cowering in her basket against the far wall, the food in her bowl looking untouched. I felt a twinge of guilt, for I’d hardly thought about her since I’d arrived the previous evening. If you have pets, you should see that they are correctly looked after, I admonished myself. Given how I’d treated her to date, the poor creature must be absolutely terrified by this sudden and abrupt change in her miserable life. Well, sort of a change! Human pets were probably no different in that respect, plus they were saddled with a more active imagination. I did not doubt the excellent care she would receive at the hands of Mandy’s girls, but a little reassurance from her owner would not have gone amiss. 

I was still learning about myself. Beauty I felt less guilty about; indeed, I felt no guilt at all, for she was a mere animal, a beast of burden and not a household pet. Beauty would live and be used just as her four-legged equivalents were used as nature intended.  Well, perhaps not as nature intended but certainly given her present circumstances, living as I intended. Whereas I’d already developed a completely different emotional attachment to my cute little puppy girl.

It wasn’t entirely because she was around me for far longer each day than the stabled Beauty was because my young pup Raven was the same. I was very fond of him and his playful if frequently destructive enthusiasm, but he did not share my bed most nights, did he? Yes, he made me giggle when he pounced, and that long wet tongue unexpectedly licked my face and hands, but it wasn’t his tongue lapping away so energetically that sent me to heaven day and night as I demanded! 

Fluffy had been a bonus, and what a bonus I thought watching her stumpy little puppy suited legs desperately trying to keep up as Sally dragged her along on the end of a long leash.  A leash long enough to be conveniently doubled up at the end, Sally held to provide additional encouragement!

It had been love at first sight. Sally uttered a yelp of pure delight as she espied my cute puppy doing her best to burrow away down into that soft puppy bed. In the weeks since I’d acquired her, she had not shed that amusing habit of trying to shrink out of sight through walls, floors and assorted pieces of furniture, silly little bitch!

Sally had the iron pen door open and was petting Fluffy before I could think of a thing to say. The poor pup was terrified and cowering away from this tiny new tormentor and visibly trembling with fear. It was by no means the first time I’d seen her do that, but the tendency had diminished of late unless I was in a particularly foul mood.

I always found the spectacle so delightful that I sometimes pretended, but she somehow seemed to sense that now, much to my disappointment, just as my real pup Raven did. He always knew when I was faking it and not really as cross with him as I was making out to be.  Odd that that should be so by both of them? Maybe it was something to do with their lowly status or maybe not!

Sally, of course, had loved the feel of the trembling puppy girl beneath her hands which were flying everywhere as she gleefully explored every inch of Fluffy’s sexy body.  Her hands and fingers might have been tiny, but they evidently had some strength in them, for she wasn’t just stroking and patting captive puppy flesh but pinching and probing as well. 

“Naughty naughty”, Sally admonished sternly, " Naughty naughty, delivering a three-fingered slap to Fluffy right on the nose. “You know that is not allowed. Do it again, and I’ll ask your Mistress if I can punish you, and you don’t want that do you puppy?”

I grinned. It was a rhetorical question. I knew it, Sally knew it, plus of course, Fluffy also knew it. My little pet wasn’t allowed to talk under any circumstances, a lesson she’d learned under my punitive toys exceptionally quickly. Of course, doggie noises were permitted and encouraged, as was a limited understanding of simple orders. 

However, showing any form of comprehension towards other ‘human’ topics and conversation was a big no-no! Unlike my Beauty, I knew her knowledge of English was quite good, and as with all these animals, one part of the callous fun was knowing they could hear and fully comprehend what was said both to them and casually around them yet could not react in way.  In fact, they could but rapidly learned it wasn’t advisable, not if they wanted to avoid immediate and painful reminders of their designated animal status!

Anyway, I didn’t see why the silly little bitch should be so sensitive. Sally wasn’t doing anything that I hadn’t done already many times. My hands and fingers had frequently explored and probed every inch of her cute little body! No much point in all the wriggling pup I thought. No way you can avoid those hands not while you are down there dressed in that puppy suit I so kindly bought for you. Waste energy if you want, but I suspect you're going to need it soon!

I’d been right. Sally was clearly besotted with my puppy girl and was most reluctant to cease her exploratory operation when I reminded her that we were supposed to be visiting the stable. Her hands lingered for a moment before she reluctantly stood up, saying what a sexy little animal she was.

I laughed and told her that she still had a long way to go and a lot to learn as a pup, but her tongue was one delightful feature well ahead of the general learning curve already when I made use of it. Then I laughed again at the expression of sheer lust on Sally’s face and the look she threw back at Fluffy. That sort of confirmed a feeling I’d had about the tiny woman from the moment we first met. 

“As I told you, still learning,” I said as Sally caught up with me. “My fault, I suppose I should have taken her out for longer walkies more often. Get her used to moving those stubbly little legs of hers a bit faster”.

“No problem”, Sally replied and lashed downwards with the folded end of the leash, adding another mild red stripe to the two she’d already decorated Fluffy’s cute rump with where it bulged so enticingly out the cut-out in her suit. “I shall personally volunteer to see she gets plenty of exercises and additional training every day while she’s here. I’m sure we will become friends, very good friends,” she chuckled, bending forward to pat the puppy’s head.” Very intimate friends indeed! I mean, you are going to be so busy with your new pony it would be cruel to leave the poor puppy alone all day, wouldn’t it?”

I laughed again, partly at her obvious enthusiasm and blatant insincerity and partially because I’d briefly caught the expression on my puppy’s face. “Why not”, I replied. “You could also harness Hercules and Samson to a bigger cart; then she can sit beside you as well. I’m sure that she would find such an outing very educational! Come on, dog, heel” I turned, tugging at the leash I was holding and headed for the stable.

I kicked out with my right foot catching Flyboy in the rib cage. Unlike Fluffy, he made no sound, who yelped as Sally used the leash once more as a starter. I didn’t use much force, but I suspected that the toe of my boot must have hurt the poor creature. Mandy didn’t go in for overfed roly-poly pampered poochies judging by the animal on the end of my leash. The word emaciated would not have been too far out of place.

Sally’s suggestion that we walk a couple of the dogs over to the stable had seemed perfectly reasonable likewise her suggestion that I take one of Mandy’s for a change and she’d take Fluffy, so I’d chosen Flyboy. He was by some margin the biggest and youngest occupant housed there, but from the eagerness he’d shown when he’d lathered my boot with his tongue, I got the impression the most docile occupant.  Sally had complimented me on my ‘good choice’, adding that the silly hound had initially been completely the opposite.

Completely unmanageable, but Mandy and Sarah had brought him to heel in the end with a bit of effort. Looking at the scars that covered his body, I could imagine the ‘bit’ of effort they’d used to achieve such a level of abject grovelling compliance! Not only that, I’d used the toe of my boot to lift his head up until I could see the look in his eyes. He’d immediately averted his gaze, but I’d seen enough in that brief flash. The animal was terrified of me and what I might do to him, and I  immediately shivered as the oh so familiar feeling hit my crotch yet again. Power, sheer orgasmic power!

*****

“Welcome back” It was Madeleine, Maddy for short, who greeted me with a beaming smile and a wave as we entered the enormous building pausing for a moment from pushing a muck filled wheelbarrow and pointing down the row of stalls. “Your pony is in number twenty-eight down that way. You named her aptly; she is a beautiful beast you’ve got there! Young Suzy could hardly keep her hands off her earlier when she was taking the morning feed round!”

“Thank you. Talking of feeding, how are you today? All well in the bowels and belly department? I see the shirts tucked in for once!” I observed.

Maddy shrieked with laughter and tapped her midriff, solemnly assuring me that all was fine while I grinned at the bemused expression on Sally’s face. “Curry,” I told her and giggled, for she was none the wiser and I was feeling far too mean to enlighten her. “Come on” I nodded in the direction Maddy had pointed. I was a trifle curious to see how Beauty would react to seeing me after what must have been a confusing, perhaps even a frightening day or so for her. I jerked the leash and kicked out again, “Heel boy!”

“She’s perfect” was Sally’s verdict a few minutes later. “If ever an animal was born for this life, this one of yours is a perfect example. Your taste is excellent, an admirable choice”.

I laughed at that. “Not much choice”, I admitted. “I was hyped up and determined to capture myself a wild filly and got lucky, real lucky and not just once” I glanced back through the stall door to where we’d left the two pups tied outside to await their betters. 

Sally was standing on her toes, reaching up and running both her hands over Beauties prominent firm udders, and I was becoming a little anxious. Beauty had backed up as far as she could against the rear wall of the stall, and although she was tethered and hobbled, I was not too fond of that hostile, belligerent look in her eyes. Sally seemed to have forgotten that she wasn’t handling one of Mandy’s more docile, broken, long term animals but a creature still relatively fresh from the wild filled with an angry, outraged vengeful feral spirit.

Or perhaps not, for the tiny woman had armed herself with a vicious looking riding crop before we’d entered, unhooking it from a conveniently placed row of assorted similar implements. However, I wondered if that was more out of habit than with any sense of purpose. My diminutive companion seemed fascinated with those prominent orbs of flesh tipped by long nipples. Maybe it was because her head wasn’t much bigger than one of those proud whip marked udders my ponygirl unwillingly flaunted.

“Careful”, I cautioned. “Remember, she’s still pretty wild so take care!” I was about to add that although she was tethered and hobbled, she could still stamp down hard or throw herself at somebody, for that tether had enough leeway to allow her to do that. I stopped short of saying anything in case I gave the animal any such ideas; then, I remembered that Beauty had no English or not much. Then again, I didn’t for sure know just how extensive her limited understanding was, so I said nothing but moved closer, ready to take the appropriate action should it be needed.

Beauty, I could see, did not appreciate the ‘hands-on’ attention she was getting. Being the most recent arrival, no doubt several other pairs of practised but curious hands had also been sampling ponygirl flesh. Unlike most of the stable stock, my Beauty had not been in harness long enough to have become accustomed to such indignities. Would she ever, I wondered?

“All okay, ladies” Sarah was standing outside the stall entrance. “Fed, watered, groomed, mucked out and ready for the day but not overly pampered! We always do guest ponies first” she paused and laughed. “Some of the more enthusiastic or newer owners are down here so early I doubt that they’ve even been to bed if they are staying in the big house!”

“Thank you, she looks perfect”, I replied.

Sarah flashed a beaming smile at me. “Our pleasure, she’s a beaut and no pun intended. My girls are already squabbling over who gets to look after her!” Sarah laughed and then added more seriously, looking at Sally. “Watch her, though; she managed to catch Suzy earlier with a flying hoof! No harm done, though,” she quickly assured me.

“Wretched, ungrateful creature”, I snorted angrily.

“Partly”, Sarah said, “but your pony is still mostly wild; I did tell Suzy that but like anyone her age, in one ear and straight out the other. Hopefully, next time she gets over-familiar with such a beast, she remembers hopping about on one leg for a few minutes. Shocking vocabulary for such a little cutie!” Sarah laughed again and waved a casual goodbye as she returned to her duties.

I eyed the squirming enraged Beauty for a moment, then walked over to the stall door and called after her. “You can tell Suzy to give her a half dozen with your best stable cane this evening. Good and hard, I added,” raising my hand in acknowledgement as Sarah grinned and did likewise.

I turned as Sally uttered an exclamation and was quick enough to see her jump backwards, also spitting curses aloud as she swivelled around to face me. “Your fucking animal just tried to stamp on my foot!”

I grinned in amusement at that note of incredulity in her outraged voice. “Can’t say you weren’t warned!”.  Well, what did she expect if you go poking your fingers into a feral ponygirl’s helpless cunt, cooperation? Did she expect Beauty to obligingly spread her legs and offer herself up for such penetrative intimacy? I thought she was an experienced little madam with ponies, perhaps not!

“Well, at least you’re not hopping around on one foot” I laughed but stopped immediately as I saw the black look on her face. “Didn’t you hear what Sarah just said?”

Sally shook her head, alternating from glowering at me and then back to Beauty, who I noted was now eyeing the diminutive woman with a degree of wariness. “It didn’t register; I was otherwise preoccupied”.

“So, I noted. Apparently, she did the same to young Suzy a little earlier; only your reactions seem to have been somewhat quicker than hers!”

I was relieved to see that angry black look vanish as quickly as it had come. Sally’s temperament was evidently somewhat mercurial. “You learn fast when you are my size”, Sally retorted. “Probably something to do with being nearer the ground when the shit explodes in your face! Got Suzy did you, eh animal?” she chuckled, stretching her arm out and tapping Beauties right udder with the leather flap on the end of her crop. “That’s a very naughty thing to do, pony. One might be an accident, although we don’t tolerate such accidents here, but twice in quick succession, eh?” she shook her head sadly. “Foolish, very, very foolish!”

I couldn’t help but laugh as Sally turned to look at me. The wistful expression on her beautiful little face as she withdrew that crop and nibbled thoughtfully on the tip while quizzically looking at me through those big eyes. Just like an eager ten-year-old silently asking for ice cream. But I knew it was something far hotter than an ice cream the sadistic little madam wanted. How could I refuse?

“Three,” I told her holding up three fingers. She looked disappointed. Eagar child to petulant sulky child in one move. “On each udder and maybe one upwards right where it will hurt most!”  I added, grinning as Petulant child morphed into evil child as her expression changed once more. How could anyone so innocently sweet and beautiful look that cruel then I remembered how I’d seen her handle those two massive stallions and knew the answer? Practice!

Sally grinned at me, then winked and promptly disappeared out of the stall only to reappear a moment later armed with a slightly different crop. Longer, thinner and with a broader and far meatier looking leather tip. I gave her a questioning look only to receive one back of pure malevolent intent, and she turned her attention to Beauty, once again using the crop to tap those oh so tempting prominent targets.

Watching on, I got the distinct impression that my Beauty was very much regretting that brief moment of foolishness on her part and as I watched Sally stop tapping and flex that long crop, she’d soon be regretting it even more!

*****

“Mandy says I shouldn’t talk to them, but I often do”, Sally admitted as we sat outside on one of the big rustic combined picnic and table benches enjoying a cup of coffee in the sunshine. “She says it’s a big no-no, but I must have heard her do exactly the very same thing on several occasions”.

“We all do,” said Maddy, who’d brought three mugs out on a tray along with a tin of assorted biscuits and joined us. “It’s hard not to at times. I mean,” she shook her head from side to side. “Yes, they are ponies, but then again, they’re not, are they? If you get my meaning!” She leaned towards me and whispered. “It does make training and even grooming sometimes a damn sight easier. Just don’t let on” she nodded in the direction of the big house.

Sally and I nodded in unison. We both understood exactly what she meant, then all three of us looked up at the sound of a whip-crack, but it was only the noise of a whip snapping impotently in empty air and not upon helpless pony hide. Young Suzy was out in the paddock with three ponygirls. Two of them were parked tied to a rail while she had the third trotting in a circle on the end of a lunge line. 

I watched for a moment admiring the graceful movements of the hight stepping creature and absently wondering if ‘parked’ was the correct term. I frowned, thinking hard. It wasn’t, and I should know. How many times had I sat with my father watching one of his westerns when some cowboy rode up to the saloon and casually…hitched! That was the term that had momentarily gone awol, hitched!

Flushed with success at my minor victory over the ageing little grey cells, I allowed myself the luxury of selecting a particularly tempting chocolate biscuit and grinned cheerfully at my two companions. Sally misinterpreting my Cheshire cat look from the direction I happened to be looking.

“Suzy is excellent for one so young. Quite the little perfectionist!”

“Apart from when she’s doing her early morning impression of a one-legged kangaroo!” Maddy chuckled. 

As if to illustrate Sally’s words, there came another crack, but this time it was the satisfying meaty sound of the ‘little perfectionists’ long leather lash biting into flesh. The pony squealed, muted because of its mouth bit but still clearly audible. Impressive, I noted that it hardly broke the rhythm of its trotting despite what must have been a very painful fresh stripe on its hide.

“Exercise time,” Maddy remarked, biting into a biscuit and ignoring a scene she must have seen or participated in many times before. “That string belongs to, well they belong to a lady you would certainly recognise. Sorry” she muttered, swallowing bits of biscuit and wiping her mouth on the back of a hand. She looked at me and pulled a wry face. “Mandy does not like us mentioning names unnecessarily”, she shrugged her shoulders.“Technically even us girls are not supposed to know, for they never use their real names here but fuck, like we don’t watch TV and read magazines the same as everybody else!”

I looked over at the four figures. “I can understand that,” I said, twisting myself around on the bench, looking in all directions. “This is a large operation, and I now understand Mandy’s preoccupation with security. Not quite so paranoid after all!”

The other two laughed.  “Well, I wouldn’t go that far,” Sally remarked. “Wait till something very minor and inconsequential happens, or Madam gets a bee in her bonnet over something if you want to witness paranoia!”

Maddie giggled. “Suzy over there calls this place ‘Coldtits’! Not entirely inaccurate either when you're doing what she’s doing on a cold and frosty winter morning, being well wrapped up yourself, of course!  No escape committee here, though and no chance of tunnelling out. None of our animals has the remotest chance of escaping, whereas the big threat is unwanted attention or curiosity coming from the outside!”. 

“A constant threat! So Mandy’s regular little tantrums and panics are perfectly understandable,” Sally added, selecting a plain digestive biscuit, took a bite and then snapped the remainder in half, reaching down and feeding the titbits first to Fluffy and then Flyboy.  “Such a good boy”, she crooned, stroking his head.

I glanced down at the young hound crouching at my feet, remembering what Sally had told me earlier. “Another unfortunate intruder. In his case, he’d been piloting one of those ultra-lightweight powered hang gliders or whatever they call them. Not substantial enough apparently to have triggered Mandy’s traffic light airborne early warning system, although Sally said that had since been fine-tuned. The foolish pup had made the mistake of crossing the estate boundary with a failing engine.

Officially, he was listed missing, presumed dead, over the sea. He’d told his friends he was going to head for the coast, nip out and circle the offshore wind farm out of curiosity, skim up the coast following the cliff path, and then cut back in again on the homeward leg. They’d later found some bent and broken aluminium struts plus a substantial but tattered portion of his orange wing fabric washed up on the beach. No one for a moment questioning that it might have been placed there deliberately!

Certainly, they never asked the right questions of the person who placed it there at the subsequent inquest when Sarah told them how she’d been walking her dog along the cliff path early on that cold winter morning when he’d flown over her. His engine had sounded kind of funny, yet he’d headed out to sea and into the morning mist!  Then after the coroner had politely thanked her, she went home and briefed Mandy as the pair took the estates latest, very much alive, dog for a walk to continue with its ruthless obedience training!

Unofficially he’d glided in very low with a dead prop aiming for a smooth flat green field but inadvertently also getting a good eyeful of Mandy, Sarah and Suzy trotting along in three pony carts. Perhaps that was what caused his loss of concentration at a critical point, making him balls up the landing and knock himself unconscious amid the wreckage of his silly little machine. Waking up, of course, was the start of a whole new experience much closer to the ground, Sally had giggled.

He was a lithesome, fit, good looking young man in his mid-twenties with enough muscles in the right places to get most women worked up without looking overblown, nor would his captive cock have disappointed. He hadn’t given me the slightest problem so far, and I wondered what they’d done to him to achieve such docility. How did he feel about these sexy young girls who had complete control over his miserable life? Humiliated, randy, angry, lustful? There was no doubt a whole range of emotions probably capped by just one, terror!

I was thinking back to what Sally had told me as she removed her hand from the dogs close-cropped head and started stroking Fluffy instead. I replaced her hand with mine, stroking gently in tiny circular movements. My Fluffy had an impressive full head of hair that needed a thorough brushing at least every other day to avoid getting tangled and matted, just like any long-haired breed. 

This young beast, though well cropped, also possessed a healthy covering with no sign of encroaching baldness.  Whoever had cut it had a degree of skill and knew their stuff, for if someone had blindfolded me and then directed my hand, I’d have probably sworn I was stoking an animal at first touch. I continued to gently stroke but purely for my benefit than the pups as I found the sensation so delightfully erotic. Perhaps one of the girls had started out as a hairdressing apprentice or something?

A leaf fluttered slowly to the ground and reminding me of how the abject creature beneath my hand had likewise fallen from the shy, and I shivered slightly despite the warm weather. How easy it was to fall into the clutches of someone like Mandy unwittingly.  How many like her were there in the county, the world for that matter? I glanced at my two friendly companions now giggling and chatting innocently about a popular reality TV show. Just two outwardly normal pretty girls, and yet? That nearby whip cracked again, followed by another agonised squeal. So normal and yet, so outrageously different!