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Get your hooves ready
(Szykujcie kopytka)
– Pepe! Pee-pee!
Nobody answered.
– Where are you, my friend? – I neighed loudly so that even in the farthest corners of our stable in Hoofville you could hear me.
– Geez, Niuniu! What happened to your mane? Pepe barked, digging out from under the straw and rubbing his sleepy eyes with his paws.
– And what was supposedly to happen? – I thought that a friendly terrier was fooling around as usual and was trying with all due appologies, to take me for a ride again.
I definitely didn’t feel like it. I suggested that it would be better if we had some fun. For example, played “grab my tail and become an airdog- pilot.” Awesome fun! But now is not the time for stories about our stable entertainment.
– I see. You don’t know anything yet … – Pepe grumbled.
I began to suspect that the dog was not joking after all, and I was really starting to get concerned because I was so attached to my lush coffee-milk-colored mane.
– What’s wrong with my hairstyle? Just don’t beat around the bush.
Pepe stopped twirling or as some prefer wagging his tail, but he was in no rush to answer. He winced a little, scratched his paw behind his ear, then plunged into the straw he had just emerged from. He was almost completely hidden. He just stuck his nose out and sniffed, curious about what was going to happen.
– And it did! He muttered.
Pepe, also known as Pepek, was no longer a teenager. Me, that is Niunio (sorry for not introducing myself in the first sentences of this story), quite the opposite. I was only a year, two months old and… I should have counted the days, but I wasn’t doing very well with counting. In any case, it was not a lot for a colt. But Pepe has certainly seen much more in his life than I have. But never anything like this!
The terrier usually wandered around the stables. And if he wasn’t here, he was almost certainly in a hunt, that is, he would be licking the bowl in Granny Kasia’s kitchen. Granny Kasia lived in a wooden house a few steps away from us. She looked after Pepek. And all of us – the inhabitants of the Stable under the Rainbow.
It was Mrs. Kasia who came up with this name. When she first came to this place near the forest in Hoofville, she was greeted by a rainbow that seemed to grow in the meadow. She immediately decided to build a house here. And for us a stable. A „stable under the rainbow”. Such was the signboard with rainbow-colored letters which she hung above the entrance.
There were quite a few of us in the stable. Uncle Cellophan hardly spoke at all, but when he said something, the whole stable was usually neighingly amused. Aunt Rhodesia was neighing round the clock, and in addition, she usually neighed crazily, which made no sense, and sometimes – when there was no one who would listen to her – she even neighed to things, for example a bucket of water. My mother, Grandez, was in the stall next to her and more than once was fed-up with her neighsiness. However, she liked her aunt and did not dare to neighticize her.
My dad used to visit us from time to time. He came in a shiny box stall. It is – in the trailer that says “Master Lover.” Dad was very busy. He took part in competitions all over the country, and maybe also abroad. He was constantly traveling. But once he visited us, he wasted no time. He taught me how to handle the terrain and jump over obstacles in the paddock. Sometimes you have to avoid fallen trees in the forest. However, sometimes it is easier to jump over them. And this has to be learned from someone.
There were also a few cousins, nice female cousins and a few more uncles and aunts in the “Stable under the Rainbow”. In fact, we weren’t all related to each other. More important than blood ties was who deals with whom and who cares for whom. And because we cared for each other, we felt like one big family.
Sometimes some guests stopped by for a few days. Lucrezia was among those who came most often, and in fact passed as members of the stablehold. A real Arabian princess! At least in my eyes. Just a pity she wouldn’t look at me. And even more so, eat with me from the same manger.
Our group lived peacefully in the “Stable under the rainbow”. Easy until today. And Pepe, hidden in the straw, did not want to be the one who would announce that something would disturb the peace in a moment.
– Good morning! – We were greeted by the warm voice of Granny Kasia. – We’re getting down to cleaning. Get your hooves ready!
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