A Horse at Breakfast
Written by Ruth Holmes

It’s the first day of summer the sun is shining. The birds are chirping. The bees are buzzing, and it is a perfect day.

Audrey is a little girl. Everyone who meets her wonders why she is happy. Audrey’s secret is that she dreams. She dreams of what she wants to study, where she wants to travel, who she wants to visit and sometimes she dreams of something special she would love to have of her very own. She knows that when she dreams of something good, eventually the dream will happen in an unexpected way. Each day she waits and wonders which dream will happen and how it will happen.

 Audrey heard an unusual sound in her sleep. She had been sound asleep and was now wide awake. She lay on her bed trying to remember what she had heard. She replayed her dream in her mind. Then she quickly sat up because she recognized the sound. She placed her hand over her heart and could feel the pounding.  A gallon of giggles was set to burst from inside her as she ran to her bedroom window. Yes! She exclaimed as she couldn’t help herself and jumped up and down with complete joy. For only a moment she was speechless.

As she looked down from her second-story bedroom window, she knew her dream had finally come true. She could not believe her eyes. There on her backyard lawn was a beautiful white horse happily munching grass. “Oh, I’ve dreamt of my very own horse and now he’s here!”. Audrey exclaimed.

The horse was perfect. Tall but not so tall that Audrey couldn’t climb up and ride. He had a long flowing snow-white mane and a perfectly shaped black patch on his forehead. His hoofs were black and most importantly as he turned his head to look at her, their eyes connected. He had kind hazel eyes with very long eyelashes. He was perfect! And he was hers.

Audrey didn’t wait to change into her jeans, instead, she ran down the stairs as fast as she could. She wanted to catch the horse. She hollered to her brother to come to help her. James didn’t know what was going on but followed her anyway.

As they stepped into the yard, standing right in front of them was the handsome white horse. James ran and found a rope and they both walked calmly over to the horse. The horse bent his head down so James could put the rope around his head. Then as big brothers do, he led the horse over to his sister so she could climb up.

Audrey was so excited and could feel all her nerves tingling. She was still in her pajamas, but she didn’t care. She wanted to get on the horse and ride him.

Audrey fed the horse a carrot and he happily munched away. “A carrot must taste better than grass,” Audrey thought.

Audrey was happy, excited, and overcome with joy. She struggled a bit but finally climbed up and rode the horse around the yard slowly. Clip clop, clip-clop.

“Do you think we can keep him?” she asked her brother. James always knowing the best thing to do wasn’t very sure this time.

“He belongs to somebody. Look at him. He is very well taken care of “. He answered.

“But he came to our yard and we found him”, Audrey replied.

“It doesn’t matter. Someone will probably come looking for him “James said.

So, Audrey being only seven years old wasn’t going to worry about that. She shrugged her shoulders and smiled anyway. For now, he was her horse and belonged to her. She lightly nudged her horse’s side and felt him move forward.  Then she happily rode him around and around the yard until she was called inside for breakfast.

Audrey had a plan. As she sat and ate, she also thought. She would keep her horse in the basement. She knew there were plenty of carrots and apples in the kitchen so feeding him wasn’t a problem.  He would be safe there and no one could see him. That way no one would come by and claim him. Then every day she would sneak him out very early in the morning and ride him around and around the yard.

But it wasn’t meant to be this time. As Audrey was eating her breakfast there was a knock on the front door. A lady was asking about Audrey’s horse!

 Audrey watched from the dining room window as the lady harnessed the handsome white horse and led him home down the road.

Audrey smiled and was happy.  Just for one morning one of her dreams came true and she had her very own horse.