An Awful Business

Once I had her shoe off, I could see the problem. The mare had a piece of fence wire stuck in her hoof. She was calm for the moment, but she was in pain. I could feel it when I first put my hand on her.

Got the text early that June morning about a loose shoe, and I said no. It was my turn to watch our three-year-old; Sarah had to run to her mom’s because she’d fallen in her kitchen, so I wasn’t free.

But when we talked, the man sounded desperate; Jake, the ranch’s regular farrier, was in chemo and wasn’t taking emergencies. And we needed the money, so I begged the neighbor down the back road to watch our son. After grabbing my farrier box, I drove the fifty windy miles to the Stenson ranch along the Hoback River.

“There, there, Ginger.” I turned to Gilly, one of the ranch hands who was sitting on a stool in the aisle. “Got to call a vet. I’m not pulling that out.”

It was not a loose shoe. In fact, the shoe was worn but fine. After pulling the nails and removing the shoe, I knocked away some dirt and trimmed up the hoof with my knife. The problem was obvious. A small nub of rusty wire protruded from the frog of the hoof. Only a piece of the barb on the wire kept it from being fully embedded in the frog.

“Boss says just fix the shoe,” Gilly said. “There’s no money for a vet.”

“This here’s a medical emergency. The wire’s in deep and may have hit her bursa. A vet’s gotta take care of her, and I’m no vet.”

Gilly spat on the ground. “That’s right. You ain’t a vet, you’re just a farrier.”

“Dr. Czechnik can be here in half an hour. He’ll take an X-ray and get the wire out.”

Gilly slid off the stool and came close, lowering his voice. “Okay, here’s the deal. She’s gotta be smiling pretty on Monday. So, pull the wire and put the shoe back on.”

“That’ll cause sepsis. She could die.”

Gilly turned his head, looking out the stable door. “Just stand back, and I’ll pull it out.”

“We’ve got to see how deep it is. I can’t tell. But a bit of blood and fluid is seeping from the wound, so she might need surgery.”

He was an imposing man, six-foot-six and solid. I still held the mare’s hoof between my knees, and he loomed over me. “Yeah, what if we don’t care about the horse after Monday?”

“She’s in pain. This is serious.”

Gilly shook his head, but his expression lost its confidence, just for a moment. Whatever was happening on Monday had this man in a knot. “I’m gettin’ the boss.”

Bill Stenson had a reputation among the ranchers, or so I heard from Jake. Nothing heinous, just shady stuff. A dead calf was left for three days in the pasture. And Ginger’s shoes. They were worn razor-thin in the toe, and the nails were completely flush.

“Before you go, fetch me a block of Styrofoam from my truck bed.”

He retrieved the Styrofoam and lobbed it to me from the doorway, then hurried off toward the house.

The mare was getting jittery, so I cut the foam to size with my knife and duct-taped it to her hoof. When she put her foot down, she tested it a bit, shifting a few times, but settled.

“We’ll get you fixed up, girl.”

She was a beautiful quarter horse, chestnut, with a blaze across her face. But she was seventeen, and her best ranching days were behind her.

Picking up her shoe and nails, I tossed them into my box. She wouldn’t be wearing that shoe again.

I shot a text to Dr. Czechnik: Out at the Stenson place. Got a mare with a puncture to the right fore frog. Foreign matter still embedded. Piece of wire i think

Czechnik: I’ll head right up. Be there around noon

About an hour. Good.

Gilly was back, with an older man who could’ve been his father. “What’s goin’ on here … uh, what’s your name?”

“Cole.”

“Yeah. Cole. We need that horse up and about.” Big voice, big presence. Bill Stenson, I guessed. Probably nearing eighty, but someone forgot to tell him. A toothpick stuck out of the corner of his mouth.

“Morning. She’s got an impalement in her right fore. We’ve got to call in the doc.”

Stenson sighed and shook his head. “She’s past her prime. I’m not spending three grand on surgery. We ain’t flush with money like the old days.”

“Well, she’s not going to work for you on Monday, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

His eyes hardened. “Then you’re saying we should put her down?”

“Never said that. She’s got a lot of good years in her, just not chasing cattle all over these hills.”

Stenson walked over to the mare and ran a hand down her leg, then he checked her coat and looked in her eyes. “You see … Cole.” He walked closer and smiled. “A lot of people think me a rancher. But no. I’m a businessman, and this here mare just don’t make business sense no more.”

Gilly’s face tightened. “What Mr. Stenson is saying is, just go ahead and put that shoe back on, and we’ll take care of her.”

I shook my head and reached behind, setting my hand on her mane. “She’s a fine quarter, and she’s in fine shape. No sense in putting her down. She’s got some value left.”

“No games, Cole. She’s got nothing, and you know it.” He looked down at his boot as he twisted it into some unseen insect. “You got a family. Isn’t that right? A boy, I hear. How old is he now?”

“Three.”

“Almost four, if I remember right.” Stenson grinned and gave me a playful poke. “You’ll be puttin’ him on a horse soon.”

“My family isn’t your concern.”

“Got something wrong with his hip, some kind of dysplasia, I hear.”

Stunned, I wouldn’t break his gaze. “How you know about our Tommy?”

“Around town, you know.” Then, he looked at Ginger. “Just thinking, money’s more important when you have a young’un to look after.”

I took a step forward, and Gilly met my advance, towering over my frame.

“Cole. There’s no need for that. Remember who your customer is, and it’s not ol’ Ginger.”

My phone vibrated in my pocket. Probably Dr. C, but I wouldn’t take it out.

Stenson folded his arms and leaned back against the stall gate. “Okay. So this is how it’s going to play. You don’t put the shoe on and leave, in which case, Gilly’s going to pull out that wire with his fencing pliers and hammer that shoe back on himself. Sounds painful, don’t it?”

Gilly grinned for the first time, and not a sadistic, movie kind of grin, but a genuinely entertained grin.

“Or, you pull the wire … or don’t pull the wire, I don’t care … reshoe her, and be on your way.”

I pulled out my phone. Dr. C: Delayed

“What’s that about?” Gilly asked.

“I … uh … texted Dr. C. He’s on his way.”

Gilly grabbed the phone from my hand, then threw it into the corner of the stall.

“Hey!” I shouted.

“I told you, no vet!”

I was dizzy with anger, but I closed my eyes and took a breath. “It’s the protocol.”

I leaned against the side of the stall, steadying myself, then began putting my things back in my box. Gilly kicked the box, not enough to dump it, but enough that his intent was clear.

“Hold it, Gilly! Let’s go.” Then Stenson turned to me. “Wait till I spread word of this with the other ranchers. You won’t work again in Wyoming.”

My heart raced, but I didn’t step back. “I’m not leaving until Dr. C gets here. So do whatever you want.”

The two men left the barn. I could hear their voices trail away as they walked toward the house. After dragging the stool into her stall, I sat down and put my head against Ginger’s shoulder. She turned toward me and lowered her head, then let out a snort as though she understood it all.

And my heart began to slow as I closed my eyes and hoped they wouldn’t return.

✧ ✧ ✧

When they came back, Gilly was carrying a rifle. They stood for a moment in the doorway, their faces unreadable.

“Change of plans,” Stenson said, finally. “We decided we don’t want her to suffer. We’re going to put her down right now. Take her outside, Gilly.”

I stood in front of her. “Wait! I thought you needed her for Monday.”

“Well, we don’t, so you can leave now … unless you’ve changed your mind.”

The morning air was still, and the stable was silent for a long moment. Then Stenson cleared his throat. “I’ll double your fee … just pull the wire and put the shoe on.”

I hesitated. “I don’t get it. Do you need her or not?”

Stenson looked down at his boots. “See, I gotta extend my credit … so no wrappings, no Styrofoam.” He shifted the toothpick to the other side of his mouth. “Bank’s coming out to appraise my stuff.”

My insides were telling me to get out of there, but instead I sat back on the low stool, the lulling scent of gun oil mixing with the musty straw. “She’s not going to be ready for anything on Monday. I’m not moving.”

Stenson’s face reddened. “If you say Monday is already lost, then no sense keepin’ her around eatin’ my oats.”

I looked at my watch. Where was he?

“No. We’re not waitin’ on the vet. He’d just go runnin’ to the sheriff, and I don’t need any more complaints.”

Gilly took a step toward Ginger, but I moved directly in front of her.

Stenson turned to Gilly. “For blast’s sake, just do it here.”

Gilly faltered, then pulled me by the arm and threw me to the ground. “Stand back, unless you want her coming down on you.”

I scuttled backward out of the stall just in time. The rifle fired, and she fell. But she gasped and kicked, so Gilly fired a second shot, and she went still.

I wiped my face with my sleeve and crawled to the horse, setting my hand on her neck.

Stenson grabbed my box and threw it at me, and the contents scattered across the floor. “Pick him up and put him in his truck.”

Gilly seized my arm to lift me, but I wouldn’t be pulled away. I remained on the floor, my hand resting on her. She took a breath, then a second … then nothing.

I couldn’t hear; my ears rang from the sound of the gunfire, and blue acrid smoke hung in the air.

But the stable was dead still.

“Everybody will need to stay.” Dr. Czechnik stood in the doorway. “I’ll need statements from everyone.”

Stenson chuckled. “Hey, doc, we don’t need a vet no more.”

“No. But you might need a lawyer. That’s animal cruelty, Bill. And not your first incident.”

Now, Stenson let out a repulsive laugh. “Won’t take much for me to make your business dry up. I think it’s best if you just get off my land.”

The doc’s face fell. When his eyes met mine, I saw an empathy there, then fear, but then his eyes went vacant as he backed away out of the stable. And it was just the three of us again, and Ginger. Her shoe lay in the straw by her head, where it had fallen.

✧ ✧ ✧

I had the fifty miles back home to settle myself and think through what, if anything, I could do. Doc said to let him handle it, that it wasn’t a place for me to stick my neck out, so I tried to push it out of my mind as the truck found its own way east. Let the doc do his thing … or nothing.

When I pulled into our neighbor’s place, my thoughts scattered. The drive was a hundred yards of gravel and ran up a gentle slope next to a fresh-cut lawn. Ellen and Tommy were playing next to a stand of old oaks at the top of the hill. Tommy was shuffling around while he waved some kind of wand in the air. A stream of iridescent bubbles ran away from him downwind like a great ship’s sail.

“How’s my little man?”

“Yay, Daddy!” He dropped the wand and made his way to me.

“We had a nice morning,” Ellen said. “A bowl of cereal, then right to the bubbles, as usual. Oh, and we did play with the chicks along the way.”

“Thanks. You’re a lifesaver.” I walked beneath one of the oaks and picked up Tommy’s backpack, some superhero image blazing in the day. Heavy with something; Tommy collected things.

Then, her eyes caught mine, and her face turned concerned. “You okay?”

“Oh, yeah. Just some awful business.”

Sarah didn’t like for him to wear the pack, but I helped him put it on. We said our goodbyes, then picked up Tommy, and we walked to the truck.

He asked, “Did daddy fix the horse’s shoe?”

My chest tightened, and I stopped in the gravel of the drive. “No. The shoe didn’t need fixing.”

He dropped his head on my shoulder for a moment. The scent of baby shampoo was still there, even after his day in the yard. “That’s good,” he said.

“Yeah, I guess so.” My breath caught, so I held it for a second, till I was steadied.

“Daddy’s sad.”

I took a deep breath, but no words came.

“When can I come back to Miss Ellen’s?”

I was walking again to the truck, the scent of the cut grass almost suffocating now. “Soon, Tommy. Soon.”

✧ ✧ ✧

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