Horse talk, by eight-year-old Sara Agard

Tonight Sara said, "Let's write another story for your blog. You get to choose whether it is a story about cats, horses, or dogs." I chose horses, and this is what Sara dictated to me over the phone.

Night lay heavenly in the forest. No wind. The grass at the end of the path lay by the water. No moon or stars. A herd of horses was lying down in the grass. There was a gate near where one of the horses stood up. All of the horses on the north side of the gate were either white or grey. All of the horses on the other side of the gate were either black or brown. There were no humans or wolves around.

One of the white horses spoke to one of the black horses. "You must keep away from our side." The black horse replied, "You must keep away from our side, because if our two herds get together, something dangerous will happen. Coyotes will attack us all! If we stay away from each other, new horses will be born to the survivors of the attacks"

The white horse continued, "We north horses are stronger because we have been taught to run, like in a war. Our homes got destroyed by hunters and cowboys riding black and brown horses. But, we still made it to our homes here on the north side of the gate. We will stay here, and you stay on the south side." The black horse said, "We have been taught to be nice, so we could all have peace."

The white horse said, "On April 23 you better get ready for a war, because we were taught how to fight by the Indian horses, who also taught us how to run. It's going to be fun when we see you lose!"