Hide & Seek - Alyssa Brugman [1]
'Diablo?'
Shelby stepped back into the stable and rubbed the water from her eyes. Even in this stable, three times the size of any other in the whole place, Diablo was seventeen hands and solid. The stallion should have been hard to miss.
She felt foolish, but she opened the wide cupboard at the end of the stable that held all Diablo's rugs. It was about the size of the wardrobe in her parents' room. There was no way a massive animal like Diablo could fit in there, but Shelby checked anyway. She closed the doors, put her hands on her hips and shook her head.
On rainy days the whole routine changed. Most horses had extra hay and stayed in their stables and yards, instead of being taken out to the day paddocks. Some horses from the paddocks were brought in to spare stables, and others that were normally kept in paddocks without wooden shelters were moved into the sandy jumping arena, so they wouldn't churn up the soggy pasture.
Shelby walked outside to see her friend trudging between the stable blocks leaning over a trolley full of empty buckets, having distributed all the breakfasts and extra hay.
'What's taking you so long?' called Lindsey's voice.
'Diablo isn't here,' Shelby shouted back, cupping her hands around her mouth. Her voice was swal-lowed up by the sound of the drops pummelling the plastic over her head, the hammering on the corru-gated iron roof, and the cascade over the gutter onto the ground below. It was so noisy that it was hard to concentrate.
'What do you mean?' Lindsey shouted.
It was inconceivable. Even the changed schedule shouldn't have affected Diablo. He had his own stable, his own yard and his own paddock. The stallion enclosure was bordered by strong, six-foot, post and rail fencing, with electric tape running along the inside of that, and then an alley wide enough for a vehicle to drive between his fence and the next paddock. Diablo's enclosure was in the middle of the property, surrounded by other paddocks, and within earshot of the house. He couldn't just disappear.
Lindsey dumped the trolley and jogged over to the gate. 'He has to be here. You're just not looking properly.' She shook the rain out of her hair and inspected the laneways between the stallion enclosure and the other paddocks, shielding her eyes with her hand.
Shelby shrugged. 'I can't see him, Lin.'
The two girls jogged along the paddock fence line. Their gumboots squished in the sodden grass. They turned at the bottom corner, past the dam. Shelby scanned it surreptitiously. She didn't want her friend to know that she was contemplating that Diablo might have drowned.
Back in the yard the two girls stared at each other.
'He's not here,' Lindsey said.
'I know! That's what I've been telling you. We should tell your mum.'
Mrs Edel had imported Diablo from Germany many years before. She had competed with him all around the country and used his stud fees to set up the stables in the first place. He was very valuable to her, and not only financially.
Lindsey squeezed the water out of her hair. 'Let's look a bit more.'
Shelby suspected that Lindsey might be afraid of what her mother might do when she found out he was gone. 'Look where exactly? All the gates were closed. There are no holes in the fences. There's not even any messed-up dirt, like there's been a fight, or an accident.'
'Maybe somebody let him out?' Lindsey shrugged.
'Nobody is allowed in here except you, your mum and me. Unless . . .' Shelby had some experience with horses being stolen before. 'We should tell your mum right now, Lin.'
Lindsey shook her head. 'No one would be dumb enough to steal him, Shel. Anyone in the market for a Hanoverian stallion would already know who he is. Diablo's been in every breed magazine and studbook for about twenty years. And when? Someone would have noticed