Vet Among the Pigeons by Gillian Hick

Author:Gillian Hick [Gillian Hick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781847174390
Publisher: The O'Brien Press
Published: 2012-10-09T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

THE FILLY FOAL

The first time I ever encountered the Murphy clan was on a cold morning in early spring on my way to Riverside Clinic. I had just driven past their halting site when I came across a heavy piebald cob making her way along the grass verge at a lazy trot. The rhythmic swaying of her tense abdomen confirmed that she was in foal. From her well-worn halter trailed a long length of blue rope, which I assumed had once served to tether her. I pulled in to watch, surprised to find the creature loose, and wondered what had spooked her. I hesitated for a moment and then, with the car wedged into the ditch, I flicked on the hazard lights and hopped out just ahead of the horse.

‘Whoa there,’ I called out reassuringly. As though oblivious to my presence, the mare trotted on until she was almost level with me.

‘Hike!’ I shouted, translating into horse-driving terms. She pulled up instantly and looked at me enquiringly.

‘What have you been up to?’ I asked her as I quickly checked over her to see that she had suffered no ill-effects from her adventure. Totally unperplexed by the change of plan, the mare happily followed me back in the direction she had come from. It wasn’t until then that I realised that she had travelled further than I thought and the halting site was by now a good half mile away. For a brief instant, thinking of the list of calls ahead of me, I was temped to hop up on her back and ‘jockey’ her home, but then thought better of it.

From a fair distance before reaching the entrance to the halting site, I was clearly visible to the Murphy family through the sparse blackberry bushes that offered a hedge around the site. Several faces appeared around the caravans and one by one the clan gathered to watch as we approached. The mare, as though sensing that the adventure was over, dragged her feet reluctantly, so that I was forced to encourage her repeatedly with a gentle flick of the rope. The silence from the gathering crowd was broken only by my intermittent ‘Yup, mare’ at my reluctant companion as I had long since given up trying to encourage her to ‘Trot on.’ From the apprehensive looks on the Travellers’ faces, I glad that I was still on foot.

Having made my way up the broad driveway, lined on either side with an array of modern caravans, I headed straight for the person who was obviously the boss man.

‘Good morning!’ I called out in what I hoped was a friendly voice. As there was no immediate reply, I continued, ‘I found this mare trotting up the road and thought she was probably one of yours.’

‘Aye, that there’s John-Joe’s cob,’ called out a young lad who looked no older than eight or nine. A frown from his mother silenced him.

‘Ah that’s fine, so,’ I replied, beginning to feel unnerved by the silence.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.