When Chloe breaks her leg Crackers finds some new friends to play with
Crackers groaned as he casually groomed his friend, “I’m so bored Billy, there is nothing to do”.
Billy looked at him over his shoulder and continued to slowly drift to sleep.
“Urgh, I don’t want to stand around here in the field sleeping all day, I want an adventure, something to do!”
“Sleeping is an adventure.” Billy yawned as he rested his head on Crackers back and slowly started to drift off to sleep.
Crackers groaned inwardly and stared at the empty field in which the two of them stood. Ever since Chloe had broken her leg he had been left out most of the time with nobody to ride him. A couple of the students had tried and even some of the adults but each time they got so frustrated he found himself back out in the field with Billy. How did he do this every single day? Crackers hoped that he would never be retired to ‘paddock rest’, it was quite literally the most boring thing on the planet.
“I’m going to get a drink, are you coming?”
“Neh, I think I’ll stay here and sleep some more, there is a nice patch of sun just on my back if I stand here”
If Crackers could roll his eyes he would have done so, instead he had to make do with a brief snort of disgust as he headed off to the small wooded area at the bottom of the field.
The large field in which most of the ponies were kept had a slope down into a nice covered area with a pond at the bottom. In Winter this area became almost too muddy for the ponies to venture down to the water but today, on a beautiful sunny spring morning, it was just perfect.
As he stepped into the shade he let his eyes adjust for a second to the darkness and then headed down to the pond to have a drink (and maybe a little splash). Standing at the waters edge he lethargically pawed at the water and kicked a small piece of mud with his hoof.
“I’M SO BORED” he exclaimed loudly causing a small bird to flutter from a nearby tree.
“Why does nobody want to do anything around here, all they want to do is stand and sleep and eat?”
“I want to do something” a voice appeared out of nowhere sending Crackers startling backward several feet.
“Who…..who said that?” he whimpered, hiding himself slightly behind a large log so as to be protected from any sudden onslaught.
“I did” the voice replied. Crackers looked around but there wasn’t a pony in sight.
“UP HERE” the voice shouted. Crackers followed the noise and stared up into the bows of a bare old tree.
There, sitting amongst a couple of branches was the strangest creature. It looked like a person but its skin was almost white and it had large wings, Crackers had definitely never seen a human with wings before.
“What? What are you?” Crackers remarked looking apprehensively at this strange new creature.
“I’m a fairy” the creature remarked smiling at the slightly over weight and very muddy horse that stood below her.
“Aren’t fairies meant to be small?” Crackers remarked looking at what was definitely not a small creature.
“Aren’t horses meant to be beautiful?” The fairy remarked smirking at him.
Crackers snorted loudly and tossed his mane in the air. “That’s very rude” he said, “I was just making an observation”.
The fairy laughed and flew down to stand next to Crackers.
“I have a magical size changing spell” she smiled as she looked him up and down.
“No you don’t” said Crackers. “I think you are just a naughty small child that has come here to annoy me”
“Wanna bet?” the fairy grinned a mischievous grin and then under her breath she started uttering strange words.
Suddenly Crackers felt his head spinning, the world around him was getting bigger and bigger.
“WHAT’S HAPPENING?!?!?” he screamed as he pawed at the ground and tried to grab onto a nearly leaf to stop himself from shrinking any further.
“I told you I had a magical size changing spell” the fairy smiled.
“What? What have you done?” Suddenly Crackers found himself so much smaller than before. The leaves, which had before looked small and edible now looked giant and scary. The placid water that he had been mindlessly pawing just a few moments earlier now looked like a vast ocean. The mud, which had been a mere inconvenience when he entered the glen now looked like an impenetrable swamp.
“Please make me big again” he cried “I don’t like this, I don’t like this one bit”
“Now, now” the fairy smiled as she hoped on his back, “I thought you wanted to have an adventure, come on let’s go”!
Crackers stared at the giant cliff face that stood before him and slowly and carefully began to pick his way out. He wasn’t sure he liked being this size one bit and he really wished that he was big again, but the fairy was right, he wanted an adventure and he was going to have an adventure.
After about an hour and a lot of slipping and sliding they finally made it out of the wood. The field, which had before been full of short well grazed grass was now like a jungle.
“How are we going to get through that?” Crackers groaned as he looked at the fairy who was lying down on his back staring at the sky.
“We need better transportation” she said decisively and flew up into the air.
“OVER THERE” she pointed, “there’s a tractor thing, we can ride on that”
Crackers did not like the tractor thing. They used to it drive up and down the paddocks and put out buckets of water. Billy thought it was another horse but Crackers wasn’t so sure and was certainly not trusting of it. Like many objects in the world he was sure it was out to kill him and that the other horses just couldn’t see sense.
“Come on lazy, let’s go” the fairy kicked on his sides as she landed back onto him. “I know a place where there are loads of carrots” she grinned.
Crackers didn’t need much persuading and clinging to the edge of the wood he headed towards the tractor thing which was parked next to the fence.
He stood next to it staring up. If it had looked scary when he was 14hh it now looked petrifying.
“How are we going to use it?” he asked secretly hoping that the fairy would have had enough of this adventure and would change him back to normal size now.
“Just a bit of magic” she smiled “come on up we go” and she pulled on his mane, tugging him up and over the steps and finally onto the seat.
The tractor thing was actually just a ride on lawnmower with a green body and bright yellow seat. It had definitely seen better days, with a broken headlight and various different bits held together with cable ties, baler twine and duct tape.
Crackers was just adjusting to this new yellow environment when suddenly there was an all mighty raw, like a dragon whose princess had just been stolen from its castle.
“AAAAAAA” Crackers screamed as he fell backwards onto the seat.
“Calm down you silly thing its just the engine, come on, let’s go find you some carrots”.
Suddenly the tractor thing started moving slowly forward. The fairy was sat on the top of the steering wheel rolling about as it bounced up and down over the bumps in the field.
“I feel sick” Crackers groaned as he lay down on the seat, desperately trying not to be thrown 4ft into the air every time they went over a bump.
The fairy looked at him and rolled her eyes. “You are such a wimp” she groaned as she drove the tractor to the top of the field.
Once they reached the gate she cast another of her spells and opened it so they could get through. Crackers could see Billy still sleeping in the corner of the field, oblivious to the fact that there was a tractor thing driving itself and a gate opening by itself. O how he wished he had just stayed there and fallen asleep with Billy.
“Here we are” the fairy shouted and Crackers slowly opened his eyes again to see the large farm house building in front of them.
“Come on, we are nearly at the carrots” she smiled as she helped him down. Standing was hard and Crackers’ legs wobbled underneath him as he tried to adjust to walking on solid ground again. He was exhausted, it felt like he’d done three rounds of the cross country course and Chloe was making him hack home.
Eventually he made it to the back door. “How are we going to get in?” he asked staring at the fairy. “are you going to use more magic?”
“No silly, we’ll just go through the cat flap, just a little jump”.
Crackers had never been proficient jumper and the cat flap seemed (a) closed and (b) a long way up.
“I’m not sure I can jump that high” he complained.
“Well you won’t get any carrots then will you” the fairy remarked before sitting down on his back.
“Come on horsey, jump!” she shouted and Crackers ran up to the door before throwing himself, with all his force at the closed flap.
With a crash he flew through the cat flap and rolled onto the front door mat on the other side. The spiky bristles stabbed into his sides and he let out a loud groan.
“Ooops” the fairy chucked “maybe I should have just opened the door”.
Crackers glared at her before following her into the kitchen. His leg hurt and he limped slightly as he stepped onto the shiny floor.
“Here we are” the fairy smiled “all the carrots you could ever wish for” and with that she opened the door to the large white fridge to reveal more food than Crackers had ever seen before. And there, at the bottom, tucked neatly into a draw, were a fresh bunch of carrots.
“Up we go” the fairy smiled as he pulled Crackers up and into the fridge before opening up the vegetable draw and pushing him in.
Crackers was in heaven. He had never seen so many carrots and at his tiny size, never such large carrots! He munched and he munched and he munched as he sat on a cabbage. Meanwhile the fairy sat on the shelf above and helped herself to various items from the fridge, laughing as she sipped from a bottle of champagne that had been left over from the engagement party.
“This is the best adventure ever” Crackers smiled as he lay down into the cabbage leaves, his stomach so full he felt like just having a quick nap.
At that moment voices could be heard outside and a key started to turn in the lock of the front door.
“PEOPLE!” the fairy shouted, “quickly we have to get out of here”.
“Urgh” Crackers groaned “I don’t think I can do quick” but before he knew it she was kicking up him and out of the fridge. They quickly bolted across the floor and hid just around the corner of one of the cabinets by the door.
“That’s too much exercise” Crackers moaned, but with that the door opened and before he knew what was happening the fairy had grabbed his mane and yanked him out the door.
“We better get you back to the paddock” she smiled as the pair slowly plodded along the drive and back to the field.
“Thanks for my adventure” Crackers smiled “Maybe we could do it again sometime?”
“Anytime you want” the fairy smiled as she started to whisper those strange words under her breath and stood at the gate to the field Crackers grew back to his normal size.
Giving a little whiny as he went Crackers walked slowly back to see Billy.
“Did you have a nice drink” Billy mumbled as Crackers approached him.
“Very nice indeed, fancy a nap?”
“I thought you’d never ask” and with that the pair rested their heads on each others back and fell back to sleep the warm spring sunshine slowly hitting their backs.
Billy looked at him over his shoulder and continued to slowly drift to sleep.
“Urgh, I don’t want to stand around here in the field sleeping all day, I want an adventure, something to do!”
“Sleeping is an adventure.” Billy yawned as he rested his head on Crackers back and slowly started to drift off to sleep.
Crackers groaned inwardly and stared at the empty field in which the two of them stood. Ever since Chloe had broken her leg he had been left out most of the time with nobody to ride him. A couple of the students had tried and even some of the adults but each time they got so frustrated he found himself back out in the field with Billy. How did he do this every single day? Crackers hoped that he would never be retired to ‘paddock rest’, it was quite literally the most boring thing on the planet.
“I’m going to get a drink, are you coming?”
“Neh, I think I’ll stay here and sleep some more, there is a nice patch of sun just on my back if I stand here”
If Crackers could roll his eyes he would have done so, instead he had to make do with a brief snort of disgust as he headed off to the small wooded area at the bottom of the field.
The large field in which most of the ponies were kept had a slope down into a nice covered area with a pond at the bottom. In Winter this area became almost too muddy for the ponies to venture down to the water but today, on a beautiful sunny spring morning, it was just perfect.
As he stepped into the shade he let his eyes adjust for a second to the darkness and then headed down to the pond to have a drink (and maybe a little splash). Standing at the waters edge he lethargically pawed at the water and kicked a small piece of mud with his hoof.
“I’M SO BORED” he exclaimed loudly causing a small bird to flutter from a nearby tree.
“Why does nobody want to do anything around here, all they want to do is stand and sleep and eat?”
“I want to do something” a voice appeared out of nowhere sending Crackers startling backward several feet.
“Who…..who said that?” he whimpered, hiding himself slightly behind a large log so as to be protected from any sudden onslaught.
“I did” the voice replied. Crackers looked around but there wasn’t a pony in sight.
“UP HERE” the voice shouted. Crackers followed the noise and stared up into the bows of a bare old tree.
There, sitting amongst a couple of branches was the strangest creature. It looked like a person but its skin was almost white and it had large wings, Crackers had definitely never seen a human with wings before.
“What? What are you?” Crackers remarked looking apprehensively at this strange new creature.
“I’m a fairy” the creature remarked smiling at the slightly over weight and very muddy horse that stood below her.
“Aren’t fairies meant to be small?” Crackers remarked looking at what was definitely not a small creature.
“Aren’t horses meant to be beautiful?” The fairy remarked smirking at him.
Crackers snorted loudly and tossed his mane in the air. “That’s very rude” he said, “I was just making an observation”.
The fairy laughed and flew down to stand next to Crackers.
“I have a magical size changing spell” she smiled as she looked him up and down.
“No you don’t” said Crackers. “I think you are just a naughty small child that has come here to annoy me”
“Wanna bet?” the fairy grinned a mischievous grin and then under her breath she started uttering strange words.
Suddenly Crackers felt his head spinning, the world around him was getting bigger and bigger.
“WHAT’S HAPPENING?!?!?” he screamed as he pawed at the ground and tried to grab onto a nearly leaf to stop himself from shrinking any further.
“I told you I had a magical size changing spell” the fairy smiled.
“What? What have you done?” Suddenly Crackers found himself so much smaller than before. The leaves, which had before looked small and edible now looked giant and scary. The placid water that he had been mindlessly pawing just a few moments earlier now looked like a vast ocean. The mud, which had been a mere inconvenience when he entered the glen now looked like an impenetrable swamp.
“Please make me big again” he cried “I don’t like this, I don’t like this one bit”
“Now, now” the fairy smiled as she hoped on his back, “I thought you wanted to have an adventure, come on let’s go”!
Crackers stared at the giant cliff face that stood before him and slowly and carefully began to pick his way out. He wasn’t sure he liked being this size one bit and he really wished that he was big again, but the fairy was right, he wanted an adventure and he was going to have an adventure.
After about an hour and a lot of slipping and sliding they finally made it out of the wood. The field, which had before been full of short well grazed grass was now like a jungle.
“How are we going to get through that?” Crackers groaned as he looked at the fairy who was lying down on his back staring at the sky.
“We need better transportation” she said decisively and flew up into the air.
“OVER THERE” she pointed, “there’s a tractor thing, we can ride on that”
Crackers did not like the tractor thing. They used to it drive up and down the paddocks and put out buckets of water. Billy thought it was another horse but Crackers wasn’t so sure and was certainly not trusting of it. Like many objects in the world he was sure it was out to kill him and that the other horses just couldn’t see sense.
“Come on lazy, let’s go” the fairy kicked on his sides as she landed back onto him. “I know a place where there are loads of carrots” she grinned.
Crackers didn’t need much persuading and clinging to the edge of the wood he headed towards the tractor thing which was parked next to the fence.
He stood next to it staring up. If it had looked scary when he was 14hh it now looked petrifying.
“How are we going to use it?” he asked secretly hoping that the fairy would have had enough of this adventure and would change him back to normal size now.
“Just a bit of magic” she smiled “come on up we go” and she pulled on his mane, tugging him up and over the steps and finally onto the seat.
The tractor thing was actually just a ride on lawnmower with a green body and bright yellow seat. It had definitely seen better days, with a broken headlight and various different bits held together with cable ties, baler twine and duct tape.
Crackers was just adjusting to this new yellow environment when suddenly there was an all mighty raw, like a dragon whose princess had just been stolen from its castle.
“AAAAAAA” Crackers screamed as he fell backwards onto the seat.
“Calm down you silly thing its just the engine, come on, let’s go find you some carrots”.
Suddenly the tractor thing started moving slowly forward. The fairy was sat on the top of the steering wheel rolling about as it bounced up and down over the bumps in the field.
“I feel sick” Crackers groaned as he lay down on the seat, desperately trying not to be thrown 4ft into the air every time they went over a bump.
The fairy looked at him and rolled her eyes. “You are such a wimp” she groaned as she drove the tractor to the top of the field.
Once they reached the gate she cast another of her spells and opened it so they could get through. Crackers could see Billy still sleeping in the corner of the field, oblivious to the fact that there was a tractor thing driving itself and a gate opening by itself. O how he wished he had just stayed there and fallen asleep with Billy.
“Here we are” the fairy shouted and Crackers slowly opened his eyes again to see the large farm house building in front of them.
“Come on, we are nearly at the carrots” she smiled as she helped him down. Standing was hard and Crackers’ legs wobbled underneath him as he tried to adjust to walking on solid ground again. He was exhausted, it felt like he’d done three rounds of the cross country course and Chloe was making him hack home.
Eventually he made it to the back door. “How are we going to get in?” he asked staring at the fairy. “are you going to use more magic?”
“No silly, we’ll just go through the cat flap, just a little jump”.
Crackers had never been proficient jumper and the cat flap seemed (a) closed and (b) a long way up.
“I’m not sure I can jump that high” he complained.
“Well you won’t get any carrots then will you” the fairy remarked before sitting down on his back.
“Come on horsey, jump!” she shouted and Crackers ran up to the door before throwing himself, with all his force at the closed flap.
With a crash he flew through the cat flap and rolled onto the front door mat on the other side. The spiky bristles stabbed into his sides and he let out a loud groan.
“Ooops” the fairy chucked “maybe I should have just opened the door”.
Crackers glared at her before following her into the kitchen. His leg hurt and he limped slightly as he stepped onto the shiny floor.
“Here we are” the fairy smiled “all the carrots you could ever wish for” and with that she opened the door to the large white fridge to reveal more food than Crackers had ever seen before. And there, at the bottom, tucked neatly into a draw, were a fresh bunch of carrots.
“Up we go” the fairy smiled as he pulled Crackers up and into the fridge before opening up the vegetable draw and pushing him in.
Crackers was in heaven. He had never seen so many carrots and at his tiny size, never such large carrots! He munched and he munched and he munched as he sat on a cabbage. Meanwhile the fairy sat on the shelf above and helped herself to various items from the fridge, laughing as she sipped from a bottle of champagne that had been left over from the engagement party.
“This is the best adventure ever” Crackers smiled as he lay down into the cabbage leaves, his stomach so full he felt like just having a quick nap.
At that moment voices could be heard outside and a key started to turn in the lock of the front door.
“PEOPLE!” the fairy shouted, “quickly we have to get out of here”.
“Urgh” Crackers groaned “I don’t think I can do quick” but before he knew it she was kicking up him and out of the fridge. They quickly bolted across the floor and hid just around the corner of one of the cabinets by the door.
“That’s too much exercise” Crackers moaned, but with that the door opened and before he knew what was happening the fairy had grabbed his mane and yanked him out the door.
“We better get you back to the paddock” she smiled as the pair slowly plodded along the drive and back to the field.
“Thanks for my adventure” Crackers smiled “Maybe we could do it again sometime?”
“Anytime you want” the fairy smiled as she started to whisper those strange words under her breath and stood at the gate to the field Crackers grew back to his normal size.
Giving a little whiny as he went Crackers walked slowly back to see Billy.
“Did you have a nice drink” Billy mumbled as Crackers approached him.
“Very nice indeed, fancy a nap?”
“I thought you’d never ask” and with that the pair rested their heads on each others back and fell back to sleep the warm spring sunshine slowly hitting their backs.