Disclaimer: The Phantom Stallion does not belong to me, but I sure as darned wish that it did.

I always had told her that I had mustang eyes, that that was the reason why I was so easily able to communicate with the horses that her dad let me help gentle. She was so young that I didn't like to have her tag along sometimes, but in a way, it was nice to have someone to admire me and look up to me, since I was the youngest one in my family. She looked up to me like I was some sort of mystical being, or maybe like an older brother who could do no wrong.

Seeing as I was stuck with a tagalong who thought that I could do no wrong I thought to myself, "What better way to show her how cool and fun I am than by showing her how awesome what I've learned to do is." With that thought in mind I decided that she should learn how to gentle the horses in the same way that I did. Turns out that Wyatt had gifted her a young newborn foal, and I thought, why not. It was going great, she used every one of the tricks that I taught her: giving him a secret name, letting him memorize her scent a know it as that of his partner, giving him a secret name. I have to hand it to her, she did as I said without question. Heck, even I didn't know that horses secret name. They had a bond the likes of which I had never seen before, and I envied her, because I knew that she had done something that I could only ever attempt, she'd made that horse hers in any and every way that she could, and that he'd die for her.

I'll never forget the first time that he wore a halter, she'd waited for months for that day. She made that halter out of some red flannel that looked amazing up against blackies muzzle and was the perfect starter halter for any horse. I've never seen someone so proud in my life. That was the beginning of the days where she wanted nothing more than to ride him, to ride her perfect stallion for the very first time and glory in the feeling of finally being one with HER horse. Watching them was one of the most special things that I have ever seen in my life, and I knew that no matter what that horse would always be hers.

"Then came that fateful day, it will always be in my mind as one of the worst days of my life. She was riding him for the first time, and it was like poetry in motion to watch them together. It was all going so well, what could have possibly gone wrong? He was behaving SO well after she started riding, that I thought they'd be fine taking a short ride out to the fields. I stayed close enough to her that I may as well have been ponying her. When we rode out it worked like the magic that it was, they were the perfect pair, but then tragedy struck. We were riding back, and they were going so well that I guess that I just decided to push the limits just a little bit, and I'll never forgive myself for what happened next. On the way out I had cautiously made sure that I was the one who was opening the gates and closing them again, on the way back I thought that Sam should try just once to open the gate, I mean what could go wrong? What a mistake that was. She was trying hard to do as I said, but it was just to soon, he just kept shying away from the gate. She begged me and told me that it was too soon, and I still curse my stubborn pride that didn't let it go. I just had to keep pushing it, and just like she said it was too soon. Somehow when he was shying away from the gate, it closed on him, and he panicked. For the first time in his life Sam's perfect horse acted up, and he started to buck. She fell off, and in his panic, he ran, and in running away he grazed her head with his hoof. She had fallen, and there was no way that she was going to wake up from this one, this wasn't a normal fall. She was alive, I made sure of that, but what should I do from there? I had no idea… I mean what are you supposed to do in a situation like that? I knew that I shouldn't touch her, just in case she'd sustained an injury, but she needed help, and ONLY I could get it for her, but I couldn't leave her. What a case for the professionals, and here I was, a young boy faced with this decision./p
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