Midge: a fable

*just a short little kids story. Not as good as it could be, but not too shabby either :)
Once there was a small horse named Midge. Midge was the only one in the whole stable who was small. He had never gotten bigger than a foal really, after all a miniature horse was supposed to be small! When he had been born his mother and the rest of the herd were just like him and he never thought anything of it. But one day he was sold to a man who ran a large stable. Midge was sorry to leave his mother but excited for the new adventure and new friends. Sadly when he arrived at his new home that had not been the case. He had expected friendly faces and others to play with. Instead there had been these huge giants of horses, what he soon learned was what everyone thought a “normal horse” was. He was an outcast. He had one single friend in the donkey, but he was always teased by the other horses.
“pip squeak. why you’re not even a pony!” “and who would ride you?”
The worst was when he watched them being taken out to be ridden. Oh how he longed to soar over jumps like they did! To feel the ground thundering under his hooves.

As the weeks went by he found himself spending his days pining over wanting to be a bigger horse. a REAL horse as he had started to call it in his head. He was lonely and so very unhappy with who he was.

Then one day a new family came to the barn. A man and his wife and their small daughter. The man Midge had seen many times before, he was a famous show jumper and his horse Griphon was one of the horses who teased Midge the worst. He would always snort and swish his tail as he went out to the jump course. The mans wife was easily happy around the horses and bought her daughter towards Griphons stall with a smile on her face.

“look honey! this is who you’ll start riding! then you can be a famous rider like daddy is. isnt’ he pretty?”

And to everyones shock, the little girl took one look at Griphon and started crying!
“no mommy! no no no!”

Her mother was baffled and put her daughter down to turn and talk to her husband. While they argued about how it was silly of her to be scared and what to do....the little girl has stopped crying and was walking down the aisle. Suddenly she saw Midge.

And Midge saw her. Her pretty little tearstained face, her sweet little ringlettes, her eyes wide at the sight of him. And to Midges surprise she came to him! She reached out her little hand and started to pet him. He closed his eyes and just stood there feeling happy. He took a deep breath and snuffled out a big sigh into her palm... which made her laugh out loud!

Her parents spun around and froze. Here was there little girl turning down teh champion horse for this little minature creature. But there was no denying that she was enraptured. Her father turned and went to the office to have some words with the barn owner. Soon her returned and took his daughters hand and they all left.

Days went by and Midge found he was even sadder than before. He had really enjoyed the little girl, loved her light touch and her smile. And just as he was thinking about how much he wished she would come by again... he heard her laugh!

“Mine? daddy mine? MY HORSE? thank you thank you thank you thank you!”
And she came rushing into view and just about flung herself into the stall. Midge was surprised but happy and leaned into her pets nudging her shoulder with his nose. He looked up, scaresly daring to hope that his thoughts might be right.

“Yes baby, he’s yours. Take good care of him and you’ll learn a lot. Now he won’t be big enough for always, but he can be your friend even after you’ve outgrown him”

Midge and the girl looked at each other, each with shining eyes as she looked at him very seriously and said “I’m Jennie.”

And from that day forth the two were inseperable. The other horses in the barn realized that even though Midge was small, he was important. After all he was the horse of the famous jumpers daughter, and that man knew horses! Midge was happy he was small, because if he had been big, he wouldn’t have had her in his life.

Small sometimes is Just Right!