One spring morning a pretty horse was born.

Her name was Lacy.

She grew up and years later she had twins and was sold by the farmer.

The twins were a boy and a girl, the farmer named the male twin, Smelly, and the female twin, Oily Heart.

Then a three-year-old horse was bought by the farmer. He named her Trixy.

She birthed a filly and all the farmer could do was sit and take care of the farm. Then many, many years later the farmer got gold and more sliver, and he bought saddles, bridles, and saddle cloths. The filly that Trixy had had forever ago was now old enough to have a foal. Her name was Checkers.

She had a colt and he was named Checkers #2, then he was stuck in the barn, he was never let out of the barn, ever. And Trixy had another foal, it was a filly, she was named Lil Jim Bob, in honor of a story the farmer read when he was a young boy. When Lil Jim Bob grew up, she was renamed Big Jim Bob.

Before Big Jim Bob grew up, Checkers had another foal too, it was a filly named Burnt Toast.

Burnt Toast was a strange little filly. The farmer noticed that she had a temperament of one out of ten from a very young age. Bombproof, they called it. She never spooked for anything--not even when the coyotes got through the fence and howled around the stables. The other horses whinnied in terror and kicked at the stable doors. The farmer ran out, firing his gun to frighten off the starving creatures. The horses whinnied all the louder in the stress of the situation.

None of the horses were really the same after that. Forever after, whenever they saw a dog or heard a distant howl, they would shy and spook in fear. But that night, when the farmer raced in to check on his horses, he found Burnt Toast sound asleep. She'd slept through the entire thing.

Burnt Toast got older. Her spotty black-and-brown pattern turned into an eye striking coat. Her silky mane was black and long. She loved slapping flies and even the farmer's hands with her dark tail.

One day, a stranger showed up to the corral.

"Howdy, partner," said the farmer. "What brings you here?"

"I need a new steed," said the stranger. "And I'm willing to pay whatever's fair."

The farmer nodded and took the stranger to see the horses. He saw Checkers, and Checkers #2, and Big Jim Bob, but when he got to Burnt Toast, he stopped and stared.

"Ah, that's a mighty fine one," said the farmer. "That one ain't scared of nothing."

"Is that a fact?" asked the stranger. "Would she mind if I rode her, tried her out?"

The farmer nodded and saddled Burnt Toast. The stranger rode her around the fields. Burnt Toast liked him--he was a magnificent rider, kept a good seat and a firm but gentle hand on the reins. The stranger liked her too--willing, obedient, and entirely unfazed when a flock of birds flew up right under her nose.

He bought her from the farmer and led her away from the stable she'd lived in all her life. Then they rode off across the plains at a gallop, the stranger clearly in pursuit of something or someone.