Ben’s first night as a mare went better than the 7-year-old thought, the former human boy just let his instincts guide him, so he just fell asleep standing upright as Horses tend to do. When he awoke early the next morning, the former human child first walked slowly in circles in his box to loosen his muscles. ‘Being a Horse, although I’m a girl Horse, is pretty neat,’ he thinks to himself, ‘I don’t need to go to school, that is the best part of this. I wonder when Lucy will show up, I can’t wait to be ridden and run’.
His ears then twitch when he hears the stable door open, ‘it’s to early for Lucy, she should be in school, maybe it’s Lisa bringing me my breakfast! I’m starving!’
“She’s right in the back,” Ben then hears Lisa say.
Ben looks over the door of his box and sees Lisa and a middle aged man walking up to him, ‘hu? Who’s that guy?’
When Lisa and the man arrive at Ben’s box, the man’s eyes widen, “oh. My. God. She is the most stunning and beautiful mare I have ever seen,” he says.
Ben can’t help but feel extremely proud hearing this, Lisa is smiling wide, “that’s what I thought when Lucy brought her yesterday,” she says, “she’s so clean that her white fur is almost blinding!”
‘Damn, this reality alteration thing sure is weird and somewhat scary,’ Ben thinks to himself.
Lisa then looks at the “mare”, “good morning, Star,” she says, “this is Dr. Blake Morrison. He’s our Vet and he’ll be examining you. You don’t have to worry, it will be over quickly”.
“Star” looks at the Vet, ‘he does look friendly,’ he thinks to himself, ‘I wonder what he is going to do’.
Lisa opens the door to Ben’s box and the Vet steps inside, placing his bag down on the floor, he then reaches out a hand and Ben sniffs it and gives it a little lick. Dr. Morrison chuckles and sritches “Star’s” neck, “she sure is one friendly animal,” he says, “and from what I can tell by looking at her, that she seems to be a healthy 7-year-old”.
“I must admit, she does look like, whoever sold her to the family, knows how to breed properly,” Lisa says, “just weird that Lucy and even her family were unable to present paperwork from the breeder”.
“That is unusual,” the Vet says as he examines “Star’s” teeth, “maybe some rancher, who is not officially a breeder, had a pregnant mare and decided to sell her for lack of room. That could be a reason why there is no official paperwork, which is not illegal”.
“True,” Lisa says, “so, doc. Do you need my help?”
“Not at the moment,” the man says, “but I would need your help when I do the implantation of the GPS tracking unit”.
Ben is distracted from the Vet’s scent that he doesn’t pay any attention to what the two grown ups are talking about, “okay, I’ll stay here, injecting the vaccinations and chip won’t take that long, right?”
“It won’t, and I’d need you to help me fill out the registration anyway,” Dr. Morrison says, “let’s get started, it would be best if she’d be distracted while I inject her”.
“No problem, I still have to feed her anyway,” Lisa says, who is holding a bag of oats.
“Perfect, please,” the man says, stepping aside to make room for Lisa.
Lisa steps into the box and walks towards the food and drinking trough and fills both with water and food.
Ben, smelling the oats, instantly walks over and starts to eat, ‘this is delicious. Or maybe it’s just my current state that causes me to enjoy it,’ he thinks to himself.
Dr. Morrison chuckles, “she sure is one hungry girl,” he says, walking up to the “mare, holding a syringe.
“I must confess, I forgot to feed her yesterday evening,” Lisa says.
“Don’t let that become a habit, Lisa,” Dr. Morrison says as he injects the vaccination into “Star”, who doesn’t even flinch since she is to busy and focused on eating.
“Sorry, I know it happened in the past,” Lisa says, “if I’m to stressed I tend to forget stuff. I am not happy about that, but I’m working on it!”
Dr. Morrison smiles, already preparing the next syringe which contains the chip, “you’ll get it sorted,” he says, walking back over to “Star” and injects the chip into her, “okay, should we do the registration now or later?”
“Whatever you think is best, doc,” Lisa says.
“Let me give her the “blue dream” serum and while she falls asleep we can do the registration,” Dr. Morrison says.
“Okay,” Lisa says.
Ben again doesn’t notice the Vet injecting him, but after a few minutes he starts to feel tired, ‘weird, I felt so energized a second ago,’ he thinks to himself, ‘maybe it’s from the food, I did eat a lot. A short nap won’t hurt,’ so Ben walks to the middle of the box and stops, closing his eyes.
“Looks like the serum is already taking affect,” Lisa whispers.
“Well, I gave her a much stronger injection than usual, I don’t have much time today,” Dr. Morrison whispers back, “now, let’s get the registration done, then I can implant the GPS tracking device,” so with the help of Lisa, the registration form is soon filled out and unbeknownst to Ben, he is now officially registered as a Horse in the national registration system:
Name: Star
Age: 7
Gender: female
Chipnumber: 008979290881260353
Owner: Lucy Collins
Age of owner: 8
Gender of owner: female
Occupation: student
Adress of owner: Maple Leaf Road 20, Florida
After the registration is complete, Dr. Morrison gets to work, he injects a numbing serum into the “mare’s” neck. After a few minutes, the Vet then uses a surgery knife to cut a small hole into the “mare’s” neck down to the fifth cervical vertebrae. Using a multitool, made up from a tiny drill, screw driver and a tweezer, Dr. Morrison soon has the tracking device implanted and the tiny wound sewn shut. “Now to see if it really works,” Dr. Morrison says, “as I said before, this is a brand new device and “Star” is the very first Horse I have implanted it into”.
Dr. Morrison takes out his phone and opens a App, he then smiles wide, “YES! It works,” he says, he then turns the phone to show Lisa.
On the Vet’s phone, Lisa can make out a map, which looks a lot like a normal GPS-map for cars, but instead of an image of the driven car, there is an image of a Horse with the current location: street name, the name of the Riding Academy and the name of the Horse itself.
Lisa smiles, “perfect,” she says, “I’ll let Lucy know, she can download the App onto her phone, does she need to sync it with the device in Star?”
“She just needs to enter Star’s chip number into the App,” Dr. Morrison says.
“Okay, thanks doc,” Lisa says, “how long until Star wakes up?”
“About three hours,” the Vet says, “but you shouldn’t do any activities with her. She’ll need about a day to calm down, so I’d suggest you better start the riding lessons in a day or two. I’d prefer you to start the riding lessons the day after tomorrow”.
“Okay, I’ll let Lucy know,” Lisa says, “thanks again”.
“See you next time,” Dr. Morrison says, with that both leave the “Horse” alone to wake up, unaware that the Horse is actually a human boy. “By the way,” the Vet says, as he and Lisa walk towards the main building, “the mare is perfect for breeding. Has Lucy considered breeding her?”
“I asked her,” Lisa says, “she declined and would prefer not to breed Star. Maybe she’ll change her mind in the future, besides, she just got the Horse, I guess she’s still unsure in many things and just wants to ride Star”.
Dr. Morrison nods, “I understand, she is eight, kids that age rather want to have fun than thinking about breeding their animals,” he says, “we’ll see”.
Lisa smiles, “something tells me that she eventually decide to breed Star,” she says.