"Hey, Brad, don't be a stranger," Rob said as Brad picked up his box of samples, and headed out of Chad's stall.
"I'll try to think of another excuse to come out. You know Chad here really exceeded expectations on the capacity test," Brad set his gloved hand on Chad's right rear flank, then after closing the stall door added, "Maybe your boss will want me to repeat it a couple more times, and average the results to make sure it isn't a fluke." Brad shrugged.
"You're gonna be back I'm sure," Rob said.
"I'm sure we'll see each other soon, Rob. You've got my number."
Brad was gone. A minute later his car roared to life, then rumbled down the gravel drive.
"Well, Chad, hope you're as prodigious as your brother thinks," Rob said leaning on the stall railing.
Chad heard your brother, and realized Rob knew who he really was. He whinnied loudly and kicked at the railing Rob was leaning on.
Rob dropped down off the railing.
"Say, Chad, you be a good pony, and I won't tell the boss you need gelding. Personally, I don't care if you keep your balls or not. But if keeping your balls means more conjugal visits with Brad, I'm in favor of that. You understand, Chad, be a good pony, you keep your balls and go to stud. Bad ponies go get gelded and go to auction.
"And if you make back a lot more than the boss lost betting against your team, the boss had been known to restore some of his stable to humanity."
Chad stopped bucking, and turned to stare at Rob.
Rob crossed his heart and raised his hand saying, "God's honest truth."
Chad stomped his foot once, and nodded. Then he trotted over to the feedback.
Rob laughed in relief, adding, "Knew you could be a good pony."
Then Rob pulled out his phone. He dialed his boss.
"Yeah, Rob, how's the new pony working out." Rob had the speaker on. Chad's ears perked up. He tried to recognize the voice.
"He's better than we hoped, boss. Highly prodigious stud. The vet took sperm samples, and his other son stuck around to do capacity tests. Chad apparently scored off the charts. Filled a box of vials. The bro Brad said you might want him to do two or three more capacity tests, and average out his productivity. But I'm thinking maybe ten more capacity tests are in order."
"You banging this Brad guy, Rob?"
"You know me too well, sir."
"Put me on speaker, I wanna talk to my new potential stud."
"Yes sir."
Rob picked up his phone and clicked off and on speaker mode. Then set the phone on the top of the stall railing.
"Ready, sir."
"Fine. Yo, Chad. We haven't met, but I own you. You beat my son's team in the championship. I lost over $500,000 on that game. Your team was supposed to lose. But you ran 3 touchdowns all by yourself. Cost me on the spread too."
Chad stared silently at the phone.
"Anyway, my initial inclination was to geld you and gift you to my son as his new polo pony. He would get a real kick out of that. Fortunately for you, I haven't told Nicky about you yet. If your horse sperm turns out to be a hot commodity, and you were with Rob and my jockeys to win some races, I might just see kindly to reconsider gelding you and giving you to Nicky. In fact, you earn me a third of a Triple Crown and you will be walking around on two feet again. Hell, you pull off winning the Triple Crown, stud, In addition to making you human, I'll cut you in on a piece of the action."
Chad twitched his tail uncertain of what to do.
Rob interjected himself, "Chad, stomp once for yes, twice for no. In answer to the boss's generous offer. You agree to be a good race horse and if you win enough, the boss will make you human. Say, no and Nicky has a new gelded polo pony."
Chad loudly stomped once.
"Yeah, thanks for clarification, Rob. I forgot he's horse brained now. I reviewed his football stats. He passed the ball a lot, but most of the time he ran his own touchdowns. He scored some record times in track and field when he was a freshman. Got real potential for the track. Make sure he's ready for the season. Rudy will make sure his papers are in order."