He did not approach her immediately, but made sure her shallow stainless steel feed bin was full of breakfast, which consisted of a container with a mixture of a high-calorie, low sodium, high-fiber granola-like material called chaff; it was a mixture of oats and honey and a small amount of brown sugar and cinnamon to make it quite palatable, with raisins, dates, and nuts. The second section of the trough contained a blended yogurt – the first flavor she was offered would be apple-cinnamon. Any food preferences exhibited were carefully monitored. In the mornings, the mares could eat as much as they liked; Aaron was a firm believer that breakfast was the most important meal of the day, and his girls needed all the calories they could get. Lunch would be naturally regulated by how many mares were in the paddock at one time, and dinner was quite limited although the food was somewhat different, leaning towards a type of dried beef jerky he’d come up with that contained minimal salt, as well as what might be considered crudites in another scenario – fresh washed chunks of baby carrots and celery and cucumbers and radishes – salad food – that were sprinkled with a spice that mimicked the flavor of a mild ranch dressing. The food here was simple but good and well prepared, and it was extremely important that the mares ate well, so as much as possible they were given flavors they liked. The granola, however, was given to everyone the same – except for those who were sensitive to nuts who got a no-nut variety. Aaron would not serve his animals anything he would not eat himself, and even his grooms snacked on the stuff and were required to eat it as readily as the mares. It was good food. The water trough ran across the tops of the other bins, within easy reach at all times, so she would be able to take a mouthful of food and a sip of water almost at the same time, if she liked.
Just as with larger canines, the troughs were head high so that the fillies did not have to bend down to the floor to eat – it was extremely bad for digestion for anyone to eat that way. Occasionally, as a treat, fresh fruits were offered, and again any preferences were duly recorded for future reference.
Once he’d made sure that all was in readiness for her, Aaron walked over and bent down in front of Mandy, saying softly, “Are we ready for a good hearty breakfast this morning?” He put his hand on her flank and he didn’t flinch, but he didn’t really count it as a good sign; she was probably still mostly asleep. “Close your eyes, Mandy-girl, I’m going to open your blinders and I don’t want you to be startled.”
For once, Mandy did something she was told a he flipped something up and the sun came streaming against her eyelids.
“Open slowly, baby.”
She did, but they watered terribly anyway. Aaron hunkered down in front of her, holding her chin in his hand to tilt her pretty face up to his so that he could dab away the tears until there were no more. He rose and unhooked the lead that was attached to her collar from the floor, then unbound her wrists and ankles. As soon as she was free, Mandy lunged away from him, managing to surprise him with how hard she’d thrown herself away from him, as if she’d been lying in wait the whole time, but she forgot that he had a hold of the lead to her collar, and she was cruelly brought up short not two feet away from him.
“Damn!” he cursed under his breath. Aaron hated to use a collar as a restraint on a mare. It was method of very last resort as far as he was concerned. There were too many things that could go wrong, and he felt he should have seen her little break for it coming, blaming himself entirely for the way she was choking and coughing and straining at the leather around her neck. An expert at getting a filly – even a reluctant one – into a bridle, he had her buckled and snapped into one in seconds while she was still trying to catch her breath. The collar was removed immediately as soon has he had her reins in his one hand and Aaron’s mouth drew into a grim line as he saw the patch around her neck that was already starting to redden and bruise.
Taking his temper and anger at himself firmly in hand, he latched her reins to one of the multiple hidden toggles in the floor of her stall, right where she was, bringing her head down so far that she had to lay her cheek against the sweet-smelling hay on the floor. One of her legs kicked out aggressively towards him as he moved behind her, and Aaron had to smile to himself. She recovered quickly, his Mandy did. The hobbles were back on but loose enough right now until she found her ankles pulled apart till she felt like a wishbone, then they were attached to bolts into the floor to hold them in place. Her feet were kept so close to the ground that she wouldn’t even be able to drum them when she would want to… later. Her arms were next, which he immobilized with depressing ease, as far as Mandy was concerned. Despite her minor neck problem, she was raring to go and dying to get out of this place. She had nothing to lose in trying to escape. But Aaron simply stood over her with a huge booted foot planted on either side of her waist and looped a thickly padded cuff around her right wrist; knowing she was right handed, he neutralized that one first. Her left hand reached back as he was working on the other one and grabbed a hold of his calf, just above where his boot top, and tried to pinch him, but there wasn’t an inch – there wasn’t a millimeter in his whole body – to pinch.
Frustrated and crying again, as usual, Mandy twisted and writhed and bucked and charged as much as she could until he fastened her left hand and she was rendered pretty much powerless, not that it stopped her from trying to get away. Aaron did what he would always do when a ponygirl rebelled against his authority. He went to the cupboard that was present in each stall in his stables and extracted an implement with which to deal severely with the miscreant.
This time, he chose a shortish, junior cane.
Before Mandy came anywhere near exhausting herself trying to loosen bonds that would never be loosened except at the behest of one of the men who now controlled her, Aaron stepped behind her, saying in a quiet, steady voice, “Attempts to escape will be punished rigorously and without exception.”
The cane rose and fell on her tautly displayed, upturned bottom thirty times without stopping – a fresh stinging welt was added across her hindquarters approximately every three to four seconds in a horridly relentless rhythm. Aaron landed thwack after snap right over the dull bruises from yesterday when he’d given her another demonstration of why she needed to obey her handlers and submit to them. He would never fail to deliver any reminder she might need for the rest of her life, whether it was the first day she was there or the last.
Amanda thought she was going to go crazy from the pain, and the strokes just kept on coming, splitting her skin wide open each one, she was quite sure, but he jut kept whistling that awful thing through the air at her defenseless rear and her muted screaming sobs made no difference to him at all… eight… nine… ten… fifteen… sixteen… twenty-one… twenty five… twenty-seven… he did finally stop at thirty, when she was already senseless from the torture.
Aaron came to crouch down by her head and speak to her, reaching out to lay his hand on her wet cheek, his heart breaking in his own chest from what he had to do to her. “Remember, Mandy, yesterday, when I said we’d have to be extra hard on you? That’s because you’re so smart and so responsive. You should have known better than to try to get out of this stall – not that you ever could have. Do you know how many people would have descended on you immediately? The stables would have been in lockdown well before you found your way to a door. Even if you did happen to get out of the stables, the whole site would have been locked up tighter than a drum – and there are hundreds and hundreds of people who would have dropped everything they were doing to find you. It’s not worth it. Why attempt something that’s going to fail each and every single time, only to end up with you getting your buns blistered like this?