Following after her, almost at a jog despite being taller and thinner, came a nervous looking girl who looked to be in her early 20s, with the exact same shade of brown hair as the other woman, and big brown doe eyes. Despite the size difference, there was absolutely no doubt. This was mother and daughter. And I’d seen the mother in countless articles in both newspapers and magazines before. This was Caroline Gibson.
She moved quickly for her size, and after a moment she stood directly in front of the two of us.
“Well?” the woman snapped. Susan rushed forward apologetically.
“My apologies, ma’am,” she replied. “Mrs. Gibson, please allow me to introduce Doctor Angela Wright, the local vet whom we have employed to look after Touch of Frost.”
I held out my hand, but instead of taking it, Caroline looked me up and down, just as her daughter caught up to us, out of breath.
“Goodness, Ellie,” Caroline chided. “You’d think you just ran a marathon. There are quadriplegics in better shape than you.”
“Sorry, mother,” the young lady panted meekly as I tried to hide my surprise at the comment. I knew Caroline Gibson had a reputation for being tough, but that comment was something else!
“I suppose you’ll do,” Caroline continued, turning back to me. “I’m told you know what you’re doing. That had better be true.”
“I am an excellent veterinarian,” I replied, trying to sound as confident as possible. Caroline Gibson snorted.
“Sure you are. No one under thirty is an excellent veterinarian. But I don’t think there’s anything seriously wrong with Touch of Frost, so even you should be able to do an adequate job.”
My face flushed with anger at the sheer rudeness of this woman. I forced myself to think of the mid-four figure fee I was getting for this callout though, and forced a smile on my face.
“I’m sure I will be able to help Touch of Frost.”
“Good. Go with her, Ellie. I want you to pay attention to what the woman does.” Caroline turned to me once more.
“Ellie’s a little bit slow when it comes to dealing with animals. She doesn’t have the natural instincts of a Gibson, so I’m working on training her into it. After all, I don’t want to leave everything to a total moron who’s going to run this farm into the ground.”
“Mom!” Ellie protested faintly.
“What?” her mother snarled, turning back to her daughter.
“Nothing,” the poor girl replied, looking like she wanted to sink into the ground at the sight of her mother. I was absolutely mortified. Poor Ellie! Caroline Gibson’s estimation in my mind dropped to rock bottom. The woman was a bully at best, an abuser at worst. I’d only known the woman for a couple of minutes, and I already hated her.
“Susan, when the vet is finished, tell Cory to come and find me, I want a report before she leaves.”
“Yes ma’am,” Susan replied instantly, and without a single word more, Caroline Gibson turned on her heel and headed back towards the house.
“Are you ok? I’m so sorry your mom said those things,” I told Ellie as soon as Caroline Gibson was out of hearing range. Ellie gave me a small smile in return.
“Oh it’s alright. She doesn’t really mean those things. She just thinks I need to be a little bit tougher.”
“Still, she could be a bit nicer about it,” I muttered.
“That’s just how mom is. I know deep down she really loves me,” the girl replied, and before I could say anything else, Susan coughed lightly.
“Follow me and we’ll continue,” she said, and the three of us made our way to the Gibson Stables.
Five minutes later I was standing in front of the biggest stable I had ever seen. It was nicer than most houses. Made of obviously good quality, thick wood, it had to be at least two thousand square feet. Just outside the stable was a big training paddock, where a mare and her foal were being casually watched by a man who seemed to be about my age, with rugged good looks and an easy smile. Wearing jeans and a flannel shirt, if you’d put a cowboy hat on him and given him a lasso he could have been the star of any western film, easily. His blue eyes stood out against his dark hair and stubble, and they flashed with an easy amusement that only those who were happy with life could pull off.
He had been sitting on the fence of the paddock, watching the two horses, when we arrived. As soon as he saw us the man turned and easily jumped down onto the ground.
“Ah, you must be Dr. Wright,” he said, shaking my hand happily.
“Please, call me Angela.”
“Hey Ellie,” he told her with a nod, and a blush crept up her face as she replied with a quick “hey,” in reply. Goodness. That poor girl was so under her mother’s thumb that she was nineteen and couldn’t even talk to guys.
“Alright Susan, thanks for bringing the ladies to me, I’ll take it from here. I’ll let you know when you come and grab Dr. Wright here later.”
With an crisp, efficient nod, Susan gave me a quick smile and turned and headed back the same way she came.
“I’m Corey, the head of the stables,” the man told me as he motioned for us to follow him towards the stable. When we reached the door he entered a passcode that I couldn’t see, then pressed his four fingers against a pad that scanned the print before unlocking the door. Susan was not joking about security here being tight. “Thanks for coming to have a look at Touch of Frost. For a day or so he’s been fairly lethargic, and he hasn’t been eating,” Corey told me as we entered the stables. “I immediately thought ticks, but I checked his mane and tail thoroughly, and didn’t find anything. I checked over the rest of him as well, just in case, but didn’t manage to find anything.”
Corey stopped in front of a stall holding a horse I’d seen in magazines and newspapers a dozen times, at least. Touch of Frost was just over sixteen hands, a perfect specimen of thoroughbred. Every single inch of him was a perfect chestnut brown; I’d never seen a horse with such a shiny coat. His brown eyes stared at me, sadly.
“Hi, Touch of Frost,” I said softly, holding out a hand. Normally I liked to bribe horses to like me with a piece of apple, but Corey had just said he wasn’t eating.
“Hi,” he replied heavily. This was a horse who wasn’t in a good way. He sighed heavily.
“I think he likes you,” Ellie said, smiling. “I’m going to head off, now that my mom’s gone. I have some things to do, despite her thinking my time is worthless.”
“Sure, of course,” I said, my heart sinking for the poor girl.
“It was nice to meet you, Angela,” she told me.
“You too,” I replied. With a shy smile at Corey, Ellie turned around and headed back out into the afternoon sun.
“I’m just going to come in here and have a look at you, alright?” I asked Touch of Frost cheerily as Corey opened the stall door for me. Touch of Frost didn’t even have the energy to reply.
I put my bag down on the floor of the stable and began to look him over.
“Has there been any change to his diet, or to his stools?” I asked Corey, who shook his head.
“No, everything’s been normal,” Corey replied, looking over at me anxiously. “Thanks for coming, I’m really worried about the poor guy. Our normal vets are both out with Touch of Class, his little brother who’s racing out east.”
“And has Touch of Frost travelled anywhere in the last week?”
Corey nodded. “He was in Phoenix for a sponsor event for about three days, we got back on Tuesday.”
So Touch of Frost had only been back for two days. The more Corey told me, the more the tick idea made sense. Suddenly, I remembered something I’d learned back in vet school about ticks in the southwest.
Moving over to Touch of Frost’s ears, I told him I was just going to have a look.
His left ear twitched once as I had a look, inspecting closely. Unfortunately, I didn’t see anything.
When I moved to his right ear, however, I moved back a little tuft of hair and smiled.