Restless Spirit

by Susan Brocker

  As Kahu’s soothing voice filled the tent, Lara slowly drifted off to sleep. In her dreams, she was the beautiful Mt Pihanga, blowing clouds of love across the dizzying peaks of Mt Tongariro.

  8

  The bachelor stallions

  The white stallion settled in quickly with the band of Kaimanawa horses after they found him lying injured beside the pool. There were three mares and their fillies and colts in the band. Two bachelor stallions trailed on the outside of the group as well. Occasionally fights broke out between the two as they fought for leadership of the band. The wise old grey mare who headed the group ignored these scuffles, and the rest of the band tagged along behind her.

  To begin with, the white stallion was still weak from his gunshot wound and merely followed too. As he grew stronger, he started to test his strength. One day, one of the bachelor stallions, a big-boned bay, made a play for leadership. He dashed into the middle of the band as they grazed and took a bite out of the old grey mare’s rump. She swung round angrily to confront the upstart, her ears laid back flat against her head. The white stallion raced to her defence.

  The mares and youngsters scattered as the two stallions faced off. They reared and clashed in a fury, front legs locked and necks twisting as they bit savagely at each other. The bay’s big yellow teeth crunched on the white stallion’s neck. Bright red blood splattered across his pure white coat. The white stallion shook his head, wrenching clear of the bay’s grip. He wheeled around and kicked out with his powerful back legs. His hooves slammed against the bay’s flanks and he thudded to the dirt. The earth shook and dust flew into the air.

  The white stallion loomed over the bay as if he was about to bring his front hooves down on the horse’s head, stomping the life out of him. Instead, he turned victoriously to the band and nickered to the old grey mare. She gathered up the group and they moved off with the white stallion at their head. The bachelor stallions remained respectfully behind.

  The white stallion soon proved himself a natural leader. He led his band to the best grazing areas in safe, sheltered valleys dissected by meandering mountain streams. From his vantage point high on the hills, he would watch for approaching danger as his band grazed peacefully below. He seemed to know instinctively when it was time to move on.

  On the night of the earthquake that so frightened Lara, the white stallion and his band were sheltering in a valley not far from Lara and Kahu’s camp. When the ground began to shake and rumble, the mares and foals squealed nervously and tried to scatter. Their first instinct was to race away as fast as possible from the terrible creature rising out of the ground. The shaking and rumbling scared the white stallion too, but he sensed it was safest to remain in a group rather than stampede aimlessly across the bucking ground. He circled the band, settling them down and keeping them together.

  When dawn rose, soft and pink, the band grazed safely and quietly in the valley. Now it was the white stallion’s turn to be nervous. He sensed real danger in the wind. Men were approaching on horseback, and fast. By now, the stallion was used to the comings and goings of men. These men, however, were different. He smelt fear in the leading horse. And he smelt her rider. He remembered that smell. It was the big man who had captured and branded Koura, the same man who had shot him when Koura and the colt were taken from him. The stallion neighed shrilly, and with head high and tail flying, he left his lookout and raced down to the band. They didn’t need a second warning. They turned and galloped into the wind, leaving the men far behind.

  9

  An unwelcome meeting

  Kahu woke Lara up with a cup of strong black coffee. ‘Rise and shine, lazy bones, we’ve got wild horses to track,’ he teased. They had the horses saddled up and ready just as dawn was breaking. They headed out across the rolling plains and for the first time Lara saw a wild beauty in the restless landscape. The dawn had flushed the mountains rosy pink, and the tussock grasses shimmered in a carpet of red, gold and silver.

  They rode together in companionable silence along the endless ridges and gullies. Kahu showed her the horse tracks that cut through the tussock and ran down the hillsides. He pointed out fresh tracks where sharp hooves had flung up the scoria. As rays of sunlight touched a ridge to their right, Kahu pulled Koura to a stop. Lara followed his gaze and saw her first wild horse, a shaggy chestnut with a fine head and alert ears. He had seen them, too. He whinnied out and cantered into the valley to check on his band.

  Lara and Kahu rode up quietly towards the band as they grazed peacefully in the early morning light. The stallion kept a wary eye on them. As long as they remained at the far end of the valley he seemed to accept their presence. Lara watched three young foals cavort and dance in the tussock while their mothers chomped on the tough grass.

  Suddenly the yells of men and the mad clatter of shod hooves shattered the peaceful family scene. Six riders approached them at speed, their mounts sweating and stressed as they careered across the broken ground. The band of wild horses turned and ran, galloping up and over the ridge until they were out of sight. The men hauled their panting horses to a stop alongside Lara and Kahu.

  ‘Was the white stallion leading that band?’ demanded a big man riding a coal-black horse.

  Kahu just shrugged the way Lara had seen him do many times before when he didn’t want to talk. He knew this man, and Lara sensed immediately that he didn’t like him. She also noticed that Koura was fidgeting and nervous, chewing on her bit and sidestepping away from the man on his black horse. Kahu spoke soothingly to her, ignoring the man.

  ‘I was talking to you, Kahu mate,’ the man said sarcastically. Then he noticed Koura. He stared at the nasty brand that still marred her golden coat. ‘Hey, that’s my mare! I caught her and her colt over a year ago. There’s my brand on her shoulder,’ he insisted.

  ‘Yeah, and since then you sold them on after ruining them. I got them from a lady who couldn’t get near the colt, you’d frightened him so much,’ Kahu said angrily.

  ‘I’ll have words with your father about horse rustling, mate,’ the man said.

  ‘I’m not your mate,’ Kahu snarled. ‘And Dad will be more interested in those rifles you’re carrying. You can’t hunt on army land.’

  ‘I don’t see any tanks and guns stopping us. Those horses are bloody pests anyway.’

  With that, the men reeled around and whipped their horses into a gallop after the escaping band. Lara turned to Kahu, stunned. ‘Who’s that guy?’ she asked.

  ‘A local hunter who gets his kicks shooting horses. They call him Tusker, as in pig. The name suits him,’ he said disparagingly. ‘Come on, let’s head back. I don’t want to run into those creeps again.’

  The meeting put a dampener on the rest of their ride. Kahu fell into a brooding silence. Lara was unable to get a word out of him. Something was obviously worrying him after seeing those men. Lara wanted to talk to him about it, but Kahu had clammed up. She felt confused as they rode back to the float in total silence.

  Kahu’s father was there waiting for them at the arranged time. Kahu didn’t mention anything to him about the men, so Lara thought it best to say nothing as well.

  ‘Did you see any of the wild bands?’ he asked.

  ‘Only the one,’ Kahu said noncommittally. ‘Down in the Argo zone.’

  ‘They’ve got a shock coming in a couple of months,’ he said.

  Kahu didn’t reply. Lara asked his father what he meant.

  ‘The annual DOC muster’s coming up. They round up about a hundred to two hundred horses each year—mares, foals and stallions. Some get sold but most end up as pet food.’

  Lara’s heart sank. She thought of the three foals she had seen playing in the tussock. Kahu must have known the muster was coming up yet he had said nothing to her about it. She looked at him accusingly. He turned away.

  10

  Falling out

  Everything went from bad to worse for Lara after the ride out to see the horses. First, there was her mum’s new boyfrien
d. Her mother sprung him on her out of the blue. He just turned up one night for dinner. Lara wondered about all the fussing and preparations her mother was going to. Even the candlesticks came out, and when she laid a third placemat at the table Lara raised her eyebrows.

  ‘Who’s coming for dinner, Mum?’

  ‘Oh, I’ve met a nice man through work. I think you’ll like him. He knows a lot about horses,’ she said eagerly.

  ‘Whoopty doo,’ Lara replied.

  ‘Come on, Lara,’ her mother said angrily. ‘I’m polite to your friends. Can’t you show me the same courtesy?’

  Lara ignored her and walked out of the room. When Barry arrived, she purposely stayed in her bedroom until her mother called her for dinner. She wasn’t going to make a fuss of this guy. Unlike her mother. She was acting like a silly schoolgirl.

  Barry attempted to make polite conversation at the dinner table. He told Lara about the 30,000-hectare station he owned near the Kaimanawa Ranges. She had to admit to a flicker of interest when he said he also had Kaimanawa wild horses running free on his land.

  ‘They’re beautiful animals,’ he said. ‘I don’t agree with DOC’s policy, and I can do what I want on my own land. The bands are free to roam. It’s wild backcountry and it’s not fenced.’

  Lara didn’t add anything to the conversation because she didn’t want to encourage him. Her mother was hanging on his every word and gazing at him earnestly. She’d never looked at her father like that.

  As if a new man in her mother’s life wasn’t enough, she and Kahu had fallen out. She’d discovered he not only knew about the DOC muster, he was actually taking part in it. She was furious. She found out when she went over to Kahu’s one afternoon to ride Koura. Kahu had already saddled her and was getting ready to ride out.

  ‘How come you’re riding Koura and not working Hiriwa?’ she asked.

  ‘She needs to get fit for the big muster in a couple of months,’ Kahu said casually. ‘The horses have to cover a fair distance in the roundup.’

  ‘You mean you’re going on it?’ Lara was stunned after everything he had said about the wild horses and their right to be on the land. ‘But half of those horses end up at the meatworks!’

  ‘The muster will go ahead whether we like it or not, and it’s better that I’m there to keep an eye on jerks like Tusker. I don’t want him getting his hands on any more horses.’

  ‘How can you take part in anything he’s involved in?’ Lara demanded.

  Kahu gave one of his irritating shrugs and hopped on Koura. ‘You can saddle Robbie up if you want to ride out with me,’ he called over his shoulder as if she hadn’t said a thing. Lara stormed off home, not wanting to return to her empty house but also not wanting to be involved in anything remotely to do with the muster.

  The next day at school, Kahu acted as if nothing had happened and chatted away to her as usual. She turned her back on him and walked off. Part of her knew she was being stupid. He was her only friend at school, and she liked him—a lot. She also loved the horses and hated to think of them being herded up and turned into pet food. She felt Kahu had betrayed his own beliefs, and that annoyed her more than anything.

  As if that wasn’t enough, their maths teacher, Ms Edbrooke, chose that day to wax lyrical about how wonderfully Lara had done in the recent maths exam. She had topped the class. ‘It should be an inspiration to you all,’ Ms Edbrooke droned on to the whole class. ‘Lara has struggled with her maths, but she’s put in the hard work and it has paid off. Unlike the rest of you.’

  The class groaned. ‘Oh, man,’ Tane said loudly to Lara from across the room, ‘Why don’t you get a life!’

  ‘Leave it out, Tane,’ Kahu growled back.

  The class fell silent. Lara hung her head, avoiding Kahu’s eyes. She remembered what he had said about her being a goody-goody. The class obviously thought the same. At least he had stuck up for her.

  After school, Lara walked home dejectedly. She had a bag full of homework when all she really wanted to do was go to Kahu’s and ride the horses. Yet she couldn’t back down. As she mused, she heard Kahu’s voice behind her. ‘What planet are you on?’ They were the same words he had said the first day he spoke to her. She kept on walking.

  ‘Don’t be so pigheaded, Lara,’ he said. ‘I know you don’t agree with the muster, but it’s going ahead anyway. Come with me, we can help some of the horses at least. Please.’ It was the first time he had asked for Lara’s help with anything, and the first time she had heard him say please to anyone. Still, she kept on walking without saying a word.

  That night, Lara was unable to sleep. His words galloped through her mind like a herd of stampeding horses. Ever since she had met him, he had always been kind and tried to help her fit in. Perhaps she was being stubborn and unfair. Underneath she knew he only wanted the best for the horses.

  Things came to a head in their art class a few days later. Mr Talbot had marked Lara’s project on Charles Goldie. ‘Congratulations, Lara,’ he said in front of the class as he handed it to her. Her classmates groaned loudly again. ‘Your essay showed great insight. I’m extremely impressed with your illustrations of ta moko. You have a hidden talent,’ he said, looking quizzically at her. ‘I’ve given you an A+ for outstanding achievement.’

  Lara glanced guiltily at Kahu. He was staring straight ahead. She took a deep breath. She wasn’t sure how everyone would receive her next comments, yet she knew she had no choice except to say them.

  ‘Thank you, Mr Talbot, but it’s not all my work,’ she began shakily. ‘Kahu helped me with the assignment. He drew the illustrations and wrote most of the biography.’

  She waited for the eruption. Instead, Mr Talbot said, ‘Thank you for your honesty. Somehow I didn’t think this was all your own work.’ He turned to Kahu, who was still staring into space. ‘Kahu, you have an incredible talent. I’d like to talk to you about developing it further. If you’re interested, of course.’

  The class went ‘Ooohhh,’ and Aroha joked, ‘Who’s the teacher’s pet now?’ Joe called out, ‘Way to go, Kahu!’ At the end of the lesson, they crowded around to look at his illustrations.

  ‘They’re awesome, man,’ Tane said. Kahu brushed aside the comments but Lara knew he was secretly stoked with their reaction.

  When class ended, Lara shyly asked Kahu if she could walk home with him. ‘Can I ride Robbie this afternoon?’ she said as they strolled along together. ‘He will need to get fit if I’m going to take him out on the muster.’ Kahu looked across at her and grinned his cheeky grin.

  11

  Mustering madness

  As the day of the muster loomed, Lara and Kahu worked the horses hard to get them fit for the big ride. Kahu explained to her that DOC organised the muster to keep horse numbers down to around 500. In April each year they took a headcount by helicopter. Once they knew how many surplus horses there were, they planned the muster for mid-June. They used helicopters to muster some of the more remote bands and riders rounded up the others. Entire bands were captured at random and drafted rather than trying to separate out horses as it stressed them too much. The younger horses were then sold and the old and unfit destroyed.

  Lara didn’t like to think about the fate of the three wild foals she had seen scampering free and happy in the tussock. At least they might find homes if they were caught, she hoped. But she imagined the terror they’d go through being rounded up by helicopter. She spoke to Kahu about this one day while they were out riding. ‘So long as they’re sold to caring homes they overcome the trauma and make great companions, just like Koura,’ he tried to reassure her. He didn’t mention the fate of the horses that didn’t find good homes.

  To get both themselves and the horses fit for the ride, Lara and Kahu trekked on Robbie and Koura over the hills surrounding Waiouru. They rode out for up to three hours every day, often not getting back until dusk. Kahu’s mother always had a bowl of hot soup ready for them when they stumbled in the door cold and sore. Sometimes it was
late into the evening before Lara pulled herself away from the warm fire and rode home on her bike through the dark night, bike lights blazing.

  ‘You don’t spend much time at home these days,’ her mother said to her one evening when Lara arrived home late again.

  ‘So? You’re always at work or with Barry anyway,’ Lara sneered.

  ‘That’s an exaggeration! I had a roast dinner on the table tonight and you didn’t even have the decency to tell me you wouldn’t be joining us.’

  ‘I’m sick of eating with Barry. It’s always Barry this, Barry that. You’re boring old farts.’

  ‘Lara! You don’t speak about other people like that. We deserve some respect.’

  ‘Do you?’ Lara snapped. Her mother fell silent and she felt a pang of guilt. That remark had obviously hurt. So what? She dragged me down to this dump, Lara thought. Yes, and you’d never have met Kahu or learnt to ride if you hadn’t come. It’s not all bad, the other, more reasonable, voice inside her head said.

  Even school wasn’t that bad lately. The kids had stopped ribbing her since she had fronted up to Mr Talbot. Her grades had started to improve and she was more focused. As soon as she got home from riding, she’d settle to her homework. It was as if the horses had given some structure and meaning to her life. And Kahu, too, was acting differently towards her. He seemed more open with her. One evening, he asked her to his room to show her a carving he was working on. It was the figure of a horse which stood about half a metre tall. He was rearing and pawing the air defiantly. His face was finely chiselled and dished, his eyes wide and intelligent.

  ‘He’s amazing,’ she told Kahu.

  ‘I’m not sure. It looks lifeless to me.’

  ‘No way, he looks wild and proud. But why don’t you ask Mr Talbot’s opinion?’ she suggested. ‘He sounded really interested in your work.’ To her surprise, he didn’t dismiss her suggestion out of hand. Instead, he said he’d think about it.