EXTRACT FOR
Pony Training
(Miranda Birch)

"Halt!" came Miss Della's command, in that harsh tone she always used with slaves. 



The figures stopped and stood rigid. Since they were all obviously fit, their trotting hadn't taken much out of any of them. There was no sweat; chests rose and fell evenly. However, they all now looked fully awake and ready for action. And the trotting had warmed them up a bit, I dare say. 



"Feeding time!" announced Miss Della. 



At once, four slaves detached themselves from the end of the line. They disappeared into the stables. Soon they re-emerged, each carrying two buckets. The stuff in these looked much like the bran mash you give horses. Perhaps it was. An unappetising-looking mess, at any rate. It was sloshed into four troughs set in a line. 



"Snouts in!" ordered Miss Della. 



Now four slaves went to each trough and knelt, two on each side. They bent their heads and began to eat. The sight and the sounds where pretty disgusting. Still, when one is dealing with ponies, one has to put up with that sort of thing, I suppose. Faces smeared with mash would emerge, nostrils filled, eyes gooey, before plunging back again. All of them seemed to eat voraciously. Perhaps the fact that Miss Della was strolling around behind them swishing her switch had something to do with that! 



"Doesn't look very appetising," Miss Della conceded to me, noticing my wrinkled nose, "but it's got all the nourishment they need." 



"Is that all they get?" I asked. 



"Sure," Miss Della affirmed with a shrug. "This is breakfast, to set them up for the day. And they will get another feed this evening," she said. I wondered if they looked forward to that? 



Just then, the switch whistled and came down hard with a resounding thwack across a pair of muscular buttocks. 



"You're not taking your share!" yelled Miss Della. 



There was a howl. A head came up and mash sprayed from the un-hungry pony's mouth, but quickly he thrust his face down again and began to eat with a zeal that more pig-like than pony-like! Really, it made me feel quite ill and I moved away a little. 



"Have to make sure none of them get too much, and none too little," said Miss Della by way of explanation. 



I nodded understandingly.