orse Named Toby

ome time ago Baron Von Lodge was the head of a small country near Switzerland known as Lilliland.

Lady Angela of Alpine Castle had a relative visiting. She was a young cousin, Pam, from Scotland. She was very beautiful, but very shy. She preferred to spend most of the time in her room at the castle. Sometimes she would just play with Lady Angela’s cat, Mr. Whiskers. If it weren’t for Mr. Whiskers, Pam would probably sit all alone in her room, just looking out the window.

Finally, in an attempt to get Pam out and around a bit, Lady Angela decided to take her for a walk out to the stables to help feed the horses.

While in the stables, Lady Angela noticed that Pam seemed interested in a very shy horse named Toby. Toby was a strange horse because when a rider would mount her for a ride around the castle grounds, Toby would just take a few steps and stop. It was as if Toby was telling the rider that the ride was over and she wanted to go back into her stall in the stable.

After the brief visit to the stable, Pam asked if she might go back again and take Toby a carrot or apple. When Pam returned to the stable the following day, Toby remembered her and they decided to walk around the castle grounds for a while. Pam did not ride Toby. It was just to walk around the grounds together.

But, it was evident that they seemed to be less shy when they were together. After a few visits, Lady Angela suggested that Pam ride Toby around a bit, to begin with, to see if she liked horseback riding.

Very soon Toby and Pam became fast friends. From simply going around the stable area, to going around the castle grounds, to going on the bridal trail, all followed in close succession.

Pam would talk to Toby and the horse seemed to understand her words and phrases. Pam began to tell Toby her problems of being shy and not wanting to be shy. Because she was so shy, Pam always felt she missed out on many social activities. Pam really did not want to known as a shy person, but as someone with a nice personality.

After a few weeks, Lady Angela mentioned to the Baron that Pam began to blossom into a more sociable and friendly person. Lady Angela felt that part of the success was due to Toby, the very understanding horse.