Just as the colt thought he was never going to see the woman again, one morning there she was. She and the man showed up about the same time of day the man usually came around to put the hay in the pen. This time, however, the man didn’t give him the hay, but rather the woman came in the pen by herself with a halter and lead rope hanging in the crook of her arm. Then she did something she never did before. She slowly, but very deliberately started walking toward him. Her intention was clear: she was trying to get up next to him. The colt, not sure what to think of her behavior, and with no picture in his mind to guide him like the last time she tried to get up close to him, he did the only thing he thought prudent at the time. He ran. As quickly as he could he went to the fence and began making lap after lap around the inside of the round pen, a fine dust rising from under his feet with each step he took. He realized almost immediately that the woman wasn’t leaving him alone, which is what he had hoped for. Instead she was slowly walking a small circle near the middle of the pen, always staying parallel to his hip, as he ran a big circle near the fence. In an attempt to try and escape the pressure he was feeling, he turned his gaze to the outside of the pen, so as not to have to look at the woman who was following his every step.

He had just started to feel better about being able to “escape,” at least mentally, when, just as he flew past the gate on his tenth lap, the woman with the halter and lead rope in the crook of her arm suddenly appeared directly in front of him. In one rapid, fluid movement, the colt scrambled to a stop, crouched his hindquarters down over his hocks, lifted his front end around toward the fence and through a cloud of red dust, pushed off hard in the opposite direction. “Catty,” the man said from outside the pen.

Before the colt could make one full lap around the pen, the woman had already made her way back to the middle and was once again calmly walking a small circle parallel to his hip. For another five full-speed laps, he watched the woman intently as she quietly stayed with him, never getting any closer, but also no farther away. The consistent pressure he was feeling from the woman’s mere presence in the pen finally started to get to him, and soon he again felt the need to mentally escape. He turned his head to the outside of the pen and two laps later, his head still tipped to the outside, the woman suddenly appeared in front of him. Again, the colt wheeled and bolted in the opposite direction.

The colt, now operating on pure adrenaline, continued his frantic stampede around the inside of the round pen for another twenty-eight laps, nine of which had been reversed by the woman when she stepped in front of him, and two of which he reversed on his own when he mistakenly thought she was going to. The months of inactivity from standing dormant in pens had taken its toll on the colt’s once limitless strength and stamina. His frantic and mindless running ultimately pushed his lungs to their limit. No longer able to bring in enough air to oxygenate his muscles, the colt’s legs became weak and unable to carry him any further and after nearly twenty minutes of non-stop running, the gray colt finally ground himself to a halt.