Title	Forgotten Favor
Author	Angela Fiddler
ISBN#	978-1-60820-059-7 (ebook)
Release Date	June 2009
Cover Artist	Deana C. Jamroz
Available At:	MlrBooks (ebook)

Angela Fiddler’s retired rodeo men accept each other and the black riders.

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Part One

When Mark closed his eyes, he felt the fall. It hadn’t been Butter’s fault. Mark should have seen the change in the ground, but the early morning gallop had felt so good. They had been on the road for almost a month, placing well in the money in several of the small town rodeos. After all that time living in the front sleeping quarters of his horse trailer and riding about in finite spaces, he was home on the ranch where the earth seemed to stretch on forever and there didn’t seem to be an end to the sky. He’d felt free.

He remembered looking down. Just as he was about to pull back on the reins, he felt Butter trip. For a second, he thought that she would recover. Then she stumbled again, and for another heartbeat they both were weightless. He grabbed the reins, his feet kicking free of the stirrups as though on autopilot, and he knew, even as he saw the ground hurtling up towards him, that this was going to hurt. And his next thought was a prayer that Butter would not be.

He hit the ground hard. That was a given. He remembered the sickening crunch from the shoulder but he had no memory at all of Butter coming down on his leg. He supposed that was a blessing, though in his dreams he still imagined the snap. (continue reading…)