Enjoy our skit this week. And thank you so much to 6th Graders Lennon, Addison, and Aubrey.

Besides the familiar discomfort of stress, having to work through feelings of worry, fear, and frustration can feel overwhelming to the point of exhaustion. This often becomes the case when we are not allowing time or space to move into the correct mindset that is relaxed enough to face those challenges. This week's mental wellness video is a fun way to remind ourselves of the healthy activities we can use to reset and begin to reverse those stressors. Warning; It can also work up an appetite!

- Stephanie Wilson

School Counselor

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1itob7SQkQ4sjN-KOOwpgcLqtBOnJ-qsF/view

By Grace - 5t Grade

In a wide, extensive prairie, there stood a band of peaceful, wild horses. They stood grazing, took a step, then grazed again in the new location. All of a sudden, a loud crash echoed from the forest behind them. The horses jerked up their heads in alarm, ears pricked toward the forest, wondering what the strange sound meant.

From the midst of the band, a palomino stallion emerged. A black mare whickered to him from his left, asking “What could that have been?”

“I don’t know,” the stallion answered gravely. He stood pondering for a moment, until he turned his head to the mare and said, “Take the band to the meadow in the valley beyond the hills. I will meet you there after I rid our homeland of this new danger.”

He knew not what this danger might be, but he was determined that he would not let it get anywhere near his band.

“Why are you still here?” he asked his band impatiently. “I was serious, you know.”

So without a look back, the black lead mare shepherded them away toward the mountains. When the band was no more than a dark mass on the horizon, he turned and cantered away toward the woods.

The sky was a deep indigo with cotton candy clouds when the palomino entered the forest between the tall ponderosa pines. As he went deeper into the trees, the darker it became, but he didn’t mind.

Suddenly, a sharp CRACK shattered the silence. He leapt back in terror as a tree came crashing down in front of him.

That did it.

Lunging, leaping, pounding the forest floor in sheer panic, he streaked straight into a clearing full of huge, yellow monsters. Throwing caution to the wind, he attacked. First, he went for a big one with a plate of something shiny attached to the front. Rearing up on his hind legs, he struck the plate with his front hooves, leaving a large dent in it. Then he galloped in the opposite direction, kicking, storming, whirling around like a cyclone, until he had singlehandedly demolished all but one big block of this stone-like material. Mane and golden tail flying and twirling in his slipstream, he threw his full weight against the block, denting this one also. But then he heard something scraping and thudding against the inside of the block, spooked, and darted for the trees.

A man came out of the crumpled block, grumbling about irresponsible drivers.

“Never watch in front of them... phones in front of their faces... one time too many...”

His muttering came to an abrupt halt when he saw the palomino’s golden coat glinting in the dappled sunlight that came through the pines’ canopies. Curious, he walked closer.

Just then, another workman came out of the forest a few yards away from the boss and his quarry. Unlike his boss, his vision was unobscured by the trees, so he could see the palomino clearly. His jaw dropped, and he signaled his boss not to go any closer. He backed away slowly, gesturing for his boss to do the same.

The boss was intrigued by the workman’s behavior, but he followed anyway. Once they were a safe distance away, the workman told the boss what had been hiding in the bushes. Whatever the boss was expecting, it wasn’t that. The workman had seen some rope in his truck earlier that day, and he offered to rope the horse and bring it to a shelter.

“Catch it?” The boss roared angrily. “No, what you should do is call the Bureau and ask if there are any recorded bands in these foothills!”

The startled workman did as he was told, and phoned the B.L.M.

“Hey boss,” he called out.

“Yes?”

“No wild horses they’ve heard of up here.”

“Then tell ‘em there are horses up here.”

“They won’t believe it, Boss.”

“Tell them to get up here and see, then.”

The workman told the Bureau member that they should come and see for themselves.

“Boss, won’t the horse get away before the people arrive?”

The boss considered for a minute, then said, “Not if we don’t scare him away. Stay away from him and we’ll be fine.”

Twenty minutes later the bureau representatives had arrived.

“Where’s this horse?” asked one. “We’ll see if he really is wild.”

“He’s lurkin’ over there in the bushes,” replied the workman.

The second representative went to their truck and got some pieces of fencing it of the bed. The two bureau officials set them up into a rectangular corral, and slunk over to the bushes where the palomino was still standing. One quietly got behind him, while the other waited by the gate of the corral, ready to shut it. The official standing behind the palomino suddenly started yelling and clapping his hands. The palomino was spooked by the sudden noise, and ran forward- straight into the corral. The gate was shut, and three people tried to keep the palomino still, while the remaining person checked his hooves for shoes. When they didn’t find any, they checked for a freeze mark under his mane. After this, they finally believed he was indeed a wild horse. They let him out of the corral, and watched with admiration as he galloped out of sight, glad to be free.

When he got to the valley and met his band he lost no time telling them about his adventure. The humans and their machines never trespassed on the wild horses’ land again, and the B.L.M. now protected their band, so they remain wild to this day, roaming free on the prairies ever guided by the palomino stallion that saved their band.

The End