The Red Pony Part 3 "The Promise"

Summary: After thinking about how well Jody took care of Gabilan, Billy Buck and Jody's father think that it would be a great experiance for Jody to care for a colt right after birth. So Jody takes his horse down to Jess Taylor's house to get bread by his stallion. Jody starts to take more responsibility on the farm and he learns how to cut hay and milks the cows every morning. Then Billy Buck and Jody who is growing impatient go to check on the horse who is bred and Jody complains that there is no change. They then talk about the birth and Jody asks Billy to promise him that nothing will go wrong and this horse won't die like Gabilan did. Billy is hurt by this because he is upset that Jody hasn't forgotten that Billy let him down. Jody then goes worried to sit under the cypress tree and imagines the colt being a hero stallion helping out the cops and winning all the rodeos. Nellie's stomach is growing faster by the day and is due in mid January. Jody is growing anxious and stays up some nights waiting for her to birth the colt. One night Billy comes to get Jody and says he is having spasms. Billy explains that their is a problem and tells Jody to leave. He doesn't and takes a hammer and hits Nellie in the head with it and starts cutting the colt out with his pocket knife. He pulls the colt out and it takes a breath and Billy tells him there is the colt. Billy feels sick inside.

Response: Jody continues to have promblems with his horses. The colt didn't die but they had to work hard to keep it alive. Hopefully the colt grows up to be a good horse and doesn't die like Gabilan does.