On the property of Jonathan Miller, his wife, and two daughters there lived a horse herd in the big green meadow behind their house. One morning while eating breakfast at the hay ring the horses discussed what they wanted to do for the day. With his mouth full of hay, Hidalgo, a brown and white paint horse who liked to be silly but was very kind suggested, “How about swimming?”

    “Nah,” said Ollie, a brown and white mischievous pony.

    “Well, then, let’s do something we all agree on,” said Dillon a wise, dark brown Arabian horse.

    “Ok,” said the big red thoroughbred named Oz who was kind and who always looked out for his friends.

    Ollie spoke up, “What about tag?”

Tennis?

Reading?

Swimming!

Tag!

    All the older horses groaned, but they agreed on tag. Dillon spoke, “Before we play tag let us have an hour and a half to ourselves.”

    “Alright,” said Hidalgo, giving Ollie a quick mischievous sideways glance.

    While the others were getting ready for the day, Hidalgo went to his stall to get a water balloon.

    Ollie came out first and went to the field so he could run around and get in shape for the game of tag. As Ollie stopped to get a quick drink of water, Hidalgo crept up behind him and threw the water balloon over Ollie’s head. It hit Ollie in the face, right between his eyes. For a moment, Ollie was blinded by the water.

Arrghh!

    As soon as Hidalgo had done this, he ran as fast as he could, back to his stall to hide. Ollie would look for him, but he wouldn't think of looking in Hidalgo’s stall. He could hear Ollie snorting in disgust and anger. When Ollie found him, he was far from mad. He tried to keep a straight face, but he couldn't. He tried to yell at Hidalgo, but even before he said a word he was convulsed by a fit of giggles. 

    “Wow, you really got me there, Hidalgo. But don't think that you're going to get away with it! I'll get you back,” Ollie said, gasping for breath. He staggered off still laughing that Hidalgo had pulled a prank on him and had almost gotten away with it.

Ha ha ha!

Got you!

    As Hidalgo watched Ollie stagger off, he smiled to himself and thought, That was a great prank. I can't believe that I almost got him. But his happiness sizzled away as he remembered Ollie said he would get him back. “I must watch my step,” he said aloud, not knowing that Oz was coming up from behind.

    “Be careful about what, dude?”, boomed Oz’s voice.

    Hidalgo jumped and whirled around. “Oh hello, Oz. You scared me! I was saying I must be careful because I played a prank on Ollie and he says he is going to get me back,” chuckled Hidalgo.

    Oz raised an eyebrow and turned away muttering, “Okay, then ...”

He got me!

Oh hello, Oz!

What are you talking about?

    After a long game of tag, the horses separated once again, then spent another hour and a half alone before it was lunch time.

    During the whole game of tag, and even now while he was grazing, Ollie had been thinking about how he would get Hidalgo back for pranking him. A sudden idea flashed through Ollie's mind. I've got some baking flour left from when I made Dillon’s birthday cake. I’ll dump the rest on Hidalgo, he thought.

You're it!

No!!!

Try to get me!

Too slow!

    After lunch the horses decided to take a nap in the sun. While everyone was napping, Ollie crept up to Hidalgo quietly and dumped the rest of the flour onto Hidalgo. Ollie hadn't thought that he had as much flour as he did, but since he had gotten wet this morning from the water balloon, he decided that he would just go ahead and throw all of it on Hidalgo. Quietly he went away to take his nap. He couldn't wait to hear Hidalgo yell.

    After awhile, Hidalgo woke up and decided that he needed to stretch his legs. As he was stretching, he saw Ollie creeping away from him. Hidalgo rushed to his stall, looked at himself in the mirror that was hung there, and yelled, “Ollie!”

I can't wait to hear his yell!

Zzzzzzz

    After cleaning himself up, Hidalgo came to the hay ring for dinner. Ollie was trying hard not to giggle at Hidalgo who was shooting him looks of anger. Later that night Ollie excused himself to go eat some grass. Meanwhile, Hidalgo had thought how to get Ollie back. As he crept up to place a huge, hairy fake spider on Ollie’s back, he fell into a hole.

Don't laugh.

How do I get him back?

What is going on between these two?

    “Owwww!” he yelled. “I’ve twisted my ankle and I can’t giddy up.” Ollie turned sharply. When he saw Hidalgo, he  ran as fast as he could back to the barn where Oz and Dillon were talking. Gasping for breath he told them that Hidalgo had fallen and needed help. They looked concerned as they quickly followed Ollie back to Hidalgo, who was crying bitterly.

    Seeing them, Hidalgo exclaimed, “Oh, thank you for coming!”

    Sizing the matter up, Dillon asked Oz to help Hidalgo stand up and get back to the barn.

I can't giddy up!

We're coming!