by: Marty Chrisman

After breakfast the next morning, Shelby and Luke set off for the mountain. First, Luke drove Jesse’s truck to the neighboring farm, the Prichards. Charlie Prichard raised some of the finest horses in the area and the boys often helped him out by exercising them and even helped to break them sometimes. He readily agreed to let Luke and Shelby borrow two of his horses for the day. Luke chose a big bay named Sassy and Shelby chose a gray mare named Pepper. Leaving the truck parked at the Prichard farm, Luke and Shelby set off on horseback towards the mountain. They were both excellent riders with a gentle but firm hand.

Luke let Shelby take the lead, knowing that she was more familiar with the mountain and would have a better idea where to look for the black stallion than Luke would.

“Have your folks always lived up here on the mountain?” Luke asked as they rode along. It was a beautiful day so they were taking their time.

“Far back as I can remember.” Shelby told him “The Lynns never much cottoned to having any neighbors around. There’s been Lynns here in Hazzard County for 5 generations.”

“Dukes too.”

“Was your grandmother really a medicine woman?” Luke asked remembering a conversation with her when he was in the hospital.

“Yeah, she was.” Shelby told him “Folks from all over used to come to her for doctoring…..or to have their future read….”

“She read cards?”

“Cards, stones, palms…you name it she could read it. She was pretty good too…I know she used to give me the chills sometimes with some of things she told me…”

“Is there where you learned how to doctor people?” Luke asked remembering how well she had taken care of him when he hurt his ankle

“Yeah…she taught me everything she knew….”

“Including how to read the signs?” Luke asked with a grin, referring to the art of fortune telling

“Yeah…I haven’t done it in a long time and I never was as good at it as she was” Shelby told him “But she taught me how to do it.”

“And your daddy taught you how to moonshine…..”

“My daddy and my granddaddy.” She said with a grin “It’s a family tradition don’t ya know.”

“Yeah, I know. It was Duke Family tradition too until Bo and me got busted.”

“How did the two of you ever get busted? I’ve seen the way you two drive.”

“Some hot shot new agent that didn’t know what he was doing….started shooting at us. Hit one of the tires…and Bo lost control of the car. We went into a ditch and rolled over twice.”

“And the federal government really made a deal with Jesse and agreed to let you two out on probation as long as you quit making shine?”

“Yeah…see the revenuers had been trying to nail Jesse for years….they could never even get close. So when they got me and Bo, they figured they had something they could use against Jesse.” Luke told her “They were going throw the book at us…give us the maximum sentence. We spent a week in the Atlanta jail until Andy Roach stepped in and set up the deal between Jesse and the feds.”

“Andy Roach?”

“The senior Revenue agent for Hazzard County.” Luke explained. “See he felt bad about what had happened and he considered Jesse a friend. He knew they would never have caught me and Bo either if that agent hadn’t started shooting at us.”

“And Jesse just stopped making shine…just like that?”

“Yeah, he gave his word and a Duke never goes back on his word.” Luke grinned, a mischievous gleam in his azure blue eyes “Of course he does still have a few jugs hid around here and there….for medicinal purposes mind ya.”

Shelby pulled up on her reins stopping her mount and looked out across a wide clearing. “There!” she said, pointing towards the southeast. Looking in the direction she indicated, Luke saw the black stallion calmly grazing a few hundred yards away from their location. Shelby slid off her horse and let the reins drop to the ground. Putting two fingers in her mouth, she whistled shrilly.

Luke saw the big black horse’s head jerk into the air, his ears flicking as he tried to find the source of the whistle. When Shelby whistled again, Lobo reared up into the air for a moment and then started trotting towards them. He was a magnificent animal. Luke had been around horses all his life and he knew good stock when he saw it.

Lobo came up to Shelby and whinnied softly, gently nuzzling her face. Shelby laughed and hugged the animal’s neck, burying her face against the silky softness of his mane. Luke smiled as he watched the exchange of affection between the horse and the woman. Glancing at Luke, Shelby said, “You got that lead rope?”

“Right here.” Luke said. He reached into his saddlebags and took out a halter with a long length of rope attached to it. Handing it to her, Shelby quickly slipped the halter over the horse’s head. Digging in her shirt pocket, she took out two cubes of sugar that she had put there earlier and gave them to Lobo. “He is a beautiful animal.” Luke said

“Yeah….some folks down in the hollow owed his mama….he got away from ‘em when he was colt and they never could catch him. Finally, they got so tired of trying that they told me if I could catch him…I could have him. I spent almost two months getting him tamed down enough to come to me.”

“Who trained him?” Luke asked, remembering how the horse had knelt down at Cory’s command so Luke could get on his back when he was hurt.

“I did mostly.” Shelby said, patting the animal’s neck again. She handed the lead rope to Luke, who wrapped it tightly around his saddle horn to they could lead Lobo back down the mountain. The horse snorted air though his nose, then moved in closer, nuzzling Luke’s with his muzzle. Luke laughed and  patted the horse’s neck.

“He likes you.” Shelby said “He don’t take to that many people.”

“I bet ole Charlie’s gonna like ‘em too.” Luke told her with a soft laugh “Have you ever put him out for stud?”

“No…ain’t nobody else up here to breed him with.” Shelby reminded Luke with a soft chuckle

They headed back down the mountain, riding in silence, comfortable with each other’s company. When they got back to the Prichard farm late that afternoon, Charlie immediately took to the big black stallion. “I sure would like to breed this fella with a couple of my mares.” He told Shelby “Think maybe we can work something out when they come in season?”

“Maybe….” Shelby told him with a grin. Charlie had good stock. If they could work out something when it came to choosing the mare to use, then Shelby wouldn’t mind breeding Lobo to one of his animals. Any colt from the match should be a real winner if they used the right mare.

Luke and Shelby unsaddled their mounts and put them back in the barn. Luke borrowed a horse trailer from Charlie to get Lobo back to the farm and Shelby loaded him inside. Back at the farm, Shelby unloaded Lobo and led him into the barn, putting him in one of the empty stalls.

“That’s one stall you get to clean out.” Luke told her in a teasing voice, ribbing her about her comment the night before when the boys were cleaning stalls. Laughing, they walked back to the house to wash up for supper.