Yang lay down. She hadn't been eating the muck they gave her at this horrible place, and her ribs showed through her rough coat. Besides that, she had wasted the little energy she had on repeatedly attacking the bars of the paddock fence and screaming curses at any two-legs who happened to pass by. She had no idea how long she'd been here, and she knew she'd probably never get out soon. She lifted her head and looked at the sky, clouds blocking the light of the moon and the stars. As she was, no one could see her unless they looked hard, her pitch-shaded coat blending with the dark of night.
I've been through worse than this, though, she reminded herself. Here I'm mostly ignored. There's Rocket and Americus and Aspen, but they mind their own business and leave me alone. Over at the other place I was driven all day and cooped up in a puny shed with no windows at night. Here I have the sky, at most times. Here I have the sun, the moon, the wind, the air. But, oh, to be able to see freedom and not reach it! To know that just beyond these walls that keep me caged, beyond the road, there is the wild!
The Hackney mare sighed and drifted into a light, troubled sleep for the first time since she'd been here.