My entry for the contest

SHINE

Age : 5
Gender : female
Eyes : brown
Color : sooty palomino
Hooves : brown
Nose : white

Story
She was born at dawn and at the moment she first stood up, the very first sunshine lighted her short mane and she was like "shining", giving her mane that particular and unique tone.

As she grew up, she became one of the lifeguard mares who stay around the herd to stake out and who run behind the other horses during displacements to be sure nobody get lost.
She particularly won the leader stallion's respect after a long trip where many mares led out of the way.
Shine was only 4, she had been named keeper a few months ago and it was her first several days voyage.
A storm with soaker divided the herd a little before the stallion decided to stop for the night. The bigger part of the group was safe, but six mares and four colts were missing.
In spite of the forbidding from her elders, she went alone through the night to find the missing members back.
Several days passed by.
The stallion had delayed as long as possible the move of the rest of the herd keeping the hope to see her coming back, but everything seemed lost.

A whole season passed, the herd had layed around thirty miles away from the previous spot they saw Shine the last time and nobody thought to see her again.
But as the day of her birth, she appeared at morning, at the top of the hill, the very first sunshine lighting her on the back, making her glowing and shining like the morning star. She was bringing back the six mares and... five colts. One of the mares had farrowed and she had to be a real leader a little while until the two horses were enough strong to make the long road back.

The leader was seduced by Shine's exploit and thought if she would give birth to a male, he would do a perfect heir.
Esperanza and Shine were pregnant at the same time. The future mothers knew the first one of them who will give bith to a stallion will be the lucky mother of the next Cimarron leader. However, it didn't create any rivalry between the mares. Shine appreciated Esperanza who had always been a good friend.
Esperanza gave birth to Spirit.
Some weeks later, it was Shine's turn to have her foal : it was a beautiful complete black stallion. She couldn't stand the idea to see one day her beloved son and her friend's fight in some years. She decided to leave the herd and to raise her colt alone.
In spite of the evident dangers this life can represent, she survived and when her son became a stallion, he formerd his own herd, in lands not that far away from the Cimarron.


Personnality
Shine is first of all tender, sweet and discreet.
Her calm attitude can make the others think she's shy, but in fact she's got a real temper on her own and she's stubborn. Her pigheadedness onfently brang the other horses to think she's insouciant; that may have been right in her younth, but her lonely journey finding the lost mares and foals and her duty to watch over them during several months helped her a lot to mature and increase her sense of danger.
Her sense of orientation is highly developped and she is tough, that's why she was charged of the keeper job on the rear of the herd during dispalcements.
Her some months experience as a chief made her self-belief when she decided to leave the herd to live alone with her foal.

Shine and her son Dark Moon : [link]

You can see her in the movie here : [link]