Astra the quad ponygirl loves her life. She spends most of the day training as a quadruped ponygirl, and spends most of the night being a loving wife to her groom and husband, Tony. The ranch that she had inherited from her parents had been renamed Quadra, not after the Spanish explorer of the Northwest Coast, but a combination of the fact that she is a quad ponygirl + the last two letters of her name. Five years had passed since she decided to become a ponygirl, and the quadruped form that she had desired. She had won lots of ribbons and wreaths at ponygirl contests, setting records along the way. Her articulated front hooves were very effective in portraying her as a horse, and she loved the feel of galloping around the track, her hooves pounding out a perfect cadence, and her long black ponytails flying in the wind. Sometimes she would put on her horse head mask to be more authentic, but usually she just used it for shows.

Astra began to get a little bored with her daily routine, and discussed this with Tony one evening. It is always the same, she said, I enjoy it, but nothing is ever different. She had an idea and she wanted to run it by Tony to see if he liked it. She wanted to expand the ranch into a training facility for other quad ponygirls. Together they worked out a plan, and when it was ready they discreetly advertised it around the ponygirl community.

Their plan had a few simple rules. First, this was a strictly volunteer arrangement. Only girls who wanted to be horses would be accepted into the training program. All ponygirls would be quads of the same type as Astra, and they would have to put up a deposit for the necessary harnesses, boots, etc. The training program would last six months, after which they could stay longer for further training if they wanted, or they could leave. When they left, their deposit would be returned, plus they got to keep their tack. There would be set times of the day for training, and ponygirls could only come out of costume two nights per week at sundown. On those nights they could dress in clothing, eat a proper supper, and sleep in a bed. The remainder of the nights, they stayed in tack, ate granola, drank water from their trough, slept in their stall, either standing up or lying in the hay. Only on their two nights off were they allowed to talk. When in tack they were expected to act like a horse.

Pedro the harness maker was contacted and asked if he would make all the boots and tack when the girls arrived. He agreed with the one provision that it took some time to make good quad boots, and he would not be rushed. Astra and Tony decided that they would take in one new girl at a time, and she would have to wait until her tack was ready before actually moving onto the ranch. This meant it would be reasonable to start one new pony per month, that is if there was enough interest. Astra was getting excited about having someone to train with, and also realized that she would be doing some of the training by example.

The first application came from a girl named Sally. Her interest in horses was very similar to Astra's, and her parents even used to sing “Ride, Sally, Ride” to her when she was young. On the day of her fitting, Astra went with her to Pedro's and helped as he made the casts for her arms and legs, from which to build perfect quad hoof boots. He again made frequent body measurements as he had on Astra. Her tack had been perfectly made and was still like new after five years of use. From the time he had first talked to Astra and Tony about their plan, he had been quietly working on hooves, harness pieces and horse masks, so he had several sets ready. Now that he had the casts made, he only had to size them correctly and finish them off. He estimated three weeks for the first fitting of the finished tack. Sure enough Sally's equipment was ready in three weeks and after a fitting to make sure everything was right, she moved to the ranch.

Tony suited up Astra, and then began to dress Sally in her new tack. Sally loved the feel of the hoof boots as she put them on and the zippers seemed to disappear into the leather. While Astra was a black tacked horse, to match her long black hair, Sally had chosen chestnut coloured tack to match her hair colour. Since she had short hair, Pedro had sewn real horsehair into the mane and the tail. She said she would let her hair grow until she could have a tail of her own hair. Tony explained the use of the leg chains as he put the cuffs around her ankles. Once she had asked a dozen more questions about everything, he put on her bridle and bit and then led her out to the carousel. Once Sally and Astra were clipped to either side, he turned it on to a slow walk. This was a snail's pace for Astra, but she was patient, and watched her comrade trip and stumble with the chains, slowly getting used to them. Once she was putting her correct foot forward most of the time, Tony stepped up the speed to a faster walk, then to a slow trot. Astra had long ago mastered the correct gaits for a horse, but it had come after lots of hard practice. Sally was getting it already, and it would not be too long before she also would not need the chains on her ankles.

Astra was really enjoying her new role as mentor, and Sally was making good progress. By the end of the first week she was trotting easily without the chains, and it was time to try some sulky training. With Astra trotting alongside and Tony in the sulky, Sally showed her stuff, lifting her hooves up high as she went along. She was really getting into it. Sally was also very pleased to hear that another girl had applied to join the ranch. Emily arrived one morning for fittings, and Astra left Tony to work with Sally while she took Emily to see Pedro. In three more weeks there would be three quad ponygirls at the ranch. Not only would this be more interesting for them all, but Sally would now have company on the nights she spent in the stables.

By the time Sally's six months were up, she had developed into a star performer. Her jumping success was such that Astra now had competition for the first time. Quad ponygirls can easily outjump upright two legged ponies. She was also the equal to Astra in the sulky races, although they had a problem that needed to be solved. Tony was their only driver and they had only one sulky. Since it would be much better to train with two, Astra and Tony went off to see Pedro again. He agreed to build them another sulky, and also said he cound make attachments for both of them that would allow two ponies to be hitched to one carriage. This would make training more interesting, as four ponies could now have a race. Astra could be the driver for training sessions, but she would not give up a chance of being the star when it came to a ponygirl contest. Astra and Tony realized that they would need to hire a new groom, and knew of one who was available. Jack, the groom who had taken over while Tony was away tending to his dying father. Although that had been a disaster, the court had mandated rehab for Jack's drug abuse and gambling problems, and he had been clean and bad habit free for over two years now. Astra believed everyone deserved a second chance, and Jack really was a nice guy when he was clean.

Sally decided to stay on after her six months were over, and so did Emily. Other girls had come and trained and then moved on, but by the end of the first year there were seven quad ponygirls including Astra. The latest one had come under somewhat unusual circumstances. She had been in trouble with the law, and was facing jail time. Although she had had trouble with the law as a juvenile, this was her first adult offense and the judge decided to give her a choice. If she took the six month ponygirl program at Quadra ranch, she would not have to go to jail. If all went well she would be free without probation when she finished at the ranch. She jumped at the chance. When she arrived, she was dressed as a goth punk. She had short black hair streaked with red, wore a lot of black leather and chains, and had piercings all over her body. Astra wondered if they had made the right decision on this one, but took her to Pedro for a fitting anyway. Jessica had three weeks to wait until her tack was ready and had promised the judge, on threat of jail, to behave while she waited. Astra had suggested that the piercings might cause some unnecessary complications with the tack and perhaps she should get rid of some of them before she returned to the ranch. You can imagine her surprise when Jessica arrived without any piercings, her hair now plain black and wearing a T shirt, shorts and sandals. She had decided to turn over a new leaf, and was well on the way to making it work. She got suited up in her tack, and after the basic instructions started right into her training. She caught on quickly and was soon keeping up with the other girls.

One evening when Jessica had chosen to take a night off, she was sitting on the ranch house porch relaxing after dinner. Astra came out and sat beside her, and commented on how well she was fitting in and how pleased she was with her progress. Jess said to Astra, "You don't remember me, do you?"

"You seem a bit familiar, did I meet you at a ponygirl contest?"

"No," she said, "you were once my pony, but you never knew my name. I am so ashamed of the way we treated you when you were with us, and I was so awful to you, treating you worse than an animal and making you gallop so long. I realize now what you must have been going through, and want to apologize."

Astra had a long talk with Jessica that night. She found out that Jessica had been placed in foster care for a time while her parents were in jail. When she returned home it was to find that her parents had sold the ranch and moved into the city. They fought constantly and eventually her mother ran off with some guy and she stayed with her father. She got in with the wrong crowd and started getting into trouble at home and at school. Finally she dropped out and went to live on the street. She reckoned that if Astra had not had this program at Quadra ranch, she would probably be in jail, or dead by now. Astra reminded her that she believed that people should be given a second chance, and this one was for Jessica.

Time continued to pass by and the ranch flourished. There were now eight ponygirls including Astra. Pedro and Tony had a building project that they were working on together, but would not tell Astra what it was. The day of the unveiling finally arrived, and all the girls came out to see it. It was a stage coach! It was made to look like an old Wells Fargo stagecoach from wild west movies, except the high wooden wheels had thin rubber tires and modern wheel bearings. It had an aluminum frame and thin fiberglass panels, so it was very light. The most amazing thing about this wagon was the fact that it was set up to be pulled by eight ponies. For the next ponygirl contest Tony loaded the coach onto a large trailer with the two sulkies, and Jack took it to the show, with Tony following pulling the large horse trailer with all eight ponygirls inside. When they arrived, they unloaded the stagecoach and hitched up all the girls. What a beautiful sight! Tony driving with eight horses, and Jack riding shotgun beside him. He even brought his gun, unloaded, of course, and both of them wore cowboy hats. Astra and Jessica were the lead ponies, and they gave rides in the stagecoach to the people at the show. As usual, the ponygirls from Quadra Ranch took home nearly all of the prizes.

The daily routine continues for Tony and Astra. Jessica has just left for university with Astra's financial blessing. They have become so close they now think of themselves as more like mother and daughter. Astra has taken some time off training, nine months to be exact, and will get back into it to a lesser extent once their baby is born. Astra's inheritance continues to earn enough interest to pay for everything, and quadruped ponygirls continue to be trained at Quadra Ranch. Life is good.