I was dreaming that my cell phone was ringing. Then I woke up and saw that it was Dusty, rattling my chain. He shook my shoulder. "Time to get up, Alice."

I groaned and stood up, keeping my blanket wrapped around me. It was cold this morning, even if it was the end of August.

Dusty dropped the chain connecting my collar to the back of the stall and held up the arm binder. "Drop the blanket and turn around. You know the drill."

"Yeah, yeah, I know the drill. I've been doing it forever." I dropped the blanket and turned away from Dusty. I put my arms behind my back, forearms together and parallel to the floor. Dusty pulled on the binder, wrapped the top corners tightly around my biceps, and locked them in place with two padlocks. I didn't even bother to test how much movement I might have, I knew I didn't have any. My arms were trapped in a snug tube of thick leather, and my fingers were useless.

Even after all these months it was still kind of humiliating to submit without a struggle, but the price of struggling was too high. One time, shortly after I got to this circle of hell, I'd refused to cooperate. Dusty didn't bother to try to force the binder on me, he just punched me in the solar plexus and slipped it on while I was gasping on the floor. And this wasn't the end of my punishment. That evening he only took off the rest of my harness, and the binder stayed in place. This binder isn't nearly as bad as a single glove, but my arms and shoulders were still hurting, and it got worse as time passed. By the next evening I was desperate, and when Dusty took off the binder the relief was tremendous. It made me realize just how much worse things could get, and I decided to skip the meaningless gestures. If I ever get a chance to escape I'll take it, but until then I'll pretend to be a good little pony.

Dusty wrapped the wide belt of the harness around my waist and the top of my hips and turned me around so he could fasten the four buckles that held it closed in front. He pulled up the front strap and centered my tits in the steel rings, put the straps over my shoulders, and turned me around again so he could buckle everything together.

When the harness straps were tight Dusty reached between my legs and grabbed the crotch chain. He pulled it between my legs and made sure it was centered in my slit. (My bush has got so thick it took him a minute to find it). Then he ran the chain up my ass crack and through the ring on the back of the belt. He pulled it snug, but not tight, and fastened it with a clip. I murmured, "Thanks", because Dusty is basically a nice guy. When Ashley fastens the chain she pulls it as tight as she can, and it really hurts.

The last humiliation was the bit. This bit is really the work of the devil. It has a short cylinder that goes inside my mouth with two pieces that stick out at the sides. It's fastened in place with three straps: under my chin, behind my neck, and over the top of my head. When the reins are pulled, and this is the diabolical part, spikes come out of the cylinder and dig into my tongue and the roof of my mouth. This hurts so much that I do everything I can to keep the reins loose. When my training first started the reins were used to keep me in place on the treadmill, but my mouth got chewed up so bad that Dusty soon changed this to ropes tied to the neck strap.

Much as I hated to, I opened my mouth and Dusty slipped the bit behind my teeth and buckled the three straps. The one that joins at the bridge of my nose and goes over the top of my head was pulling my hair painfully, and I whimpered. Dusty noticed, and he loosened the strap and fixed it. Like I said, a nice guy.

Dusty attached the water bag to the back of the harness and put the drinking tube in my mouth. He asked, "Got your shoes on, Alice?"

I lifted my right foot out of the straw and showed him my cheap canvas trainer. I've been leaving my shoes and socks on to help keep my feet warm. Besides, when my shoes are on I'm not completely naked.

"OK, you're ready to go." Dusty put the reins through an eyebolt in the back wall just above head height, pulled until I was standing right under it, and tied a slipknot to hold the reins in place. Why does he do this? My neck was still chained to the wall. I wasn't going anywhere. I guess it's just the cowboy way: All ponies have to have their reins hitched to something. At least I had a little slack. Ashley always pulls me up onto my toes. Dusty patted me on the butt and went into Jackie's stall.

Dusty said, "Morning, lover", and kissed Jackie. He fucks her twice a week, on the days that Ashley isn't here, but this wasn't one of those days. I've listened to them go at it for months, but Dusty never touches me. Ashley hoped to torture me with sexual frustration, but I don't really mind. Sex is mainly just business to me. A really skilled guy can turn me on and even bring me to the big O, but if I'm not getting any I don't miss it. I'm happy for Jackie, because I think she loves Dusty, even if he does put her in a harness and hitch her to a cart.

Dusty entered my stall. He unlocked the padlock that held the chain to my collar and untied my reins from the ring. He led me into the main part of the barn and hitched me to the cart. Jackie was already hitched to it, and he put me beside her. Jackie has really changed. She was fat when we got here, but now she has a gorgeous figure. It's not skinny, like the Playboy centerfolds. She looks more like the classic pin-ups, such as Betty Page.

The hitch-up went quickly, because the cart has a pair of short chains with snap hooks that just clip to D-rings on my belt near my hips. As usual, I was on the right and Jackie was on the left. Ashley holds the whip in her right hand, and she likes to whip me with her forehand.

Dusty climbed on the seat, released the brake, and said, "Walk!'. The barn door was open, so we leaned into ours belts and pulled him outside. Dusty is a lot heavier than Ashley, so it's harder to pull him, but he more than makes up for it by not jerking the reins and not whipping us just for the fun of it.

He guided us over to a patch of dirt near the corner of the barn and asked, "Need to piss, ponies?" We both nodded, so he waited while we spread our legs and emptied our bladders. I always hate this, because some pee always dribbles down my legs and into my socks, but I didn't have a chance to use the bucket in my stall this morning, and it's a whipping offense to pee in the barn or on the paved area around it. (That's another reason I don't fight the binder anymore. If I don't have hands I can't get the lid off my honey bucket and I have to pee in my stall. Then Ashley has an excuse to use her riding crop on my butt.)

Dusty drove us to the back side of the barn and hitched us there. This 'hitching post' isn't like the ones you see outside the saloon in a western movie. This is just a piece of pipe, bolted to the side of the barn a little above head height. When Dusty tied off the reins all I could see was weathered red paint. And the chances were good that I would be staring at it for hours, while the pain in my back intensified and I got so bored that even pulling the cart would be a relief. We have to wait for Ashley, and she isn't an early riser. One time last month she didn't show up until after noon, while we stood here sweating and trying to keep the bugs off. I wished I had a tail, so I could swat the flies. Heat wasn't going to be a problem now though, I was shivering.

It wasn't long before Ashley showed up. I was surprised that she was here so soon, and then I got worried that she had something 'special' planned for us.

"Good morning, ponies", she chirped. "I got a new whip!". There was a loud crack! "It's really exciting. Now I won't be limited to just slashing your legs, because I can hit any place on your body. I've been practicing on some cardboard boxes. If I do it right I can punch a hole completely through the cardboard. Isn't that great?"

Ashley trailed her fingers over my right hip and thigh. "You've got a lot of welts here. I'd better have you and Jackie change places. I need fresh skin to see how effective my new whip is." She unhitched the cart from both of us, moved it so I was on the left side, and hitched me back up. Then she moved Jackie and hitched her to the right side of the cart.

Every since Ashley showed up I had been muttering to myself, 'Please not the bells. Please not the bells. Please not the bells...'. Just when I thought she'd forgotten, Ashley said, "Oh, I almost forgot the bells". She took them out of the bag tied under the cart seat and came over to me. She massaged my right nipple until it was semi-erect and clipped on a bell. I fought back a groan of pain and she clipped a bell on my other nipple. Jackie wasn't so stoic, and she moaned loudly as the bells were attached to her breasts.

Ashley untied my reins and got on the cart seat. She put both sets of reins in her left hand and pulled them to the right. Her well-trained ponies moved to the right. Then she said, "Walk!" and slashed her whip across my thigh. Oh, that hurt! I glanced down and saw a swollen red line. I was surprised there wasn't any blood. Her new whip was effective, all right.

We jingled our way out of the barn and across the yard to the start of the access road that leads to the highway. There Ashley pulled on the reins and we came to a halt. "This could be your lucky day, ponies", she said. "Remember how I told you I'd let you go if you could pull me from here to the highway and back in less than hour? Well, today's your first chance to do it. You've been training now for over three months, so you should be in great shape. Just think, all you have to do is run ten miles, and if you're fast enough you'll be free to go back to the sordid life you were living. That should be incentive enough, but I'll help you by providing another reason", she cracked her whip, "to run fast".

I had been afraid this would happen. There is no way that Jackie and I can meet this 'goal'. It's just one more way for Ashley to torture us. But Jackie doesn't believe this. She thinks we can do it, and I don't want to crush her hopes, so I'll do my best. Actually, Ashley's whip would make me do my best no matter what I wanted.

Ashley cried, "Ready, ponies? Go!". She slashed me across my hip and Jackie and I started to run. I tried to hold the pace down, but Ashley yelled, "Faster, faster!" and launched a flurry of whip strokes at my hip and thigh.

We pounded along the road for what seemed to be an eternity. My legs hurt, my lungs hurt, my throat hurt, and I would have given anything to stop. We slowed a bit. There was a loud whipcrack and I felt an intense pain on my back. There was another whipcrack and Jackie screamed, the sound muffled by her bit. Ashley shouted, "Keep going! Faster!" She whipped me again, this time on my butt, followed by more forehand and backhand slashes across our hips and thighs. We picked up the pace as best we could. Ashley's whip hurt more than the running did.

This cycle was repeated again and again as we ran down the road. I lost count of the number of times I was whipped. I knew I couldn't keep this pace up for much longer, no matter how much pain Ashley inflicted. Finally the gate across the road was visible. We'd reached the highway at last. We would have to stop, if only because we had to turn around.

Ashley said, "Whoa!" and pulled on the reins. The cart came to a halt. Ashley started to turn us around, and Jackie collapsed, first to her knees and then to her belly. Since we were chained to the same bar I was also forced down until I was sitting on the road. Ashley got out of the cart and stood next to Jackie. "Get up, you lazy bitch!" she screamed. She hit Jackie's butt with the whip. Jackie didn't even twitch, so Ashley hit her again and again. Three ugly red lines sprang up. There was a trickle of blood from where two whipmarks crossed. No response from Jackie.

Ashley knelt next to Jackie and felt for a pulse in her neck. Jackie moaned and Ashley gave a sigh of relief. She stood up and looked at her watch. "You worthless sluts took over forty five minutes just to get to here. There's no way you're gonna pass the test now, so I'll let you rest for a little while".

We were only a hundred yards or so from the highway, but we were in a dip in the access road that hid us from anybody driving by. Ashley took some rope from the sack under the seat and tied my ankles together. There was a pine tree close to the road and Ashley sat down in its shade. When Jackie still hadn't moved after another five minutes or so she made a call on her cell phone.

It wasn't long before Dusty arrived, driving his pickup. Jackie still hadn't recovered enough to stand up. Dusty unhitched her, took off the bells, and put her face down in the back of the pickup. He didn't say anything to Ashley, but he had that look he gets when he's really angry. He put me next to Jackie and threw the cart into the truck. Ashley got in the cab and Dusty drove us back to the barn.

I'd recovered some by the time we got back to the barn, which just meant that the pain from the whipping overwhelmed the pain from the running. I felt something on my shoulder and looked down to see a trickle of blood dripping onto the truck bed. I moaned through my bit, and I was glad when Jackie moaned back. At least she was still alive.

Ashley and Dusty got out of the truck. Ashley said, "You're not fast enough, ponies! We'll try the test again in a few weeks, and next time you won't get a ride back to the barn."

Dusty ordered, "Ashley! Give me that whip!"

Ashley whined, "I don't want to."

"I don't give a shit. You can't be trusted not to kill them with it. Look at those welts on Jackie's butt! Look at those cuts on Alice's back! Your father said 'no torture', and you've crossed over the line."

Ashley tossed the whip into the truck. "OK, there's the whip. But I'm not sorry for using it. Those bitches had it coming. I'll just use my old whip."

"Not for a while you won't. You can't play with your ponies for the rest of the week. Now get out of here".

Ashley stomped off, and Dusty carried Jackie and then me into the barn. He put me in my stall, chained my neck to the wall, and removed the harness, bit, and arm binder.

Dusty announced, "I'm going up to the house to get something for those cuts and welts. You two are excused from all training for a while. And I'm sorry I let this happen."

No training! No Ashley! Like I said, Dusty's a nice guy.