Nothing But Horses (6 page)

“Shiloh for now. He’s riding with the
intermediates. He was working on his trot last time.”

“No way,” Eddie said, from the other side of
Houston. “My mom says that Shiloh can barely walk. She never trots
or gallops.”

“She does in the pasture,” Vicky said. “If
she can do it there, she can do it with a rider. She just likes to
be asked.”

“How do you ask? I give Houston lots of
carrots and he never trots for me.”

I bit my tongue so I wouldn’t snarl at the
kid for being a waste of time, space and oxygen. I mean, come on,
Eddie. How dumb did he have to be? He’d ridden in camp and lessons
for two years. I’d taught him about moving the horse. Mom had when
he was in her classes and so had Meredith. Vicky sounded just as
super sweet when she explained about collection, seat and leg aids
to him as she did when she talked about Tom.

When Eddie asked more questions, I left him
to Vicky and went to help with saddle checks. I managed a smile
when I got over to Tom. “This was a surprise. I didn’t know you
liked horses.”

He shrugged a broad shoulder. “You do. Vicky,
Robin and Dani do. I figured it might be like dancing.”

“What does that mean?” I walked around
Shiloh, a big, golden Appaloosa mare, looking at her saddle. “I
don’t get it.”

“Girls like guys who can really move on the
dance floor,” Tom said. “I thought if I learned all about horses,
it would make me more date-able.”

“What?” I whirled to face him, amazed when I
had to look up to meet his chocolate brown gaze. I’d forgotten he
was taller than I was. Most guys weren’t. “You can’t be serious.
You’re using my barn to improve your social life?”

“Well, I can’t do it at the restaurant since
I made night manager,” Tom said. “It wouldn’t be fair to ask the
girls out there. Somebody might think I was using my influence in
the wrong way. My boss explained it to me two years ago when I got
promoted the first time to shift leader.”

I tightened Shiloh’s cinch so I wouldn’t lose
it and kick the guy off the farm. I’d heard a lot of silly reasons
for learning to ride, but girl-chasing was the ultimate in
ridiculous. “Well, leave the middle school contingent alone.”

“They’re safe,” Tom told me, “and so is the
mom squad.”

“Really?” Rhonda smiled at him. “Here I was,
getting my hopes up.”

“Sorry,” Tom told her. “I don’t chase other
guys’ girls and you brought your husband to watch you and Eddie
ride today.”

I left the two of them with the horse and
went to the next mare, struggling to control my temper. It was hard
to smile at the little boy with Colorado, but I managed to keep my
brain on the job at hand. This event was to make money for the
barn. Losing it and yelling at Tom would cost us in more than one
way.

“You look miffed,” Dave said, behind me. “Is
something wrong?”

I shook my head, eyeing the pads on the small
black horse in front of me. “No, everything’s fine.”

“Except this saddle,” Dave said. “She must
have twitched her muscles during tack-up. Those pads aren’t going
to stay in position for much longer.”

I took a deep breath. He was right. There was
barely an inch of blanket in front of the saddle and way more
covering Colorado’s haunches. “Looks like a redo to me.”

Oscar frowned at us, worry in his tense,
eight-year-old frame. “Am I going to lose points, Sierra? I saddled
by myself today.”

“And you did an amazing job,” I said. “The
placement is good. Your latigo knot is perfect and so is your
breast-collar and the tie-down. Colorado just likes to shimmy
around between you putting up the pads and the time you put on the
saddle.”

“Really?” Oscar asked.

“Hey, she does it to me and Autumn all the
time.” I unsnapped the clip from the cinch ring, unbuckled the left
hand side of the breast-collar and went onto the latigo. “We have
to do the hustle when we put her together.”

“Okay. Next time, I’ll go a bit faster
because when I can do it myself, I get to do the pre-owner classes
with her. Mom and Dad both said.”

“I’ll have Grandpa talk to them,” I told
Oscar. “I still need help when Nevada acts like a bugger during
saddling and we’d like you to be challenged, not wait until you’re
sixteen, almost seventeen to move to the next level.”

“Wow. Awesome. You’re the best, Sierra.”

I wish
, I thought. I was fudging with
the kid and I knew it even if he didn’t have a clue. Oscar wasn’t a
hassle. He was a kind boy who always tried hard in lessons, but
riding didn’t come easy for him. His folks could afford to spend
more and I was thinking about the bottom line of how to feed the
horses.

Dave lifted up the saddle and I adjusted the
blankets, lifting them into position. Colorado started shifting
from hoof to hoof and he lowered the saddle before the pads
slipped. I petted the horse’s neck. “Got any carrots left,
Olly?”

“One.” He fished a piece out of his coat
pocket and handed it over for his horse to munch.

I snugged up the cinch, careful not to pinch
the horse. She flicked an ear at me and clicked her teeth in
warning. I glanced at Oscar. “When did she start that? I’ve never
cracked her ribs. What’s she giving me heartburn about?”

“Meredith says horses just do that and to
bump Colorado in the mouth with my elbow if she turns to look at me
when I saddle. I don’t do it because it hurts. One of the guys did
it to me at school when we played basketball and I cut my lip. I
had to go to the nurse for an icepack. That was an accident. I
wouldn’t hurt anyone on purpose, ‘specially not Colorado.”’

“Me either,” I said, re-buckling the breast
collar. “I think you get just as far with treats as you do with
being mean.”

“Further,” Dave agreed. “If everybody was
nice to their animals, I wouldn’t have a job and I’d be good with
that. If a guy gave his horse treats all the way through saddling
up, she might stop thinking that riding was going to be
painful.”

Oscar nodded. “I can do that. I will from now
on.”

“Great,” I said.

Dave and I walked away. I glanced sideways at
him. “You better let me tell Mom about Meredith teaching horse
abuse, or it could backfire on you. Mom doesn’t like anyone trying
to run the barn except us.”

“Not happening, Sierra. When I see something
wrong, I say so. Right now, it’s just a kid who could have
misconstrued a direction that his instructor gave him. If I’m
somewhere and I see danger, I react. I protect people.”

“I know. That’s why we like you,” I said.
“You take care of the four-legged people too.”

“That’s my job and it’s why I like you.” The
lines deepened around his mouth when he smiled and the humor landed
in his eyes. “People like you make my job much easier.”

For a moment, a lump grew in my throat. I had
to swallow hard. None of my mom’s guys ever
liked
me. My
last stepdad suggested I go to boarding school more than once. It
cut me down to the bone, but I never said so. Instead, I was
sarcastic and as nasty to him as he was to me. By the time he left,
I’d have paid his rodeo queen to take him.

I stepped back, blinked to control the tears
and glanced around the ring. Mom had told the students to put a
knot in their western reins and a few struggled with the concept. I
went to help Eddie, but he did it by himself. I managed a smile.
“Great job.”

“Vicky says I have to pretend to be confident
and Houston will believe me,” Eddie said. “Is that right?”

“Absolutely,” I told the kid for the
umpteenth time. “He needs you to be the leader of the herd so he
feels safe.”

I took a deep breath and thought about feed,
vet bills and shoeing thirty horses. Thank heaven, the boarders
paid the daily expenses for their horses. Then, I said, “I know you
can do it, Eddie, or you wouldn’t be in the pre-owner group.”

Chapter
Five

Shamrock Stable, Washington

Sunday, December
22
^nd
, 11:10 am

As she finished up the first round of games
for the beginning riders, Mom gestured to me and I hurried over to
her. “What’s up?”

“I’m going to have the intermediates and
advanced ride together now,” Mom said, waving for the beginners to
turn their horses to face her. “We’ll split the group after lunch.
Otherwise, we’ll be late for the potluck and the gift exchange.
Tell Vicky she needs Summertime now and she can do Aladdin in the
afternoon.”

“You got it.” I went over to the bleachers
and passed the word. Autumn looked totally thrilled at the idea of
riding with the big kids. Disappointment slipped into Vicky’s face
for a moment before she blinked it away and pasted on her peppy
cheerleader smile. She’d really worked hard with Aladdin and wanted
him for the whole party.

“It’s too big a group for a young horse to
pay attention,” I said. “After lunch, we’ll get the beginners to
speed up their games a bit and then we’ll definitely have time for
you to bring him in the ring.”

“Isn’t Summertime the one you said was afraid
of everything?” Tom asked.

“Yes, so he takes a confident rider.” I
smiled sweetly at him. “You’ll want to watch how Vicky handles him.
He’s your next horse.”

Before Tom could say anything, I glanced over
my shoulder and saw the riders dismounting. “Let’s go. We’ll help
them put away the horses and then bring out the ones we’re
riding.”

In a few minutes, Nevada and I led the troop
of four riders from the top barn down to the arena. When we
arrived, he snorted at the line of three barrels we’d wrapped in
Christmas paper. He shied at the row of plastic candy canes I’d
tied to small cones. I jerked on the reins so he had to pay
attention to me. “Oh come on, you’ve seen all this stuff before
during the summer and at Halloween. I just holidayed it up for the
party.”

“Houston didn’t care about the toys.” Eddie
told us from the sidelines as I walked Nevada around the ring,
passing the group coming to sit on the bleachers. “What’s the
matter with your horse?”

“He likes to make things exciting,” I said,
jiggling the reins. “He doesn’t deal well with change.”

“I had students like that when I taught
school.” Grandma found a place on the bench to sit with the
beginning level riders. “It was worth my life to have a substitute
because they always played “Sink the sub.” I had to tell them the
consequences would be worse when I got back then the momentary
pleasure of being stinkers.”

“I don’t think telling Nevada that he has two
lunch detentions will work.” I turned him in a small circle and led
him forward. “Or a parent conference with his mommy for that
matter.”

“Try saying his mom will go to class with him
all day,” Rhonda suggested. “Eddie hates it when I do that at his
school.”

“It’s embarrassing,” Eddie said. “My friends
make fun of me for days.”

“I can see that.” I spun Nevada in another
circle. He danced and yanked on the reins. What a monster. I hadn’t
even tried riding him yet. I heard Grandma talking to Grandpa, but
I couldn’t pay attention to what she said. When I glanced back at
our homemade grandstand, my grandfather and Dave were leaving the
barn.

The problem with walking Nevada when he
didn’t want to manner up was that he knew he could use his size
against me. I jerked on his mouth again. He had to focus. I
wouldn’t let him break away from me and trample over top of the
other riders, especially since Autumn was here with her Shetland
pony. I didn’t want this fourteen-hundred pound moron to win.

If I took him back to his stall, he’d learn
that temper tantrums paid off and he’d continue bullying me for the
rest of his Morgan/Belgian/Quarter-horse life. I was getting
majorly ticked so his days were numbered.

“You could tell him to be nice or Santa won’t
bring him any carrots,” Autumn told me, her pony cruising placidly
beside her. “It works on Dream.”

Before I answered, I heard Grandpa call from
the side gate. “Permission to join the class?”

“Everybody stop and stand still,” Mom said.
“Keep circling him, Sierra. Come on in, Dad.”

The aluminum gate opened and Luchenbach
entered the arena at a stately walk. I heard laughter from the
bleachers as the students glimpsed Nevada’s mommy. Dave brought her
over in front of my horse, reversing her so we could follow the
giant red horse. The guys hadn’t taken time to saddle her—they’d
just brought her down to the indoor arena on her bridle.

“You are so busted,” I said, glaring at the
four-legged brat who pranced next to me. “Now, everyone knows
you’re a total chicken-goober.”

My gelding nosed me, then stopped and stood
quiet for the first time since the class began. I petted him, now
that he wasn’t being a snot. “I’m so rationing your carrots.”

Dave chuckled. “I’m figuring you can play
‘follow the leader’ and he’ll be ready to work independently after
lunch.”

“Sounds good,” I said. “He’s smart enough to
know that I can’t thump him in front of an audience.”

“I read somewhere that horses are as smart as
three-year-old kids,” Dave told me. “Mine always knew when and
where to safely pitch a fit.”

I laughed. I had to admit the guy made me
feel better, but not in an icky way. He reminded me of Robin’s dad
who always jumped in to look after her. Mom instructed everyone to
start walking around the ring again and Nevada followed Luke. She
could have cared less about the brightly colored barrels and the
candy canes. She was just happy to be part of the herd in the
arena. She nickered at the crowd on the bleachers when they
applauded as she approached.

Mom called for a reverse and we all changed
directions, circling the arena again. Nevada was totally calm now,
even if his mom followed instead of leading him. In a few moments,
we stopped again. Everyone else tied a knot in their reins, but
since I had a romal on mine, a long crop
attached
to the end of my reins, I didn’t need one. It wasn’t actually meant
to hit a horse, but more of a noisemaker to move cattle when
cowboys did stock work. However, when Nevada balked, the leather
poppers came in handy to get his attention.
I glanced over
my shoulder and saw Dave position Luke’s. Did he plan to ride her
bareback?