The crowing of roosters woke Sara from her sleep. Groaning, she rolled over and dragged herself out of bed and to the mirror. Sara was short for 12, only five feet. Dark brown eyes sparkled on her face, surrounded by long auburn hair more comfortable under a Stetson hat than alone. Plodding downstairs, Sara met up with her older sister, Megan.
"Geeze, Sara, watch were you're walking!" Megan scolded, but Sara was too tired to notice.
After breakfast, Sara went outside to feed the horses. The sun had just begun to rise over the crest of the Rocky's, casting an orange glow over the yard. Sara's family owned 15 horses, four reserved for a specific family member, three brood mares with foals, two stallions, and three weanlings lined up for training and sale. The hired hand, Ben, also kept his paint in with the herd.
After feeding the hungry herd, Sara tacked up her steel gray quarter horse, Smokey. Her father, Rick, had already saddled up Dandy, the grullo gelding he was training. Soon Ben joined them with the paint, Cal. Megan and Lucy, Sara's mother, almost never rode out, Lucy preferring to stay inside and take care of small chores, Megan spending her time talking on AIM, going on her Myspace, and hanging out at the mall with her group of friends.
"Bringin' in the ridge herd today" Rick instructed, greeting without words. The group trotted off toward the foothills, preparing to gather up a group of un broke horses to bring back to the ranch.
Smokey trotted lazily in between Dandy and Cal, his days of fooling around and making a rucus behind him. Sara had been begging for a new horse for years. Now was no exception.
"So Dad, are you SURE I can't get a new horse?" She asked hopefully. Rick rolled his eyes.
"We've been over this before, Sara" He said sternly. "Smokey's old, not boring, and even if he was, a year's worth of training colts couldn't bring in enough money to get the horse you have your eyes on" His words did not go unheeded. Sara had had her sights set on a flashy bay quarter horse for at least six months, but the horse was WAY out of her price range, and the money brought in by training barely covered the ranch's expenses. Only the constant hope that word might get out about Calico Ranch's training had kept them at the ranch for this long.
The small group rode on ion silence for about an hour, only speaking up to point out the occasional fox or hawk that happened to cross their paths. "Weather's been good" Ben pointed out, trying to rouse up some conversation. Unlike most ranch hands in books and stories and such, who lived off of silence, Ben was quite talkative and couldn't stand quiet rides. But Sara was to busy trying to think of something to say that would convince her father to let her have a new horse, Rick trying to think or a way to quiet his daughter into being happy with the horse she had. Ben cleared his throat. "Sunny ,but not to dry" He stated. Sara nodded.
Soon the small group of horses came into view. Dandy pricked his ears and let out a shrill whinny in hello, but Cal and Smokey were far to experienced to be excited by such a thing. Sara clucked to her gelding, and he broke into an easy lope, veering to the right, preparing to encircle the band. Rick rode Dandy straight at the herd, while Cal and Ben went left. The band was now trapped between the sharp incline of the mountains and the group of people bearing down on them. Rick slipped a lariat over the dominant mare's head, Ben roping the dominant male. Sara rode tail, keeping any stragglers from breaking off and making a run for it.