The bright morning light shone through the window, waking Joe. He rolled over with a groan. "I must have fallen harder than I thought," he mumbled to himself as he sat up, fighting through the soreness of his muscles.

"Morning, Son," Ben greeted him as he sat down at the breakfast table. "I know you have your heart set on breaking that horse, but I need you to run the fence line today with Hoss. If the two of you finish in time you can work with the stallion for a couple of hours tonight."

"Sure, Pa," said Joe, trying to mask his disappointment. He really didn't want to spend the day fixing fences. It was tiring work, and for some reason he has started taking it personally that the horse was causing him so much trouble. Part of him knew that he was doing just fine, but he was getting impatient. Hoss was so gentle with the new horses that he seemed able to talk with them and get them to trust him immediately. Joe just wanted to prove to himself, and his family, that he could tame this one horse alone.

"Joe, let's stop for lunch," Hoss implored after working hard at mending fences all morning. "We don't have to get it all done this morning."

"Ok, ok," Joe reluctantly agreed. They had been hard at it for hours and he really was feeling quite sore. Plus he had the start of a headache at the back of his head, telling him he needed to get some food and water in him.

After lunch Joe tried getting back to work with that same energy, but he just couldn't get the rhythm going. His headache hadn't eased as he'd assumed it would, and his stomach was starting to feel a bit off. Still, he wanted time to work with Fox, the name he had decided on for the horse. So he started back on the fence post nearest him.

By the time the fence was finished, Joe didn't think he could make it back home under his own power. The pain in his head had grown and the bright sunlight was causing him to squint. He and Hoss stowed their tools and mounted their horses for the ride back home. Hoss looked at him questioningly as they started off at a slow trot. "You okay, Joe? You don't look so good."

"Sure Hoss, just a bit of a headache." Joe said as he pushed his hat down to try shielding his eyes a bit more from the sun.

"Joe, let's just sit a bit. You need some water and to cool off. You've been going hard all day. What's so goshdarn important anyway?"

Joe allowed himself to be led to the shade of the trees and happily took the water offered him. He could only manage a few swallows, but it did help. He decided it would be okay to lay down for a few minutes before heading back. He didn't want to let on how poorly he was starting to feel, but honestly couldn't manage the ride back just yet.

Hoss let him sleep for an hour before waking him gently. "Joe? You ready to head back now?"

He opened his eyes surprised that he felt better. Not great, but definitely well enough to get back on Cochise and head home. "Yeah. Thanks Hoss, I'm sorry I got carried away like that."

"Feeling better?"

"Much better."

After stabling the horses Joe decided to take a carrot out to the paddock for Fox. He didn't feel like trying his hand at sitting on the big horse, but still wanted to visit with him for a bit.

"How did it go today?" Ben asked as Hoss walked into the house and hung up his hat. "Where's Joe?"

"It was fine. Joe's down at the paddock. He sure is fired up about that horse."