Alright, chapter 3 is officially up! I'm going to be travelling to a place where internet access is a questionable commodity for the next few days, so we'll just have to wait and see if I can post an update... Otherwise, 'til I return!

3

Jake couldn't wait until his yearling, Witch, was old enough to learn to accept a rider. He was tired of having to ask Nate if he could borrow his gelding, Digger. Although a mild-mannered horse, Digger was the type you had to spur into any sort of motion, even a relaxed walk. Jake knew his horse was certainly not one to do things half-heartedly. Things were going quite well with Witch, and he couldn't deny the fact that he seemed to be the only person that horse actually liked. There was a joy that he felt like no other when he whispered her secret name and she'd come so close that the warm breath from her nostrils would blow his long, dark hair from his face. She brought out the softness in him that had disappeared for quite a while, the vulnerability that he hated to show. He could only imagine what it would feel like to be out with her someday on the playa.

But today he had to settle for shoveling out the pasture, Nate's chore, so that he could borrow his sluggish horse to visit his friend Samantha Forester at Riverbend ranch. Since Riverbend neighbored Three Ponies and Sam's mother had been a close friend of his own, he found himself being hounded by the ten-year-old girl quite often - to the extensive teasing of his brothers. Her own foal was expected to be born today, and he was incredibly grateful the wait was about to be over because he hadn't caught a break from hearing her talk about it for months. That little pest had made him promise to teach her some of the Native American training techniques that his father and grandfather had taught him. He had already told her the most important one: the secret name. You had to whisper the name three times to the foal as soon as possible, and be especially careful that no one else could hear you. He had worried that with her big mouth that could be a problem, but Sam had listened to his instructions intently, nodding her understanding of his every word. If only she would listen like that more often...

When Jake crossed the bridge to Riverbend on Digger he could have sworn that Sam had developed a Jake Ely radar, because in that instant she came running from the barn, her auburn hair flying out behind her.

"Jake! Jake!" she shouted. "You missed it! My foal was born!"

"Quiet down, Brat," Jake said. "You'll spook Digger." As if. Jake almost wished she had spooked Digger; it would've been the most energy he'd ever seen the horse voluntarily exert.

"Oh, sorry." Sam smiled sheepishly. "C'mon, get down! I want to show him to you."

Jake rolled his eyes, then swung down from Nate's horse and tied him to the post outside the barn. Sam danced ahead of him, waving him along with her hands until she stopped in front of an enclosed stall. Jake peered over the door. Sure enough, a foal was resting between the hooves of Princess Kitty, a sorrel Quarter Horse mare. Despite the tinge of gray to the soft baby fuzz, Jake could see that the foal was completely black.

"Isn't he beautiful?" Sam sighed from beside him. "I named him Blackie."

Jake snorted. A black horse named Blackie. That was Sam, for you.

"What?" Sam sounded hurt. Girls were so sensitive.

"Nothin'."

She brushed it off quickly. Turning to Jake, she said, "He and Witch will match when we go riding together. It's a good thing black is your favorite color, huh?"

He said nothing. He couldn't fathom why anyone would care about horses matching, or why it would be bad if black wasn't his favorite color. Sam, however, interpreted his silence slightly differently.

"Oh," she said, then lowered her voice to a whisper. "Don't worry, I remembered what you told me. As soon as my dad left the barn, I snuck into the stall and whispered his secret name to him. Three times. Just like you said."

"Good." Jake didn't bother to mention that he certainly never instructed her to sneak into the stall of a new mother and her foal unsupervised.

Suddenly Sam's father Wyatt Forester walked into the barn. Jake liked Wyatt. Sam's father was a true cowboy; a kind man who hid his soft side with tough exterior. He was good with horses, and understood how words sometimes just got in the way of things.

"Hey there, Jake," Wyatt said.

Jake tipped his Stetson toward him.

"Can I expect you to be around this summer to help Sam with that colt of hers? Maybe some of your good sense will rub off on her."

"Yes sir," Jake grinned as Sam stuck her tongue out at him.

Wyatt shot her a stern look, causing Sam to mumble an apology. Jake couldn't help but observe that the glimmer in her eyes didn't look the least bit sorry. Wyatt seemed to notice this too, as he shook his head with a sigh and excused himself to go check on one of the cows that had fallen ill.

"So what do we do next?" Sam asked eagerly.

Jake couldn't stop the tomcat grin from spreading over his face from under his black Stetson. "Jeeze, Brat. That horse was just born today!"

But when her enthusiasm failed to leave her face, Jake relented. He gave her little things to work on, like keep saying his secret name and getting him used to being handled all over. Although he would never admit it, he liked this feeling of teaching her what to do. It made him feel important. And he wanted to do this the right way, too. He wanted to be successful with horses because he had a way with them, not because he could manipulate them. There were days when he had been so tempted to make Witch cooperate by spirit walking into her, but he had come to appreciate his horse for living up to her namesake. Now with Sam's horse Blackie, he wanted to earn Sam's respect the old-fashioned way.

All of the sudden, he found himself eagerly awaiting the day when he and Sam could be out on the desert, matching black horses thundering over the open playa.