On her way back to the barn, Lauren saw that there was a horse in the cross ties and a girl who was finishing brushing him. Another girl about the same age, 7 or 8, was leading a pony to them. Lauren could tell they weren't too advanced, at least in their taking up skills. One of the horses still had dust all over his back where the saddle would go, but the girl wasn't even trying to reach it. Continuously brushing the same place on his side was apparently good enough. She continued to the front of the barn, ready to continue mucking. As Lauren got to the front of the barn, she saw Max at his white board, talking to a girl. Maybe 10 years old at the most.
"Lauren," He called her over, "This is Molly," He introduced.
Lauren responded with a, "Hey" returned with a shy smile from the girl.
"This is her first lesson here and I was hoping you could help her tack up Dime for me." He said.
"I'd love to," Lauren answered.
Max nodded, "Alright then, Molly, go with Lauren here and I'll see you at the lesson, okay?"
Molly murmured something back that sounded like a 'Thanks' but Lauren couldn't tell. She gestured to follow her to the left side of the barn where she knew Dime lived.
"So you like horses, Molly?" She asked, making small talk. Molly gave an enthusiastic nod up and down. "Good. Well this here is Dime. And he's probably the nicest pony in this entire barn, alright? He'll take good care of you today." In truth, Lauren didn't know a thing about Dime except that he was grey, small, and male, but she was sure the encouragement couldn't hurt.
"Do you know what this is?" Lauren asked, picking up the halter on his door.
Molly shook her head. "No." She managed to say.
"This is called a halter, and we use it to bring the horses where we want to go." Lauren slipped in the stall and quickly brought Dime out. She stopped him in the isle facing Molly. "Say 'Hi', Dime." She told him. Dime stuck his nose out a little bit towards Molly to smell her. Molly grinned and backed away a bit, holding her hands behind her back. "He's not gonna bite," Lauren said. "He's just saying 'Hello'." She told Molly.
Slowly, Molly put her hand towards Dime and stroked his face. "Do you want to lead him to the cross ties?" She asked.
"How?" Molly asked.
"Come here," Lauren said, and Molly walked to where she was standing next to Dime. "Put your right hand here, under his nose on this thingy," She said, holding out the lead rope, "And hold the rest of it," she put the rest of the rope in Molly's other hand. "Here. Just look where you want to go and start walking." Lauren told her, and went to stand on the other side of Dime's head, with her hand on the halter, just in case. "When we get there," She pointed out the door, "We're going to go right." After they had walked a bit Lauren praised, "You're doing great!" answered by a huge grin from Molly..
"Lauren!" Max called suddenly.
"Stop here for a second." Lauren told Molly.
He walked quickly to them, "Can you also take photos of her this lesson? Her mom wasn't able to stay but wanted pictures." He handed her a blue camera.
"Yeah, sure." Lauren said, somewhat bothered that Molly's mom would miss her first horseback riding lesson. But she loved trying to be a photographer, and Max replied with a thanks and swiftly went back to whatever he was doing. Lauren went a few feet ahead of girl and pony and played paparazzi for a moment before they continued on. Lauren helped her put the pony in the cross ties were Max had already laid out the tack for all the horses like he did sometimes when he was in a good mood, or just wanted to do other work out of his office or jobs that didn't have to deal with manure.
There were brushes all around and Lauren grabbed some from a bucket. Lauren held the curry comb first and said, "See this?" and handed it to her. Molly took it and turned it in her hand, feeling the funny massage-like welts on it. "This is called a curry comb. You're going to use this to get all the big chunks of dirt off Dime." She explained. "And you see what shape it is?" She asked.
"A circle?" Molly replied.
"Yeah, exactly. So we're going to use it in a circular motion like this on him," She guided Molly's hand on Dime's barrel. "And were going to use all the way from here," She said, over exaggeratingly motioning near Dime's shoulder, "To way over here," she threw her arms towards Dime's flank. When Molly started she told her "He's looking shinier already.", even though she couldn't help but silently laugh to herself as Molly tenderly brushed Dime's side at a rate of about one light movement a minute. After Molly had done the same on the other side Lauren got two more brushes and held them out to Molly. "You feel these?" She asked, and Molly touched each. "How does this one feel?" She asked, holding out the denser of the two.
"Hard." She replied.
"Yeah, so what do you think it's called?" She said, using the exact routine for learning brushes as she had used at the Girl Scout camp where she used to volunteer at and work with kids Molly's age.
"Hard?"
Lauren smiled. "A hard brush, yeah. And this one?" She held up the soft brush.
"A soft brush?" She asked.
"Very good." She nodded in satisfaction, and briefly told her where to use each of the brushes on the horse, and to brush in the direction the hair goes. The necessary basics she needed to know. The rest she would learn with more experience. Hopefully she would learn to use a little more force when brushing them too, because with all the sweat and blood Molly was putting into it, Lauren had to discreetly go back and do a complete quick re-brush of Dime.
Next she brought out a hoof pick. She saw that the other girl in Molly's lesson was about to put the bridle on, and the other was just leaving, so to save time she didn't even offer for Molly to help. She showed her how to pick up his feet and as quickly as she could, finished all four hooves in just moments.
"So now, this, she took the saddle pad off of the rack and handed it to Molly. "This is a saddle pad. It makes it nice and comfy for Dime so when you're sitting on his back it doesn't hurt." –Well, for the most part. She watched as Molly put it on and then slid it up to his withers before reaching for the saddle. "Do you know what this is?" She asked.
"A saddle!" She said, excitedly.
"Ex-actly." She stated. She held it out for Molly to take, who struggled with it for a moment as she felt it's full weight. "Heavy, huh?"
Molly nodded as she worked to put it on Dime's back. "And the we just have the girth," She said, leading Molly to the other side. "You always start with the non-elastic side- that's this stuff," She showed her, "On the horse's right. Do you know how to put on a buckle?" Lauren asked, not in the 'Do you know-' sort of way but more playful.
"Of course." Molly smiled and said with a lively tone.
"Then if you'll put this one here," She said, holding the girth so it was in the right spot, through the saddle pad an on the right strap. Molly put the girth onto the first strap. "And here," She held the other buckle in place and Molly put it on. "Very nice. Now on the other side…" She trailed off as they walked back around. "And can you do that here too?" Lauren asked, holding the girth the same way as she did on the other side. "Now since this is like Dime's belt," She explained, "We don't want to have it loose. "Lauren walked back to the other side. "Because loose belts are no good, right? They'll just make your pants fall off. And we don't want this falling off." She tightened his girth on both sides. "Do we?"
Molly nodded 'No'.
"And so now, last we have this thingy." She took the bridle. "Do you know what this is?" She asked.
"Um, a bridle?" Molly guessed.
"Yep, and this?" She held up the bit. Molly shook her head 'No'. "This is a bit." Lauren said, starting to remove Dime's halter and putting the bridle on. "And these things attached to it?" She jiggled a rein with her hand after the bit was in his mouth, an started buckling straps.
"It's a um… a Ray… Umm…" She struggled.
"Rein. Yep." Lauren began buckling the straps. "And so when you pull on this right reign here," She demonstrated, "It tells Dime to go right. And when you pull left, Dime goes left." She told Molly with as little detail as needed for her first lesson. No doubt though, that she would be learning this in just a minute once she was in the ring. Lauren finished adjusting the throatlatch and so told Molly to put on her helmet since they were ready to go out.
As they began their short walk to the ring, Lauren noticed Dime's ears suddenly snap up along with his head.
"Come on, Dime." She coaxed. Dime didn't come, though. She saw his eyes roll showing white, and tried talking to him again. "Guuu-hhd boooy," soothed. All of the sudden he squealed and started backing up. Lauren took the lead rope from Molly's hand, letting Dime back up and have his space, but not completely letting go. When he stood still she took a few slow steps towards him, trying to calm him down along the way. When she was just a few feet away Dime reared up. Lauren tried to jump out of the way but before she was out of striking distance Dimes hoof caught her in a hard blow to the head.
Molly could instantly see a large gash near her temple even before she hit the hard ground with a loud 'thump', only to have Dime come back to all fours, spin, and gallop away, kicking Lauren again near her chest as he did so…
And that was the day Lauren died.
Yeah, well… I got tired of writing this. I am not motivated at all, and I find it uninteresting. I'm glad you all liked it, but I'm done.
Bear is a real pony, who does work at a girl scout camp. Everything about him in here is true so I'm not quite sure what his breed is, person who asked. Also to that, I haven't been to a barn where they outright said 'Don't let them say 'Hi'.' And at another they often do through the hay gates of their doors with a horse in the isle. Yes, I realize that's not normally good, and they often do get territorial or what not. But too late. It has been written.