Heehee! I'm trying to do longer chapters, but they take so long and I kinda get bored writing long stuff, but I'm trying!
Corkey- you rock
PuNKyCoWGiRL- you're thinking too hard. The 16-year-old is Amy, but obviously Emma doesn't know that cuz she doesn't know Amy.
RenegadeRanger- Thanks for the review, but I was going on the usual "killer auction" deal that a horse would go for a dollar a pound.
Ok, on with the story-------
Leap of Faith
Chapter 3
::back at Nick's::
::Daniel::
I was just putting up Storm after a workout when I saw the trailer come up the drive. It was Nick's smallest, a 2 horse bumper-pull that no one ever wanted to drive, but apparently, Emma had dealt with it. After all, she was only hauling one horse.
As Emma stopped the truck, Nick called out to her, "How many did you get Em?"
"Two. A jet-black 4 year old colt, thoroughbredish type, maybe with a bit of Hano and a little bay Morgan filly, probably about 3, that was broken in by charros." Emma replied.
"What's wrong with the colt?" Nick asked.
"Beaten on the head with a 2x4 and, for good reason, extremely headshy. Hell, I would be too." She said. "I think I'll back the trailer up to the gate to unload the two of them. We'll just keep them out for now. I think they could use the space. How's the fence in the far pasture?"
"Which one?" I asked. I knew the general area she was talking about.
"The tiny one." She replied.
"Are you sure about keeping them together in there?" Nick asked.
"Yeah. They need to be horses for a while. How's the fence?" she repeated.
"No idea. I haven't been down there in a couple years. We don't use that part of the farm much." Nick said.
"Then I guess I'll go check it out. D'you want to come, Dad? I'll need somebody to get the gates for me." She asked.
"I'm busy with Whiz. Daniel, why don't you go? It would be good for you to see what's down there." Nick said as he turned away, heading back to the barn where Lucky Whizelli, a new jumper prospect was waiting, half-tacked, to be assessed by Nick.
Emma shrugged. "C'mon" she said, jumping into her truck. I climbed into the passenger side of the big black F-250 and we drove down an old, unpaved, and overgrown road, horse trailer behind.
"So why can't we just put them in the barn or one of the bigger turnout paddocks?" I asked.
"There's always 5 other horses out there that could easily push these two around and they need to gain some confidence. I don't think they'll go after eachother. They need to be turned out to play around and just be horses. Every horse needs some time to do that, especially if they've been abused."
"So why are we driving all the way here?"
"For starters, it's a four-minute drive, second, the filly isn't halter broke and the colt is so headshy you can hardly lead him. Down here, they've got a small turnout field and it's got a gate right into a round pen. There's also a tack room and a small feed room. It'll store about 2 weeks worth of grain and hay. It's actually really nice when it's not overgrown." She replied. "Alright, let's check out this fence line." She said, putting the truck in park and jumping out.
We walked along the fence line, which, although overgrown, was in pretty good shape. It wasn't even rotted.
"It could use a little mowing, but these two should handle it fine. They're skinny as rails and you could count their ribs. Open that gate up so I can turn around and back the trailer in, OK?"
"Sure." I replied, moving to open the gate. She got back into the truck and carefully turned around, then easily backed up so the back end of the trailer was inside the paddock.
She jumped out of the truck and hopped the fence since the gate was completely blocked by the trailer.
"OK, let's get these suckers unloaded." She said, expertly undoing the various latches holding the trailer door in place. She carefully swung the door open. When she started talking to the horses, her voice lost the playful, joking, hyper tone and became calmer and more soothing. Despite the attitude change, the horses shrunk back into as far as they could, the tall black colt trying to disappear into the shadows, the filly freezing up against the divider of the slant-load trailer. Emma glanced back at me with a look that clearly said 'see why I wanted to unload here?' I grinned in response.
She untied the filly and walked out of the trailer, standing on the ground, waiting for the filly to join her. The filly had the look of someone being forced to jump off the high dive who really doesn't want to. She had her weight forward, watching the ground carefully, as if she was expecting it to fall away if she put any weight on it.
"C'mon baby girl. You're OK, see. If I can stand here so can you." Emma said gently. She bent over and pulled up a handful of grass and held it out to the filly. She reached for it, but Emma drew her hand back, giving the filly the choice to come out of the trailer and get the food or to stay put and get nothing. Reluctantly, the filly put her forelegs on the ground and then leaped the rest of the way out of the trailer. Completely forgetting about Emma, she practically dove into the grass, eating like there was no tomorrow.
Emma unbuckled the filly's halter and handed it to me before walking back into the trailer.
"Hey there, big guy. Do you wanna come out?" With the colt, her voice was more playful than it was with the filly. The colt didn't really need so much reassurance. Emma moved the divider out of the way and untied the black horse. As soon as he was free, he pushed past Emma and jumped out of the trailer, galloping all the way around the field and then coming over to where the filly tore at the grass to join her. When he stopped to eat, Emma came over and carefully took off his halter. She took it and the halter that had been on the filly and tossed them into the trailer before closing and locking the door.
"OK, I need you to shut the gate as soon as I've got the trailer pulled out, got it?" she said briskly. I nodded, standing by the gate. Neither of the horses looked inclined to leave, but it was better to make sure the gate was closed quickly. Once the trailer was out, I swung the gate closed and locked it with a chain. Emma was already out and unhitching the trailer. When she finished, she came over and stood with me by the gate, watching the two horses.
"So what will you name them?"
"Well, I decided to name the colt Crash 'n' Burn, just Burn as a barn name. I was thinking about the filly's name on the way back and for some odd reason my brain was thinking in Spanish, so I came up with Fiesta del Sol, with Fiesta as a barn name."
"Feast of the sun. How'd you come up with that one?" I asked. She just shrugged.
"Even I don't quite understand how my brain works."
The filly sank down and rolled over, clearly enjoying herself. She got up, shook off the grass and dirt and took off at a fast canter, her short legs moving quickly. Burn looked up from his grazing and joined her at a much more collected canter, although they were going the same speed.
"They look so silly, like Mutt and Jeff or something." Emma said. She had a point. Fiesta, by my estimation, was about 14.2, while Burn was about 17 hands, nearly a foot taller than her. I grinned. I had to admit that it was funny. I glanced over at Emma. Instead of grinning, she was fingering a bite mark on the wood of the fence with a lost look on her face.
"You OK?" I asked.
"Oh, uh, yeah. It's just, well…." Emma's explanation drifting off into an uncomfortable silence.
"You kept Ally here, didn't you?" Emma nodded.
"Every time I see something that reminds me of Amber I get like that too. God I miss that mare." I said, swallowing hard. "We were at a show trying to get a place at a big training barn in Maryland. It was a really wet day, and well, Amber wasn't much of a looker. She was short and stocky, like a draft horse, really. The mud was really hard on her. We actually pulled off a clear on our first round, but once it was time for the jump-off, it was muddier. She was having enough problems with the mud, but there was a pole down and neither of us saw it and she tripped over it. She should have refused the next jump. She was so unbalanced, but she took it anyway and caught the rail. She fell and broke a leg. They did surgery on it, but it was infected. We had to put her down."
"I don't really remember what happened to Ally. It's just really hazy now. I got a skull fracture and was considered comatose for a few hours. I guess that explains why I don't remember. We were at a show to qualify for the PanAm games. I really thought we were going all the way…" her voice drifted off again.
"Still too soon to talk?" I asked. She just nodded. She took a deep breath and straightened up, wiping the tears off her face.
"We should get back up to the barn." She said, turning back to the now trailer-free truck. Once we were both in, she started it up and headed back to the barn. She was still tense. Her hands gripped the steering wheel so hard that her knuckles looked white.
"I know a girl who lives a little ways away, her name's Amy. She's one of those whisperer types. She'd probably be willing to help you with Burn and Fiesta if you want." I said.
"I don't think I'll need much help. I trained Ally myself and she was an ex-racer that was abused. I had to work through abuse, thoroughbred-ness, and racehorse instincts. I can deal with a couple untrained and abused horses." She replied a little coldly. I wisely said nothing, understanding how she felt. She was still hurting from Ally. After a few minutes of an uncomfortable silence, we got back to the farm to find Nick untacking the new horse, Whiz.
"So how was he?" Emma asked Nick.
"Very green. He needs a lot of flatwork on the basics. Lunging would help him a lot. I was thinking you could give him a quick workout on the lunge every day for a while. I don't think you should ride quite yet." Nick told her. Emma rolled her eyes and walked up to the horse, rubbing his nose.
"I guess I could." She said reluctantly. "I'm going to be pretty busy with Burn and Fiesta though." Nick gave her one of those "fatherly looks" that told her to shut up and just accept it.
"Anyway, Daniel, you're off. Go home." Nick said to me.
"Alright, bye."
"Thanks for helping me." Emma called out.
I turned around and grinned. "No problem. I can't wait to see what you can turn those two into."
Well, it's a little shorter than I wanted it to be, but it's a whole 4 ½ pages. I couldn't help but add in Lucky Whizelli. In real life, the horse is a TB racer (who I betted on {sorta} and got 7 dollars {hey, it was 50 cent night and nobody was betting high and he was second, so, yeah}) but I fell in love with the name, so I had to toss him in here.