Squidward and Spongebob were fixing a seahorse corral at the stable that had once belonged to Mr. Krabs' late father. The crustacean had planned on selling the property, but nobody had wanted it. Now he took down his hand-written signs that had told about the place for sale. He had his employees go to work one early evening after closing time, and that was how the two co-workers found themselves fixing an old corral.
Mr. Krabs was down at the shelter, adopting quiet seahorses for only thirty dollars a piece. The animals weren't models of beauty, but they were cute and affectionate. They were pretty slow, but most people who wanted to rent seahorses were scared of fast paces, anyway. Superstitiously, Mr. Krabs named all the horses after money for good luck. He got as many horses as there were stalls in the stable—ten. He didn't like spending all that money, adopting them, but he thought they'd soon profit.
Spongebob already knew the seahorses' names, for Mr. Krabs had named them ahead of time. He was painting the names on the stalls: Money, Expensive, Ka-Ching, Cash, Bill, Check, Pricey, Profit, Wealthy, and Rich. When Mr. Krabs came in, he had already assigned one name to each seahorse, depending on its personality or looks. For example, he called a green seahorse Bill because he was the color of money.
Mr. Krabs had some tack (saddles and bridles) in his mother's house from when his father had owned and ridden seahorses. He cleaned it all up and put it in the tack room while Spongebob put the horses in their stalls and an annoyed Squidward rationed out feed (also known as Mr. Krabs' lawn clippings).
The next day, day, everyone in Bikini Bottom had a flyer in their mailbox:
BUBBLY TRAILS SEAHORSE-BACK-RIDING
$40.00 per hour! No more need to drive an hour to Coralville
to ride friendly seahorses!
Call about group rates—call Mr. Eugene Krabs!
Call .
"Yay, Mommy, we get to ride seahorsies!" a very happy child grouper shouted. He and his mother were the first customers at the stables, and they'd come the day after the flyers had been put out. Sandy Cheeks, the squirrel who wore an air helmet underwater when she wasn't in her land bubble, had a day off from her job at a store in the Bikini Bottom Mall and was volunteering to saddle up as she, a squirrel from Texas, knew something about horse care, and seahorses weren't all that different from land horses.
Mr. Krabs had had to find employees for at the stables, which he didn't take to too well, but it had to be done. He really wanted to get five thousand dollars or more in profits because, of course, having to pay Katie that money. The stables operated during Krusty Krab hours and an hour after. Spongebob, who still missed Mystery, his old seahorse, liked to watch the seahorses for an hour after work.
At this moment, however, it was the lunch hour, and Spongebob was busy. Sandy saddled up Bill, the green seahorse, for the woman, and saddled Check, the smallest seahorse, for the child. The two fish got on the seahorses roughly and the child bounced up and down, yelling happily. The seahorses didn't really care. They just grazed. Sandy got on a nice seahorse mare, Expensive, so named because she was the fanciest-looking of all the seahorses.
"Come on, little critter!" the squirrel chirped. "Let's go ride the range! Yee-haw!"
"Yay!" the fish said, riding beside his mother, who gave him a big grin. All they did was sit on the swimming animals, but as they passed some actual equestrians (or whatever you can call seahorse handlers), the equestrians laughed.
"They think they can ride?" laughed a salmon on a spirited ex-race-seahorse.
"I can ride!" chirped the naïve kid. His mother beamed and snapped a picture of him. The seahorse she was riding sped up a little—just a hair—and the mother fish screeched. A few seconds later, though, her mount slowed down.
"Wow!" the kid gasped, awe in his voice. "You rode a race-seahorse, mommy! It was so fast!"
One of the equestrians, as they were still sharing the same trail, choked back a laugh and led her group onto a different trail, a more challenging one.
"Wasn't he fast, though, Gooby?" the mother asked her son. The little shrimp (okay, fish) nodded in affirmation. Before long, however, the hour was up and Sandy Cheeks led the two back to the stables. The woman fish paid her thirty dollars, and Mr. Krabs, who'd come over to check on things, put it in a super-secure box and hid it in the tack room.
Later that day, Spongebob and Squidward came down to the stables to see what was going on. A bunch of people were going on rides. Spongebob grinned happily and waved to a few people from his boating class. Squidward, however, was apprehensive.
I still think something will go wrong, he thought.
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My thanks to ActionGirl07 for the good reviews:)
This is sort of an impulse chapter…I wrote it while the inspiration was hot, so it may be a little rougher than most chapters. :-D.
