New chapter! At our farm, it's getting cold again, and all the water is freezing, AGAIN. Plus, little fun fact, my horse likes Ritz crackers! Who knew…
A week had passed since titanium had left, and Zane needed a new horse. Kai had found a pretty good one, and they were going to check it out that day.
"C'mon guys!" cole called. They had attached the trailer to his ford super duty, and they were ready to go.
"I don't want to come," Lloyd said from inside the house.
"Are you sure?" nya asked. Lloyd nodded and continued reading a comic book.
Cole looked at the sky. It was sunny outside, but in the distance was a large mass of dark clouds, casting a rainy shroud over the land that it covered.
"There's gonna be a pretty bad storm," he turned to Lloyd. "We'll be back in time to do the horses, okay?"
Lloyd nodded again.
Zane ran out the door, all dressed up in his jodhpurs and his riding helmet.
"Zane, you can take the helmet off. You won't be riding for a while." Kai laughed.
Zane nodded and jumped into the truck. Jay stuck his head through the doorway into the house.
"Okay, lloyd, we're off, toodles!"
An hour's drive later, all of them pulled into the lot in front of the seller's barn. A tall girl poked her head through the door of the barn and waved at them to come inside.
"whoa." Jay looked around the large building. It was super clean, and the floor was super clean, and the horses were super clean, and there were fragrant, vibrant flowers hanging in front of the stall.
Kai leaned into jay and whispered, "Cole must feel like a pretty skimpy barn manager, our barn looks like a dump." Kai let out a hissing sort of laugh, and jay smiled.
The tall girl that waved to them walked up to kai. She had bright red hair pulled up into a tight bun and classy tight jodhpurs with her purple jacket.
"What's it like, throwing yourself sloppily on a horse, waving a rope around your head?" she joked.
Kai rolled his eyes. "Excuse me, but just because I don't ride English doesn't mean I have bad posture. Western riding also needs skill and balance. And it proves as good multitasking that I can rope a calf while galloping across an arena."
The girl nodded and turned to him. "I want to ride western, but my dad thinks that it's undignified. My name's skylor, by the way."
Kai shook her hand and nodded at nya. "You could ask her for lessons on barrels. She's last year's VHSRA state champ."
Skylor nodded and walked up to a shiny buckskin horse with a few spots on its butt.
"This is Casey, one of our jumping and dressage mares. We're looking for a good home for her, so if you want to try her out…"
"Sure!" Zane exclaimed.
They tacked up Casey and Zane hopped on her.
"What do you want to do first?" skylor asked.
Zane frowned and said, "Just dressage. I don't want to jump."
Skylor nodded.
After Zane did some dressage, he finished and walked up to skylor.
"I really like her, her trot is very smooth. I think that I would like to have her!"
Skylor nodded and helped them lead Casey into the trailer.
They looked up at the sky and skylor whistled.
"You sure you want to go home in that storm?" she asked. The clouds were boiling, and they were black and intimidating.
Cole nodded. "It'll be okay, I'm sure."
They had been driving for about thirty minutes when the rain started. And it didn't start with a little spatter. It just suddenly came down in torrents, thrashing against the truck.
It got so bad to the point of cole having to pull over.
"Guys, we're nearing the bridge, I think, but I can't see a thing." Cole sighed.
"I'm sure we can make it. Remember, Lloyd is still at home." Nya said.
Cole decided to take a chance and go for the bridge. But just before they crossed, a loud rumbling was heard.
"COLE! DO NOT GO ONTO THE BRIDGE!" Zane screamed.
A huge rush of water blasted through the channel and wiped the bridge away as if it had been made of tooth-picks.
"We have no choice. We have to wait the storm out, or go home the long way." Cole said.
Nya put her head in her hands. "And there is a seven year old at home with 7 horses and a dog."
Lloyd pulled his blanket up over his head and whimpered. The wind was howling loudly against the windows, and the rain came down in a roar. Lloyd heard it hit the roof as if it was stones. He had taken refuge under his covers, praying for his family to get home safe.
He glanced at his watch. It was 5:30. Half an hour past the time that they usually went to do the horses.
Lloyd mentally slapped himself and turned to jess, their dog, who was sitting next to him.
"Cole would take care of the animals even in a hurricane, tornado, or flood! C'mon, jess!" he jumped up and pulled on his raincoat. He put a little rain-coat on jess and ran to the barn.
"Hi, babies!" Lloyd yelled as he trotted into the dry barn. He was covered in mud because the horrible wind had blown him over a couple of times. He also felt a few hail stones, but other than that, he was ready.
He managed to fill all the buckets with water and cleaned out the stalls. After that, only one thing was left. He gulped as he looked up at the hayloft. They were out of hay, and cole was usually the one to get the hay from the loft.
He sucked in a deep breath and started to climb the shaky ladder. He pushed the hay bale with all his might over the edge of the loft.
"Heads up!" he yelled to jess. Jess barked in response and wagged her tail. Lloyd shakily climbed back down the ladder.
Lloyd had seen cole just open the gate and let the horse find their way to their stalls, since they were so accustomed to being put up. So Lloyd just opened the gate and all the wet horses lumbered in. lloyd threw some hay to each of them and wiped his hands on his jacket.
He hugged jess and laughed.
"We did it! Oh, wait…" Lloyd clipped a lead rope to each stall, just like Zane told him, so the horses wouldn't get out.
"ta-da!" Lloyd said and danced around the barn. He turned on the radio and the two danced to disco for an hour, with the horses watching them thoughtfully.
Done! And sorry I haven't updated. So much stinkin' schoolwork.