The Art of Healing

Chapter 12

After Lane was done talking to Doug, he showed Willow around the barn and introduced her to all the horses.

"This is my horse, Buckshot. I trained him myself back on a ranch in New Mexico. I used to rope cattle in rodeos, so I trained him to do that, but he's really just an all around perfect ranch horse. Quarter Horses are pretty adaptable to whatever you want them to do though. " Lane explained as the two of them leaned on the stall door. Inside the stall was a pretty horse, with a speckled grey coat and a black mane and tail. Half of the things that Lane was saying, made no sense to Willow, but she nodded as if she understood. She could see that Lane was passionate about horses and it was fun to see him talk so seriously about something he loved.

"He's very pretty. I like that grey color." She mentioned, holding out her hand towards the curious horse. Buckshot sniffed her courteously, but turned to nudge his owner in the shoulder, and sniff at the hand Lane extended to look for treats.

"He's a blue roan. That's what that color is called." Lane chuckled at her confused expression, and then led her to another horse a few stalls over.

"This horse here is the one you'll be riding today. His name is Jinx, and boss assured me that he's the calmest, quietest horse on the ranch. He used to be a lesson horse." Willow peered over the stall door to see the horse that stood towards the back of the stall. He was a a tall gleaming brown horse with a white blaze down his nose and white around his hooves. The eyes that he looked at Willow with seemed to gleam with kindness and he moved towards the front of his stall to nudge her hand.

"Hey boy. You're a pretty boy too aren't you." She cooed at him while rubbing her hand down his nose. Jinx huffed quietly and stood still as she pet him.

"I think you guys will make a good match. He's a good horse." Lane nodded as he watched them interact.

"I've never ridden before though. I have no idea what to do." Willow turned back towards Lane and grimaced. Nerves were building in her stomach at the thought of having to get on that horses back and then be in charge of controlling the animal and telling him where to go. He was huge and if he didn't want to listen to her, she wouldn't be able to do a thing to stop him.

"You'll be fine. It's fairly easy to get the basics of it. Jinx will take good care of you too, I promise."

"Well whatever you say I guess." She followed Lane to the small room at the other end of the stable.

"This is the tack room. It has everything we need to get the horses ready to ride." Lane explained what everything was as he picked stuff up and set it in Willow's arms. He gave her a brush, a hoof pick, two saddle blankets and two bridles. She watched as he walked over the the heavy looking saddles, and heaved two of them off their saddle stands. He placed both of them on his hips and walked towards the barn door, seemingly not even noticing the extra weight. They dumped all of their stuff at a pole outside the barn, which Lane called the hitching rail. He then instructed Willow to stay there and went inside to lead the two horses outside. After Lane helped Willow brush and saddle both horses, she stood there staring up at the huge animal.

"Lane, I'm not sure about this." Nerves bubbled in her stomach, and she could feel her legs and hands shaking slightly. She had never even been this close to a horse before, let along rode one.

"I promise you'll be fine Willow. Jinx is a super calm horse and if you need help, I'll be right beside you. We don't have to go fast either. We'll just walk. If you really don't like it, we will stop." Lane stood close to her, and reached out to squeeze her shoulder in comfort. Willow swallowed hard and wiped her sweaty hands on her jeans before moving closer to Jinx.

"How do I even get up there? He's huge." She whispered, too terrified to speak in her normal voice. She wanted nothing more than to prove to both Lane and herself that she could do it, especially because she had always wanted to ride a horse before.