Bucky's Hope (A Bucky Barnes Love Story)

Chapter 5

Hope's POV:

I was in the barn office finishing up a call with Holloway's owner as we set up a time for them to come pick him up the next day when Matt came in.

"Yes, just the man I was about to call."

He laughed, "What's up boss?'

"I am going to work with Holloway one last time before tomorrow, can you bring Winter and Midnight to pen with the jumps so I can see how he does."

"Sure thing, is he ready to go home?"

"I'm hoping yes, I want to see if he still tries to be aggressive with other horses, if so I can catch it now."

"You got it," Matt left to get the horses, while I got my riding boots and helmet then went to get Halloway saddled up.

By the time I was walking Holloway to the pen, Matt was already there with Winter and Midnight, and my parents, Morgan, and all the Avengers had joined as well.

Dad called out when I got to the pen, "Who is that handsome devil."

"This is Holloway, he is a showjumper who has been having behavioral issues with other horses."

"What do you mean behavioral issues?" Bruce asked.

"He would get very aggressive towards other horses and his owners were having a hard time getting him under control, it got so bad that an official from US Equestrian had been there during one of his last incidents he said that he would be filing an official complaint with the board to have him barred from being entered in competitions, so the owner's called me to see if I can help."

"And how has it been going?" Dad asked me.

"So far good, I have been able to get him under control and am hoping he will be able to go home tomorrow, but I want to see him around several horses while I jump him to see if he will still try and attack and if so I can get it corrected that way the owner's daughter will know how to handle him in the future."

No one else said anything so I got Holloway in the training pen, Matt came over and gave me a leg up. Once I got seated I started walking him around the course and would pass by Winter and Midnight a few times to see how he acted, so far he paid them no attention which was a good sign, I rode over to Matt again.

"Okay, go ahead and move Winter and Midnight to different sides of the course and subtly move one of them a little when I get close to one of the sides they are on."

"Okay boss," Matt went and moved the horses to different sides of the pen while I had Holloway walk over to the start of the course.

"Alright Holloway, let's see how you do this time," I got Holloway going on the first set of jumps that were closest to Midnight, I nodded at Matt to let him know to start having Midnight walk. I jumped Holloway passed Midnight and he paid him no mind at all.

"Good boy, Holloway, come on let's keep going," I then called out to Matt.

"Okay Matt, go ahead and tie up Midnight and go over to Winter."

"You got it," he tied Midnight to the railing and headed towards Winter getting her ready as I headed for the jumps she was by.

We finished the rest of the jumps with no problems until...

"Okay, I think we're done for the day," I rode Holloway over as we joined Matt and Winter and went over to get Midnight.

The entire time Holloway behaved well with Winter until we got to Midnight, at some point, Holloway was nuzzling Winter and Midnight did not like it because he whinnied loudly and jumped up on his hind legs trying to get Holloway away from Winter.