A Medallion

Chapter 26

There was a palatable air of excitement in the barn.  The horses were pacing with excitement, and a few of them nickered when we stepped into the barn.  They stuck their heads out as I followed Tessa to the feed room.  

Her mother and father were already there, dishing up grain in feed buckets.  Her father spotted me and said, "Hello Vanessa, good to see you're here."  

"Thank you, Mr. Wellen."  

Tessa pointed to where we'd put Medallion's feed for the few days we were staying.  "I'm assuming you want to feed Medallion yourself."  

I nodded, even though I felt surprise at her statement.  Why would she think that I would want to feed Medallion myself?  Then I realized she viewed that as a personal thing.

I'd never fed Medallion anything.  

Medallion's grain portions were the same for morning and evening, dividing up into little bags with the supplements mixed in.  All I had to do was dump one of the bags into her feed bowl. 

I pried open a bag and dumped it in.  I put the bag away, then reached down and started spreading the grain around.  The texture was sticky to my fingers, a feeling that I surprisingly liked.   

After playing with it a bit more, I grabbed the bowl and left for Medallion's stall.  

Medallion didn't know what was going on, but she knew something was going down.  She was watching everything with alertness, her ears pointed forward at all times.  It was thirty minutes later than her usual feed time, but it would be okay. 

I opened the stall door, with her entire attention focused on me.  She had bedding in her mane, showing that she had rolled.  That was good sign.  

I set the bucket on the floor and stepped back.  She dove for it like a snake striking.  Amused, I smiled.  

When I came back to the feed room, Tessa had already finished mixing up grain into five buckets.  "Want to help me hand these out?"  She asked as she stacked up three of the buckets.  

"Sure."  I grabbed the last two buckets.  I had more questions to ask her, and I figured now was the perfect time to do it.  

"So, why do you like feeding time so much?" 

Her smile grew a bit wider.  "Watch."  She led me towards a stall, where a paint gelding was watching us.  He stuck his head out, never taking his eyes off of the buckets in Tessa's arm.  The nameplate on his stall read 'Lesson horse Colorful'. 

"See how eager he is?  Like a child excited for candy," she said as she unlatched his stall door.  She clucked her tongue at him.  "Back."  She dragged the word out.  

Colorful obediently backed up several steps, giving Tessa room to put his food bowl down.  As soon as she stepped back, the paint claimed the bowl as his and attacked it with ferocity.  

"And I gave him something he wanted, something he needs.  That, to me, is one of the best and easiest ways to show love to a horse."  

I'd never thought of it that way.  

Tessa nodded to the next stall. "That's Coco, you have his blue bowl."

I unstuck the blue bucket and unlatched the stall. The brown grulla backed up before I even stepped in the stall and stood fairly shaking with excitement as I set his bowl down.

As soon as I let it go and stepped back, he was on it, grabbing a huge mouthful of food. I found myself smiling as he raised his head and grain dangled from his lips.