The Borden Family Legacy - A Heartland Dream

Chapter Eight - A Summer to Remember - Part Three

A/N - This chapter will close out the summer. As always it will be a fun ride with lots of successes and challenges. But as always family love prevails. Enjoy. Mild Mature content come on its Amy and Ty.

With Amy feeling much better and the family assistance program, FAP as Ty jokingly called it, in place, the summer has been progressing well. All the construction is completed and with everyone on board scheduling has been active and hectic. The Equine Center's reputation continues to grow and more and more out of town clients are coming. It is the norm for all of the stalls and the Dude Ranch to be at capacity. In fact, Amy, Georgie, and Lou have begun scheduling for the fall with the understanding that Katie and the girls would be back in school. They contacted the middle and high school and offered a program, where kids could volunteer and earn extra credit. Georgie recalled when they use to volunteer at the Wildlife Center years ago.

Everyone understood their roles. Amy and Ty offered a Vet Assistant job to Steven, and he excitably accepted. Even though Georgie was starting her "Olympic Trainer" role she was able to convince them to allow the training to happen at Heartland, allowing her to also be active in the Equine Center operation as well. Amy, Lou, and Ty decided to put aside a portion of their profits to provide the girls and Katie some spending money but more importantly to add to their college fund. Additionally, Amy, Ty, Georgie, and Lou were on the payroll (of course) and they decided to pay Jack and Lisa for the use of Heartland, even though they said there was no need to. And also coming into play was Amy's progressing pregnancy. She was in her second Trimester with a January due date. With the kids not there all the time, they were deciding how to keep the FAP up and running. In the past Amy would have protested but after the episode with Maddie she was committed to not let her down. The good thing was, although not planned, the pregnancy timeline worked well for the business cycle. They would be shutting down over the holiday for two weeks and business would be slow the first few months of the year giving her quality prep time before and baby time after the birth.

I was the dog days of summer and unusually hot. Lyndy had been spending a lot of time working with the horses and learning the skills needed from her mom and Georgie. She was excited today because her mom decided that she was going to give a horse just for her to work on. Katie had been doing that for a few years, so she was working hard to be on her own. Blitz had been having issues accepting a saddle but was a pretty calm horse. While Georgie and Katie watched she began lunging the beautiful blue roan stallion. He as 15 hands high and very muscular. The owner was hopping to make him a jumper as he was still growing. Lyndy began pushing the horse around the ring. He was extremely anxious but after over an hour he started to respond to her. Amy and Ty walked up as she was getting his attention.

Amy provided verbal support, "That's it Lyndy, you are doing great and getting his attention. Be big, you are the leader, and he has to know that." Ty looked at his daughter seeing that she was a little winded and her face was flush. He hugged Amy and whispered to her, "My god she is you, look at her. She will stay there all day if she needs to, like someone else I know." Amy squeezed him tightly as the proudly watched their daughter. "Ok babe, I think he is ready. Pull up and slowly walk away." Lyndy looked at her mom with concern. She had watched her mom and Georgie do this hundreds of times since she was younger than Maddie. She stopped trying to control herself and not look back. Then it happened. She heard hoofbeats and then felt a warm nose but up against her shoulder. Tears streamed down her face as she looked at her mom and dad tearing up as well. As Georgie and Katie smiled, Lyndy said, "Good boy Blitz, do you like me now?" Looking directly at her mom she whispered, "I did it" A larger crowd had wandered over that everyone clapped, including Wyatt who was helping today. She blushed as she placed a lead on Blitz and led him out of the ring. Katie took the stallion for her and Lyndy went over to her parents for a big hug. And then Wyatt came over and hugged her to as she blushed. With tears in her eyes Amy and said, "We are so proud of you honey, now the real work begins."