Bucky's Hope (A Bucky Barnes Love Story)

Chapter 14

Hope's POV:

The morning started with James cleaning out the stalls as I took the horses out to the pasture, by the time the guys arrived at the ranch James was already halfway done, I was taking a horse out when Matt came over and took the lead from me.

"Go ahead and get started with that pony, we'll get the rest of the horses out."

"Thank you, Matt, let Scott and Marcus know that I will be in the barn with Shadowfax when they get here."

"Shadowfax?"

I blushed, "yes, the pony."

Matt chuckled, "you named the pony after the horse from those books you read one too many times."

I shoved Matt, "stop teasing you ass, yes, and when you see him you will understand."

"Alright, fine and I'll let them know where to find you when they get here."

"Thank you!" I called out as I walked back to the barn but not before I heard Matt yell again.

"NERD!"

"ASSHOLE!"

I went got back to the barn and went to Shadowfax's stall to get him out, while I was in there James walked over.

"What was all that out there?"

"Nothing, just Matt being a brotherly asshole."

"Oh, what are you doing?"

"Scott and Marcus will be here soon to start working on Shadowfax so I'm getting him ready."

"What is the plan?"

"We are going to start by getting rid of those," I pointed to the overgrown hooves, "then we will shave his coat down to get rid of all the matted fur, hopefully with this, he will start feeling like a horse again."

The entire time that James and I were talking we didn't notice Shadowfax walk over to me until James said something.

"I don't think it will be hard to earn his trust," he pointed behind me, I turned around to see Shadowfax right beside me as he sniffed my jacket and then started to nibble it.

"Hey you, that is not food," I pulled my jacket out of his mouth, and Shadowfax bobbed his head up and down as he neighed and pulled his lips back exposing his teeth causing James and I to laugh.

"Oh, someone thinks he's a jokester," I clipped the lead to his halter with ease and led him out of the stall, "come on you."

I grabbed another lead and went to an open space in the barn that we use to groom the horses down, I clipped the other lead to the other side of Shadowfax's halter and tied the leads to the loops that were in the walls, as I was doing that Scott and Marcus came in.

"Hey, Hope," Scott said when he saw me

"Scott, Marcus, glad you guys are here."

"Hope, you know we are always here whenever these horses need us," Marcus said.

Scott and Marcus came over, "so who do we have here?" Scott asked.

"Meet Shadowfax, as you can see from his condition he was in absolute hell when he was rescued," I said.

Scott sighed, "yeah, aren't they always all."

"But, let's not think about the bad, we are here to help this little guy heal," I said.

"Alright, where do you want to start first?" Marcus asked.

I pointed to his hooves, "those first Marcus, please, I'm pretty sure he is in quite a lot of pain."