Sunshine Girl (Ryan Upchurch)

Insult to Injury

Aaliyahs POV

A month and a half of moving in with Ryan and working my youngest horses. So far they're all broke to ride and I'm in the process of harness breaking Sage and Jane. Today I'm working with Jane. I hooked her to the drive lines and took her around the arena several times until she showed she was fully focused. I moved on to getting Rusty out. He usually trained all the horses for wagon since he was willing to handle their crazy. I began to harness him and Jane and decided to drive them both on the ground. Jane responded extremely well with that so I decided to hook her up to the wagon. As I hooked her up I was careful working around her back end. I took things slow since there would be new sounds and pressure added to her throughout her body as she had to pull weight behind her. We had a jumpy start as she couldn't time herself right to walk alongside of Rusty well. I gave her time to adjust and soon we were walking around the arena. She was doing great so I decided to make them turn to go the other way. As we turned around she seemed to get stressed out and suddenly she began kicking. I noticed a chain wrapping around her back leg and immediately made them stop. Unfortunately she wouldn't calm herself down enough for me to try and rehook the chain. She was already startled from a single wrap of that chain. It was laying loose beside her as she threw her fit and before I knew it she had bolted. Rusty fought against her trying to slow her and the wagon down as much as possible. Her canter compared to his running walk. She was fighting with all her might from something that was already off of her. As I pulled back on the reins but she fought me every step of the way. I watched as she began to rear, kick, and attempt to buck.

"You alright?!" I heard Ryan yell out from the porch. I threw a thumbs up his way as I tried to control Jane. Before I knew it she had kicked the tongue of the wagon and bent it.

"Fucking hell Jane." I whispered to myself as I thought of how to get her chain hooked back up and I could continue this ride with her. I watched as Ryans friends soon came onto the porch before I called one of em over.

"Dillon I need your help for just a minute." I called out as I scooted over and he climbed into the wagon.

"Whats my job?" He asked.

"If she tries to go forward pulls those reins back. I gotta fix this chain before she can get calm." I said as I slowly got down from the wagon. I gave myself and Jane a 10 foot distance as I approached from her right shoulder so she could see me. I closed any gap between us and gently placed my hand on her body as I continued to walk to her rear end. She was still as a rock... until she wasn't.

She whipped to the side and threw a massive kick, landing it right on my stomach. I immediately fell to my knees but remembered I had a scared and dangerous horse right beside me. I quickly got up and went back to her head. I removed her harness right then and there, leaving Rusty there as I released her. It was my last ditch effort to get her to calm down enough so we could try again. My plans with her didn't work out the way I expected. Mistakes were made, accidents happen. I wish it would've gone different but for right now my horses safety was my top priority. I tied her up to the fence and soon I was taking Rustys harness off of him. I walked them both to the barn as Dillon followed behind me making sure I was okay.

"Here sit down a minute. Let me put them up. Ryans freaking out because you got kicked. Just take a seat for him." He said as he took the lead ropes and put them both in their stalls. I sat on the ground for a minute trying to catch my breath.

"I'm fine Dillon. Go let Ryan know." I said as I reached up my hand toward him. I immediately felt light headed as I stood on my own feet.