The Tail Of A Horse

Chapter 8:

🙇🏼 Narrator's P.O.V🙇🏼

James had got dressed in his white Polo shirt and beige jodhpurs. His laptop was still on from the night before when he was looking at horses for sale. None were like Tally.

He exited his house and locked the door. Carrying his grooming kit, he ran quickly into the yard. Tally was already tied up outside his stable. James began grooming him. A couple minutes later, he grabbed his blue hoof pick and began picking out Tally's hooves. The dry mud flaked out onto the bricked floor of the yard.

"I can see you don't want him to go, but he deserves a change. You put his needs before yours. You know it's the right thing to do." A voice spoke behind James. He was so focused on grooming Tally, that he didn't notice the footsteps behind him.

He turned round to see his ex-girlfriend, Sasha. James then released it was her he had yelled at the night before. They both had a passion for horses and riding. "You'd better clean that mess up before Joe and Beth see it." She told him sternly.

"They won't mind. And anyways I always clean up after Tally and myself. I don't need your input in this. Sasha." He exaggerated her name. Spots the Dalmatian ran over to them barking and yapping loudly. He pulled on James' polo shirt and yapped some more.

"What is it Spots?" Sasha interrupted yet again. Spots and Sasha soon disappeared, leaving James and Tally alone again. He finished grooming Tally and hurried to the tack room. He grabbed Tally's bridle, flung it over his shoulder and stared at the name tag above the hook. He reached up, peeled it off the velcro on the wall. He held the laminated card in his hands and peered at it again.

He looked at his cubby hole and back at the tag again. Walking to the cabinet, he still looked at the tag. He placed it in his grooming kit and put the cover back over it. He slid Tally's saddle off the rack and put his arms underneath it to support its weight.
He then quickly exited the tack room and tacked Tally up, mounted him and they trotted onto the bridle path in the woods.

Sasha couldn't find them here if she cane back to the yard with Spots. She only ever rode Pumpkin, her chestnut horse. Pumpkin was currently being lunged in the round arena with Joe.

The day soon passed and it was time for James to return to the stables with Tally. This was the last time he would ride him. He urged Tally into a forward trot and then into a speedy canter. Before they both knew it they were galloping fast. Past all the big trees and the river that Tally loved to drink from.

Tally was untacked, fed and turned out in his thick winter rug. The normal routine in winter. James said goodnight to all the riders and returned home. He left his grooming kit in the tack room ready for tomorrow, the day that Tally would leave. Probably forever.