Double Trouble

Chapter 13

Mel's POV

The next day I was up at 4:30 so I could feed Star and Diamond. I pulled on my coziest jeans, a long sleeved shirt, a fleece pullover, and a down vest. It wasn't as cold as it has been for the past few days, so that's good. I jammed my wool sock cladded feet into my rubber boots, then trudged out sleepily to the barn.

I found Mom sleeping on a cot outside of the foals' stall. I sighed, then lightly shook her shoulder.

She woke up, and smiled when she saw that it was me. "Glad you remembered," she said, half awake. "What time is it?" she asked.

"It's 4: 43," I sighed quietly. "Go get a few more hours of sleep. You can sleep in-I'll start your chores later," I offered to her. I knew she was tired, cold, and stressed, so sleeping in would probably do her some good. It'll let her relax a bit.

"That sounds great, thanks Mel," she said, then got up, and walked back to the house. I sighed, sat on the cot, and saw that there were 2 bottles of milk sitting beside the cot. "Ugh," I said out loud, then grabbed the 2 bottles, and entered the stall. 

I put a little bit of honey on the bottles, and let the 2 small fillies drink. When they had finally finished, they both laid back down and snuggled close together. They were so cute!

I cleaned the bottles, and filled them with the milk, then kept them in the fridge so they'd stay warm. I had an alert on my phone that would wake me so I'd have enough time to warm up the milk and feed them.

I stretched, then laid down in the cot and burrowed under the massive pile of covers. It would be a looong morning.

* * *

Hours later, Julie entered the barn, and told me that it was time to start chores. I nodded, fed the fillies one last time, then Julie and I started on our chores, and Mom's.

Julie offered to clean stalls while I let horses out, so I began letting out the 22 horses we have to let out.

I made my last trip down to the fields, holding the lead line of Colonel, a black Morgan gelding, and Brad, the palomino Arabian gelding that Anna had chosen, along with Chloe, for the Giving Tree. I patted the 2 sweet geldings, and let them out with 2 other geldings, Ranger and Chex.

I walke back tiredly to the barn, glad to be done with all the walking, and got started on cleaning buckets. It took me a full hour and a half to clean all the buckets we have, but it was really important  to keep them clean.

A few hours later, I was done with chores, and Liv showed up. I was glad to see her, and we decided to work on jumping. 

I was looking longingly out at Cowboy's field, but I had to work with some of the rescues still. I was actually able to ride 3 of the rescues I had to really early in between feeding times with the foals, so I only had to ride 2 of them, and then I could ride Cowboy.

While Liv tacked up Tye, I trudged back out to the field and brought in Brad. 

I groomed and tacked up the sweet palomino. I've ridden him a few times, but usually Julie rides him. I was glad that I would have a chance to ride the smooth Arabian though.

After only riding him a few times, I knew he would be a perfect eventer. He was really fit and flexible, so I knew he'd have a home in no time!

Liv and I entered the outdoor arena, and before mounting, we set up a few jumps. We decided to stick to smaller jumps, ranging from 1-2 1/2 feet. I knew Brad could jump higher, but since Liv is still a  fairly new jumper, I decided that it would be better to stick to some smaller jumps.

I was excited to pop over the verticals and in and out we had set up, so I made sure Brad was fully warmed up before taking him over the fun jumps.