Equine Attraction

"So how many cc's does Uther get?" Ainsley asked.

"Eight but because he usually spits some out, fill it to ten." I replied, not turning away from the buckets of feed I was in the middle of preparing.

This was a normal day for us, working all day, feeding the horses, giving them medicine, riding, filling up water troughs and buckets, bringing horses inside and outside, basically anything that needed to get done was up to us to do.

I had lived on a farm since the day I was born and now my dad and I were living in Brewster, New York on a huge piece of land surrounded by horses.

"Hey Brooks where are you guys?" I heard my dad's distinct low, hoarse voice call from somewhere outside. Brooks had been the nickname he gave me when I was a little girl.

"Feed room dad." I called in reply. Ainsley walked out, going to give Uther the medication she had just finished preparing.

My dad walked in, leaving the door open behind him.

"So you remember Mr. Cavanaugh right?" My dad propped himself against the table on which we kept vitamins and supplements for the horses.

I paused for a second, scrambling through my brain trying to put a name to a face. I knew who he was but at the moment I couldn't connect his name with his face. I went along anyway, "Yeah I remember him, why?" I returned to finishing the feed so we could bring it out to the horses.

"So his daughter wanted to start riding and I offered to let her come here and ride, I was wondering if you would teach her the basics?" A small smile crept across his face. I knew I didn't really have a choice and since he had already said yes that just solidified that I didn't have a chance in hell at saying no.

"Ya I guess." I sighed, throwing the last scoop of feed into the final bucket.

Almost as if we had some kind of telepathy my dad picked up four of the buckets and followed me out into the aisle. One by one we hung the buckets on the latches inside the stalls. Each horse had a certain colour bucket and all of their buckets, brushes, etc. where that colour so nothing ever got mixed up.

"So I told him to bring her round tonight, that okay with you?" Great, I thought to myself.

"Ya that's fine, Ainsley sleeping over so she can help me." I hung up the last bucket.

I was leaning against Eeyore's stall door, scratching his neck as he munched on his food, Ainsley was hanging up the last few buckets and my dad looking around aimlessly.

"And I've got a surprise for you later." He said before turning and walking towards the exit.

"What is it?" I asked, my attention now all on him.

"It's a surprise Brooks." He laughed, turning out of the barn to the point where I could no longer see him.

"So I hear we're teaching tonight." Ainsley joked.

Ainsley was staying here tonight as she had for the past few nights. It was summer and we had both just finished school so we were spending most of our time together as she was going away to college and I was staying here in Brewster to work with my dad.

You see my dad was an ex-show jumper but then he shattered his knee during a show when his horse veered and he hit a standard. Now he trains and breeds horses on our farm and I'm learning to train and teach which is I'm sure why he told Mr. Cavanaugh I would teach his daughter.

Ainsley and I spent the next few hours just talking, checking on the horses every once and a while to make sure they had everything they needed and just chilling.

"So who are you gonna let Mr. Cavanaugh's daughter ride?" She asked, we were sitting in the aisle, facing each other.

I hadn't thought about that. Most of our horses were more for experienced riders.

"Oh crap, I don't even know." I looked around the barn, scanning over every horse.

"You could let her use Barney I mean he's nice." Barney was a little Welsh pony we had adopted from our neighbours. He was a sweetheart but sometimes he could get anxious and excited.

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"Hey Brooklyn." Mr. Cavanaugh said, shaking my hand as we stood at the entrance to the barn.

"Please, just Brooke." I smiled.

His daughter couldn't have been more than nine at most.

The night went by pretty quickly, she was pretty easy to teach, she caught on to things pretty fast and took advice really well.

I was spent, my legs hurt and my hands were dead from the lunge line. I really needed to either get a better lunge line or get a pair of gloves to wear while using the lunge line.

"Ainsley, let's go, time to head inside, I want dinner." I yelled from the door. She was sitting outside with Tonka, her horse. He was a silly boy and she was leaving him here when she went away to college.

The rest of the night was pretty normal, we ate pizza, watched a movie and then fell asleep.