Oak Valley Stables

Chapter seven

The class went back to the yard, to put their horses away. Gale dismounted Vlad with a sigh and led him back to his stall.
"Oh, well, at least you tried," She stroked Vlad's muzzle and began to untack him. She throw his saddle over the stall door and carried his bridle out of the stall. She picked up the saddle and went to put them away in the tack room.
"Hi, Gale," Jackson was putting his tack away too.
"Howdy," Gale joked. Jackson smiled.
"You alright?" He asked.
"What after that major embarrassment?" Gale sighed.
"It wasn't that bad..." Jackson tried to reassure her.
"Sure," Gale rolled her eyes with a smile. Jackson flashed his pearly white teeth and left the room.
Gale went back to Vlad's stall to brush him down and put his rug on. She stood back to look at him. He was a very handsome horse. He and Goldrush were neighing, softly, to each other. Goldrush was also a very handsome horse, but in a different way to Vlad. Vlad was elegant and graceful. Goldrush was muscular and powerful-looking.
"I'm going back to our room," Victoria told Gale.
"Okay, I'll see you in a minute," Gale nodded. Victoria left the stable block with Jake. Gale went back to the tack room. Jackson was gone and Goldrush already had his rug on. Gale guessed he'd gone back to his room as well. She looked back out of the tack room. No one else was there; Triss, Amber, Ryan, Courtney and Hannah were all gone too.
"Hey, Gale!"
"Oh, hi, Carol," Gale turned around.
"What are you still doing here? Everyone else is gone," Carol put a bag of cloth and polish on a chair.
"Yeah, they went back to their rooms," Gale nodded "I thought I might stay. I'd have to come down and give Vlad his feed later, anyway," She told Carol "I could give you hand, if you like,"
"Sure. I was just going to polish the saddles. You can polish your's, if you want to," Carol replied. Gale nodded and went to get her saddle. As she did, a dog came crashing into the tack room and jumped up at Gale.
"Oh, hello!" She smiled and petted the dog. He was a pale cream and black German Shepard.
"Scotch, down!" Carol told the dog. "Sorry, I hope you like dogs..."
"Don't worry. I like them, alright," Gale stroked Scotch. She went to get her saddle again. She set it down beside Carol's and started to polish it.
"He's a nice dog!" Gale smiled as Scotch went to sleep beside her.
"I guess so. He is good company," Carol agreed. "He's one of my family's dogs. There's a long, long line of them. Even the first members of my family to live in this country owned a dog. He is descendant from that dog," Carol explained.
"Really? Where did your family come from?" Gale asked as she polished the saddle.
"They came from America," Carol replied. "Caleb Dale and Jade Evans originally lived in Tombstone, Arizona. But, they ran away with their horses, crossed the border and lived in Mexico. They started a horse ranch with their two horses, Hero and Firefly, but they wanted something bigger. They took their horses and their dog, Boots, on a ship to England and started a boarding school for horse riders,"
"Your family created Oak Valley?" Gale asked, surprised.
"Yes and Scotch is descendant from Boots," Carol smiled.
"Is Diego descendant from Hero and Firefly?" Gale inquired.
"No, but my family does have a tradition that all our horses have to have Spanish names because Caleb and Jade travelled from Mexico," Carol answered.
"That's why his name is Diego!" Gale nodded.
"Why did you name your horse Vlad?" Carol asked.
"Well, the horse that I used to ride was called Dmitry, which is Slovak. Vladimir is a Slovak name too," Gale explained.
"That's cool," Carol nodded. Gale helped her finish the saddles. She polished her's and Jackson's.
"I'm going to feed Vlad now," Gale told Carol and went to fill a tub of feed. She carried it to Vlad's stall and gave it to him.
"Good boy," she petted him. "I promise I'll teach you how to jump," She smiled before going back to her room.
She unlocked her room's door and opened it.
"What's happening in here?" Gale smirked at Victoria and Jake, who were sitting on Victoria's bed.
"Uh, nothing..." Victoria laughed and Jake, looking rather flustered, got up to leave.
"Bye, Toria. Bye, Gale-" Jake closed the door. Gale raised an eyebrow at her friend.
"What?" Victoria laughed.