The Black and Sugar

CH4: New Man on the Block

Alec took off after Sugar, and left me here to deal with the incoming reporter. Bear was being such a good boy I decided to just leave him tied to the post. The reporter got out of his car, and I greeted him warmly. "Hi, I'm Hope, Alec was just finishing up cleaning some stalls. He figured you would want some pictures of the Black so he was making the barn look nice." It was a boring excuse, I'd done the stalls early that morning.

"Oh, that's Alec, always doing something around here. I'm extremely impressed with the fact that he and Henry have made this farm run as smoothly as it does without much help. Is that why you're here? I mean, I've never seen a western saddled horse around here before," the reporter said, motioning towards Bear.

I shook my head. "No, that's my horse. Alec is an old friend I'm a barrel racer, just keeping my horses here while I'm running in New York," I explained. Technically, it wasn't a lie, but technically it wasn't the truth either.

Jim and I started walking, he struck up a conversation about the racing world. I wasn't very informed in thoroughbred racing, but I felt like I did a good job pretending I knew what I was talking about. Jim was very eager to talk about the horses more than the business aspect, though. When they talked about particular horses, there was an excitement about him, it was almost childish. He asked me about my barrel horses and tried to dig out details on why I was really there. He caught up to my lie for sure, and like any reporter, was digging for the truth.

Finally, I saw Alec walking back nonchalantly, him waving at Jim and smiling. I turned away from them quietly back to the track where Bear stood impatiently, pawing at the sand beneath his hooves. I wanted to get back to riding him, but decided against it. He'd worked so good this morning, I decided a short day would be good for him. So instead, I walked him back to the barn, unsaddled, and sprayed him down, eventually returning him to his stall beside Dime's. The bay mare nickered warmly at me as I walked down the aisle with the gelding. She'd always been a friendly mare, to both people and horses.

I decided I didn't want to ride her until this evening, she'd enjoy the stall rest. I wanted to go see Sugar, but decided against it, he was hiding, and it was for the better. So instead, I went back to my room in the loft, and found myself falling asleep.

I woke up later to knocking on my door. "Come in!" I groggily said, sitting up and rolling my legs out of the bed. From behind the door stepped Alec.

"Hey, Jim is gone, thought you'd want to bring Sugar in with me?" He proposed. I nodded, standing up, and slipping on my shoes. I followed him down the stairs and across the farm. "So, what's your story? I don't know much about you, just that you make very nice barrel horses," he laughed. I nodded, smiling slightly.

"Well, I'm an only child, my mom and dad are farmers, Nancy and Tom, great, down to Earth people. But boring. They lived boring, and so I left, got into horses, and never looked back. I have a dog named Tally, who lives with my best friend now that I'm here, and my favorite color is spiceberry. That's about all to know about me."

Alec laughed effortlessly. "Spiceberry? What is that?" I rolled my eyes, returning his smirk.

"It's like a maroon-y, purple-y, pink. Very pretty, and very original. I like it," I explained to him. He just nodded in agreement with me. By now, we'd reached the fence that ran along the pasture that contained Sugar. Alec started climbing through the bars, when I grabbed his arm carefully, and said, "No, watch this." He stepped back out of the pen, his eyes playfully watching me. I smiled, and turned to the pasture, whistling loudly.

Automatically, from the trees came the stallion thundering through the pen, his head held high and his ears perked forward intently. He loped across the grass, breaking into a trot when he got closer to the fence, and stopped when he reached us. He was such a pleaser, I loved it.

The stud pranced behind us as we walked back to the stud barn. We talked, and laughed, and saddled the elegant beast together. We stopped, though, while I pulled the girth tight. Alec turned to me and smiled. "Let's go for a ride." He turned away from Sugar and walked down the alley, stepped into the stall and pulling out the Black. The stallion was beautiful, and eyed the other horse standing in front of him anxiously, but made my move toward him. I watched Alec saddle the stallion, and we led the two horses out of the barn.