Saddled

Chapter 2

Just a little note before you jump into the chapter: Brei doesn't know anything about horses so practically everything is "unknown" for her and she's very biased and very ignorant to the horse world.

This chapter is also pretty slow paced, it's sort of just Brei figuring her way around horses.

without further ado... here's the next chapter!

We spent the next hour learning how to act around horses (I didn’t know there was a special way to act around horses) and how to “tack up” a horse, which is basically putting the “saddle,” the thing you sit on, and the “bridle,” the thing that you pull to control the horse, on the horse.  But what was apparently very important (with exclamation marks) was to groom the horse before “tacking up.”

All the brushes had different names.  Like what was the point in knowing the difference between the “curry comb” and the “finishing brush?”  And why did tacking up have to be so complicated?  Like you had to push the “saddle pad” up into the “gullet” and I swear I couldn’t understand half of what she said, even after she pointed out what everything is.

“Okay, now I can assign you your horses,” Kimberly says clapping her hands together, “Brei you can have Maverick. Ruby, you can have Rosie and Lily you can have Candy.”

The two girls immediately rush off to their horses.  Ruby, the little girl, rushes up to a tiny fuzzy horse.  Would they let such a young child handle such small horse?

“Maverick” is a tall brown horse with black hair.  He’s a little dirty but he is a decently good looking horse compared to the fur ball of Rosie and the fat Candy.  I walk hesitantly towards Maverick.  I had let him know that I was there… I think I’m doing okay so far since Maverick hasn’t done anything.

He snorts and I startle.  I take a deep breath.

“Start grooming your horses now!” Kimberly says brightly walking down the aisle way, monitoring us.

I look down at the box set by my feet.  An assortment of tools are piling out.  What do I start with again?  Someone rests their hand on my shoulder.  I jump and whip around to see Kimberly.  She hands me something.  What was this called again?  I think it’s used to clean out the horse’s feet.

Kimberly demonstrates how to “pick their hooves out.”  She bends over slides her hands down the horse’s leg and squeezes the horse’s lower leg and does a clucky noise that those dolphin trainers do… I think that dolphin trainers do those clicky things.

The horse lifts his foot and Kimberly takes the thing in her hand and begins plucking out things from the horse’s foot.  She shows me what's part of the horse’s foot and what isn’t.

She leads me to the other foot on the other side.  I hesitnatly walk around his hind end, remembering that it's better when you walk closer to the horse. “Front hooves are easier to pick out,” Kimberly says and hands me the tool.

I take the tool carefully from her hand and slowly rest my hand on the horse’s shoulder.  It’s warm and his fur is soft.  I slowly run my hand down his leg and copy her, squeezing the lower leg and clicking.  To my surprise, the horse picks up his foot and hold still as I attempt to get the dirt out.  I don’t want to hit the heel-frog thing… why is it even called the frog?  It looks nothing like a frog.

Dirt comes out of his foot and drops to the ground.

“Good!” Kimberly says, once all the dirt is out, “Now get going on his hind feet, if you have any trouble just call me, alright?  The hind hooves are the same, and Maverick should stand still.”