Winter in August

Chapter 2

I jump out of bed and quickly throw on a loose floral shirt and jeans. Running down the stairs, I grab a granola bar and slip my boots on then head out to the barn. The scent of horses engulfs me as I walk into the barn and start feeding hungry horses. When they're all fed I start mucking out the stalls. Today, chores seem to just fly by but I don't know why. Once I finish with the stalls, I clean out the water buckets.

I put Blackberry's water bucket back in his stall and look at the list on the door.

August~

Celestina

Onyx

Dream

Grabbing Celestina's halter I lead her out of her stall and to a pair of cross ties. I give her a good groom, then hurry off to the tack room and grab her bridle, and other tack. Once Celestina is all tacked up, I lead her into the arena where I mount her. I bring her into a smooth walk, then trot around the arena for a few laps. After she is all warmed up, I dismount and set up some jumps at 2 1/2 ft. tall.

I mount her again and trot one more lap around the arena before turning her to the first jump and cantering towards it. Rising into two point position, we soar over the jump and I land with a smile on my face.

Celestina is ready to do another jump, so I point her to the next one and the next one until the whole coarse is clear. She did great!

We to the clear coarse one more time and on each jump I can feel the wind blowing in my face and past my ears. It feels like flying to be honest and I just love it!

When we are finished, I cool her down then groom her again before putting her in her pasture. The appaloosa is delighted and throws a couple bucks before standing beside her friends to munch on grass.

Next I grab Onyx from her pasture then groom and tack her up. I lead her to the arena and when we get in I close the gate and lead her to the middle. I wanted to try to ride her today with tack, so the first thing I did was put my hands in the stirrup and press down harder and harder until all of my weight was in the stirrup. When she didn't react, I replaced my hand with my boot and ever-so-slightly, I put more and more weight into the stirrup and swung myself onto her.

The mare stomps her foot like the sassy girl she is and huffs. I situate myself in the saddle then lean over to pet her. I lightly tap my heels on her flank and she goes into a paced trot. I slightly pull the reins back and have her in a walk around the arena a few times then bring her to a trot and then a canter. Her smooth canter takes me around the arena a few times before I bring her back in to a walk to then stop her.

I cool her down and untack, and groom her, then put her back into her pasture. Once Onyx is situated I grab Dream from her pasture and after grooming her I take her into the arena. There is a saddle and saddle pad hanging on the rail of the arena and so I snatch the saddle pad up first and walk calmly up to Dream.

I hold my arms out for Dream to sniff, and she does so with lots of precaution. Once I think she thinks it's safe, I slowly make my way to her back and gently lay the saddle pad on her which causes her to flinch a bit. After that's on I grab the saddle and she sniffs this even further than she did the saddle pad. I hold the saddle up and slowly lower it onto her back until it's all the way on.

Surprised at how calm she is at this, I decide to take it a step further. I grab the cinch and pull it over to the other side and just as I'm about to tighten it, Dream rears. The saddle and saddle pad  fly off of her back as she gallops around the arena.

I huff and pick up the tack, then lay it out on the rail. I turn around to catch Dream when I see her charging straight at me.

I'm completely frozen and I can't move a muscle. Time seems to slow down, and I hold my arms out and wait for the impact but it never comes.