Mending broken hearts

Chap11

I sat on my bed, grasping my Turquoise horse pendant. Crystal gave of to me on her last breath, so I'll wear it until mine.

'Crystal, do you want me to ride agian? We made a promise we would always ride together. I can't break that.'

Day 2 of Red Oak ranch, and I have to at least go on the evening trail ride. I might tack up Wildfire and walk her on the trail, but there's no way I'm going to ride. I promised Crystal and I'm not going to break it, even if I'm at some stupid horse camp.

I looked at the time. 10:30 p.m. I had been sitting up here for almost four hours, and everything was still quiet. No knocks on the door, No Voices, no shutting doors, no nothing. After a little while longer, I put my necklace down and go to sleep.

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The next morning, I awoke to a soft knock at my door. "Emily? Are you up? You better hurry and get ready if you want breakfast. I'll be downstairs waiting for you. Most of us  already to breakfast."  Joy's soft voice sounded mufflked through the door.  I groaned."ughh... I'm coming.."

     I shuffled out of bed, Tamed my messy hair and caught it in a pony tail and  got dressed in a pair or jeans and a Tie dye T-shirt then meandered downstairs.

By the time I made it down stairs, Only Joy and  Josiah were left, Josiah downing his plate quickly. "You should  hurry. The food is all almost gone, and Josiah's eating it all! What he's eating  now, that's his 3rd plate!" She chuckled. I nodded and walked into the kitchen.  I made a small plate of bacon, eggs, and  half of a biscuit with gravy. Josiah smiled at me as I walked past, his mouth full of eggs and bacon. I ignored him and sat at the table farthest from him, near the door leading out of the dining room.

   I finished my food quickly and was dragged  outside to meet all the horses.  Most of them were in the barn, so it wasn't a problem finding them. We started at thee first stall on the right. The name Plate read "Sox." I looked up at him. He was beautiful Dark bay with a small star right in the middle of his face. He was strongly built and  definitely looked like the perfect barrel racer. I looked down at hishooves and saw why he was called Sox- he wore two long white socks that  almost reached his knees." This is Sox. He's Mrs. Anita's Quarter horse gelding. He used to Barrel race, but now he's retired. " Joy told me, pointing to numerous belt buckles and ribbons that decorated the front of the stall.

   We skipped an empty stall with no name,  and I came face to face with a familiar Black and white pinto gelding. I gave him a small pet on the nose."hey there buddy." I smiled."You met Orca yesterday." Joy said. "So..how many stalls is this barn?" 

"10 stalls, plus a tack room." Said a voice behinds me. "Oh! Morning Hazel!" Joy waved. "Hey Joy! I'm going to lunge Bullet now." Hazel held a bright pink lead rope attached to a large Liver chestnut. "Oh, Emily, this is Bullet! He's a Saddlebred!" Hazel exclaimed proudly. She  turned and led him out of the barn, a lunge line in her other hand. 

Joy's face brightened as we approached the next stall. "Hey Firefly!" She smiled. The horse  poked her head out of the stall and flicked her ears forward in recognition of Joy's voice. "Firefly is a sorrel halflinger. She's my baby." Joy said, feeding Firefly an apple.

We spent about 10 minutes just at Firefly's stall before moving to the next one down. It was the last stall On the right side of the barn.  A spotted head poked out to greet us. He nickered and  shoved his nose the best he could into our pockets. "This is Poseidon. He's one of the older horses here and is pretty spoiled. He's a blue roan leapord appaloosa. Cameron rides him. "  we stayed with Posedion until Cameron came out to groom him, and ewe moved onto the next stall. "This is Petey. His rider is Josiah" I looked up at the horse. He was a tall  chestnut gelding. "What breed is he?" I asked, reaching up to toch his white face. "Petey is a Tennessee walking horse." She paused before adding, "you know, most people who come here don't know anything about horses. Are you sure you've never ridden before? You seem like you've at least taken a couple lessons." Joy inquired, tilting her head to slightly.  "None of your business." I snapped. Joy looked shocked and hurt by my comment, but she quickly collected herself and continued petting Petey.  A silver horse peeked out of her stall and nieghed  softly. Her name plate read 'Ellie. ' I looked at her closely, and noticed she had beautiful , striking blue eyes. Yp

After a few minutes, Joy finally spoke, " I'm sorry for asking.. If its a touchy subject, I'll leave it alone."

I said nothing and drifted towards the next stalls, all of which were empty. 

"I bet Sargent and Constance are already  out. I can also show you the two new horses- the two you'll be riding? I don't know how its going to work, but those horses are wild! I don't think I want to go anywhere near them,much less ride them!" 

She couldn't be talking about  Wildfire and Tango, could she? "So.. Just to clarify, who rides who?" I inquired.

"Well.. I'm On Firefly, Cameron is on Poseidon, Tabi is on Orca, Constance is with Sargent, Aidrian with Ellie, Josiah rides Petey, and Hazel is on Bullet! You'll see her later. Why  don't you come and Meet  the horses you be riding?"  

Joy led me behind the barn  to a round ring at the edge of the paddock. 3 horses grazed  near the bottom of the paddock. "See that tri- color paint down there? That's Sargent." I could tell that Sargent was a large horse, even from this distance. He wore four white stockings and his shoulders and whither area were white, along with a large section around his girth. " look in that round pen. The buckskin is Tango and the Black mare is Wildfire. Be careful. They're dangerous. They won't let anybody go near them,not  even to feed them. " I ignored Joy's comments and looked at the two horses. I approached slowly as not to startle them, but they seemed too desperate to get out to notice anyone. They galloped  along the gate in the round pen, then turned and trotted the length of the pen. "Hey Tango. Hey Wildfire." I cooed.  Both horses immediately stopped  and their pinned ears jerked forward. Wildfire's right ear swiveled back. Then forward agian. " I'm over here Wildfire." 

"Be careful Emily! They are dangerous!"Joy hissed. Again, I ignored Joy. I finally made it to the edge of the pen and set my hands on the metal bars. " come on girl. Its okay. Its just me."  I held out a hand, a few sugar cubes placed tlytly on my palm. Cautiously, Wildfire Stepped forward, Tango  close behind her.  When she made it to my hand, she smelled it, them took a sugar cube gently, leaving one for Tango. He graciously accepted, and both of them momentarily nosed into my for more,  but  suddenly reared and galloped to the arena.  I looked to my right to See Joy. "Wow. Nobody has ever gotten that close to either of them before!" I sighed.

What happened to our sweet, Trustful horses?

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A/N  hey guys!!!! Thank you so much for reading, and Special shout out for @Kate_Katteyt for being so supportive and making this amazing book cover!! I'm trying to make these chapters longer, so it might take a little longer to update now.. Sorry!!

Also, its 1:45 A.M fought now so I'm really tired XD