Learning To Live

Chapter 3

My first look around the room as my eyes swept over the entirety of it was that there were two people sitting in the chairs. One of them was a man that was probably in his late thirties. I had seen the man around occasionally so i had just assumed that every time i saw him, he was a customer of somebody and was either taking lessons or was boarding his horse or horses here. I highly doubt that he was taking lessons so the man probably boarded his horses. The other person was Racheal. She was reading a book and she had looked at at me when she heard the door creak open.

Once Racheal realized that it was me who was coming through the door, she jumped out of her seat. Before i could say anything to her, she started talking.

"Is it almost time yet? I have been doing my homework forever. Please say that it is almost time. I am so bored. Is it time now?"

"Are you ready to ride?" i replied to her rushed speaking that i could barely comprehend sometimes.

"Yes", she almost shouted back at me.

Racheal turned around to put all of her stuff back into her backpack. She carefully picked up all of the homework papers and the book that she had been reading. Then, she stuffed them in the bigger pocket in her backpack. She closed her bag then and slid it onto her back. She started to come to the door where i was standing while she pushed her other arm through the straps of her pink backpack.

I stepped back to allow Racheal to go through the door and held it open while she walked with a bounce in her step out of it. I closed the door behind us and then we went silently to the stall where the horse that she would ride was waiting. Stall number twenty-two. Hallie put her brown head over the top of the stall door. Racheal squealed and put her small hand on Hallie's face. Racheal took back her hand and talked to her as she placed her backpack on the hook that was next to the stall. Even though the hook was for horse supplies, she did not want to get her pink backpack dirty so that i the reason why i told her that she could put her backpack there.

She went with me to go get the saddle, saddle pad, halter, lead rope, and reins. When we entered the tack room, Racheal went to go pick out the halter, lead rope, and reins while i went to get a saddle and saddle pad. We both carried our loads back to stall number twenty-two where Hallie was waiting for us.

I watched Racheal as she saddled up the horse. She smoothed Hallie's hair before putting on the saddle pad, being gentle and softly whispering to Hallie. I made out occasional words of "and then" and some "I can not wait" but not much else. Hallie stood absolutely still as Racheal got her ready. I just watched on the side of the stall, making sure that she did everything right because this was part of her horse lesson. Of course, saddling the horse was the easy part of it. Hallie was a good fit for Racheal. Hallie did not get frightened that easy and she also loved children. I like to think that she actually prefers children because they are lighter in weight. Hallie was also expertly trained and was prepared for even the children that did not hold still while they were on the horse. Racheal was a great rider, though, and i think that she could become professional if she really wanted to one day in the future. If she enjoyed it enough and decided to stick with riding anyway. Some people start out great but do not work with the horse they are riding. Those people then blame the horse for being stubborn or not cooperating with them but it is really just the person, or rider in this case, who needs to be putting in more effort to work together with the horse. Horses only stop working with you when you stop working with the horse. Horses have feelings just like people and they should be treated with kindness and respect.

Hallie whinnied and brought me out of my thoughts. She was a gorgeous horse with a nice, even dark color of brown, which was actually almost black, spread across her back, neck, and face. Her legs were half white on the bottom which gave her the appearance of wearing white socks all of the time. Her tail was a mixture of dark brown, light brown, and white colored hairs which blended together in a unique characteristic. Racheal liked to call Hallie a blended horse because she had more than one color of hair.