False Hope

Chapter 6: Let the Training Begin

"This is him," she put her foot on the bottom rail of the gate and climbed over the top settling herself on the rail. Inside the corral was a 16 hand chocolate brown quarter horse with gentle eyes and alert ears.

He leaned on the gate studying the horse through squinted eyes as it came over to them before stopping by Lily in a silent demand to be given attention. Happily, she scratched around the ears of the horse as he tilted his head towards her wanting more. She smiled involuntarily. He'd always been such a gentle horse. Part of that was due to Tami babying him a bit.

Daniel reached a hand through the gate and the horse perked one of his ears towards him showing that he saw Daniel. When Daniel touched his neck, the horse didn't flinch or jump like other horses did. "He's very alert," Daniel said in approval talking more to himself than Lily.

"His name is Patriot," Lily said as she jumped off the fence and walked towards the barn across from Patriot's corral.

Once there, she pulled open the barn doors to reveal an array of tack and stalls bedded down with wood shavings. From the concrete floor, up to where a person could lean over the barrier of the stall was glossed cedar wood. The cedar was foul tasting to horses and prevented them from chewing on the wood so much. From the top of the stalls' barriers were vertical metal bars reaching to the flat ceiling above them. Each stall had a wooden door. Both separate bottom and an upper sections. Upper sections of the doors were opened during the day to give the horses a chance to stick their heads out if they wanted to. Plus, it made Lily feel like they weren't completely closed in.

Somewhere in the barn, a horse whinnied followed by a chorus of neighs belonging to horses wanting to be fed. In total, there were ten horses in the barn. All of which were Lily's. Mostly, she owned quarter horses including Patriot. Most of them decent sized and lean with an agility to outrun any thoroughbred in a quarter mile race. Most of them. A couple horses, which hadn't been used for a while due to Lily's job of working at the hospital as CNA, were on the chubby side with baby fat and all. She had six quarter horses, two percherons, one morgan, and one rocky mountain horse.

Her mare Wendy, an extremely dark brown color, was one of the many quarter horses she owned. The horse was energetic, well put together (involving powerful muscled hindquarters), and appealing to the eye. Not to mention that she was also part donkey. She was nearing eight years old. Her other three quarter horses, which weren't on the chubby side, were in comparison to Wendy in many ways other than the colors of their hair and their names. Amen, which she called Amy, four years old, was a blue roan mare and would paw at the ground whenever she was saddled and tied up in an effort to tell Lily that she wanted to go. Quinn, three years old, was a palomino gelding that had figured out the art of untying his lead rope. He would use his teeth, and in a matter of seconds, he'd be free to roam around. Jade, her fifteen year old mare and her oldest horse, was a buckskin that she had bought from a breeder and horse racer in Arizona who had said she was getting too old to race and would put her down if he couldn't end up selling her.

Her other two quarter horses were Jack and Penelope. Both nine years old, the two always seemed to be in some kind of kahoots against Tami. They'd always snort at her, would never come to her, and Lily had caught Jack trying to sneak a bite out at Tami. The gelding was small and witty. He was a pretty chestnut color and Lily only used him for trail riding when she was bored. Penelope was quite the little clown once she got going. She'd roll around in her stall whenever there was fresh bedding and would try to race other horses around the pasture. She never won due to her extra bit of weight. Regardless, she still tried to have a bit of fun.

Her two percheron draft horses, Luke and Mary, were both black with a white stripe down their noses. At first, it was hard to distinguish which was which because they both looked so much alike with their large muscled bodies and broad heads. After a while, Lily grew to find out that Mary was thinner and not quite well put together as Luke. They both stood at eighteen hands with feet as big as her dinner plates. Mary was four years old with large gentle eyes. Tami often said that they looked worried, but Lily knew that it was just her disposition. Luke, a real gentleman and a few months older than Mary, loved to jump. The breed was often used for hauling or heavy work but they had been trained for jumping competition over the years. He never really tried to jump the fences to get out but, only whenever he wanted to go someplace else. He'd knock the fence down to the point where he thought he could jump it and then he'd be off. Lily often used him for the children at the hospital who would miss their pets whenever they couldn't be home with them. Luke was just gentle with them. He was a horse for a baby. Lily would often put the children on his back and he didn't care that they kicked or pulled on his mane like they were wild west cowboys. He just ignored it.