Spirit, Riding Free: Lucky and Her Adventurous and Mysterious Cousin Sasha

Chapter Five

The next day, Sasha had went into Mr. Granger's barn to find Destiny and paint the sign that will have Destiny's name above her stall when they are done training. She was surprised to see three Arabian horses: a chestnut mare, a dark brown mare, and a white mare. She also saw a brown pinto mare, a black pinto mare, a gray pinto mare.
She soon remembered Mr. Granger is the town's horse wrangler, so these horses must be for sale. She wished that she could be a horse wrangler or a cross country jumper or maybe a trick rider, like Lucky. The adventure, challenge, and excitement of those options sounded pretty good to Sasha. Just her and Destiny doing something special for everyone to see.
But today, they were going do simple practice before cross country jumping or riding tricks.
Sasha smiled at the other horses. The unclaimed horses neighed excitedly to her. But their neighing had accidentally woke up one of Mr. Granger's workers and made him fell backwards into barrels. "Ow!"
Sasha gave an inward jump after she gave the unclaimed horses their buckets of oats and water. She looked around, confused, but she soon shrugged it off and went towards Destiny's stall. Destiny was wide awake and seemed to be proud of Sasha as she gave her horse a pair of buckets of oats and water.
As Destiny ate, Sasha carefully petted Destiny as she ate her breakfast. Unlike most kids, Sasha had graduated from school and is free to do anything she wants.
"When you are done, we can go and practice in the ramada." Destiny looked at Sasha, making her remembered something. "After receiving Mr. Granger's permission of course."
"My permission for what?" Sasha turned to look at Mr. Granger, who was accompanied by four slightly slept deprived cowboys.
"To practice riding on Destiny in the ramada," said Sasha with a hopeful smile and Destiny looked up halfway done finished with her breakfast.
"I guess that'll be okay youngster." said the head horse wrangler.
"How many horses do you got?" Sasha asked curiously.
"Quite a few young lady," he said.
"Do you know a place where I could train Destiny?" asked Sasha to the horse wrangler.
"I can show you one when you and Destiny are both ready," Mr. Granger offered.
Sasha nodded and opened the stall door. She grabbed a saddle, a bridle, and a rope. Sasha led Destiny out of the barn and they both followed Mr. Granger into a rink with horse jumping obstacles. There was also a small open-walled shelter at the back end.
"Here we are Sasha." Destiny nickered at Mr. Granger, who seemed slightly amused after he said that. "You too Destiny. You can start your practice here. But then we have to move these jumping obstacles in order to put the new horses here."
"Okay and thank you Mr. Granger," said Sasha. She chuckled as Destiny nuzzled Mr. Granger's head as her way of saying thank you. "Destiny says thank you too."
"You are both very welcome," Mr. Granger said with a chuckle and carefully petted Destiny's muzzle.
"Okay." Sasha carefully opened the gate of the ramada. "Let's do this Destiny."
Destiny trotted into the Ramada, her creamy white mane and tail was flowing over her neck and her back legs like pale sunbeams flowing from behind her. Her lean muscles gleamed underneath her sleek golden pinto coat. Her light brown hooves made some sand and dirt come up behind her. Destiny stood in the center of the ramada as Sasha joined her with the equipment.
Sasha put the bridle on Destiny's head and attached it with the rope. Sasha watched as Destiny did a trot, a canter, and finally, a gallop around Sasha in a neat circle. Sasha was surprised to see how gentle the mare was, because she didn't pull too much weight on the rope in Sasha's hands.
After Destiny was trained from the rope, Sasha wrapped the rope around one of the fence's post. Destiny gave an eager neigh as she stood in front of Sasha, clearly knowing what she had to do.
Sasha went to Destiny's back and put the saddle on Destiny's back, the feisty mare tossed the saddle off her back. Sasha giggled and put the saddle back on Destiny's back again, the golden pinto palomino mare snorted and tossed the saddle off her back again. She looked at Sasha with her playful sense of humor, Sasha shrugged with an amused smile and Sasha swung onto the mare's bareback like the professional rider that she is.
Sasha carefully placed her hand on Destiny's golden pinto palomino bareback. Her fur was golden and white like the golden sunlight overlaying on white flowers or snow, but equally soft and smooth.
Destiny has full confidence, faith, and trust in Sasha. She didn't fidget or flinch from Sasha's wary touch.
Was it courage that was being to drive her onto her back, or was it the innocent belief that something big was about to happen? Or both?
She was on Destiny — she was sitting on her new horse bareback! She looked down. How strange it felt to ride without the saddle.
Sasha struggled to calm her heart pounding in her ears. She placed her hands on to the reins. Fortunately, there was the bridle on Destiny's head.
"Okay, let's do this." Sasha led Destiny to step over the four laid out poles on the sandy ground. Sasha clucked her tongue and she started to bounce in the rhythm as Destiny started to trot over the poles.
"So far so good," muttered Sasha. She patted Destiny's neck, the mare nickered softly, looking excited. "Ready to canter girl?"
Destiny neighed excitedly and nodded with a smile. Sasha clucked a bit more faster than before. Sasha bounced even faster than the trotting and she lowered her heels as they came towards the pole jump.
"Woah!" Sasha exclaimed excitedly as the ground disappeared briefly. Destiny had leaped over the pole jump. Her stomach did its familiar lurch. When she landed, Sasha tightened her grip on the reins. Sasha chuckled at the familiarity of horse jumping over the poles.
One by one, Sasha and Destiny had finished their pole jumping. But Sasha knew to jump over the fence jump, they have to gallop to catch some air in order to jump over the fence.
"Okay," panted Sasha. Destiny was also sweating and seemed to be catching her breath. "Let's take a break and then we can do jumps again when we gallop."
During their break, Sasha was drinking a strawberry and banana smoothie next to the small opened-walled shelter, while Destiny was drinking from her bucket of water in the small, opened shelter.
She soon heard some will whinnying that caught her and Destiny's attention. She and Destiny towards the front of the ramada to see what the commotion was all about. It was a wild dappled gray stallion with a black mane and tail in the town square. The two men were pulling a wild mustang were pulling him up the street, their ropes around his neck and body. His blazing blue eyes darted furiously as he fought, kicking and bucking, trying to break free.
He must of been taken out of the wild when he was outside of his herd of wild horses. Sasha felt surprising pity for the wild stallion, who had kicked out Spirit and had taken over Spirit's role to protect the wild herd of horses. Sasha remembered that the stallion's name is Smoke, which seemed to be a good name for an aggressive and overprotective stallion.
But the stallion seemed to have calmed down when he saw Sasha and Destiny in the ramada. He even allowed the cowboys bring him into a corral filled with the six unclaimed mares that Sasha had seen in the morning and allowed them to untangled him from the ropes as he held Sasha's gaze. He soon galloped into the corral and stood away from the cowboys, but he looked at Sasha and Destiny with a confused expression.
Once Sasha and Destiny had both finished resting, Sasha gave the glass to a worker at the ice cream shop before going into the ramada and Destiny was ready to finish their practice together. Sasha mounted Destiny's bareback. She started clucking her tongue and squeezing Destiny's sides with her legs. Sasha laughed in joy as Destiny broke into a steady and exciting gallop.
Sasha lowered her heels and tightened her grip on the reins as they both jumped over the pole obstacles. Sasha barely noticed that a crowd of people had been watching them the whole entire time.
Sasha was a little hesitant to try to jump over the fence obstacle jump, she was afraid that the fence obstacle was too high for her and Destiny to jump over and might end up causing an accident. Who's crazy idea was to make the fence obstacle that high up? She suddenly felt Destiny's soft tail flicked at her leg. Sasha looked at Destiny, who looked back at her calmly and reassuringly. Sasha gave a small, but determined smile. Destiny returned the determined smile. Sasha tightened her grip on the reins as Destiny gave a small rear and let out a determined neigh.
Destiny's pace didn't slow, Sasha lowered herself into jumping position. That's when Destiny had jumped over the obstacle. Sasha felt a slight touch of the wind. She felt her stomach lurched. Sasha thought that she might of lost her feelings to fly. Apparently not. When Destiny landed, Sasha smiled and hugged Destiny's neck. Sasha felt Destiny slowed down to a stop in the center of the ramada. Sasha and Destiny both looked at each other with bright eyes — blue meeting amber — while they catch their breath from their excitement.
Sasha felt Destiny jumped in place when they heard cheering and whistling outside of the ramada. Sasha saw Lucky, Maricela, Pru, Abigail, Tero, Snips, Bianca, Mary Pat, their classmates, and most of the grownups. Even the horses (including Señor Carrots) had watched Sasha and Destiny and started neighing (or braying for Señor Carrots).
"Congratulations Sasha Alma Kemp and Destiny," said a young lady known as Miranda. "You are now part of the Saddle Club."
Sasha was surprised to hear that. She didn't know making that high jump will make her and Destiny part of the club.
"Thank you, Miranda." Sasha looked at the chestnut-haired lady in white and green riding clothes. "But are you sure? I usually like being alone once in awhile."
"It's alright." Miranda waved it off with a smile. "You and Destiny can still go on adventures and that's okay. But do be careful not to wander too far off."
Sasha relaxed and smiled at Miranda. Destiny nickered and nudged Sasha's right shoulder, wanting to be a part of the riding club. "Thank you Miranda. Me and Destiny both accept being part of your club."
"Here take this." Miranda got out a five beaded bracelet with a round white pendant with a horse in the colors of yellow, blue, green, magenta, and purple in the center of the bracelet. Sasha marveled the simple beauty of it as she dismounted Destiny and slipped the bracelet onto her left upper arm.
"Thank you Miranda." Sasha gave a small curtsy to Miranda as a grateful thank you. Miranda chuckled and returned the curtsy before she went towards the gate of the ramada.
Sasha looked up at the sunset with a smile, silently admiring the pink and gold hues of the sky. Destiny seemed to be smiling at her. Sasha patted her neck and lifted the reins over Destiny's head. She led Destiny back to the barn.
"That was great Destiny," Sasha said as she hugged Destiny's neck. "Thank you for having faith in me when I didn't." Destiny let out a soft nicker and nuzzled Sasha's hair.
After Sasha got Destiny ready for the night, she painted Destiny's sign of the green mountains and a curvy blue river with a yellow sun rising from the mountains. Destiny's name was dotted with yellow dots, which was Destiny's choice. Sasha had hung it over Destiny's stall and gotten down to admire it.
Sasha kissed Destiny's nose a goodnight and Destiny nuzzled Sasha's cheek.
"Goodnight Destiny," whispered Sasha.
Destiny neighed to Sasha before she laid down on the hay of her new stall. When Sasha got home, she had taken a bath and gotten into her white nightgown before she fell asleep in her bed.
Tomorrow will be a new day.