"...and our world AQHA champion is number 168, Radical Days and Rose Smith!" A smile came to my face once again as I rewatched the 16 year old video. I turned the camera off and handed it back to my mother who sat right next to me on the black leather couch. I picked up the picture frame on the coffee table with my mother's AQHA stallion, Radical Days inside it. My mom got up and put the camera and picture book away on the wooden bookshelf by the front door.
"I still can't believe Rad will be 20 years old in a couple days!" I said as I put the picture frame back on the coffee table by the family picture.
"Me too, he still doesn't look a day over 10 though!" Exclaimed my mom as she walked towards the closet on the right side of the door. I laughed and got up.
"That was a year before I had you" said my mom. I smiled.
"Well, we should probably go feed the horses now, it's getting late in the morning" my mom said grabbing a red wind breaker from the closet. I nodded my head and called over my big German Shepherd cross.
"It's cold out, you should wear at least a sweater" said my mom throwing a grey paint stained hoodie at me. I caught it and put it on. I then put my blonde hair back into a ponytail.
"Let's go!" I exclaimed running out the front door, my furry dog right behind me. I jumped down the patio stairs and stopped. My mom walked out and closed the door. She looked at her empty flower pot to the side of the door and sighed.
"I can't wait for summer" she sighed. Buddy, my dog, started wagging his tail and jumped up in the air towards me.
"We are going to the broodmare barn first, right?" I wondered.
"Yep". I looked at Buddy and he looked at me. I started running as fast as I could towards the huge red barn to the left of the house. Buddy chased after me, his tail wagging, almost making him fall over. He passed me and ran right towards the barn, but he got distracted when he saw our barn cat which he then chased after.
"Buddy!" I growled not really caring because he'd never actually catch the cats. I stopped in front of the garage door to the barn. I put my fingers under the door and tried to lift up. It didn't budge. "It must be locked from the inside" I thought. Turning towards the man door to my right, I saw my dog come running back. I laughed then walked inside unlocking the garage door and opening it up. My mom walked in as I latched the garage door. The mares nickered to us knowing we were the food ladies. My mom walked towards the feed room and I walked towards the yellow two wheel wheelbarrow and grabbed a pink manure fork. I then made my way towards the first stall, Dolly's stall.
"Hi girlie!" I smiled. The bay, very round, brood mare sniffed my sweater. I gave her a pat and started scooping out manure. Dolly is my favorite brood mare. She was the mare I learned how to ride on and how to be around horses. She was my mom's first ever big AQHA champion. A very gentle soul, she is a great mother to all her foals. She is already 17 years old, this is probably the last year that she'll foal out. But she'll be great for lessons. I finished her stall then went on to clean the 13 others, dumping the wheelbarrow every once and a while. By the time I was finished, my mom was done giving them their grain, hay, water, and shavings.
"We will have to let a couple of the mares loose in our indoor arena, the weather is supposed to be bad today so we can't let them out" my mother explained. I agreed and put my stuff away. I walked out of the barn, my mother behind me closing the garage door. I saw Buddy smelling a tree.
"Come here!" I called. He ran over and we began to walk over to the boarding barn. I looked back at the brood mare barn, a huge 14 stall barn surrounded by big fields. I wasn't looking where I was going and I tripped over a rock. My mom laughed at me. I smiled embarrassed and kept walking. Once inside the 12 stall boarding/lesson barn, my mom went towards the feed room once again, so I decided to do the stalls. After that barn, we did the stallion barn, and then the yearling/young horse barn. Which was inside the indoor arena.
"Phew, I'm pooped" I sighed.
"One last thing to do" my mom said, "we need to let a couple horses loose in the indoor arena. We'll put two horses from the lesson barn in the two round pens and then we will let some of the brood mares loose." I looked at her and sighed once more.
"I'll grab Dusty and River and let them into the round pens" I said. My mom told me she'd go get a few broodmares. I agreed and returned to the boarding barn. First I grabbed Dusty, a 10 year old chestnut AQHA gelding. He's boarded here by my best friend, she does reining with him so he's built really well. I then grabbed River, a 6 year old dapple grey AQHA gelding that's here for western pleasure training. I put them each in their own round pen with a hay net. My mom let Dolly, Honey, Momma, and, Treasure loose in the indoor arena with a little bit of hay to eat.
"Okay, we are finally all done!" I exclaimed.
"Let's go take a break and eat lunch before we exercise and ride the horses" said my mom. I smiled and started running towards the house.
***lol, this chapter was kind of boring but it was a start, hope you liked it!***
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Champion
Non-FictionIvey Howrish lives a life many people would like to have on a huge ranch with her family. She has a dream of becoming an AQHA champion with a horse she trained just like her mother. Once a new horse arrives, this might just be her chance to finally...
