‘You will be ok. Stay seated where you are for a few minutes and once the initial fear goes, I will gently lead Sox around and let you get the hang of how it feels to be up there when he is moving. That way, for the first few minutes, you can still hang on if you want to.’
Cal felt really badly. He hadn’t realised actually how scared she had been before they started and they were now in a spot where there was no real point to turning back, better if they went forward. If she’d overcome her fear this far, he would have to get her all the way through. He let her be for a few minutes and then he moved around beside Sox’s head and grabbed the side of the bridle.
‘Ok. We’re going to move now.’
He flicked her a quick glance. Aurora really didn’t look good. If she freaked out when they moved he would pull her off. At least this horse was virtually bomb proof and wasn’t going to do anything stupid out of fright, no matter what the two of them did. He quietly hoped that this was going to work out okay. He decided his best bet might to take the first couple of steps walking backwards that way he could keep an eye on her as the horse moved. He did that. Aurora’s face didn’t flinch; she seemed to be lost somewhere in her own little world. He took a couple more steps and when she still didn’t react, he turned around and started to lead the horse around the outside of the round yard, crossing his fingers that she wasn’t going to pass out on him.
He did three turns round one way, looking back over his shoulder, before crossing through the middle and doing another three laps around the other way, still looking back over his shoulder, before stopping in the middle of the yard. Aurora had been silent for the whole time. Her face had been blank as well. When he looked up at her after they stopped, she had the faintest beginnings of a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. She looked down at him and the smile fully blossomed.
‘I like it.’
Who would have thought that those three little words would have meant so much to him? He threw her a wolfish grin.
‘I’m glad about that. Now you’re going do it on your own.’
He then showed her the best way to hold the reins in her hand and explained about getting going, left, right (including the corresponding feet kicks) and stop. Even though he knew she wasn’t going to understand he briefly mentioned about weight in the saddle. He then went to both sides of the horse and angled her heels down.
‘Keep these down at all times. If you fall off, you want your foot to slide out of the stirrup easily. If your toes are down that’s not going to happen and you run the risk of getting your foot stuck in the stirrup and nobody wants to be dragged along the ground behind a horse.’
He looked up to make sure that she understood. She nodded at him.
‘Righto. I want you to go across from here and do three laps around the yard clockwise. Then I want you to come back to me. Off you go.’
Aurora looked down at her hands to make sure that the reins were still right and gently kicked. The horse rippled his hide where her foot had nudged him, but that was the only movement he made.
‘If you want him to move, you can’t be gentle. If it’s not a decent kick, he thinks it’s a fly and moves his hide to get rid of it, just like he did then. Let him know it’s you.’
Aurora gave him what she thought was a decent kick, hoping like mad that he didn’t take off in a hurry like the horses did in the western movies. She felt a surge of relief when he moved off slowly. When she got across she pulled the right rein, kicked with the left foot and next thing they were going around the edge of the yard. She repeated that process to get into the middle after the three laps were done and pulled the reins while trying to keep her weight in the saddle to stop. When Sox pulled up like she had asked him to do, she grinned from ear to ear. Callan looked at her and after his own face splitting into a wide grin, decided that her smile was infectious.
‘Well done. I was a bit worried about you in the beginning, but you’ve done really well. You ready to go back around the other way?’
‘Sure.’
Without waiting any longer, Aurora repeated the same process but in the other direction. When she came to a stop beside him she was looking really happy and excited. Callan mentally tossed up whether to push her any further for the day while she was on a roll, or whether he would scare her off if he did. He decided to throw it out there and see what her reaction was.
‘Do you want to leave it there for today or are you keen to keep on going and ramp it up a bit?’
‘I’m keen to keep going if you don’t mind. Now that I am up here I’m loving it.’
The smile on her face was confirmation.
‘In that case I will get you to do some more exercises at a walk, and then we will move you up to a trot.’
He then outlined what he wanted her to do, then went and sat on the top rail while she did it. He acknowledged to himself that she was trying hard. He hadn’t had to explain things more than once and she did her best. It was good to see, especially since she had been scared of the animal to start with. She was slowly earning his respect and she was turning out to be more tenacious than he would have thought. He snorted. Not that there had been many, but the other city people that had come out had been downright soft. No wonder then that he had thought that she would have been cast in the same mould. No, he would give her credit where it was due, she was tougher than she looked. She actually appeared to be enjoying herself. Even though she was concentrating, she was still smiling. It was the most animated he had seen her since she arrived. Not that he had spent a whole lot of time with her he had to admit.
When she had completed what he had asked her to do, she brought Sox over and stopped in front of Callan. He stayed where he was as he was pretty much on eye level with her.
‘You want to have a go at trotting?’
Her face fell, replaced by a look of uncertainty.
‘Do you think I will be able to without falling off? I want to, but…’
Her voice trailed off and she dropped her eyes. She looked like a small child who was scared to cross the street on her own. The speed of the transformation from confident to insecure was amazing. He briefly wondered why she had no confidence in herself, in her own ability, and just as quickly decided it was none of his business. She was here for the next few weeks and then she would go back to her life and it wouldn’t matter a damn what he thought. He was, however, going to make certain that she knew that she could do this.
‘Of course you can do it. The speed of the horse will increase a little but once you learn how to deal with that, everything else stays the same.’
Callan then explained how to urge the horse from a walk to a trot and how to rise correctly while she trotted. She sat there, eyes wide, and listened intently. When he told her to have a go, she didn’t hesitate, she kicked Sox into a walk and then did a lap around the yard at a walk before trying to get him into a trot. Her first couple of attempts didn’t do much, except increase the speed of the walk.
‘Give him a decent kick. Let him know that you don’t just want him to walk faster. He needs you to tell him firmly to trot.’
With that she gave him a decent kick and they started trotting. She picked the rhythm of rising pretty quickly and did a few laps of the yard.
‘Pull him back to a walk, then after a few paces, get him to trot again.’
Aurora did that a few times, moving from walk to trot and back again.
‘This time I want you to bring him up through the middle and go around the other way.’
For someone that had never had anything to do with horses, she was doing really well. The smile was back. Not that he would tell her, but she really should smile more often it changed her whole face. After he had let her go for a bit, Callan jumped down off the rail and moved to the middle of the yard. Aurora brought Sox over to stand beside him. He ran his hand repeatedly down the horse’s neck, before looking up at Aurora.
‘Do you want to have a go at cantering? We can’t do it in this yard as it is a bit too small,
but if you want to have a go, then I’ll take you into the next yard.’
The lack of confidence briefly flickered across her features before she steeled herself.
‘This is way better than I ever thought it would be. I really want to have a go.’
Callan’s wolfish grin was back.
‘Good choice.’
He was pleased that she hadn’t given free rein to whatever it was that ripped her confidence away from her. He went over and opened the gate and urged her to come on through.
‘Walk and trot him around a bit in here so you get a feel for the area, then you can get him into a canter. While you are trotting, kick him and sit back into the saddle. Make sure you keep your weight in the saddle because if you lift your backside and lean forward, he is going to go faster and faster because that is what he is trained to do.’
Aurora looked momentarily as though she had changed her mind.
‘He won’t take off if you sit back. You’ll be fine.’
Callan climbed back through the gate and watched as she moved off. She sat nicely on the horse. He had thought this was going to be a lot harder than it had turned out to be. She was a little uncoordinated on her first attempt to get Sox into a canter, but she got there eventually. She had the horse in a canter and her weight was back. So far, so good.
‘Come up the centre which will force you to do a direction change rather than following the rails.’
It was all going well until she was just about at the other end of the yard, and then in a split second Aurora went from sitting on top of Sox to ending up in a pile on the ground. Instinct took over for him. Callan flung himself through the gate and ran up to where she was.
‘Shit!’
Just as he reached her she rolled over onto her back, her stomach heaving a little.
‘You alright?’
She surprised him by starting to laugh, her reply coming out brokenly.
‘I don’t actually know the answer to that.’
The laughter was good in one way, it meant she didn’t have any broken ribs. She definitely wouldn’t be laughing like that if she did, he knew that from experience. After a couple of minutes the laughter died down and she placed her hands over her stomach.
‘I seem to be aching in a whole stack of places that I didn’t even know existed.’
She was still grinning stupidly as she struggled to try and get herself sitting up. Callan extended a hand to help her to her feet, which she gladly took.
‘Thanks.’
She was standing, which meant that neither leg was broken and both arms appeared to be fine. Thank God for that. He would have been furious with himself if she had broken anything. He felt guilty enough for what he thought of as pushing her along to learn to ride. Sox had been forgotten in the rush to make sure she was okay. He was patiently standing beside the rail a few steps away. Callan went over and grabbed the reins, bringing him back with him. He looked her squarely in the eye.
‘Do you want the bad news? Even though it is the last thing you are going to want to do right now, you need to get back on.’
Aurora looked at him ruefully.
‘This is where that cliché comes from isn’t it.’
‘Yep. It’s an oldie, but a goody. If you don’t get back on now, your confidence will be trashed and we won’t be able to get you on tomorrow.’
He handed her the reins.
‘Bring him over so that you can put him in that lower bit over there and you can stand on the slightly higher ground. It may make it marginally easier to swing yourself up.’
Aurora brought Sox over. Callan looped the reins over the horse’s head. She positioned herself and winced as she lifted her leg and placed her foot in the stirrup, bruised muscles complaining at the stretch required. She managed to get herself into the saddle first go and adjusted the reins to fit comfortably in her hands. She looked down at Callan.
‘I fell off because I couldn’t decide whether to go right or left towards the end and I sort of pulled the reins one way, then the other, of course Sox went one way, then the other and over the side I went.’
She was taking this well, he decided. He was glad that there were no hysterics or theatrics. He didn’t deal well with that sort of thing. He also liked that she had thought about what had happened. It meant that she was less likely to do it a second time. Callan grinned.
‘Sox won’t do anything that you don’t ask him to do. But the flip side of that is that he will do what you do ask him to.’
Aurora chuckled.
‘Learnt that the hard way didn’t I!’
With that parting remark she kicked Sox into a walk and off the two of them went. Callan watched her retreating back and experienced a grudging admiration. Her let her do her thing for a while and when she came over, satisfied with what she had achieved for the day, she dismounted and they took Sox over to be unsaddled and wiped down.
The others returned for lunch and both Callan and Aurora went out with them in the afternoon to continue with running the new wire out for the northern boundary fence. Just as dusk was settling they returned to another noisy dinner. Exhausted from the day’s exertion Aurora didn’t linger too long after the meal, instead showering and climbing into bed. She lay there staring into the black nothingness for a while, replaying the major events of the day.
The fencing had been hot and sweaty work and her hands and arms were covered in little nicks from the barbed wire, even though she had worn leather gloves, but it had also been fun in a sense, as everybody had joked and made fun of each other as they had worked. It was certainly different from her usual day job, but she had to admit that she didn’t hate it. So far there was a stress-less peace to anything that she had done out here.
Except, of course, the horse.
She had really amazed herself. If anyone had told her two weeks ago that she would be cantering around on a horse, she would have told them they were mad. She had to admit that it had been really, really difficult, especially for those first few moments when she was sitting up on Sox, but once she had overcome her fear and settled into it things had been much easier.
She smiled to herself in the darkness. Overall, she was really proud of herself for her progress this morning. Callan had suggested that she do a bit of work on Sox again the following morning in the yards and then they were going to ride out to the river and follow it for a bit. She was really looking forward to it. She was amazed that over the course of a few hours her attitude had changed. As much as she had wanted to be angry with Trudy for arranging it all, she realised now that she owed the other woman a big thank you.
She could now better understand Gran’s comments about being incredibly sore but nonetheless wanting to do it all over again. She momentarily thought about pulling the journal out to read a bit more but she couldn’t gather the strength to get out of bed to get it. She really was tired and she had that little child excitement about riding again in the morning. The sooner she went to sleep, the sooner the morning would come. When she and Fiona had been letting the horses out three days ago she hadn’t wanted anything to do with them. Now she was itching to get back on tomorrow. Just as she drifted off, she couldn’t help but wonder what other new experiences this place had in store for her.
eight
Mustering
Aurora and Callan had taken the horses out the morning before. He had insisted that she do a bit of work in the yards first, to get back into the swing of things, before they ventured out into the open. Aurora’s leg muscles had been incredibly tight and sore when she woke. She had visibly flinched when she had lowered her backside into the saddle. Callan had noticed and had told her the more she did it the less it would hurt. That had been cold comfort at the time.
They had gone out from the yards to the river, which wasn’t too far away and followed the river along for an hour or so. After the first time that she’d lost her hat, she‘d been more careful with overhanging branches. The best bit had been not falling off again. The
resa had met them on their way back. She had been out checking one of the interior fences and had taken a horse rather than the Cruiser. The three of them had wandered along until they reached the house. Theresa had requested Callan’s help with one of the heifers in the house paddock, and after leading Aurora to the wash down bays and explaining what had to be done, the two of them had taken off.
Today, everybody except Arthur and Fiona were going out mustering. Arthur maintained that the two of them were ‘too bloody old to be gallivanting around on horseback.’ After breakfast, the place became a hive of activity: voices shouting directions, people moving about, horses tied up all about the place and a general hum. Kate and Harriet were saddled up and sitting on their horses, waiting. Aurora was walking past and stopped to have a good look at them. She smiled broadly.
‘Don’t you pair look all grown up.’
Kate as the older and more dominant child was the one to respond. Her face a study in seriousness as only children can achieve.
‘We’ve gone mustering heaps of times. We’re Daddy’s special helpers.’
Aurora couldn’t think of much to say to that, so settled on the classic reply.
‘Well done.’
She then moved away, unsettled about the fact that the two young girls were more experienced at this than her. She hated being the baby of the group. She went around the back where she found Callan saddling Sox for her. He flashed her one of his drop-dead grins. Just as he looked up, Keith came round the side of the building, walked up to Aurora and placed his hand on her shoulder. Her first reaction was to shrug the hand off. She had a very large personal space and he had just very much stepped over the boundary. Instead, as she was going to have to be in constant contact with him for the next three weeks, in an attempt to be pleasant, even though it was the last thing she wanted, she turned around and greeted him warmly.
‘Keith.’
Bilgarra Springs Page 9