Nothing But Horses

by Shannon Kennedy

  I’d seen Emily eyeing him and figured she might sign up for the pre-owner package, using him for her regular mount. All in all, this had been a good party. I opened the gate and walked out into the needle fine snow. The almost invisible flakes had already started to fill up the remains of the grass, but we didn’t have much of an accumulation yet.

  When I reached the barn, I found Tom in with Eddie and Houston. Eddie was teaching Tom how to unsaddle, showing him all the steps from unfastening the breast collar to undoing the latigo, then tying up the gear appropriately. Tom stood and watched, listening to the kid’s lecture.

  When he finished the demonstration, Eddie asked. “Do you have it?”

  Tom nodded. “I think so.”

  “Okay, because the last thing before you lift off the gear is to call for a ‘saddle check.’ You go practice on Nevada and Sierra can come here.”

  “What?” Tom turned and saw me in my horse’s stall. “He’s kidding, right?”

  “Afraid not. Eddie’s got it going today,” I said. “You learn by doing. It’s the way we’ve always done things at Shamrock Stable. Don’t worry. Nevada’s ready for supper and he knows he needs to be a naked pony for that.”

  “I’ll try.” Tom still looked concerned as he left Houston’s stall.

  “Hey, Dave’s right next door,” I said. “I won’t be far away.”

  “Horses like leaders,” Eddie said. “Just pretend you’re bossing people at the restaurant where you work and you’ll be fine.”

  “Good point.” I put the reins across Nevada’s neck. He gave me almost the same kind of stare that Tom had. I petted him. “Don’t worry, bud. You’ll get supper. Promise. I’ll be right back.”

  I left the stall and walked down the barn aisle to look over Eddie’s work. He was totally amazing me today and I hoped he kept trying. While I checked the saddle, the kid watched me. Finally, I asked, “What’s up?”

  “Could I learn to play the games like you and the advanced class did? I can barely trot on Houston. Does he gallop?”

  “Sure he does.” I helped lift down the saddle and gave it to him, laying the pads on top. “You should see him when he and Prince Charming are in the paddock together. They race all over the place.”

  “What do I have to do to ride in your classes?” Eddie started for the door. “I want to progress and Meredith only lets me walk.”

  “You have to be able to do our version of cowboy dressage,” I said. “You’ve got to know all four walks, demonstrate them and ride with and without reins.”

  “What else?”

  “Do all the exercises at the walks. Be able to do transitions between the walk, the halt, backing and trotting off smoothly,” I said. “Meredith is gone until mid-January. You’ll be taking lessons with my mom. If you really focus and come to ride three or four times a week, you should be in the intermediate class after the holidays.”

  “I’ll make it.” Eddie toted his gear in the direction of the tack room.

  I returned to my horse’s stall. Tom had unfastened the breast collar and was undoing the cinch. “Wait a second,” I told him. “How can you be out of the beginner class if you can’t untack?”

  “I can.” Tom pulled the latigo from the cinch ring. “It looked like Eddie needed more encouragement to step up and like you said people learn by doing.”

  I reminded myself that he was just here to chase cowgirls and not to let him impress me, but it was hard duty. With so many people still at the barn, we finished watering, feeding and mucking in less than an hour. The snow continued to fall and we were up to almost a half inch when we walked over to the office. Grandma met us there. She’d made a huge poster of the winners of the Deck the Stalls contest.

  Vicky and Autumn tied for first place in the staff category. Emily won for the advanced students and Dani came in second. Robin took champion in intermediate and Eddie was the top beginner. The contest winners had fancy certificates, courtesy of Grandma again. I so had to get her to teach me how to do that on the computer. If they didn’t win a big prize, they had a consolation gift of horsy conditioner to use the next time they groomed.

  I spotted Eddie trying to talk his mom out of hers, but it wasn’t happening. She told him that he’d have to be content with a week of summer day camp. While they walked out the door, I heard him asking her about an upgrade so he could be a tween counselor at leadership camp instead of riding in little kid camp. Whoo-hoo, either way we’d be making more money off Rhonda and I could so go with that. The woman had decided we wanted too much for our horses so she didn’t buy Houston. Instead, she got a free horse at a different barn. Mom had finessed her into finishing out her lesson contract and signing up for the pre-owner package. I planned to take more bucks from Rhonda. Like Grandpa said, “there was more than one way to teach horsemanship.”

  As the younger kids left the office, they picked up their presents from Shamrock Stable, knit gloves wrapped around a candy cane, carrot and hoof pick. Grandma signed the students out to the appropriate parents and listened to the weather reports they provided. It seemed we were in the proverbial banana belt because the storm had come from the south again like it did a few weeks ago. Seattle was hard hit, with three inches already and the talking heads on the TV and radios complained that the snow showed no signs of stopping. Vicky and Robin dashed up to the building, Dani right behind them.

  “Come on,” I said. “Let’s go to the house and get your stuff.”

  “Are you and Rocky changing the holiday hours?” Vicky asked, as we headed across the yard to the farmhouse. “Or can we still come tomorrow and Christmas Eve?”

  “It depends on the weather,” I said. “Mom will want you to be safe and if the roads are treacherous, then you need to stay home until they clear.”

  “Dad’s taking the week off,” Robin told me. “He grew up in Montana and he says it’s no big deal. He’ll bring us if you want us.”

  “Let’s see how deep the snow is tomorrow,” I said. “If it isn’t too bad, you can come. If it is, let’s wait until Christmas Eve or Boxing Day.”

  “Sounds good,” Robin said.

  In another half-hour, we were down to family only and we congregated in the kitchen. Grandpa put a casserole in the oven. I started making salads. Mom sat at the kitchen table tallying up the checks for the next bank deposit while Grandma went through the lesson book. Autumn sat in the rocking chair near the woodstove, her fav horsy afghan pulled up around her. Queenie dozed on the rag rug nearby. My little sister wasn’t talking and when I took a closer look, I realized she was snoozing too.

  “If this snow sticks around after Christmas, so will we,” Grandma told us. “We’re not heading south when we have to fret about the roads.”

  “You’re always welcome. Like I tell the kids, it is safety first. I don’t want to worry about you and Dad driving back to Arizona.” Mom yawned. “What a busy day. Sierra, I think your contest was a hit. I had a lot of folks asking me if we’d do it again next year and I agreed.”

  “You had a great pool of judges.” The coffee stopped brewing, and I filled four mugs. “Everybody won something, even if it was just a bottle of conditioner. That worked really well.”

  Mom nodded. “I think picking up the special conditioner at Wal-Mart was brilliant, Sierra. The students felt like winners and we know they’ll use it on the horses, so actually the barn will benefit big-time.”

  “Dave is a decent guy,” Grandpa said. “He told me that he wasn’t much of a rider anymore. It was good to have him in the ring with that big fellow of Sierra’s.”

  “I thought Tom rode with the intermediates most of the day,” Grandma said sweetly. She cracked up when I glared at her. “Oh, come on, sweetie. He’s a nice boy. And I have to hassle your grandpa sometimes. It’s part of my job description.”

  “Okay, just as long as you know that Tom and I aren’t dating.” I passed around the cups of coffee. “He only wants to learn about horses so he can chase girls. He knows I won’t be o
ne of them.”

  Grandma smiled at me. “And he’s such a smart boy too. He told me he’s a senior and the Student Body President at Lincoln High.”

  “Not happening,” I said. “I don’t have time for a two-legged guy. Nevada takes too much attention.”

  Chapter Seven

  Shamrock Stable, Washington

  Tuesday, December 24th, 12:30 pm

  It had finally stopped snowing, but the temperature was still cold and the foot of snow hadn’t started to melt yet. The accumulation in our area meant there were a few holiday glitches. Bill couldn’t move the Mustang out of the garage, much less tow it to Robin’s house. He wasn’t even able to drive out of his neighborhood because it was all hills. He’d called me three times already today to get the current weather report.

  In the middle of feeding lunch hay, my cell vibrated again. I pulled it out of my coat pocket and looked at the screen. I answered, hoping I didn’t sound as impatient as I felt. “Hi, Bill. Yes, we still have snow. What about you?”

  “I’m stuck at home, but I talked to Robin’s dad. He says the roads are clearing up around his place and he can drive to Shamrock.”

  “Can he get to your house?” I dropped a flake of orchard grass hay in Aladdin’s manger. “Or shall I put some big red bows on the garage?”

  “Could you? That’d be great.”

  I didn’t mean it. I was being sarcastic, but I wasn’t about to say that to the guy. He sounded stressed enough. In one of our previous conversations, he’d said this was his first Christmas with Robin as a couple and he didn’t want to screw things up. “Okay, I’ll finish feeding and see what I have left over in the decoration department.”

  “All right! Thanks a lot, Sierra. I’m going to bundle up and start hiking out to meet Robin, Vicky, Jack and Mr. Gibson on the main road.”

  “Take care. I’ll see you guys when you get here.” I fed Summertime, then the two ditzy palomino mares that lived across from the rescued Arabians. “Honestly, all this hoopla makes a person believe Scrooge was right. Bah, humbug.”

  Spirit pulled out a mouthful of hay, chewed and flicked her golden ears at me. She was the next on Vicky’s list to train and should be pretty easy to break. Born and raised here, the five-year-old didn’t have a clue that people could be cruel. She figured they all came armed with treats. Still eating, she stuck her blazed face over the door, so I could pet her.

  “Carrots later, little girl. Not now. Your sib is further up in the barn telling me to feed her before she starves.”

  I stepped back and began pushing the wheelbarrow up the aisle, passing out chunks of hay as I went. It really didn’t take long to feed the twenty horses in this barn. I wasn’t mucking or watering, just giving them hay. The heavy work came later at the end of the day. It would be time-consuming tonight. With the snow, I couldn’t turn the horses into paddocks for a few hours. I’d have to put different groups into the indoor arena while I did the barn. That meant once the stalls were done, I had to scoop up the horsy poop in the riding ring. If Santa could have spared a few elves, it would be great.

  I left the lights on to melt the snow on the roof, and then walked out of the barn. Autumn and Queenie slogged through the drifts to meet me, Grandpa behind the duo. “Hi there.”

  “Grandpa and me fed lunch in the other barn,” Autumn said. “Grandma was starting to make sandwiches when we came outside. Grilled cheese and tomato.”

  “Sounds yummy.” I glanced around the yard at the snow on the roofs of the barns, the thick white layers on the pine trees that lined the driveway. The place looked like a farm on a greeting card. It would have been majorly awesome if we didn’t have horsy chores three times a day. Having Grandpa and Grandma here made everything so much easier this time around, not like the storm three weeks ago when Mom, Autumn and I did everything.

  “Lunch will be ready for us now. Let’s go,” I said. “After that, do you want to help me decorate the garage?”

  “Why?” Grandpa asked. “There’s just the shell of that old car in there.”

  “I know. Bill can’t tow it down to Marysville and Robin’s house today. He’s arranging for her to come and see it.”

  “Okay, I’m in,” Grandpa said. “I’ll help. I want to see the girl’s face when she gets the outside of a car, one without an engine or transmission.”

  “It has nice seats,” Autumn said. “I helped Bill shine up the Mustang. He promised to tell Santa that I’m a good kid.”

  “Oh, I’m sure Santa already knows.” Grandpa winked at me, but hid his amusement from my sister. “Sierra and your mom must have shared the news.”

  “Yeah, but it’s December and I need all the help I can get,” Autumn said, blue eyes concerned. “I was naughty this year.”

  “You? My little Autumn angel?” Grandpa struggled not to smile. “I don’t believe it.”

  “I really was, Grandpa.” My sister began to list all her crimes from not keeping her room clean to refusing to do her spelling test three times at school, to sassing Mom to locking Meredith in the customer’s bathroom during tack-up.

  Grandpa listened sympathetically, and then suggested she help me put together the big surprise for Robin. We’d see to it Santa got the word that Autumn had changed her wicked ways. When we reached the mud-porch, she was the first one to remove her boots and outdoor gear and head into the kitchen. Once she was out of earshot, he touched my shoulder. “Is that why Meredith wasn’t at the party this weekend? Did your momma finally lose patience with the woman?”

  “I did.” I shrugged out of my coat and hung it up on a hook to dry. “Meredith really hated the contest idea. She was so angry when we started signing up new students in the pre-owner program. We had to do something to make money in the off-season since we weren’t getting any sales. A lot of people don’t want to spend big bucks on horses right now.”

  Grandpa nodded. “I know, but your mom always gives Meredith a bonus when she helps sell horses. In this down economy, it’s hard to see the big picture sometimes.”

  “She could still have had her bonus,” I said, removing my boots. “It might not have been as much. Of course, when the horses stay at Shamrock and the students come here to ride, there’s more work than if they move out to other barns.”

  “Exactly,” Grandpa said. “Like I said, the big pic baffles some folks. Selling horses to homes that may or may not work isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be. I’ve had a few heartaches over the years.”

  I nodded. Been that, done there. I remembered the time Mom and I ran into a former student at the feed store a few years ago. We asked about the trustworthy, loving horse she’d bought from us and learned it died of colic. She decided that walking the gelding all night or until he had regular gut sounds was too much like work, so she left him locked in a stall and went to a party with friends. In that much distress, he’d managed to roll until he twisted his intestines. Then, he ruptured them, and Dr. Larry had no choice except to euthanize him.

  “Lunch.” Grandpa wrapped an arm around my shoulders, giving me a quick squeeze. He understood that I didn’t want to talk about lost horses and neither did he. “Let’s go eat and we’ll do Christmas for your friend after that.”

  We’d barely finished stapling big, plastic, red bows on the garage door when I spotted John Gibson’s car pulling into the parking lot by the indoor arena. We started toward the four-wheel-drive and Autumn hurried to tell Mom that we had company. Queenie couldn’t decide whether to go with the kid or protect Grandpa and me from what might be danger. She woofed and ran back and forth.

  “Come on, you silly dog.” I leaned down to pet her when we reached our guests. “Hi, everybody.”

  John looked around the plowed parking lot and the drifts of snow. “You did an amazing job, Sierra. I should hire you to come do my driveway.”

  “Not me, this time. It was Grandpa.” I took a minute to introduce the guys, although they’d talked before when my grandparents visited. “How’s the snow down y
our way?”

  “We have more than you do,” Vicky said, snuggling next to Jack. “My brothers and sisters are having snowball wars with the other kids in the cul-de-sac. I had to get out of there for a bit so when Jack called, I was ready to come to visit the horses for a while.”

  “Bill said you could use help in the barns,” Robin said. “We know how long chores take. He suggested we jump in and give of ourselves. That’s our Christmas present for you.”

  “Great idea.” I meant it too. I’d wondered how he planned to convince them to visit the barn on a snowy day. I grinned at the guy who toted a huge fifteen pound sack of carrots. “Well, let’s go feed some of those.”

  “Sounds good. You kids do that and I’ll haul the box of gifts that Maura gave me up to the house,” John said, turning to Grandpa. “Could you give me a hand?”

  “You bet.”

  Vicky and Robin led the way toward the indoor arena. I followed them with Jack and Bill. “How are we going to get her to the garage?”

  “We have another bag of carrots in the car,” Bill said. “I figure we’ll feed those in the top barn and then you suggest we go to the house for hot chocolate before chores. We’ll have to walk right by the garage and I already told her that her present is here. She needs to look for something different on the farm.”

  Chapter Eight

  Shamrock Stable, Washington

  Tuesday, December 24th, 3:30 pm

  We’d passed the garage three times before Robin glimpsed the decorations and went to investigate. Her screams of joy when she saw the Mustang brought her dad from the house as well as the rest of us from the barn. She jumped up and down in excitement, then hugged Bill three or four times before she kissed him.

  “It needs an engine and a tranny,” Bill said.

  “It’s perfect.” Robin smoothed a hand over the left front fender. “Wait until you see it when I finish it.”