AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“She doesn’t have tack. We can use just about anything that’ll fit, or we have a treeless saddle.”
“Do you have a hackamore? She never took too nicely to the bit.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I’m sure we’ve got a couple.”
“No tie down either. She likes to have her head.”
I snorted. “That explains why she never took too kindly to me trying to ride.”
Perry grinned. “Has anyone been on her since she’s been here?”
I grimaced. “A few. I have been. Not for the full eight seconds, though.”
Perry bit his lip. His eyes crinkled as he held back the laughter. “It’s just… I can’t imagine you being bucked off a horse.”
“She was listed as broke to ride. I brought her right home, got her settled into the paddock. The next day I saddled her up. She was fine for about half a second. Then she realized I wasn’t you. Threw me off.”
Perry grabbed a saddle and bridle from the tack room. I watched as he worked, not helping him. He seemed to have everything well in hand. Blossom stood patiently as he put the saddle on, tightened it, then put on the bridle. She was calm as can be as he did all of that. Of course, she was like that when I had tried all those years ago. I was still on my guard in case it all went sideways.
We both walked our horses out to the drive, where the road split off to head towards the trails.
“Are we ready?” he asked.
I nodded. I held my breath as he looped the reins over the saddle horn and grabbed on. He put one foot in the stirrup and then hoisted himself up, swinging his leg over. I trusted that he knew Blossom better than any of us, and I’d seen him with her throughout the last week. She was different, calmer when he was around, but there was still that niggling feeling in the back of my mind since I’d seen and experienced first hand what she was like when others had tried to ride.
Perry didn’t have any of that hesitancy. He grinned widely when he was finally seated. He patted her neck and looked at me. “We ready?”
I nodded, shaking my head to myself. His instincts were right. Blossom stood at the ready, her ears forward, showing no signs that she was going to be anything but perfect.
I swung up on the back of my horse and we started on a walk, our two horses walking side by side.
“As much as I would like to be out here for hours riding,” he began, “if Blossom hasn’t had anyone on her back for a while, we might just make a short loop.”
Pride swelled in my chest, though I had no reason to feel that towards him. He was a man who thought of his mount first and that impressed me. “I think you’re right. We’ll take it slow and do the short loop. I can point out a lot of things from here, or when she’s in a better condition, we can go farther. Or if you’d like we could take one of the other horses.”
He scowled at that. “If you ever need someone to exercise any of the other horses when they need a workout, I’m more than happy to do that. But for any recreational riding, I better stick to Blossom.”
“She the jealous type?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I don’t think so. More that I’m the loyal type.”
“Me too,” I said.
We walked for a while. I pointed out the different pastures and what we used them for, and pointed out the different places on the ranch where I liked to go.
Eventually we got to a small pond area. Pond was a bit of a misnomer. It was just a little watering hole where we had a bench setup and a tie post. We dismounted and tied up our horses. Perry pulled a sugar cube from his pocket and gave one to each of them.
“Bribing the animals already?” I asked.
He grinned. “Maybe a little.”
He sat down on the bench with me and I pulled the pie out of the saddlebag. “I’ve got cherry or apple.”
“Which one’s your favorite?” he said. He eyed both of them hungrily. I knew my mom had pulled out all the stops this week preparing desserts. She’d wanted him to be comfortable in the house, and what better way to do that than to feed him well?
I shrugged. “I can take either one. Or we can share.”
“Let’s share.”
