I nudged her forward a little, and we trotted along the fence line for a bit. There were more horses scattered closer to the stock barn, so we had a lot of space for ourselves. After a moment, I shifted my weight, and she looped back toward where we’d left Hawk.
Grinning, I straightened my back. “Let’s see if you remember this, still,” I murmured, and gave her the signal for our version of collected canter.
She perked up even more, happy for this little puzzle, and collected herself like a dream.
“That’s it, girl,” I said, smiling from ear to ear.
We came to a stop next to our starting point, and Hawk clapped.
“That was impressive for her build and with no saddle and bridle.”
“Thanks. I wanted to see if she still remembered how to. Didn’t think it would be this easy, but she’s such a good girl.” I slid off her back and gave her a hug and a few pats. “We’ll find something new to do on my days off, I promise.”
“You can use any of my equipment. I have a lot of the balancing and conditioning stuff in the storage attached to the arena.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. She’d love that for sure.”
Hawk handed me a few pieces of carrot from his never-ending supply in his pocket and I gave them to Jaina.
“Okay, go back to your friends.” I patted her neck and she snorted, then started to walk away as if she’d understood exactly what I’d told her.
Hawk seemed delighted. “She’s something special. You’ve done good with her.”
“Thanks.” It meant a lot coming from him. I’d looked into his methods and reputation, and for his age, he was leaps and bounds ahead of anyone else I could find.
“What do you think of a seesaw?” he asked, gesturing back at our task at hand.
“Huh, never thought about that. We could build one on that side.”
And so it went. He started to take notes, and we spent another hour making plans and figuring out what we needed to buy for this project.
“This is going to look like an agility course by the time we’re done,” Hawk said, sounding excited.
I laughed. “I’m good with that.”
He slapped me on the shoulder. “Come on, let’s go find lunch before Mom calls me.”
That evening, after Pay went to bed to read before bedtime, I grabbed a pop and went to my tiny porch.
Russ was on his porch, and there was a light on in Crew’s cabin, too.
“Want to join me?” Russ asked me.
“Let me tell Pay.” I peeked back inside. “Pay? I’m going to chat with Russ on his porch, okay?”
“Okay, Daddy!”
I walked across the patch of grass between the cabins and went to sit on the bench next to Russ’s rocking chair.
“Hawk said you’re helping him with things,” he started, gaze firmly on the paddocks in the distance.
“Uh-huh.” I drank a bit of my pop. “It’s taking some brain work, but we’ll get there.”
“He also said that you’re a bit of magic on that horse of yours.”
My cheeks heated. “I don’t know about that.”
Russ hummed, sounding amused. “That boy is an old soul if I ever seen one. He’s often the quiet one in the corner, watchin’ people. He sees things others don’t. He says you’re magic; you better believe it, son.”
