Wes walked over to Stormy where she stood behind Corrine, and just like at the sale, while Corrine had placed her body in front of the mare’s, the mare had her head held protectively over Corrine’s shoulder, “And who is this beauty?”
Before I could comment that he needed to be looking at the horse when he said that and not at Corrine, it was Stormy who replied back with a snarl of her own.
I was really starting to like that horse.
“Her name is Stormy. She is going into that open stall. She belongs to Ms. Matthews.” The moment those words came from my lips, all of the men took notice.
Suddenly all of those heated looks that they had been givingCorrine had changed and had morphed into looks of respect. The same look that they gave to me.
“Follow me.” I nodded to my men as Corrine led Stormy to the stable where she would be held.
“This stall is hers.” I nodded to the one that was right across from my own horse Champion.
Every single stall that was in this section where all mine. I had roughly around two million in these stalls alone.
“The stall directly across from hers is Champions.” Corrine nodded.
“What do you think girl? Looks like paradise to what you have been put through, huh?”
A few of the men chuckled when they saw that Stormy had indeed replied to her when she nodded her own head in response.
“Want to let her run free for a while?” I didn’t miss the smile that lit up Corrine’s face.
“You bet. I can’t wait to see her just be happy.” Corrine pulled Stormy behind her; however, what I had missed was that Corrine had already unhooked Stormy’s lead rope.
The horse dutifully followed Corrine, but she still pranced her high end.
“The left side of the pasture is set up for the mares. The right side is for the geldings. And that far pasture where you see that big appaloosa prancing is for my stallion. He is too territorial to be with any other Stallions. He would kill them.” I remembered that day. We had lost a good horse, and all because a hand hadn’t realized that he had let another stallion that wasn’t near as big as Champion, into the pasture with him.
Luckily, that Stallion was a new acquisition of mine and not that of a client.
As soon as I had the gate opened Corrine stood there. Shebrought her hand to Stormy’s neck and rubbed.
The moment Corrine stepped to the side and offered her arm out towards the pasture, Stormy slowly walked away from Corrine and the moment she knew that Corrine wouldn’t be harmed, that was when she kicked up her hind legs and went soaring through the pasture with her tail raised into the air.
There was the mustang that she had shown everyone else. It was another sight to see how one person could mean so much to a twelve-hundred-pound animal.
“She looks happy.” I couldn’t help but laugh as Stormy ran the length of the pasture to get her bearings.
“Now that’s a happy lady.” Parker nodded as he led Titan to the other pasture and released him.
The old man knew.
Just as Stormy had. They were home.
And just maybe if I received what I wanted, Stormy would never leave, and neither would her owner.
“When do you need to start making the lasagna?” I asked her after a few minutes as we had watched the two horses enjoying a safe place to land.
“Right now, I guess. That way I have time to make the sauce. I also want to take stock of what all you do have so I can maybe prepare a few meals for you as well.”
Just as we turned, I heard Champion. It seemed that my horse wasn’t the only one that would be staking a claim.
We walked side by side up to the main house.
As I watched as Corrine stared in awe at the open floor plan that I had now, nothing else in this world could have made me even more proud, than the moment when Corrine saw my home.
When I had purchased this land and had this house built, I wanted it to be something that I could walk into every day and allowit to wash away all of the stress of the day.
