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I choked down my temper and coiled my rope, trotting my horse in a little circle while Austen looped around with the roping dummy. “You ready this time?” Luke called.
“I was ready last time.”
“Like heck you were. Don’t cross-fire it this time. You threw too soon.”
“Ididn’tcross-fire,” I snarled.“You never switched it!”
“I jolly well did. I was dragging the whole dummy sideways for a second.”
“Just keep your horse lined out this time, okay?”
“I’ll keepyouin line,” Luke grumbled as he shook out his loop.
Austen was still turned around on the quad, and he flashed a grin. “Do you guys always bicker like this when you’re roping?”
“Naw,” Luke said. “Usually, we get mad. Ready?”
Austen glanced at me. I was steaming, but I swallowed it and gave him the nod. “Let ‘er rip!” he shouted over the engine.
Luke’s catch was smooth and perfect, but I was watching his dally this time instead of dropping my heel loop. I had an idea…
Luke did everything just right. But the second he had the rope fast, that mare slammed on the brakes and veered toward me again. He turned her head back to the left and tried to urge her on, but she wasn’t having it. She twisted her body and kept going right until she hit the end of her slack, then she turned to face and got in a tug-of-war with the quad.
“Of all the… You never even threw!” Luke cried.
“Yeah, you know why? Because you didn’t buy a heading horse. You bought a heeler, and your horse is trying to domyhorse’s job!”
Luke’s jaw went slack. “Did not.”
“Betcha? Okay, you go saddle Dozer and let me run Duchess. Fifty bucks if I’m wrong.”
He growled as he swung a leg over and went to fetch his rope off the dummy. “You’d better be wrong. I can’t fix a horse that’s been trained on the wrong side.”
Luke stalked off, leaving Duchess ground-tied where she stood. White ears swiveled, and she watched her rider leave. Then, she fastened her expressive black eyes on me since I was the closest person, and she waited to be told what to do. Someone, somewhere, had put a lot of time into training this horse. Just not the kind of training Luke thought.
“What’s the problem with her being trained on the wrong side?” Austen asked.
I stepped off my horse and led him to the rail to tie him up. “She’s been taught to rate the cow differently, back off the hip instead of running up on the shoulder. And you saw how she kept stopping and pulling to the right. A header is supposed to run ahead and to the left.”
“So? Why can’t he fix that?”
I grabbed my rope off my saddle and walked over to Duchess to adjust the stirrups. Luke was two inches taller than I was. “He could, but it’s not easy and maybe not worth it. You don’t ruin a good heeler to make them a mediocre header.”
“Huh. That’s wild. I never heard any of this stuff before.”
I checked Duchess’s cinch and put my foot in the stirrup. “Stick around. You’ll hear all kinds of stuff. Some of it’s even true.”
The minute I settled in the saddle, I felt something click. Some horses just feelrightthe second you touch them. Others become a fit for you with time, and some never do. But something about getting on Duchess was like coming home. She was soft and elastic, and her responses were almost a mirror of my own thoughts.
I loped her around a couple of times, learning how her stride felt and how she responded. Luke hadn’t said anything about how well-tuned she was, but she was like driving a sports car—all smooth power, ready to answer at the slightest touch. If I was right about her, it would be a crying shame for Luke, but she was still about the nicest horse I’d ever swung a leg over.
Luke came back in the arena leading Dozer, the horse he’d won the most money on. “Okay, little brother. Fifty bucks says you’re wrong.”
I grinned. “I don’t know why I bothered betting you. Didn’t you say you’re broke?”
“Not for long.”
We took up our positions, and Luke gave Austen the nod. And I didn’t even have to think about it. The mighty gray mare put me exactly where I needed to be, hanging just off the right hip of the dummy as we waited for Luke. His loop dropped clean and crisp like it always did, and I threw mine for a solid catch and a quick dally. Then, like a machine, Duchess sat down, took up the slack, and faced the dummy. Perfect.
