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Chapter 17
“So, those are the horsesthat I have for sale that are safe for beginners. Of course, you never know exactly what a horse is going to do, so you can’t guarantee that they’ll never do anything wrong, but I can personally vouch that I’ve had each of them at least six months, and they’ve been beginner safe.”
George Reynolds, the owner of the horse stable who Griff had recommended to them, strode down past the stalls of the horses they’d already seen.
“What about that one?” Davis asked, indicating a stall that they hadn’t been to yet, where a nose stuck out between the bars.
“That’s one I just got in. I... I’m not sure there’s anything I can do for her; she’s pretty bad.”
Davis noticed that Kim had a hand on her stomach, and she was walking slower than she had been before. Her shoulders drooped a little, and her eyes weren’t quite as bright. They’d spent more than two hours getting each horse out of their stall, looking them over, and listening to everything that George said about them.
She had to be exhausted.
He wasn’t going to say anything more about the horse in the far stall, but to his surprise, Kim spoke up.
“You don’t think there’s anything you can do for her?”
“No. She is pretty far gone. One of my people got her off of the truck where she was headed toward the kill pen yesterday, but I think I might send her along. I hate to, but she’s in pretty bad shape.”
“Bad shape? You mean she’s lame?” Kim asked as they stopped at the stall. She peered in.
“No. I mean she’s extremely skinny, like she’s been starved, and while she’s not mean, she’s spooky. Like she’s afraid anyone who comes near her is going to hurt her. I don’t want anyone here to get hurt.”
Davis didn’t know what Kim was thinking, but he was thinking that if it was just a matter of her being thin and needing a little bit of extra food to gain weight, he was down for that. Even if she was spooky. That might be something they could work with, too.
“You’re going to send her back?” Davis asked just to confirm.
“I know. It’s harsh, but you can’t save them all. This one’s going to take a lot of time, effort, and money, and I’m never going to get that out of her. Plus, it’s going to take a lot of work to get her to trust people again.”
Davis couldn’t help but compare the horse to the woman beside him. It might be silly, but it seemed like the horse having trust issues mirrored Kim’s own problems.
He looked at Kim, who was looking at him with her brows raised in question. He didn’t have to hear her say anything to know she wanted the horse.
“Can we take her?” Davis asked.
“I thought you guys were just starting out? You’re not going to turn a profit if you’re putting all of your money into a horse that you don’t even know whether you’re going to be able to ride. Not to mention, if the public gets a look at her, you’re going to have people complaining. They won’t understand that you got her in that condition and didn’t make her that way yourself.”
“We’ll just have to be sure that anyone who’s in the stable knows what’s going on. Or we can talk to animal control ourselves so they know what we’re doing.”
“That might be the smartest thing to do.” George sighed. “If you’re interested, I won’t charge you for her. We can get her out, and you can look at her. But I’m warning you, she’s not real steady on her feet. In fact, I’m kinda surprised to see her up.”
“Maybe she’d do better to be out on pasture?” Davis suggested, thinking that if she got down in the stall, it’d be a lot harder to get her up than if she were out.
“If I were keeping her, that’s where she’d be.”
George grabbed the lead that was hanging over the hook by the stall door and hooked it on the mare’s halter. He wasn’t joking about the fact that she wasn’t steady on her feet. She swayed from side to side, and a couple of times, Davis feared she would go down.
She didn’t, but her head hung low, her fur was matted, and every single rib stood out in stark definition, as did her backbone. Her head seemed too big for her neck, and her eyes were dull and droopy.
“She looks like a little Arabian,” Kim murmured. Her eyes swept over the horse, and Davis could tell that seeing the condition of the horse hadn’t changed her mind at all. If anything, it had firmed her resolve.
He didn’t know how anyone could look at the horse and not feel compassion, because he felt the same way Kim did.
“We’ll take her,” Davis said and was rewarded with a happy smile from Kim. Although her eyes still looked worried.
“All right, but I’m going to warn you, she might not be any good for what you guys are going into business for.”
