“Suit yourself.” Ernie straightened and stepped away. “My contract says I get paid the full six months whether you finish it out or not.”
“You’re such an encourager, Ernie.”
His weathered lips twitched. “It’s what I do.”
“You’re like a cheerleader. You need a megaphone for all that positivity.”
“I prefer to yell it.”
Half an hour later, I joined Garrett on his walk back to the barn. “What happened out there today?” I asked.
Garrett took his time placing his halter on a hook. “My horse wasn’t ready.”
Oh, the giddy jolt that always came with signs of shift and potential progress. “What makes you say that, Garrett?”
“I waited calmly like Ernie told us.” He meandered toward the front of the barn, not seeming to mind my company. “Harvey trotted around the pasture, then ran circles just around me.”
“I saw that.”
“I just kept talking to him. Telling him about my day.” He sniffed nervously, a man uncomfortable with the moment. “Might’ve told him about my rough night last night.”
I waited a few beats to see if Garrett would say more but continued when I could see he wasn’t ready to share. “Horses are really good listeners.”
There were battles going on in Garrett’s head today, and the dark circles beneath his eyes bore witness to the fight. “Haltering Harvey...it didn’t feel right.”
“Why is that?”
“I felt like he had some stuff going on today. Kind of like I did.”
I would never stop marveling at how much the horses mirrored their human companions, how much they absorbed the feelings of those around them. “So you gave Harvey his space.”
“I suppose I did. I felt like I’d been building a deeper connection with him at the beginning of the session, and to halter him would’ve broken some of that trust, you know?”
I smiled reassuringly. “I do know.”
“I think he wanted me to just be near and be calm.”
“How did that make you feel?”
“Needed.” Garrett slipped off his sunglasses and cleaned them on his t-shirt. “And like I was the only one here who could relate.” Eyes that had seen unspeakable things begged me to understand. “I’ve spent the last session with the horse expecting him to give me safety. But today I realized...I gotta give it too.”
Sometimes I had the answers and had to patiently wait for the clients to hopefully reach the same conclusions. Other times, like now, they gave me pieces of truth I hadn’t realized we needed. “Feeling safe is important in a relationship. For both of you.”
Still not making eye contact with me, as if he needed some time with his new thoughts, Garrett inspected the bulletin board we kept for announcements and other random collections. “Ms. Hattie, do you know that’s the stillest, quietest I’ve been in ages? It felt…odd.”
I decided to nudge one more time. “Anything else, Garrett?”
“By the end of the session?” His white teeth appeared beneath grinning lips. “It also felt right.”
“I’m so proud of your progress,” I told him. “Sometimes even our bad days are solid ground for steps forward.”
“I hope you’re right.” Garrett’s attention caught on a flyer hanging crooked on the board. “Hey, would you look at that. It’s the Mission Springs Rodeo.”
I blinked at the swift change of topic. “Are you a rodeo fan? I’m not sure I would’ve pegged you as the type.”
“What’s not to like? I’ll probably take my wife and girls.” He tapped a meaty finger to the paper. “It’s the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Sunset Boys.”
An Arctic air blew through the barn, surrounding only me, stilling my blood and shaking my bones. I hadn’t heard that name in years. “Who did you say?” I stepped closer for a better look.
