At the open stable door, Jace stood with his hands cocked on his hips and a slouch to his shoulders. Before approaching, I scanned the area and then snuck up behind him, placing a hand around his torso and pulling him in to kiss his neck. “You ready to take on a horse?”
He giggled. “I think I’m ready to take on a Daddy first.”
“Let’s see how you perform first, and then maybe, you’ll graduate to riding.”
He tensed forward but my grasp on him was solid. “If we’re still talking about horses, I’m never going to ride, but if we’re talking about you,” he turned his head slightly to see me.“Then I think I’m already prepared to take a riding lesson. What do you think?”
I gave his cheek a kiss before letting go. “We’ll see, we’ve got to see how well these horses are first before you go on to bigger things.” I winked, although he probably didn’t catch it.
The Wilde family ranch had a lot of land. I could tell it had potentially once been used to hold cattle or sheep, and from conversations with Tom, it felt like he wanted to get it back to that, even if his daughter had other ideas, and Jace, even more of them. I was constantly asked for my opinion and constantly told them I was only here for the horses.
The fields were fenced off with the smaller field closer to the stable being used for Mary on her daily freedoms. There were a couple of trees on the land, thick, solid looking things that were losing all their orange leaves to reveal small bird nests high up.
All four horses were going into the one field, with extra precaution and eyes on Mary. Olivia, Tom, and Martha had all come out to witness it, although none of them helped get them there. I did that alone with Jace’s comments telling me he would watch over the other horses. His fear was holding him back, just when I thought we were making progress.
At the wooden fence, Tom leaned on it and sighed, a pop from his back, followed by a cooing relaxed noise. “You know, they’re looking a lot better,” he said.
“Their coats are glossy again but they’re still fragile,” I told them all. “And Bramble and Ashwind still have an unhealthy attachment to Coal with the way they’re interacting just now.” The three rescues were a couple of moves away from slumping into a puddle together.
“Kinda feels mean on Mary,” Jace said.
“Yeah, are they excluding her?” Olivia asked.
“I don’t think Mary wants to get in on their business,” Martha added. “You know, she’s always been independent. And she likes being near her trees.”
As much as the trees were nice to look at, I was worried for the rescues since they could scrape themselves on the trunk in an attempt to scratch at the tape holding the gauze and ointment keeping their wounds from infection. The risk wasn’t too high since most of them were healing, but with the state they came to us in, they were healing a lot slower.
“You think they’ll be good enough to ride soon?” Tom asked.
I looked to Jace as he rolled his eyes, and by his side, Olivia doing the same eyerolling. It was uncanny, but they were siblings.
“They need to be out here exercising regularly again before I could commit to a timeframe,” I told him. “Let’s stick to short term goals and get them looking a bit thicker first before we start with saddles, let alone the weight of someone.”
“Not this again,” Olivia said. “They’ll be ready when they’re ready, and if they’re going to be ridden, then they’ll need extra food as well. There are so many costs you haven’t thought about, and it’s annoying.”
He laughed. “I’m an ideas guy, I always have been, and it’s why I’m trying to bring all these ideas out,” he said. And he wasn’t lying. He had a lot of ideas, and seemingly too much free time on his hands to talk to everyone about them. Part of the reason I accepted the job was because we spoke with each other at the Saddle Up event earlier this year. I was falling out of love with what I did, especially after that kid’s injury, and he was filling my head with all these ideas that had me excited to get back on the proverbial horse.
“I will say one thing, it’s not looking likely they’ll be fit and ready for March,” I said. “They’re not going to want to travelall that way first of all, and if you’re just looking to sell them, I’ll say now, you’re not likely to break even on all the food costs. Trust me.”
He grumbled a little. “I do, it’s why I think a horse-riding school is the way to go with it now.”
“I think it’s a good long-term goal,” Martha added. “Well, I best be back down there.”
Tom followed. Then it was just me, Jace, and Olivia. All watching the horses as they played together.
“Are they fighting?” Jace asked.
“No, that’s not fighting,” Olivia said. “I think they’re kissing.”
“Oh yep, they’re kissing.” Specifically, Bramble and Ashwind, while Coal watched as if he’d been the one to set them up.
“Looked like they were butting heads for a second,” he chuckled. “But now you’ve got to see, that’s why they look so dangerous. I bet their heads would justsplash.” He demonstrated with two fists together and an explosion opening them up as if his fingers where their brains flying everywhere.
And after Olivia got a call, it was just me and Jace standing at the fence with a bucket of feed for the horses. Mostly just apples and carrots. We stood together, inching closer to each other. If anyone was walking up behind us, they would see this and think we were just huddling to conserve heat.
“We should’ve brought chairs,” he said, leaning on me with his near full body weight.
“I don’t want to tempt fate, but I think we might be able to sneak away for a little while,” I said.
