Back in the Saddle by Toni Draper

Author:Toni Draper
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: texas, rodeo, lesbian romance, barrel racing, cowgirls
Publisher: Desert Palm Press

A lot had happened since then.

Chapter Fifteen

“C’MON, BOY, LET’S GO!” Kendall leaned forward and lifted herself up out of the saddle. It was her way of telling Fuego it was time to pick up the tempo. He followed her lead with a surge into lightning speed. They had practiced the cues she’d developed, over and over again. They rounded the barrel in excellent time.

The first in the cloverleaf pattern was called the money barrel, because it was the most important in determining the final score and, ultimately, the winner of the race. If a horse was slow or had difficulty maintaining its speed or bending, it would have trouble coming back from the delay. A tenth of a second sometimes made all the difference.

She had been conditioning and exercising Fuego, because he needed the workout and expected the routine. It was their time for bonding, checking where they stood, and finding out what they needed to work on. No matter how good a team they made, there was always something to practice and perfect. Any barrel racer who thought otherwise would someday pay the price for such overconfidence. Some people preferred sweating at a gym. Kendall enjoyed working out with Fuego. This was her way of staying in shape, and hopefully making it to where she wanted to be, one day.

They trained on a six-day schedule, allowing one twenty-four-hour span per week for rest. They always started with about a four-mile warm-up, which took about thirty minutes at a walk-trot-lope-trot-walk pace. She began the same way each day, with a sprint for about a quarter mile before falling into their warm-up. She would use the time when she first let him go to think about and determine the focus of their day. Sometimes it would be horsemanship. On others, like today, they would run the barrels. If there was a distinct need to work on a problem she discovered in their racing, that’s when they’d take care of it.

“Easy, boy.” She steadied Fuego with her reins, urging him to slow down both with a tug of the leather straps and by the gentleness of her voice’s careful commanding. She liked to make sure he continued to flex and bend as his job in the arena demanded, and that he followed her leads and cues.

Today, Kendall was the problem. She was finding herself distracted. Rumor had it that ever since her magazine article had rolled off the glossy presses into every little ranch and farming femme fatale’s hands, Deb had been in hot demand, too hot for Kendall to handle sans jealousy. Kendall had only half believed Chris and Jodi. She chalked their talking up to an over exaggerated attempt to get her goat. It had worked and gone from bad to worse.

Oh, she was happy for Deb, for the mega-money spenders champing at the bit to get her signed up for their contracted endorsements and print ads. Bailey Hats and Montana Silversmith were both interested. She didn’t even mind the

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