Joint Possession by Gillian Baxter

Author:Gillian Baxter [Baxter, Gillian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-12-20T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter twelve

Katy was in the yard when they got back, sitting on the mounting block feeding her baby with her tee shirt pulled up, quite un-embarrassed.

‘Stayed on then did you?’ she asked. ‘At least you got to ride out. I can’t risk riding Eleri’s horse out on the hill. Maybe I should get Fly in and see if he remembers what a saddle is. Or we could back Boy.’

‘We’re still advised to be careful,’ Patsy reminded her. ‘Fly’s a bit full of himself after his mares but maybe we could play about with Boy.’

She felt restless herself, her occasional doubts about her long-term relationship with Mack surfacing. Tomos had stopped feeding and was drifting off to sleep and Katy pulled down her shirt and stood up.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Let’s do that. I’ll get him.’

She collected a head collar and went off, leaving Patsy to watch Tomos and find tack for the pony.

Katy lunged Boy first in saddle and bridle under the cavesson and then she took him into the stable and Patsy fetched the stool that they used to stand on for trimming and plaiting. Boy was quite happy to have Katy lie on her stomach across his back and she hung down across the saddle to pat his off side flank where her leg would go. Patsy led him round the box like that and then Katy slid off and made much of him before getting back on the stool and putting one foot in the stirrup. Boy did tense a little at the one-sided pull on the saddle but he quickly relaxed and Katy did they same again and then very slowly mounted.

Suddenly her head was above the pony’s and this time Boy was spooked. He started forward, ears back and head high, and Patsy said ‘Speak to him…lean down…’

Katy did so but the pony was unsettled, starting forward round the box, and Patsy said, ‘just get off slowly,’ and although Katy kept as low as she could her head was still above him and he jumped and snorted as she slid off.

‘I don’t get it,’ Katy was cross. ‘He was fine until he saw where I was.’

‘Instinct,’ said Patsy. ‘Something alive on his back…you might have been a lion. ‘

‘Shall I try again?’ Katy was patting Boy and he sniffed and snorted at her and Patsy said

‘Let him think about it first. Just stand on that stool again and lean on his withers.’

Katy did so and the pony turned his head to look.

‘Now try again,’ said Patsy and this time, although he still tensed up, Boy did not panic.

‘Better leave it for today,’ Patsy told her. ‘There’s something about you appearing above his head that worries him.’

‘Maybe he has met a lion,’ said Katy, as she got off, and Patsy laughed. If Boy had been a moorland pony she might almost have believed it.

She took him back to his field herself and left him recovering from the experience by having a good roll and walked back past her hay field.

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