Prospect by Natalie Keller Reinert

Author:Natalie Keller Reinert
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: three day eventing, equestrian fiction
Publisher: Natalie Keller Reinert
Published: 2021-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

I GOT BACK to the barn in a golden evening, just as Lacey and Lindsay were doing evening feed. The horses were rumbling deep nickers in their chests and Ricky’s pony was pawing against his door with a sharp, steady beat. “Knock it off!” Lindsay shouted, just as I hopped down from the truck cab. Ah, the sounds of home.

Dynamo dragged me into the barn, eyes wide and ears swiveling, looking back and forth at the horses already dipping into their grain. I barely got his halter off before he was plunging his head into his manger and looking around wildly for his dinner. Lacey was quickly at my heels, bucket in hand.

“Here’s that dinner you ordered,” she told Dynamo, dumping his grain.

I grinned gratefully at her and stripped off his shipping boots before leaving him alone to eat. I’d have to do up his legs, but that could wait. “How was the day?” I asked as I followed Lacey out of the stall.

“It was fine,” she said shortly. “Are you going to ride anyone tonight?”

She meant Con.

As I hesitated, Lacey grinned. “I fed him early. You can get on him whenever.”

“Great,” I told her. “Really super.”

“I thought you’d like that.” Lacey whirled off, heading back to the feed room.

I stood in the empty aisle for a moment. The softening light of evening fell in squares and stripes across the concrete floor as it streamed through the western-facing windows. Quickly moving shadows—horse heads in profile, pointed ears—darted across the light patterns as they came up for the occasional breath before diving back into their grain. Out front, a bachelor mockingbird started up his spring song, rippling through the avian classics.

I took three deep breaths and soaked in the calm for a few stolen moments. Sometimes, on nights like this when the racket of the day had quieted, I imagined that this was all my barn; these were all my horses. I would never leave, and nothing would ever change.

The illusion never lasted long; something would always break the spell. Tonight, it was movement out front. Jordan was coming out of the trailer tack room with my saddle over her arm, my bridle over her shoulder.

“Hey you,” I said, coming back to my normal self. “I didn’t know you were still here.”

“I was waiting until you came back.”

I followed her into the tack room. “Is something up? Did you do okay with Noodle after I left?”

“He was amazing,” she assured me, putting my bridle on the tack-cleaning hook. “But I’m worried.”

“Oh?”

“About Sammy,” she clarified.

Of course. “He’s out there eating just fine. Did he look lame or something?”

“No. But he was in the paddock with William while we were riding today, and I know they were both wondering why we had started riding different horses. They were watching Lindsay and me. I think I hurt Sammy’s feelings. William’s, too, but Lindsay wouldn’t talk about it.”

Maybe someone else would have smiled and patted her on the head. But I knew a thing or two about heart horses getting jealous.

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