The Summer Storm (Tipperary Carriage Company Mystery Book 11) by J A Whiting & Nell McCarthy

Author:J A Whiting & Nell McCarthy [Whiting, J A]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: J A Whiting Books and Whitemark Publishing
Published: 2021-12-09T16:00:00+00:00

11

"My goodness, Val. Did you grow a whole two inches since yesterday?"

Mae looked at Val sitting up on her pony, Buckeye, and grinned at her. "I could have sworn we were using shorter stirrups for you yesterday. Oh, well. You did do a good job of saddling him today. You remembered that you have to walk him forward as you tighten the girth, right?"

The girl nodded a little. "I think so," she said.

"And we'll practice more with picking up his hind foot. Are you sure you've never done that before?"

"Um… no… I never did."

And I could swear I saw you do it yesterday. Oh, well. This young girl has enough other things to worry about. Maybe she just didn't want to and said she didn't remember. Kids will do that. I wish I had more time to get them used to caring for horses. It can be kind of intimidating if you've never been around them before, and I know these kids have not.

"All right, then," said Mae. "Let's get these stirrups adjusted for you and go for another ride. We've got an obstacle course for everyone to try today."

Val tried to smile back, though she looked a little confused. At last, Mae got the stirrups adjusted and then went on to check the work of counselor Kelly, who was helping her this morning with the pony riders.

Mae had persuaded Bill Waverly to let her look through the storage sheds and collect an assortment of traffic cones and pool noodles, along with a couple of wooden poles and a large metal barrel. She and Kelly used the items to create a course for the pony riders which meant they had to guide their mounts over and around the obstacles and ride them through lanes and patterns.

The kids especially loved jogging the ponies over the pool noodles and pretending they were jumping. Mae was very encouraged at how much fun they were having and how well they were learning the basics of riding.

Teaching is so much fun. If I ever get too old and slow to drive carriage horses in the city streets and haul them back and forth in the trailer, maybe I could just teach kids how to handle cranky old ponies, and help those kids learn to love horses as much as I do.

It wouldn't be a bad way to retire someday.

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