Willow King by Chris Platt

Author:Chris Platt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media

Nine

Cindy didn’t offer her Sir Galahad again, so Katie spent the rest of the show season in the stands watching Jan collect all the ribbons. She didn’t mind. She had enough to do without having to worry about getting a horse ready for a show.

After winning her first ribbons, Cindy had convinced her father that she didn’t need any more lessons, so Katie was relieved of that duty. It was a good thing, because after Cindy found out that Jason was leaving for an entire year, she became very irritable and snapped at anyone who got in her way. After a while, the only time Cindy ever spoke to her was when she asked if Katie had heard anything from Jason.

Jason had written her a couple of e-mails and called her house, but Katie didn’t tell Cindy. He talked about the excellent Quarter Horses his uncle raised for racing. He spoke of a swimming pool for horses that his uncle had built for conditioning his racing stock and said that a trainer had installed a similar pool not far from her in Salem.

“Can you believe it?” she asked Jan. “A swimming pool for horses! Whoever thought of such a thing? Jason says his uncle likes it because it helps build up a horse’s wind without pounding on their legs. He uses the pool and the track to keep his horses in top form. They’ve won a lot of races.”

Jan sat down on Katie’s bed and leaned against the headboard. “I know that place he’s talking about. My father is friendly with the owner. Do you want to go look at it?”

“Sure. It sounds really cool.”

Jan made a call to her dad. An hour later, the girls and Jan’s father walked onto Mr. Simon’s place and found the barn that housed his horse pool.

“What’s that sound?” Katie cocked her head, trying to determine where the great engine-like huffing sounds were coming from.

“That noise is the horse that’s swimming in the pool,” Jan’s father explained.

“That’s a horse?” the girls asked in unison. It was a noise unlike any they had ever heard before, except maybe from an old tractor. There was an explosion of sound like a giant machine puffing out a blast of smoke, then silence, then a repeat of the same noise seconds later.

“That’s the horse’s breathing.” Jan’s father steered them in the right direction. “When the horse is swimming, only his head and some of his neck is out of the water. He’s afraid to get water in his nostrils, so he takes a big gulp of air and holds it, trying to pinch his nostrils closed. What you’re hearing is him releasing his breath and sucking in another one.”

They rounded the corner, and there lay the circular pool. It was about forty feet across. At one end was a ramp where the horse could wade in, gradually getting to the deep part. Once he settled into the deep water, he would swim in a circle at the end of a rope just like longeing, only in water instead of on land.

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