Care Less, Cowgirl by Fronimos D.J. & Lakey Elke

Author:Fronimos, D.J. & Lakey, Elke [Fronimos, D.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: JMS Books LLC
Published: 2024-01-13T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 34

Annika

“Steph! Thank God I found you. You have to come with me!”

“What—?”

“They’re trying to kill each other! Midnight and that brown horse with the goat eyes. They’re fighting!”

“Apache doesn’t have goat eyes. He just…Wait. What do you mean, they’re fighting? Those two are buddies.”

After the disastrous morning trail ride, Annika had savored her time alone in the cabin while Steph was lingering in the barn. She had taken a long shower, then propped herself up on her bunk reading while her hair dried. But only a short time later, the sunshine and breeze coming through the open window became irresistible. Annika grabbed her sketch book and pencils and wandered around the ranch in search of a particularly beautiful scene. With afternoon horse activities cancelled, Jesse had let the horses out to graze in an enclosed area and Annika stopped to watch them in their natural state, minus bridles and saddles.

Midnight and one of the brown horses were kind of nuzzling each other’s faces, which surprised Annika, since she’d only ever seen Midnight try to bite the other horses. All of a sudden, they both reared up, their hard hooves coming within inches of each other’s chests before landing with a thud that shook the ground. Immediately they reared up again. Oh, no! Not another tragedy after what happened to Leo!

Annika turned and ran, but no one was outside, not by the cabins or in front of the barn and the office was empty, too. She finally located Steph hanging out at the covered eating area. Annika grabbed her by the arm and dragged her off the bench.

“Come on, before one of them gets hurt!”

Steph followed Annika toward the stables, then beyond them.

“They’re in the meadow. I guess Gittie likes letting them eat grass, but she should know how Midnight hates all the other horses. He probably doesn’t want any of the others eating what he wants.”

“That’s not how horses operate. Besides, there’s plenty of grass for all of them. Gittie told me she has some sort of irrigation system to keep it going.”

They got to the electric fence, which Annika had learned the hard way to stay a safe distance from, and a few of the horses looked up curiously. Midnight and Apache were calmly standing side by side, apparently unharmed.

“Huh . I swear, I thought sure they were going to fight to the death the way they were going at it.”

“What exactly did you see?” Steph looked skeptical.

“I tell you, they were attacking each other. One minute they were nuzzling each other’s faces, then Apache reared up and I guess Midnight got mad and reared up at him and they waved their legs at each other, and—”

Steph started laughing and Annika glared at her. “How can you think there’s anything funny about them almost killing each other? I thought you liked Midnight.”

Annika sank down onto the grass beside her hastily-dropped sketchbook.

“They were playing, silly.” Steph was still laughing. “That’s how horses play. Geldings, especially, but I’ve seen some mares do it, too.

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