Heart Horse: A Natalie Story by Kelsey Abrams

Author:Kelsey Abrams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUVENILE FICTION / Animals / Horses / Family / Siblings / Lifestyles / Farm & Ranch Life
Publisher: North Star Editions
Published: 2018-11-09T17:24:06+00:00

“Are you going to ride today?” asked Darcy, scrolling through the photos she’d taken to make sure they were in focus. “I’ve heard you talk about barrel racing, but I’ve never seen it in action before.”

“Well, I already practiced this morning,” said Natalie hesitantly. It definitely wouldn’t hurt Apocalypse to be ridden twice in one day. But to her surprise, Natalie found herself almost bored at the thought.

With most of the horses she’d ridden, there was always something to improve. She was used to riding green-broke horses that didn’t know basic commands, or older horses that needed special stretching exercises, or skittish horses that looked to their rider for confidence.

But Kate had already trained Apocalypse to a very high level. His turns were tight and balanced. His straightaways were fast and explosive. His stops were so quick that they almost launched Natalie out of the saddle. He was what some people called a push-button horse—you just had to give him the right signal, and he obeyed it.

Riding Apocalypse really was like getting into a fast sports car and cruising around. It was fun, but it wasn’t very challenging. Natalie felt like it almost didn’t matter how well she rode—Apocalypse was doing most of the work.

So far, she and Apocalypse had won five rodeos that season. Ash Holbrook had won three. Both of them had qualified for the championship at the end of the month. The possibility of Ash beating her was really the only reason Natalie felt the need to practice at all—both she and Ash were miles ahead of the other competitors in points.

“If you’re not going to ride now, do you want to watch an episode of Zombie High?” Darcy suggested. “Oh, and I saw the cutest watermelon nail polish pattern on Pinterest that I want to try out.”

Natalie giggled. When they’d first met, Darcy had been totally skeptical about Natalie’s favorite TV show. Natalie had convinced her to watch it by agreeing to let Darcy paint her nails, something Natalie never bothered with. Now they had a ritual that whenever they watched Zombie High together, they also painted their nails.

“Okay,” said Natalie. “Just as long as it comes out better than the Salvador Dalí thing you tried last time. I shouldn’t have let you use the gel polish for that. It took weeks to wear off, and everyone kept asking why I had melting clocks on my fingernails.”

Natalie gave Apocalypse one of Eleven’s special cookies and put him away. He would get a chance to show off soon enough—like the next time she had to beat Ash Holbrook!

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