Defining gravity definin.., p.9
Defining Gravity (Defining Gravity Series Book 1), page 9
It reminded me of the different protein shakes, bars, and powders that Miranda was forever experimenting with to give her an edge over the competition. Our coach Earl always shook his head at whatever new concoction she showed up to practice with. I wondered if all this stuff really made a difference to the horses at all.
I followed the chart carefully and did all the mixing and stirring, and then Liza let me feed Quarry his grain while she did the other horses. He nickered gently when I slid open his stall door and hovered politely beside me as I awkwardly dumped the bucket into his rubber feed tub. I stayed in his stall and stroked his soft shoulder while I watched him eat. He didn’t seem to mind me there. His lips sifted deftly through the feed until he’d picked out all the bits of carrot, crunching them happily before going back for the rest.
As soon as he’d licked the bowl clean he turned to his hay net with a satisfied sigh.
I slid the stall door shut behind me, feeling more peaceful than I had in a while. There was something about Quarry that made me relaxed and happy. I wandered back to the feed room and Liza met me with a smile.
“We won’t clean the stalls until we turn the horses out after breakfast. I don’t think you’ll be much help in that department anyway, so we’ll wait until Hilary gets here. For now, I’ll fill the water buckets and you’ll scrub the grain tubs.”
There was a back door to the feed room that led to a little concrete patio area outside. She helped me carry the empty grain buckets out into the sunshine and handed me a scrub brush. “The hose is right there. You just scrub them all clean and then line them up to dry in the sun. Everything gets done once a day. This is also where we hose down any hay that needs to be rinsed. Thankfully, we don’t have any horses here right now that need their hay soaked. That is a royal pain in the winter, believe me.”
I sat on a wooden stool in the sunshine and slowly scrubbed the buckets with my left hand. I was getting pretty good at using it after all this time. When they were clean, I stretched my legs out in front of me and inhaled deeply, caught up in the sounds of birds singing and the steady sound of horses munching behind me. No wonder Hilary liked spending time here. It was a beautiful place.
As if I’d conjured her, Hilary appeared behind me.
“Astrid! How do you like your first morning of work?”
“Better than I expected,” I admitted with a smile.
“I told you. Just wait until you get to ride.”
I made a face at her but didn’t argue. There was no way to convince her that horses were too big and intimidating (not to mention, smelly) for me. Especially after I’d seen the performance Folly put on earlier. I had a new respect for how powerful and dangerous they were.
As soon as they were done eating breakfast, Hilary and Liza took the rest of the horses out to pasture with me following them as best I could.
Hilary and I walked side by side with Jerry prancing along on the end of his lead rope, his eyes bright with excitement. “All right, you big goof.” Hilary laughed, swatting his shoulder. “We’re just going to your boring old pasture.”
“He’s only six,” Hilary said to me, “he’s a warmblood and they mature a little slower than some breeds so he still has baby-brain.”
“Okay, what’s a warmblood?” I laughed. “I would think all horses have warm blood.”
“Ninety-nine and a half degrees.” Hilary laughed at her own joke. “But Warmbloods are a breed, not a temperature. Jerry’s a Swedish Warmblood, actually. So his great, great, grandparents came from Sweden, even though he was bred here in Canada.”
“Ooh, fancy,” I said, as she reached the pasture and led Jerry in, slipping off his halter and setting him free. He apparently didn’t care about his fancy pedigree; the first thing he did was drop down into the dirt and roll around with his feet in the air, itching his back like a dog with fleas. Then he leapt up, farted loudly and took off across the pasture, kicking his heels in the air.
“Yes, very elegant.” Hilary laughed. “All horses care about is having enough food, company and exercise, and someone to brush and entertain them.”
Once all the horses were out, Liza and Hilary started cleaning the stalls while I hung out and kept them company as they worked. Normally, the boarders didn’t start showing up until after nine on weekdays and the outside riders started arriving after lunch. Claudia liked the horses to be fed early so they had time to enjoy a quiet breakfast before they had to work.
All together there were twelve stalls in the barn, but only eight of them were full. Quarry, Marcus, and the gangly young horse, Ferdinand, all belonged to Claudia. Pender had a plain brown horse with long ears named Rabbit, the big black horse named Severus was Ally’s, and Sadie had an exotic-looking cream-coloured horse with blue eyes named Riverdance that Hilary said had once been a famous bullfighting horse in Brazil.
After Folly and Jerry’s stalls, all the rest stood empty, which I thought was strange since Hilary had said there was a waitlist to get in here. Liza didn’t have her own horse; she rode Claudia’s horses or sometimes one of the outside client’s horses.
I really liked Liza; she was nice and easy to get along with. She told me she’d worked at a few other barns before she came to Mud Lark, but that Claudia’s stable was hands down the best place she’d ever been. First of all, the facility was top-notch, the horses were treated like gold, and Claudia was the best instructor she’d ever studied under.
Just then, Pender swept in, her helmet under her arm and her sweater half unbuttoned. She was breathing heavily and looked like she’d run a marathon to get there.
“I’m late, girls,” she said breathlessly. “Matty stayed home sick and I had to scramble last minute to find him a sitter. Lunch is on me for anyone who helps me get ready for my lesson on time.”
Thinking of the painfully healthy lunch Marion had packed for me that morning, I brightened instantly. “For real food? We’ll do anything.”
Liza kept cleaning stalls while Pender got changed, and Hilary and I ran to bring Rabbit in out of the field. He was a dark brown horse with giant ears, a tiny white star on his forehead and a mischievous glint in his eye.
“Oh, this could be fun,” Hilary said with a sigh. “He’s a retired race horse, his racing name was Run Rabbit Run and he likes to live up to it. He came from the track with a lot of bad habits. Hopefully, he’s in a good mood.”
Rabbit saw us coming from halfway across the field. His head shot up, long ears swivelling around like satellites. He snorted and trotted a few steps in the opposite direction; looking over his shoulder as if he wanted us to chase him.
“Come on, Rabby,” Hilary coaxed, waving a carrot in the air. “I have your favourite.”
Apparently, Rabbit was in a good mood. After circling us a few times, shaking his head like he was telling us off, he turned and trotted up to collect his carrot. He calmly let Hilary slip the leather halter over his head. As soon as he’d finished his snack, he snatched the end of the lead rope between his big, white teeth and tossed his head up and down, waving the rope around like it was a prize. He continued to hold it firmly clamped between his jaws while we walked him back to the barn. He was covered in sand, even his face was plastered with dirt, and it took both of us ten minutes of hard brushing to make him clean. Hilary carefully wrapped his lower legs with the long strips of stretchy fabric called ‘polo wraps’, telling me they were there to support his legs and keep him from getting injured. She had me brush out his mane and tail so every strand lay smooth and orderly.
Pender, now dressed in black breeches and a vest, and with hair brushed smooth, made it back in time to put his saddle and bridle on while I polished his feet with oil as a finishing touch. He gleamed like he’d just stepped off the showroom floor.
“Thanks so much, girls,” Pender hugged us gratefully as she stuffed a cookie in Rabbit’s mouth and led him away, toward the indoor arena. I could see Claudia waiting for them inside, tapping her booted foot impatiently. But she had a smile on her face and I somehow didn’t think she’d be too hard on Pender for not doing all the grooming herself this one time.
One by one, the boarders showed up, groomed, had their lessons, and dumped their dirty equipment in the tack room. Claudia had to work both Marcus and Ferdinand while Liza rode Quarry and Hilary rode Jerry.
As soon as anyone hung up their tack on the cleaning racks, I washed the metal bits that were all covered in horse slobber then cleaned the bridles and saddles with the sweet scented orange soap and a soft cloth. I threw their sweaty, dirty leg wraps in a wicker basket in the corner and tossed their used saddle pads in another basket.
The walls were lined with bridle hooks, each with a horse’s name hung on a little plaque above it. The bridles all had little gold dog tags on them engraved with the horse’s names so it was easy to hang each horse’s bridle carefully on the corresponding hook and the matching saddle right beside it.
When the horses were done working, they were either put back in their stalls or out in the pasture, depending on the schedule of the day. Between rides, I would awkwardly sweep the aisles of sand and horse hair with one arm and wait for the next rider to be finished. It was steady work, but not too hard, and I was able to keep up reasonably well.
After the morning lessons were done, Pender went and picked us up boxes of delicious Thai food as promised and stayed to help us eat it. She even brought us a box from the bakery full of treats. She was really my favorite of the boarders so far.
After lunch, the outside riders showed up for their lessons, but they took care of cleaning their own tack; I just had to sweep the aisle after they were gone. I looked for Rob and Artimax, but they didn’t have lessons that day.
Day after day, I worked at the barn; my arm slowly improved and the humiliation from that disastrous night at the Ling’s lake house began to fade. I fell naturally into the barn routine and stopped noticing the pungent smell of horse whenever I arrived to work. I was stronger and every day I could do a little bit more with my arm.
“Astrid,” Claudia called one afternoon, about a week later, as she paused on her way to the indoor arena to start Hilary and Liza’s lesson. “You come sit by me and watch these two girls ride. We have to work on your education.”
A twinge of fear shot through my belly, but I walked obediently to meet her, my steps dragging. I liked and admired Claudia, but she was a little intimidating. She hadn’t said much after I’d dropped my homework off to her last week, but then she hadn’t looked very well that day, either. She’d just wordlessly handed me a couple more pages of questions without looking up.
She smiled as I slowly approached and threw an arm gently over my shoulder. “I’ve been watching you, Astrid. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your hard work and attention to detail. I think you’re going to be an excellent addition to our team. Thank you for helping Pender last week; that meant a lot to her.”
I looked up in surprise and she sent me a wink. “Pender has a lot of things on her plate and many limitations that other riders here do not have. Rabbit, too, has some limitations and yet, she shows up every day and works as hard as she can to be a partner to him. In the end, it’s her hard work and dedication that will pay off in spades. We could all learn a lot from her.”
I thought about Miranda and how hard she worked every day at her archery. Was she, one day, going to be better than I was? I kicked the arena dirt with my shoe and scowled. Of course she was going to be better than me now. She had my spot at training camp and maybe even my bow. She was probably going to end up at the Olympics with my dad as her sponsor while I was sent far away to military school.
I shook my head to clear it and followed Claudia to the bottom step of the bleachers.
Although Jerry and Quarry were both greys, the similarities stopped there. Jerry was tall with long, gangly legs and a head that looked a little too big for his body. His coat was a dark silver colour, speckled with lighter blotches of whitish grey. Quarry looked dainty next to Jerry, and his coat was so white it practically glowed, but he moved with a grace and confidence that the younger horse was missing.
Liza sat on Quarry’s back much like Claudia did—stone-still, like she had melded into him. I never saw her pull on the reins once or tell him what to do and yet, there he was, prancing around like she was communicating with him telepathically.
Hilary was less polished; I could see slight movements of her hands and legs when she asked Jerry to do things, and sometimes he ignored her requests and she’d have to ask again. But she was patient and kind with him, even when she asked him to canter and he kicked out excitedly with his hind legs, tail swishing madly. I was beginning to see that horses didn’t always do what they were told. They certainly had their own opinions.
“I have to confess, Astrid,” Claudia said thoughtfully, “you have arrived at the barn at a very strange time. I have had some health challenges lately and I’m finding that I have to make some difficult decisions about the future. My doctor tells me that I have to step back and rest. Of course, I won’t listen to him completely. But, it means that right now Liza will be taking over riding Marcus for me so I can focus on young Ferdinand’s training until he is sold. It’s very important to me that he gets a good home. And Liza is also going to be working with that awful mare Cole sent back from Germany. I don’t know quite what he was thinking, but I don’t really feel up to that sort of challenge just now. Liza will also be taking over many of my training rides for our clients. That means you’d be able to start working with Quarry once your arm has healed enough.”
Even though horses still intimidated the heck out of me, a surge of excitement blossomed across my body. I’d been watching the riders for over a week now and a tiny part of me had begun to feel left out of all the fun. Besides, Quarry wasn’t like all these other opinionated animals. I had the feeling he was the type of guy who would take care of his rider. He’d take care of me.
“He’s a very kind schoolmaster,” Claudia said, echoing my thoughts. “I have a strict policy that a rider must have an independent seat before they are ever allowed to pick up the reins. Some schools keep their riders on the lunge for six to eight months before they’re allowed to move on. But we shall see how you progress. We will start on the lead line, move to the lunge line and then proceed from there. Yes?”
“Okay,” I said, before I could change my mind. “Thank you.”
“I have a good feeling about you, Astrid,” Claudia smiled down at me. “And I’m hardly ever wrong.”
Hilary’s mom came to pick her up early to take her to dance practice, so I went for a walk down the rows of paddocks while I waited for Marion. Liza had said it was too nice an afternoon to bring the horses in so early so most of them were still out in the sunshine.
I ducked past Folly’s paddock quickly just in case she decided to charge the fence again and then ambled slowly down the grassy laneway that ran between the pastures, inhaling the fresh smell of spring grass.
It was beautiful out; the sun shone gently down on me, warming my hair and the bridge of my nose until I felt all snuggly and cared for. I didn’t believe in a god like Hilary did; I didn’t really believe in anything, actually, but on days like this I could almost believe that there was something up there looking down on me and smiling and saying, “Hey, Astrid, I know your life kind of sucks right now, so here’s a beautiful day to cheer you up.”
Marcus and Ferdinand were sharing a grassy paddock together and must have smelled the carrots in my pockets from over fifty feet away. They came trotting over and followed me down the fence line, making that low huh huh huh sound that meant they were interested in something. I could guess they were saying something like, “Here, girl, over here. We like carrots.”
I stopped and leaned over the fence to touch their soft noses and then broke a carrot in half and tossed the pieces to the grass at their feet. They dropped their heads immediately, searching the ground like bloodhounds after prey, bumping their noses together and getting in each other’s way, making me laugh.
When I reached the end of the laneway, I turned and made my way slowly back up to the barn, watching the horses graze and listening to the hundreds of birds announcing that it was Spring and that they were happy to be alive.
My thoughts, as they always did when I was alone, drifted to archery. Now that the early rains had stopped, the club would have opened up the outdoor range so people could practice on the 3-D targets. There were miles of trails through the woods with shooting stations set up along the way. Some of the targets were the size and shape of live animals like bears and moose, and they even had a section for shooting lifelike zombie targets. Even though I’d never dream of shooting a real animal, it was fun to practice shooting something three dimensional rather than a flat target.
I was so caught up in my thoughts I didn’t realize I was almost back to the barn and had come up beside Folly’s paddock. Not until there was a flash of bronze right beside me. I froze in place. There she was, right by the fence, ears flattened to her head and wild eyes glaring right at me. It was like those stories you hear about people getting trapped by a rattlesnake. If you tried to run away then you risked it chasing you down, but if you stayed still then it might strike anyway. Except Folly wasn’t going to bite my ankle, she was inches away from my face with her huge, horrible teeth. I could just imagine those jaws closing on my throat; even if she didn’t kill me, I would be disfigured forever and would have to wear one of those veils to keep from scaring the public.
I closed my eyes tightly, bracing for impact.
For a second, I felt a puff of hot grass-scented horse breath on my cheek. Teeth clacked next to my ear and then she was gone. Hooves thudded across the ground, moving away from me in the opposite direction.
I opened my eyes and exhaled all the breath I’d been holding; amazed I was alive and undamaged.
