Post by Sadie Smith on Nov 7, 2015 0:07:04 GMT -5
Sunday
It was super easy for me to sleep until twelve pm on Sundays because I didn't have to get to work until one o'clock. I live on the property as well so if I really wanted to I didn't have to get up until 12:30. However, I had some chores to do around the house today, so I needed to get up early.
A couple of friends and I had gone out to a bar in Wickford last night, but I hadn't had too much to drink. Enough to make me feel sort of crappy and take a few extra minutes to get out of bed though. I rolled to the edge and swung my legs over, onto the floor. I was greeted by my little kitten, Turtle. He purred loudly and rubbed up against my feet. He was asking for food.
He would have to wait. I went to the bathroom, brushing my teeth and quickly shaving in the process. Going down the flight of stairs, cat hot on my heels; I came to the kitchen first. Reaching into the top cabinet, I took out a can of wet food, and the small bag of hard food. I scoop the necessary amount of wet and dry, mixed it and placed it down next to his water. He happily munched, while I grabbed a trash bag and walked back up the steps. I emptied the bathroom trash and the miniature can from my room, then ran back down to the kitchen and placed the bag in the kitchen trash. Next I decided to take the disinfecting wipes, cleaning off any counters, tables, or flat surfaces. After that was done, I brought my dirty clothing to the washing machine and put it on the express cycle. Finally, I washed the dishes from the past couple of nights, and tucked the dry ones away in the proper drawers.
Seeing it was about ten o’clock, I decided to dress myself. As usual I threw on a pair of jeans, a thermal shirt and socks, and brought a sweatshirt back down the stairs with me. I took my hat, gloves, scarf, and jacket out of the closet, setting them on the table so I would be ready to walk out the door at 12:30. It only took ten minutes to walk to the barn from my house, but I still preferred to be a little early.
I sat down on the couch and flicked the TV on, just for background noise. I opened my lesson book. I would have my normal group lessons today. Thankfully all of my students could do group lessons. Other than Sundays and Mondays I didn’t necessarily have time to teach private lessons unless scheduled way in advance. Technically we aren’t even supposed to teach on Mondays, but if anyone’s students had missed lessons, they could make them up only on Mondays.
My first group had three students, the second had five, and the third had four. I always used my horses for the first and third because it was easy work for them. I basically had free reign of all of the other horses to use though. I usually put most of them on some of Sadie’s horses because they were so well schooled and barely ever spooked. Before November, we still had six actual school horses, but North Gate College had offered a substantial amount for them and Marla couldn’t refuse. That left six more stalls for paying boarders. That meant at least another $9,000 for the stable per month. We just had to get the boarders and students in.
After editing my book, I put my clothes in the dryer and watched a little more TV. Once my clothing was dry, I took it upstairs, folded what needed to be folded and hung what needed to be hung. After finishing that I figured I would get ready to go up to the barn. I would be a little more than a half an hour early, but that would give me the chance to make sure the horses I chose for lessons would be okay to use. Marla was off on Sundays, unless her students had a show, but she would leave notes on any of the horses whiteboards or the main board in the office if anything had happened on Saturday that would affect my lessons.
I would also find out if any horses were already ridden, which sometimes happened. Sundays were interesting because sometimes it was extremely busy and then others it was completely dead. People were also all there either in the early morning to ride or in the late afternoon.
I made sure Turtle had plenty of water for the day and put the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs. He was still too small and clumsy to be running around the house by himself and he had never tried to climb the gate (yet). I had been planning on getting another cat for a while, but at the same time. I was still trying to think of a way to make a relationship work with Sadie. I knew it would take time and I was okay with that.
Stepping out into the chilly air, I didn’t bother locking the door, because the house was in the middle of the property, tucked behind the main barn, a good amount of the paddocks, the indoor and two of the outdoors. It was probably around thirty degrees outside, so the barn and the indoor should be around fifty.
Walking past the dressage outdoor, I noticed Jaylen walking his giant black gelding around, both bundled up. It looked as if they had maybe just finished their ride and were cooling out. I waved and he waved back and that was the extent of our greeting. In general, people didn’t bother each other if they were riding by themselves. Unless they stopped to talk, you sort of just left them and their horse be to concentrate on their ride. It was nice, as some other barn you can barely get anything done because all people want to do is chat.
I quickened my steps past the other large outdoor and the main indoor. The cold was starting to seep into my many layers. I made it to the main barn people entrance, as all the other doors were closed. I shed my scarf, hat, and gloves as soon as I closed the door. It was like spring day in here!
I put all my belongings in my locker in Marla’s office. In addition to my own locker in the tack room, Marla also had lockers put in her office just last year. They were for the management staff only as we had a break in and a couple of wallets stolen, but eventually were returned and the burglar was arrested.
I checked the large whiteboard. It was as big as a school chalkboard but it had any important information written on it. There was another large whiteboard in the tack room for the students and one in the feed room for meals. Every horse also had a whiteboard tacked to their stall door with any special instructions.
Sadie had left me a note;
“Ben – if you need to use horses for lessons you can use Stormy, Teddy, Shawn, Dylan, and Ace as they weren’t/will not be ridden today by anyone else.”
Awesome, I thought. That was perfect because I only had to check the other five horses I chose. I strolled down the aisle, checking the other horses’ whiteboards as I went. All of the ponies were available, so I could actually let a couple of students choose between them and my two horses.
I went to the tack room and posted who everyone would be riding today.
It wasn’t even 12:30 yet, so I was very early today. My one o’clock group was my more advanced group. They were all going solid walk, trot, canter, and had started over small cross rails. My second group was only doing walk, trot, canter but they were almost ready to start working on cross rails and the third group was my least advanced as they were only doing walk, trot, and working on ground poles. I finished writing down all my lesson assignments and proofread quickly.
1pm – Lily on Stormy, Katie on Red, Aleena on Teddy
2pm – Jessica on Molly, Amelia on Jack, Johnny on Ace, Catherine on Shawn, Emily on Mayo
3pm – Emma on Dylan, Gregory on Cozmo, Jess on Foggy, Brenna on Sassy
I decided to start making up grain. I hadn’t seen Caitlyn or Brogan yet so I was assuming I would find one of them already working on that.
If they were already done with that, which was entirely possible, I would go out to the paddocks and grab horses for the lesson kids. Normally I tried not to do that, as I wanted them to be able to handle their own horses, but if I had the extra time, it didn’t hurt, and it was pretty cold today.
I stepped into the grain room and surprised Caitlyn a bit.
“Hey Ben, didn’t know you were here already. I’m almost done with grain,” she said, scooping some sweet feed into one of the buckets.
“Aww, okay. Where’s Brogan? I didn’t see him at all.”
“Oh he actually went to do an errand for Marla. Something about maybe having a new boarder. I’m assuming he’s picking their horse up.”
“That’s good. We do need to fill the stalls,” I said, stepping out of the grain room.
I grabbed my coat and other warm items from the office and went out to bring in the first batch of horses for lessons. Unless it was extremely windy, pouring, thundering, super icy, hot, or cold, the horses went outside.
I took Stormy and Teddy at the same time, as they went out together, with a collection of other geldings. It was funny because Stormy was a stallion but you’d never know it. He acted like a gelding most of the time. Even if he’s taken to breed, he goes calmly. There’s not much that fazes him. I placed them in the wash stalls, which doubled as grooming stalls. We didn’t have cross ties in the barn because it was so large and moving horses aside was too much of a hassle sometimes.
I walked out to get Red and asked one of the stable hands who weren’t too busy to grab tack for the three horses. Red trotted up willingly to me and I put his halter over his ears. By the time we entered the barn two of the three students had arrived, and began brushing their horses. The other girl wasn’t here yet, so I stuck my chestnut horse in the next grooming stall. He stood quietly, waiting for his student.
“How are you girls today?” I asked, clipping the cross ties to the sides of his halter.
“Good,” they both chimed, swiftly working to get their horses neat and tacked.
“When you’re all set, go right into the indoor. I think Katie might be running a tiny bit late today.”
These girls weren’t more than fourteen years old each, so it was good that they were beginning to learn how to ride these horses. If they were still riding in a couple of years and were proficiently jumping at least three feet, I could hand them off to Sadie for the Equitation Team.
Leaving the girls to get ready, I went to the office and dropped my top layer off. I kept my gloves and my hat with me because I knew I would be standing or sitting to teach so I would get cold eventually. I picked up my phone from the desk. I had a couple of texts.
[12:45 PM Katie Sanchez – Hi Ben, just wanted to let you know we are running a little late because we had to pick my sister’s car up from the shop. I should be there by 1:05.]
[12:40 PM Brogan – Hey Ben, just letting you know I’m on my way back with two horses in the trailer, can you ask the stable hands to make sure two stalls are ready and two paddocks are ready. Thank you.]
I went back out to find a stable hand.
“Hey Alice, can you make sure two stalls and two paddocks are ready. Brogan is bringing two horses back with him.”
“Does it matter which stalls or paddocks?”
“Nope, as long as the stalls are next to each other. Paddocks don’t matter.”
“Okay, will do,” she said, running off to get everything ready. I went to groom Red and get him ready for Katie. I was hoping this wasn’t going to be the way the rest of the day would go.
Both girls and I walked into the indoor around the same time, five minutes before their lesson was to begin. I strolled to the middle of the ring with Red in tow and texted Katie.
[12:55 PM That’s fine, just come directly to the indoor when you get here, I have Red ready for you.]
The girls hopped on and began walking to warm their horses up. Both Teddy and Stormy toted their kids around quietly. As I began to ask the girls to pick up their horses to begin trotting, Katie made it in.
“I’m sorry I was late…”
“That’s okay. You’re never late anyway, just don’t make a habit of it,” I said smiling and handing her Red’s reins. She took him to the block and mounted up. He stood while she fixed her stirrups. Then she gently squeezed his sides, setting him off on a somewhat energetic walk.
“Okay so Katie, I’m going to have you walk around for five while Aleena and Lily begin their trot work. So Aleena…Lily…go ahead and pick up the posting trot.”
Both girls asked for a trot and got it immediately, both scratching their horse’s necks. Katie walked Red on an inner track so that the other two horses could stay on the rail.
“Alright girls, so go around once and then pick a spot and switch direction as usual. I would like you to change direction across the diagonal. We won’t use any circles quite yet.”
As I watched these girls trot around, I could see the potential oozing from them. If they keep at it, these girls could be going to the Maclay Finals in a few years and even taking clinics with George Morris.
After they had gone both ways once, I asked Katie to join.
“Katie, go ahead and do your trot warm-up. Keep him on a pretty long rein. Lily, Aleena, come into the middle I would like to see some work on turn on the forehand and turn on the haunches.” Aleena came in first and showed a wonderful turn on the forehand. Next was Lily and she had a little bit of trouble.
“Try using more of your legs than your hands. You’re putting more pressure in your hands than you need, so you’re pulling him around his forehand rather than letting him walk his back end around the front. The less you girls have to do now, the better because then when we start doing more advanced things, like at the trot and the canter, you won’t want to have to kick them or pull on them to get things to work.”
She tried again, asking Stormy to come around his front from her legs and using much less of her hands and it was much smoother.
“Better, right?”
“Yes, that felt much better.”
By the time she was done, Katie was just finishing her trot. She turned in and came to the middle. She performed her turn on the forehand flawlessly. She was becoming a very good rider because out of the three horses, Red was the least consistently schooled. He was only ridden three to four times a week instead of six to seven.
“Great job girls. Now go back on the rail and lets come down the quarter lines and do your leg yields. We’re going to do two each way, unless we mess up.”
The girls went out and began their leg yields. Everyone did good this way and then they turned to go the other way. We always started at the walk to make sure everything was being done right. They went the other way and had no trouble.
“Now let’s do these at the trot.”
And they did. This day was actually turning out pretty good.
The rest of the lesson went extremely well. We worked on the same things we had worked on the week before, just getting a handle on the exercises they already knew. As my next group came in, I had the girls stop and come to the middle.
“Amazing today, girls. You’re really getting the hang of these new exercises. Next week we’ll do a quick test at the beginning of the lesson and then we’ll try something new.”
“Thank you Ben!,” they all said and took their horses to dismount.
Everyone for my next group was already on. It was a big group and everyone was on the correct horses, so I could begin. This group was actually working on going around the ring and being able to pass people without hitting each other.
This lesson also went well and as my other group walked in I got a text. It had to be Brogan.
[3:05 PM Brogan – Hey I’m coming down the driveway, just letting you know in case you have a lesson going on]
I typed back [thanks]
I had my group in the ring as well as Katie’s sister, Emily, riding her Equitation horse, Shaniko.
I continued to teach my lesson and I could faintly hear horses being unloaded, but they were very quiet. They didn’t whinny or make any sort of fuss. One of the front barn doors slid open and I heard hoof beats on the matted floors. Two sets. Brogan came into the ring.
“Now half seat and keep it going two times around. Then switch and go the other way, doing the same thing.”
“Hey Brogan. So what kind of horses do they have?”
“Well, one is an Eq horse. She’s going to take lessons with Sadie and try to get ready to go to Maclay Finals with our team. She’s already qualified I guess. Her other is a Welsh Cob pony that she plays with in the summer at the jumper shows. Her name is Anna. She said she’s hoping to get in at least the top ten this year because next year she’s going to college and she won’t be able to show next year in the Eq. She’ll be too old.”
“Oh so she’s gonna have to lease the horse out next year. What are the parents like?”
“One’s a lawyer and one’s an engineer. She said they’re barely ever around but they do make time to come see her at shows. They try to be involved but they do the here-have-all-this-money-to-compensate thing.”
“Ah…gotcha.”
“Okay well, I have to go home. We’re going out to dinner for once. If she has questions can you help her out? She’s going to try and be here for a few hours and get both horses and her stuff all unpacked and settled. I unhitched the trailer from my truck, so here’s the key to the trailer dressing room.” He handed me the key and I stuck it in my pocket so I wouldn’t lose it.
“Of course I can help her out. Have a good night.”
“You too,” he said, walking away.
I finished up teaching and then walked out into the main aisle. The stable hand had given her horses two stalls between my horses and some of Marla’s horses. I went to find her. She turned out to be in the grooming stalls next to my students.
“Hi, I’m Ben. I’m one of the managers.”
“Oh, hi I’m Anna. These are my two horses, Rolf and Logic.”
They were both geldings. One was a striking grey splashed paint and stood with a regal presence. The other was a mahogany bay pony and he seemed almost comical in the way he held himself.
“So Brogan told me you are going to be riding on the Eq team with Sadie. She’s a great teacher.”
“Yeah. I’m already qualified for the finals. I just need a coach to go with. My other instructor and I had a disagreement about some things we were starting to do with my pony. I felt like we were over facing him a bit to the point where he was getting scared of some of the jumps so I needed to find someone else to train me.”
“Well you have to do what’s right for the horse…”
“Exactly!” she agreed, “Now I didn’t know if you were busy or not but I was wondering if you might be able to show me around the barn so I can see where everything is and get to know some of the rules?”
“Sure I can. Let me just find out what all the stable hands are up to and make sure everything is all set for feed time. Meet me in the lounge when you’re all done with your horses. There’s a huge whiteboard right outside of it, down the first aisle of stalls.”
“Brogan showed me where the lounge was. I’m going to grab some more of my things out of the trailer once I put them in their stalls Thank you!”
“Oh hey girls, can you put your horses in their stalls when you’re all done? It’s almost time for dinner.” They all nodded and I went off to see what all the employees were up to.
The easiest way for us to feed out dinner to nearly eighty horses was to put hay in the stalls first. Every horse got about four flakes or twenty pounds of hay at dinner. If they finished, and most of them did, they would get another flake or five pounds at night check. They all had a specialized grain diet too, with all their supplements that they needed mixed in. Most of them got dry grain. If it needed to be wet we gave them a scoop of beet pulp, or mixed it with water. They would get warm water or beet pulp in the winter and cold in the summer. We stuck their buckets next to their stalls before bringing them all in. After they were all in, as long as they were quiet and munching on their hay, we dumped grain and whoever needed beet pulp got it or had it soaked right before it was given to them. We had lights all around the property so if it got dark before all the horses were in, we could just flick them on. They all knew the routine and were all pretty sensible animals. None of them really freaked out being brought in while it was dark out. The entire process took about an hour and a half with ten employees. Obviously if there were more people to help it went faster.
Everything was under control, so I headed to the lounge to meet with Anna. She was sticking her tack neatly into an empty locker.
“I’ll make a label for you in the office tonight. We also usually put tags on blankets so I can get those for you and you can write your horses names on them. If you have any special instructions for your horses, you can write those on the whiteboards on their stalls.”
“Okay, sounds good. Now what about grain? I have a couple of baggies made up from the other barn.”
“What grain do they eat?”
“They both get Nutrena feeds.”
“Perfect, that’s what we feed to all of our horses. We actually have a sponsorship from Nutrena because we have so many horses that are fed their grain.”
She smiled and closed the locker.
“I didn’t bring a lock...”
“That’s okay, we lock the tack room at night anyway so your things should be safe. If you have everything you need from the trailer, I’m going to go lock the dressing room and I’ll be back in to show you around a bit more. If you want, you can give the grain baggies to the girl in the feed room. Her name is Caitlyn. Let her know what exactly they are fed.”
“Okay, will do.” She trotted off to the feed room.
I exited the lounge and went for the trailer. I had forgotten to grab my top layers, so it would be a very quick trip outside as the temperature was beginning to drop a little. After checking that everything was shut and ready for the next shipment, I locked the dressing room and ran back inside.
Marla had a special rack for keys and all keys had to be signed out. It kept things organized and if keys were lost, misplaced, or doors weren’t locked, it was easier to figure out who was to blame. Brogan had signed the keys in for himself and out for me. I signed them back in and then took the master set which had keys for the tack room, the feed room, and the hay loft. It also had keys for the middle barn, which had a loft, a tack room, a small office, and a feed room. Every manager or instructor had a set to lock both offices and barns. Needless to say, there were a lot of keys. Marla wanted to be safe rather than sorry, especially after the last break-in.
After talking with Anna a bit more, getting to know her and her horses, I realized it was around 6 o’clock. I hadn’t seen much of Jaylen, but I knew it was time for him to leave. I wasn’t quite sure what was up with him lately, but he hadn’t been very friendly. I didn’t know if it had anything to do with me beginning to hang out with Sadie more or if there was something else going on. I knew he was winding his lessons down here. Was he leaving altogether to put more time into his own venture at his parents farm? If he didn’t want to talk, I would just have to ask Sadie.
I was sitting in the office, looking over the planner for this week. Marla made it a point to keep a paper planner, as well as a weekly schedule on the large whiteboard. We also had a google calendar for students to look at as well. If any changes were made, she or whoever had changes would send out an email.
As employees finished their tasks, they came in and let me know and I assigned other things for them to do as they needed to do them. At around 7, Anna strolled in.
“I am all done for the night. My two are settled.”
“Oh good. I made a label for your locker and stuck it on. How many blanket tags do you need?”
“Uh...let me see...they both have one anti-sweat sheet, one stable sheet, one light weight, medium, heavy, a fleece...so twelve tags altogether.”
I pulled out twelve tags for her from one of the desk drawers and gave her a marker.
“You can just write the horses barn name on them. Once they’re all tagged, you can just leave all the blankets in the lounge and I’ll fold them and put them on the doors for you. We like to keep three blankets on the doors and the rest go in another locker. You don’t need a lock for the blanket lockers as the stable hands are in and out of them all the time in the winter and that would be too complicated. I’ll put labels on those lockers as well. Is there anything in particular I need to know about either of your horses?”
“I put a note on Logic’s whiteboard. He runs hot so I don’t blanket him as heavily as Rolf, even when they’re both clipped. He stays pretty warm all the time.”
“Okay sounds good.”
“Oh also...I didn’t know if Sadie had told anyone but I am supposed to be having an evaluation lesson tomorrow with both of my guys.”
“Yes actually she left a note this morning on the planner for me, so I will add your lessons to the board for tomorrow before I leave.”
“Okay, thank you so much, I love this place already. Everyone is so helpful and nice.”
“We try our best to be as helpful as we can. I think you’ll agree with Sadie on some of her training methods. She’s very good.”
“I think I will too!”
She wrote her horses names on the tags and then went to put them on her blankets. After a little while, she came back and said goodbye and headed out for the night. I got up, stretched and went to the lounge to put her blankets in the correct spots and stick labels on her horses blanket lockers.
As the night wound down, I ended up sitting in the office for a while more. A few employees were finishing giving out more hay. I checked my phone. I had a couple of texts.
[7:00 PM Jaylen - hey, sorry i didn’t say bye, i had to get home, have a good night]
I was surprised he texted me. Maybe there was something else going on with him that had nothing to do with Sadie and I.
[7:40 PM Brogan - hope all went well and Anna and her horses settled in, see you tuesday]
I typed back [everything was fine, see you tuesday]
Then my next text had my heart pounding.
[8:15 PM Sadie - hey, i need to talk to you about something tomorrow, please text me back soon]
Maybe this was about Jaylen? I hoped so. I was getting worried. I texted her back.
[8:30 PM hey, whats up, is everything okay?]
I slipped my phone in my pocket and walked into the aisle. Night check was nearly finished, so I took keys to lock up the other barn. I put my layers on and headed through the indoor to the middle barn. Two of the stable hands were exiting as I walked in. I told them I would lock up and turn out the lights in a few and they could leave when they were ready.
I made a quick sweep, eyeing each horse. They were all quietly munching their bedtime snack so I flicked the lights off after locking up the necessary doors. I headed back to the main barn and told the rest of the employees they could go. Doing the same I made sure everyone was content and then locked what needed to be locked.
My phone buzzed.
[8:50 PM Sadie - not really...well talk tomorrow...things are going to change soon]
That didn’t sound good. I finished up and began the chilly walk to my house past the middle barn. The way the property was laid out always interested me. Marla and her husband had designed it with their house in the front, across the driveway from the main barn and indoor. Then there were rings and paddocks and the middle barn and the indoor attached to that. Behind that was the middle ranch house which was where I stayed. After that was the back barn and indoor, which was where the Wickford Family rented and called it Blue Moon Farms. After that was the back ranch house, which was where Sadie stayed. I could always see her light on from my front door. After her house was the Blue Moon Farms paddocks and the derby field. I liked the set up but it was a very long property, which I thought was odd.
When I stepped in my warm abode, I was greeted by Turtle and a text.
[9:10 PM Sadie - good night
]
I typed a good night back and settled down for the night. I knew her earlier texted would bother me the rest of the night though so I tried to occupy myself with the tv for a while before going up to bed.
Monday
The next morning I woke up late. I still felt crappy from the other night. I did my usual morning routine and fed Turtle. I leaned on the kitchen counter with a glass of water and swallowed a couple of tylenol. It was late August but we were in a weird cold snap. I layered up and headed out.
Hoping Marla wouldn't notice I snuck in around 11:30 and put my things in the office. She must've been in the other barn at the moment. I checked tasks for the day. There was a memo for me.
Ben come see me when you get in please. - Sadie
I went to find her quickly. She was in the indoor with Anna doing the evaluation lesson with her paint horse.
I sat next to her on the bench at the side of the ring.
"Hey, whats going on?" I asked. She looked angry and sad all at the same time.
"Okay so Jaylen and I had a talk the other night about a couple of things that have been bothering him. His parents are pressuring him to find a girlfriend and get married. We agreed that we are just friends despite some things in our past so that's all fine. That’s been bothering him for a while now. His parents also told him that if he didn't figure out what barn he was going to do his business out of then they weren't going to help him anymore with money. So they're basically telling him he has to come home or else they won't help him pay board on all of his horses that are here. He hasn't told Marla what his plan is but he is planning to leave at some point. And because he's under all this pressure he's been a super asshole. To everyone." She fiddled with her jacket a bit, adjusting to get more warmth.
"Yeah I got that part."
"He's sorry he's been a jerk but he's torn."
"So he's leaving for sure?"
"He doesn't want to but he's probably going to have to."
"That's kinda crappy."
“Well especially since its going to screw up what we’ve had as a routine for a couple of years now. If we get more boarders who want to do equitation I’ll be completely bogged down. I might not be able to ride my own horses at that point.”
“Marla won’t let that happen. She’ll figure it out if he does leave. She’s good at making things work.”
We sat in silence and watched Anna trot and canter some ring figures on her pony. The pony was an average sized Welsh Cob. She kept his feathers clipped and neat. He was fancy, his trot and canter high stepping but rhythmic.
Tuesday
Today was one of my long days. But it was also a day that Sadie and I got done at the same time. I was going to ask her to dinner tonight. I had to go at this carefully.
Sadie had been hurt before and she very untrusting of any male suitors at this point
It was super easy for me to sleep until twelve pm on Sundays because I didn't have to get to work until one o'clock. I live on the property as well so if I really wanted to I didn't have to get up until 12:30. However, I had some chores to do around the house today, so I needed to get up early.
A couple of friends and I had gone out to a bar in Wickford last night, but I hadn't had too much to drink. Enough to make me feel sort of crappy and take a few extra minutes to get out of bed though. I rolled to the edge and swung my legs over, onto the floor. I was greeted by my little kitten, Turtle. He purred loudly and rubbed up against my feet. He was asking for food.
He would have to wait. I went to the bathroom, brushing my teeth and quickly shaving in the process. Going down the flight of stairs, cat hot on my heels; I came to the kitchen first. Reaching into the top cabinet, I took out a can of wet food, and the small bag of hard food. I scoop the necessary amount of wet and dry, mixed it and placed it down next to his water. He happily munched, while I grabbed a trash bag and walked back up the steps. I emptied the bathroom trash and the miniature can from my room, then ran back down to the kitchen and placed the bag in the kitchen trash. Next I decided to take the disinfecting wipes, cleaning off any counters, tables, or flat surfaces. After that was done, I brought my dirty clothing to the washing machine and put it on the express cycle. Finally, I washed the dishes from the past couple of nights, and tucked the dry ones away in the proper drawers.
Seeing it was about ten o’clock, I decided to dress myself. As usual I threw on a pair of jeans, a thermal shirt and socks, and brought a sweatshirt back down the stairs with me. I took my hat, gloves, scarf, and jacket out of the closet, setting them on the table so I would be ready to walk out the door at 12:30. It only took ten minutes to walk to the barn from my house, but I still preferred to be a little early.
I sat down on the couch and flicked the TV on, just for background noise. I opened my lesson book. I would have my normal group lessons today. Thankfully all of my students could do group lessons. Other than Sundays and Mondays I didn’t necessarily have time to teach private lessons unless scheduled way in advance. Technically we aren’t even supposed to teach on Mondays, but if anyone’s students had missed lessons, they could make them up only on Mondays.
My first group had three students, the second had five, and the third had four. I always used my horses for the first and third because it was easy work for them. I basically had free reign of all of the other horses to use though. I usually put most of them on some of Sadie’s horses because they were so well schooled and barely ever spooked. Before November, we still had six actual school horses, but North Gate College had offered a substantial amount for them and Marla couldn’t refuse. That left six more stalls for paying boarders. That meant at least another $9,000 for the stable per month. We just had to get the boarders and students in.
After editing my book, I put my clothes in the dryer and watched a little more TV. Once my clothing was dry, I took it upstairs, folded what needed to be folded and hung what needed to be hung. After finishing that I figured I would get ready to go up to the barn. I would be a little more than a half an hour early, but that would give me the chance to make sure the horses I chose for lessons would be okay to use. Marla was off on Sundays, unless her students had a show, but she would leave notes on any of the horses whiteboards or the main board in the office if anything had happened on Saturday that would affect my lessons.
I would also find out if any horses were already ridden, which sometimes happened. Sundays were interesting because sometimes it was extremely busy and then others it was completely dead. People were also all there either in the early morning to ride or in the late afternoon.
I made sure Turtle had plenty of water for the day and put the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs. He was still too small and clumsy to be running around the house by himself and he had never tried to climb the gate (yet). I had been planning on getting another cat for a while, but at the same time. I was still trying to think of a way to make a relationship work with Sadie. I knew it would take time and I was okay with that.
Stepping out into the chilly air, I didn’t bother locking the door, because the house was in the middle of the property, tucked behind the main barn, a good amount of the paddocks, the indoor and two of the outdoors. It was probably around thirty degrees outside, so the barn and the indoor should be around fifty.
Walking past the dressage outdoor, I noticed Jaylen walking his giant black gelding around, both bundled up. It looked as if they had maybe just finished their ride and were cooling out. I waved and he waved back and that was the extent of our greeting. In general, people didn’t bother each other if they were riding by themselves. Unless they stopped to talk, you sort of just left them and their horse be to concentrate on their ride. It was nice, as some other barn you can barely get anything done because all people want to do is chat.
I quickened my steps past the other large outdoor and the main indoor. The cold was starting to seep into my many layers. I made it to the main barn people entrance, as all the other doors were closed. I shed my scarf, hat, and gloves as soon as I closed the door. It was like spring day in here!
I put all my belongings in my locker in Marla’s office. In addition to my own locker in the tack room, Marla also had lockers put in her office just last year. They were for the management staff only as we had a break in and a couple of wallets stolen, but eventually were returned and the burglar was arrested.
I checked the large whiteboard. It was as big as a school chalkboard but it had any important information written on it. There was another large whiteboard in the tack room for the students and one in the feed room for meals. Every horse also had a whiteboard tacked to their stall door with any special instructions.
Sadie had left me a note;
“Ben – if you need to use horses for lessons you can use Stormy, Teddy, Shawn, Dylan, and Ace as they weren’t/will not be ridden today by anyone else.”
Awesome, I thought. That was perfect because I only had to check the other five horses I chose. I strolled down the aisle, checking the other horses’ whiteboards as I went. All of the ponies were available, so I could actually let a couple of students choose between them and my two horses.
I went to the tack room and posted who everyone would be riding today.
It wasn’t even 12:30 yet, so I was very early today. My one o’clock group was my more advanced group. They were all going solid walk, trot, canter, and had started over small cross rails. My second group was only doing walk, trot, canter but they were almost ready to start working on cross rails and the third group was my least advanced as they were only doing walk, trot, and working on ground poles. I finished writing down all my lesson assignments and proofread quickly.
1pm – Lily on Stormy, Katie on Red, Aleena on Teddy
2pm – Jessica on Molly, Amelia on Jack, Johnny on Ace, Catherine on Shawn, Emily on Mayo
3pm – Emma on Dylan, Gregory on Cozmo, Jess on Foggy, Brenna on Sassy
I decided to start making up grain. I hadn’t seen Caitlyn or Brogan yet so I was assuming I would find one of them already working on that.
If they were already done with that, which was entirely possible, I would go out to the paddocks and grab horses for the lesson kids. Normally I tried not to do that, as I wanted them to be able to handle their own horses, but if I had the extra time, it didn’t hurt, and it was pretty cold today.
I stepped into the grain room and surprised Caitlyn a bit.
“Hey Ben, didn’t know you were here already. I’m almost done with grain,” she said, scooping some sweet feed into one of the buckets.
“Aww, okay. Where’s Brogan? I didn’t see him at all.”
“Oh he actually went to do an errand for Marla. Something about maybe having a new boarder. I’m assuming he’s picking their horse up.”
“That’s good. We do need to fill the stalls,” I said, stepping out of the grain room.
I grabbed my coat and other warm items from the office and went out to bring in the first batch of horses for lessons. Unless it was extremely windy, pouring, thundering, super icy, hot, or cold, the horses went outside.
I took Stormy and Teddy at the same time, as they went out together, with a collection of other geldings. It was funny because Stormy was a stallion but you’d never know it. He acted like a gelding most of the time. Even if he’s taken to breed, he goes calmly. There’s not much that fazes him. I placed them in the wash stalls, which doubled as grooming stalls. We didn’t have cross ties in the barn because it was so large and moving horses aside was too much of a hassle sometimes.
I walked out to get Red and asked one of the stable hands who weren’t too busy to grab tack for the three horses. Red trotted up willingly to me and I put his halter over his ears. By the time we entered the barn two of the three students had arrived, and began brushing their horses. The other girl wasn’t here yet, so I stuck my chestnut horse in the next grooming stall. He stood quietly, waiting for his student.
“How are you girls today?” I asked, clipping the cross ties to the sides of his halter.
“Good,” they both chimed, swiftly working to get their horses neat and tacked.
“When you’re all set, go right into the indoor. I think Katie might be running a tiny bit late today.”
These girls weren’t more than fourteen years old each, so it was good that they were beginning to learn how to ride these horses. If they were still riding in a couple of years and were proficiently jumping at least three feet, I could hand them off to Sadie for the Equitation Team.
Leaving the girls to get ready, I went to the office and dropped my top layer off. I kept my gloves and my hat with me because I knew I would be standing or sitting to teach so I would get cold eventually. I picked up my phone from the desk. I had a couple of texts.
[12:45 PM Katie Sanchez – Hi Ben, just wanted to let you know we are running a little late because we had to pick my sister’s car up from the shop. I should be there by 1:05.]
[12:40 PM Brogan – Hey Ben, just letting you know I’m on my way back with two horses in the trailer, can you ask the stable hands to make sure two stalls are ready and two paddocks are ready. Thank you.]
I went back out to find a stable hand.
“Hey Alice, can you make sure two stalls and two paddocks are ready. Brogan is bringing two horses back with him.”
“Does it matter which stalls or paddocks?”
“Nope, as long as the stalls are next to each other. Paddocks don’t matter.”
“Okay, will do,” she said, running off to get everything ready. I went to groom Red and get him ready for Katie. I was hoping this wasn’t going to be the way the rest of the day would go.
Both girls and I walked into the indoor around the same time, five minutes before their lesson was to begin. I strolled to the middle of the ring with Red in tow and texted Katie.
[12:55 PM That’s fine, just come directly to the indoor when you get here, I have Red ready for you.]
The girls hopped on and began walking to warm their horses up. Both Teddy and Stormy toted their kids around quietly. As I began to ask the girls to pick up their horses to begin trotting, Katie made it in.
“I’m sorry I was late…”
“That’s okay. You’re never late anyway, just don’t make a habit of it,” I said smiling and handing her Red’s reins. She took him to the block and mounted up. He stood while she fixed her stirrups. Then she gently squeezed his sides, setting him off on a somewhat energetic walk.
“Okay so Katie, I’m going to have you walk around for five while Aleena and Lily begin their trot work. So Aleena…Lily…go ahead and pick up the posting trot.”
Both girls asked for a trot and got it immediately, both scratching their horse’s necks. Katie walked Red on an inner track so that the other two horses could stay on the rail.
“Alright girls, so go around once and then pick a spot and switch direction as usual. I would like you to change direction across the diagonal. We won’t use any circles quite yet.”
As I watched these girls trot around, I could see the potential oozing from them. If they keep at it, these girls could be going to the Maclay Finals in a few years and even taking clinics with George Morris.
After they had gone both ways once, I asked Katie to join.
“Katie, go ahead and do your trot warm-up. Keep him on a pretty long rein. Lily, Aleena, come into the middle I would like to see some work on turn on the forehand and turn on the haunches.” Aleena came in first and showed a wonderful turn on the forehand. Next was Lily and she had a little bit of trouble.
“Try using more of your legs than your hands. You’re putting more pressure in your hands than you need, so you’re pulling him around his forehand rather than letting him walk his back end around the front. The less you girls have to do now, the better because then when we start doing more advanced things, like at the trot and the canter, you won’t want to have to kick them or pull on them to get things to work.”
She tried again, asking Stormy to come around his front from her legs and using much less of her hands and it was much smoother.
“Better, right?”
“Yes, that felt much better.”
By the time she was done, Katie was just finishing her trot. She turned in and came to the middle. She performed her turn on the forehand flawlessly. She was becoming a very good rider because out of the three horses, Red was the least consistently schooled. He was only ridden three to four times a week instead of six to seven.
“Great job girls. Now go back on the rail and lets come down the quarter lines and do your leg yields. We’re going to do two each way, unless we mess up.”
The girls went out and began their leg yields. Everyone did good this way and then they turned to go the other way. We always started at the walk to make sure everything was being done right. They went the other way and had no trouble.
“Now let’s do these at the trot.”
And they did. This day was actually turning out pretty good.
The rest of the lesson went extremely well. We worked on the same things we had worked on the week before, just getting a handle on the exercises they already knew. As my next group came in, I had the girls stop and come to the middle.
“Amazing today, girls. You’re really getting the hang of these new exercises. Next week we’ll do a quick test at the beginning of the lesson and then we’ll try something new.”
“Thank you Ben!,” they all said and took their horses to dismount.
Everyone for my next group was already on. It was a big group and everyone was on the correct horses, so I could begin. This group was actually working on going around the ring and being able to pass people without hitting each other.
This lesson also went well and as my other group walked in I got a text. It had to be Brogan.
[3:05 PM Brogan – Hey I’m coming down the driveway, just letting you know in case you have a lesson going on]
I typed back [thanks]
I had my group in the ring as well as Katie’s sister, Emily, riding her Equitation horse, Shaniko.
I continued to teach my lesson and I could faintly hear horses being unloaded, but they were very quiet. They didn’t whinny or make any sort of fuss. One of the front barn doors slid open and I heard hoof beats on the matted floors. Two sets. Brogan came into the ring.
“Now half seat and keep it going two times around. Then switch and go the other way, doing the same thing.”
“Hey Brogan. So what kind of horses do they have?”
“Well, one is an Eq horse. She’s going to take lessons with Sadie and try to get ready to go to Maclay Finals with our team. She’s already qualified I guess. Her other is a Welsh Cob pony that she plays with in the summer at the jumper shows. Her name is Anna. She said she’s hoping to get in at least the top ten this year because next year she’s going to college and she won’t be able to show next year in the Eq. She’ll be too old.”
“Oh so she’s gonna have to lease the horse out next year. What are the parents like?”
“One’s a lawyer and one’s an engineer. She said they’re barely ever around but they do make time to come see her at shows. They try to be involved but they do the here-have-all-this-money-to-compensate thing.”
“Ah…gotcha.”
“Okay well, I have to go home. We’re going out to dinner for once. If she has questions can you help her out? She’s going to try and be here for a few hours and get both horses and her stuff all unpacked and settled. I unhitched the trailer from my truck, so here’s the key to the trailer dressing room.” He handed me the key and I stuck it in my pocket so I wouldn’t lose it.
“Of course I can help her out. Have a good night.”
“You too,” he said, walking away.
I finished up teaching and then walked out into the main aisle. The stable hand had given her horses two stalls between my horses and some of Marla’s horses. I went to find her. She turned out to be in the grooming stalls next to my students.
“Hi, I’m Ben. I’m one of the managers.”
“Oh, hi I’m Anna. These are my two horses, Rolf and Logic.”
They were both geldings. One was a striking grey splashed paint and stood with a regal presence. The other was a mahogany bay pony and he seemed almost comical in the way he held himself.
“So Brogan told me you are going to be riding on the Eq team with Sadie. She’s a great teacher.”
“Yeah. I’m already qualified for the finals. I just need a coach to go with. My other instructor and I had a disagreement about some things we were starting to do with my pony. I felt like we were over facing him a bit to the point where he was getting scared of some of the jumps so I needed to find someone else to train me.”
“Well you have to do what’s right for the horse…”
“Exactly!” she agreed, “Now I didn’t know if you were busy or not but I was wondering if you might be able to show me around the barn so I can see where everything is and get to know some of the rules?”
“Sure I can. Let me just find out what all the stable hands are up to and make sure everything is all set for feed time. Meet me in the lounge when you’re all done with your horses. There’s a huge whiteboard right outside of it, down the first aisle of stalls.”
“Brogan showed me where the lounge was. I’m going to grab some more of my things out of the trailer once I put them in their stalls Thank you!”
“Oh hey girls, can you put your horses in their stalls when you’re all done? It’s almost time for dinner.” They all nodded and I went off to see what all the employees were up to.
The easiest way for us to feed out dinner to nearly eighty horses was to put hay in the stalls first. Every horse got about four flakes or twenty pounds of hay at dinner. If they finished, and most of them did, they would get another flake or five pounds at night check. They all had a specialized grain diet too, with all their supplements that they needed mixed in. Most of them got dry grain. If it needed to be wet we gave them a scoop of beet pulp, or mixed it with water. They would get warm water or beet pulp in the winter and cold in the summer. We stuck their buckets next to their stalls before bringing them all in. After they were all in, as long as they were quiet and munching on their hay, we dumped grain and whoever needed beet pulp got it or had it soaked right before it was given to them. We had lights all around the property so if it got dark before all the horses were in, we could just flick them on. They all knew the routine and were all pretty sensible animals. None of them really freaked out being brought in while it was dark out. The entire process took about an hour and a half with ten employees. Obviously if there were more people to help it went faster.
Everything was under control, so I headed to the lounge to meet with Anna. She was sticking her tack neatly into an empty locker.
“I’ll make a label for you in the office tonight. We also usually put tags on blankets so I can get those for you and you can write your horses names on them. If you have any special instructions for your horses, you can write those on the whiteboards on their stalls.”
“Okay, sounds good. Now what about grain? I have a couple of baggies made up from the other barn.”
“What grain do they eat?”
“They both get Nutrena feeds.”
“Perfect, that’s what we feed to all of our horses. We actually have a sponsorship from Nutrena because we have so many horses that are fed their grain.”
She smiled and closed the locker.
“I didn’t bring a lock...”
“That’s okay, we lock the tack room at night anyway so your things should be safe. If you have everything you need from the trailer, I’m going to go lock the dressing room and I’ll be back in to show you around a bit more. If you want, you can give the grain baggies to the girl in the feed room. Her name is Caitlyn. Let her know what exactly they are fed.”
“Okay, will do.” She trotted off to the feed room.
I exited the lounge and went for the trailer. I had forgotten to grab my top layers, so it would be a very quick trip outside as the temperature was beginning to drop a little. After checking that everything was shut and ready for the next shipment, I locked the dressing room and ran back inside.
Marla had a special rack for keys and all keys had to be signed out. It kept things organized and if keys were lost, misplaced, or doors weren’t locked, it was easier to figure out who was to blame. Brogan had signed the keys in for himself and out for me. I signed them back in and then took the master set which had keys for the tack room, the feed room, and the hay loft. It also had keys for the middle barn, which had a loft, a tack room, a small office, and a feed room. Every manager or instructor had a set to lock both offices and barns. Needless to say, there were a lot of keys. Marla wanted to be safe rather than sorry, especially after the last break-in.
After talking with Anna a bit more, getting to know her and her horses, I realized it was around 6 o’clock. I hadn’t seen much of Jaylen, but I knew it was time for him to leave. I wasn’t quite sure what was up with him lately, but he hadn’t been very friendly. I didn’t know if it had anything to do with me beginning to hang out with Sadie more or if there was something else going on. I knew he was winding his lessons down here. Was he leaving altogether to put more time into his own venture at his parents farm? If he didn’t want to talk, I would just have to ask Sadie.
I was sitting in the office, looking over the planner for this week. Marla made it a point to keep a paper planner, as well as a weekly schedule on the large whiteboard. We also had a google calendar for students to look at as well. If any changes were made, she or whoever had changes would send out an email.
As employees finished their tasks, they came in and let me know and I assigned other things for them to do as they needed to do them. At around 7, Anna strolled in.
“I am all done for the night. My two are settled.”
“Oh good. I made a label for your locker and stuck it on. How many blanket tags do you need?”
“Uh...let me see...they both have one anti-sweat sheet, one stable sheet, one light weight, medium, heavy, a fleece...so twelve tags altogether.”
I pulled out twelve tags for her from one of the desk drawers and gave her a marker.
“You can just write the horses barn name on them. Once they’re all tagged, you can just leave all the blankets in the lounge and I’ll fold them and put them on the doors for you. We like to keep three blankets on the doors and the rest go in another locker. You don’t need a lock for the blanket lockers as the stable hands are in and out of them all the time in the winter and that would be too complicated. I’ll put labels on those lockers as well. Is there anything in particular I need to know about either of your horses?”
“I put a note on Logic’s whiteboard. He runs hot so I don’t blanket him as heavily as Rolf, even when they’re both clipped. He stays pretty warm all the time.”
“Okay sounds good.”
“Oh also...I didn’t know if Sadie had told anyone but I am supposed to be having an evaluation lesson tomorrow with both of my guys.”
“Yes actually she left a note this morning on the planner for me, so I will add your lessons to the board for tomorrow before I leave.”
“Okay, thank you so much, I love this place already. Everyone is so helpful and nice.”
“We try our best to be as helpful as we can. I think you’ll agree with Sadie on some of her training methods. She’s very good.”
“I think I will too!”
She wrote her horses names on the tags and then went to put them on her blankets. After a little while, she came back and said goodbye and headed out for the night. I got up, stretched and went to the lounge to put her blankets in the correct spots and stick labels on her horses blanket lockers.
As the night wound down, I ended up sitting in the office for a while more. A few employees were finishing giving out more hay. I checked my phone. I had a couple of texts.
[7:00 PM Jaylen - hey, sorry i didn’t say bye, i had to get home, have a good night]
I was surprised he texted me. Maybe there was something else going on with him that had nothing to do with Sadie and I.
[7:40 PM Brogan - hope all went well and Anna and her horses settled in, see you tuesday]
I typed back [everything was fine, see you tuesday]
Then my next text had my heart pounding.
[8:15 PM Sadie - hey, i need to talk to you about something tomorrow, please text me back soon]
Maybe this was about Jaylen? I hoped so. I was getting worried. I texted her back.
[8:30 PM hey, whats up, is everything okay?]
I slipped my phone in my pocket and walked into the aisle. Night check was nearly finished, so I took keys to lock up the other barn. I put my layers on and headed through the indoor to the middle barn. Two of the stable hands were exiting as I walked in. I told them I would lock up and turn out the lights in a few and they could leave when they were ready.
I made a quick sweep, eyeing each horse. They were all quietly munching their bedtime snack so I flicked the lights off after locking up the necessary doors. I headed back to the main barn and told the rest of the employees they could go. Doing the same I made sure everyone was content and then locked what needed to be locked.
My phone buzzed.
[8:50 PM Sadie - not really...well talk tomorrow...things are going to change soon]
That didn’t sound good. I finished up and began the chilly walk to my house past the middle barn. The way the property was laid out always interested me. Marla and her husband had designed it with their house in the front, across the driveway from the main barn and indoor. Then there were rings and paddocks and the middle barn and the indoor attached to that. Behind that was the middle ranch house which was where I stayed. After that was the back barn and indoor, which was where the Wickford Family rented and called it Blue Moon Farms. After that was the back ranch house, which was where Sadie stayed. I could always see her light on from my front door. After her house was the Blue Moon Farms paddocks and the derby field. I liked the set up but it was a very long property, which I thought was odd.
When I stepped in my warm abode, I was greeted by Turtle and a text.
[9:10 PM Sadie - good night
]I typed a good night back and settled down for the night. I knew her earlier texted would bother me the rest of the night though so I tried to occupy myself with the tv for a while before going up to bed.
Monday
The next morning I woke up late. I still felt crappy from the other night. I did my usual morning routine and fed Turtle. I leaned on the kitchen counter with a glass of water and swallowed a couple of tylenol. It was late August but we were in a weird cold snap. I layered up and headed out.
Hoping Marla wouldn't notice I snuck in around 11:30 and put my things in the office. She must've been in the other barn at the moment. I checked tasks for the day. There was a memo for me.
Ben come see me when you get in please. - Sadie
I went to find her quickly. She was in the indoor with Anna doing the evaluation lesson with her paint horse.
I sat next to her on the bench at the side of the ring.
"Hey, whats going on?" I asked. She looked angry and sad all at the same time.
"Okay so Jaylen and I had a talk the other night about a couple of things that have been bothering him. His parents are pressuring him to find a girlfriend and get married. We agreed that we are just friends despite some things in our past so that's all fine. That’s been bothering him for a while now. His parents also told him that if he didn't figure out what barn he was going to do his business out of then they weren't going to help him anymore with money. So they're basically telling him he has to come home or else they won't help him pay board on all of his horses that are here. He hasn't told Marla what his plan is but he is planning to leave at some point. And because he's under all this pressure he's been a super asshole. To everyone." She fiddled with her jacket a bit, adjusting to get more warmth.
"Yeah I got that part."
"He's sorry he's been a jerk but he's torn."
"So he's leaving for sure?"
"He doesn't want to but he's probably going to have to."
"That's kinda crappy."
“Well especially since its going to screw up what we’ve had as a routine for a couple of years now. If we get more boarders who want to do equitation I’ll be completely bogged down. I might not be able to ride my own horses at that point.”
“Marla won’t let that happen. She’ll figure it out if he does leave. She’s good at making things work.”
We sat in silence and watched Anna trot and canter some ring figures on her pony. The pony was an average sized Welsh Cob. She kept his feathers clipped and neat. He was fancy, his trot and canter high stepping but rhythmic.
Tuesday
Today was one of my long days. But it was also a day that Sadie and I got done at the same time. I was going to ask her to dinner tonight. I had to go at this carefully.
Sadie had been hurt before and she very untrusting of any male suitors at this point