Shamrock Stable, Washington
Sunday, December 22nd, 4:00 pm
Santa Needs A Reindeer was the last competition at the party. It was a crazy galloping game of cone stealing, horsy tag where one person was ‘It’. Instead of chasing the other riders, the person in the middle tried to take their cone and position on the outside of the circle. The beginners played at a walk and trot. Intermediates tended to stick to a jog and lope, but when the advanced got going, we tore from a halt to a dead run. Nevada and Lady loved this opportunity to act crazy and Summertime was quick to catch onto the rules.
He pranced up to Nevada and Vicky smiled at me. “Santa needs a replacement for Rudolph this year. Do you have a reindeer he can borrow?”
“Sorry, I need all mine. Go ask Dave. He has lots.”
Behind her, I spotted Dani and Emily exchanging hand signals. Vicky turned away and headed toward Dave sitting on a Luchenbach statue. I made eye contact with Emily and she nodded. We had a three-way switch going. Meantime the rest of the group looked fascinated by the conversation between Vicky and Dave. He wanted to know why she was the one looking for reindeer when Santa was the guy who actually needed them.
Perfect timing. I eased up on Nevada’s reins and the big chestnut galloped toward Lady’s place, but she wasn’t there. She and Dani had already left. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Vicky spin Summertime and bolt for Emily’s cone. The race was on between her and Dani’s Quarter Horse. Just before they reached the spot, Lady pinned her ears flat back and gave Summertime an evil glare. He slid to a halt and Dani had the cone.
“Score,” I yelled. “Dani’s safe.”
“I don’t think so,” Mom intervened. “Dani, you don’t get to win by siccing your mommy horse on a gelding. You’re It next time.”
“We could go again,” Vicky said. “It’s barely four and with everybody here, we’ll zoom through chores.”
“I know we will, but it’s started to snow. We need to start our barn work early so nobody gets stuck in bad weather, or on icy roads.” Mom started across our circle, pausing to talk to Dave. “And don’t think I didn’t see you stalling the person who was It so everyone had plenty of time to change places.”
“He didn’t,” I said, but by the way he grinned at me, I knew he had.
Wow, the gray-haired guy had some fancy moves. Mom always freaked when we got going in a high-speed, horsy version of the games she used to teach balance to new students. She’d thrown in a ringer, someone who looked like he couldn’t make his horse zoom, but had beaten the rest of us and kept the pace of Santa somewhat sane.
I swung out of the saddle and took Nevada over to Dave who had just dismounted. “I can take Luke with him if you like. I lead the two of them together to paddock almost every day.”
He stretched. “I’m a bit stiff, but I can take care of my horse. Thanks, Sierra.”
“Up to you.” I tried to remember if any of my mom’s rodeo wanta-be cowboys had ever stepped up after riding to look after their animals. Nope, they generally figured either I was their groom or Meredith was. No wonder she had a bit of an attitude when Mom said she planned to date Dave.
I led Nevada over to the side gate and Dave followed with my horse’s mom or dam. Dani slid into place behind us. Emily, Vicky and the other three students had geldings that lived in the lower barn. Mom had come back from talking to the beginners and intermediates to speak to her intern. I figured she was telling Vicky how well Aladdin had done in his portion of the games when we had to ride at slower gaits.
The little bay Arab had come into Shamrock Stable with an attitude when we rescued him. I’d been afraid he was headed for a one-way trip to Canada and the closest slaughter-house. Mom wouldn’t sell him to a private home. A new owner could sue us for dealing in dangerous animals, especially since he spooked and dumped Vicky last month. Aladdin was too small for me to ride, so I couldn’t train him, but Vicky did an amazing job.
I’d seen Emily eyeing him and figured she might sign up for the pre-owner package, using him for her regular mount. All in all, this had been a good party. I opened the gate and walked out into the needle fine snow. The almost invisible flakes had already started to fill up the remains of the grass, but we didn’t have much of an accumulation yet.
When I reached the barn, I found Tom in with Eddie and Houston. Eddie was teaching Tom how to unsaddle, showing him all the steps from unfastening the breast collar to undoing the latigo, then tying up the gear appropriately. Tom stood and watched, listening to the kid’s lecture.
When he finished the demonstration, Eddie asked. “Do you have it?”
Tom nodded. “I think so.”
“Okay, because the last thing before you lift off the gear is to call for a ‘saddle check.’ You go practice on Nevada and Sierra can come here.”
“What?” Tom turned and saw me in my horse’s stall. “He’s kidding, right?”
“Afraid not. Eddie’s got it going today,” I said. “You learn by doing. It’s the way we’ve always done things at Shamrock Stable. Don’t worry. Nevada’s ready for supper and he knows he needs to be a naked pony for that.”
“I’ll try.” Tom still looked concerned as he left Houston’s stall.
“Hey, Dave’s right next door,” I said. “I won’t be far away.”
“Horses like leaders,” Eddie said. “Just pretend you’re bossing people at the restaurant where you work and you’ll be fine.”
“Good point.” I put the reins across Nevada’s neck. He gave me almost the same kind of stare that Tom had. I petted him. “Don’t worry, bud. You’ll get supper. Promise. I’ll be right back.”
I left the stall and walked down the barn aisle to look over Eddie’s work. He was totally amazing me today and I hoped he kept trying. While I checked the saddle, the kid watched me. Finally, I asked, “What’s up?”
“Could I learn to play the games like you and the advanced class did? I can barely trot on Houston. Does he gallop?”
“Sure he does.” I helped lift down the saddle and gave it to him, laying the pads on top. “You should see him when he and Prince Charming are in the paddock together. They race all over the place.”
“What do I have to do to ride in your classes?” Eddie started for the door. “I want to progress and Meredith only lets me walk.”
“You have to be able to do our version of cowboy dressage,” I said. “You’ve got to know all four walks, demonstrate them and ride with and without reins.”
“What else?”
“Do all the exercises at the walks. Be able to do transitions between the walk, the halt, backing and trotting off smoothly,” I said. “Meredith is gone until mid-January. You’ll be taking lessons with my mom. If you really focus and come to ride three or four times a week, you should be in the intermediate class after the holidays.”
“I’ll make it.” Eddie toted his gear in the direction of the tack room.
I returned to my horse’s stall. Tom had unfastened the breast collar and was undoing the cinch. “Wait a second,” I told him. “How can you be out of the beginner class if you can’t untack?”
“I can.” Tom pulled the latigo from the cinch ring. “It looked like Eddie needed more encouragement to step up and like you said people learn by doing.”
I reminded myself that he was just here to chase cowgirls and not to let him impress me, but it was hard duty. With so many people still at the barn, we finished watering, feeding and mucking in less than an hour. The snow continued to fall and we were up to almost a half inch when we walked over to the office. Grandma met us there. She’d made a huge poster of the winners of the Deck the Stalls contest.
Vicky and Autumn tied for first place in the staff category. Emily won for the advanced students and Dani came in second. Robin took champion in intermediate and Eddie was the top beginner. The contest winners had fancy certificates, courtesy of Grandma again. I so had to get her to teach me how to do that on the computer. If they didn’t win a big prize, they had a consolation gift of horsy conditioner to use the next time they groomed.
I spotted Eddie trying to talk his mom out of hers, but it wasn’t happening. She told him that he’d have to be content with a week of summer day camp. While they walked out the door, I heard him asking her about an upgrade so he could be a tween counselor at leadership camp instead of riding in little kid camp. Whoo-hoo, either way we’d be making more money off Rhonda and I could so go with that. The woman had decided we wanted too much for our horses so she didn’t buy Houston. Instead, she got a free horse at a different barn. Mom had finessed her into finishing out her lesson contract and signing up for the pre-owner package. I planned to take more bucks from Rhonda. Like Grandpa said, “there was more than one way to teach horsemanship.”
As the younger kids left the office, they picked up their presents from Shamrock Stable, knit gloves wrapped around a candy cane, carrot and hoof pick. Grandma signed the students out to the appropriate parents and listened to the weather reports they provided. It seemed we were in the proverbial banana belt because the storm had come from the south again like it did a few weeks ago. Seattle was hard hit, with three inches already and the talking heads on the TV and radios complained that the snow showed no signs of stopping. Vicky and Robin dashed up to the building, Dani right behind them.
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s go to the house and get your stuff.”
“Are you and Rocky changing the holiday hours?” Vicky asked, as we headed across the yard to the farmhouse. “Or can we still come tomorrow and Christmas Eve?”
“It depends on the weather,” I said. “Mom will want you to be safe and if the roads are treacherous, then you need to stay home until they clear.”
“Dad’s taking the week off,” Robin told me. “He grew up in Montana and he says it’s no big deal. He’ll bring us if you want us.”
“Let’s see how deep the snow is tomorrow,” I said. “If it isn’t too bad, you can come. If it is, let’s wait until Christmas Eve or Boxing Day.”
“Sounds good,” Robin said.
In another half-hour, we were down to family only and we congregated in the kitchen. Grandpa put a casserole in the oven. I started making salads. Mom sat at the kitchen table tallying up the checks for the next bank deposit while Grandma went through the lesson book. Autumn sat in the rocking chair near the woodstove, her fav horsy afghan pulled up around her. Queenie dozed on the rag rug nearby. My little sister wasn’t talking and when I took a closer look, I realized she was snoozing too.
“If this snow sticks around after Christmas, so will we,” Grandma told us. “We’re not heading south when we have to fret about the roads.”
“You’re always welcome. Like I tell the kids, it is safety first. I don’t want to worry about you and Dad driving back to Arizona.” Mom yawned. “What a busy day. Sierra, I think your contest was a hit. I had a lot of folks asking me if we’d do it again next year and I agreed.”
“You had a great pool of judges.” The coffee stopped brewing, and I filled four mugs. “Everybody won something, even if it was just a bottle of conditioner. That worked really well.”
Mom nodded. “I think picking up the special conditioner at Wal-Mart was brilliant, Sierra. The students felt like winners and we know they’ll use it on the horses, so actually the barn will benefit big-time.”
“Dave is a decent guy,” Grandpa said. “He told me that he wasn’t much of a rider anymore. It was good to have him in the ring with that big fellow of Sierra’s.”
“I thought Tom rode with the intermediates most of the day,” Grandma said sweetly. She cracked up when I glared at her. “Oh, come on, sweetie. He’s a nice boy. And I have to hassle your grandpa sometimes. It’s part of my job description.”
“Okay, just as long as you know that Tom and I aren’t dating.” I passed around the cups of coffee. “He only wants to learn about horses so he can chase girls. He knows I won’t be one of them.”
Grandma smiled at me. “And he’s such a smart boy too. He told me he’s a senior and the Student Body President at Lincoln High.”
“Not happening,” I said. “I don’t have time for a two-legged guy. Nevada takes too much attention.”