'Now with a step-though, you start by sitting sidesaddle, then tuck the top leg under the one that's on the stirrup, and bring it round the back so you are sitting astride. You're going around the saddle in a circle. Get it?' Molly asked.
Today Molly had another horse saddled, so that Keisha could show Shelby what to do. They had already practised the stand-asides. At one point Shelby had found herself slipping, but she remem-bered what Zeb had said about balance. She leaned forward and grabbed Tex's mane, and soon she was steady again.
In the background, Zeb continued working with Blue, or 'Fandy', as he insisted on calling him. He was teaching him walk/canter transitions out of the station, turning on the hind leg, which Zeb called a 'half roll-back'. Blue was going really well. Shelby thought it was because she usually rode him without depending on her reins, and most of the time in trick riding you didn't use reins at all.
'You try a step-through,' Molly said. 'Remember to hold on.'
Shelby was about to try when she heard a familiar sound. It was Chad's bike. He rode up to the gate, switched off his engine and leaned the bike on its stand. Suddenly she felt shy and clumsy. Now that he was there in person she knew she would never have the courage to ask him out. He would have to ask her, if he was interested, which she was now certain that he wasn't. Chad probably had girls ask him out all the time.
'How's everybody?' he asked.
'Chadwick! Come in, son,' Zeb greeted him.
Shelby thought there was something very relaxed and familiar about the exchange, as though this visit was expected.
'Do you change everyone's name?' Shelby asked.
'What's that, Blondie?'
'You can do better than that, Zeb,' Molly challenged.
'Maybe we should just call you Nat.'
'Nat?' Chad asked.
'Yeah, she came in here, bold as you please, and told us she's a natural trick rider.' Zeb held his fingers up indicating parenthesis marks as he said the last part.
Chad grinned. Shelby felt Keisha's eyes on her as well and she blushed.
'And you'd never guess it, she really is!' Zeb added.
'Told you,' Shelby muttered.
Molly called for Shelby's attention. 'Let's get back to it, OK? Try a step-through.'
Shelby wished they could go back to doing the stand-asides so Chad could see her being 'natural'. She tried the new move, but she couldn't get her leg to go underneath the other one. It was awkward. Finally she was able to push one leg past the other, and then swing it over the back. The move was chumpy and inelegant. She waited for someone to make a joke, but nobody did.
'You need to put all your weight in the stirrup. Push it out so you can slip that leg under,' Keisha sug-gested. 'Tilt your hip to the side so you're leaning away from the saddle.'
Following her advice the next time Shelby found it much easier.
Soon they were doing step-throughs at a canter. Chad sat at the side of the arena watching. When she was concentrating she was able to forget he was there, but every now and then, when one of the girls did a particularly good step-through, he would clap, and then she would remember. He made Shelby feel flus-tered and gawky.
'You're learning so quickly!' Molly said. 'Usually it takes a bit longer than this.'
Shelby grinned.
'She trusts Texas, that's why,' Keisha added. 'That's half of it, I reckon, trusting that they are going to stay at the same pace – moving with the horse's rhythm, not trying to guess where it might be two seconds from now.'
Molly nodded. 'Keisha had a fall,' she told the others. 'She still hasn't got her confidence back.'
Keisha looked away, scowling.
Shelby didn't know what to say, so she changed the subject. 'What's next?'
'Keen!' Molly said, smiling. 'Step-downs are the same as a step-through, except that, after you have slipped your leg through, you drop down, as though you're getting off, bounce off your toe and then get back on again. Show her, Keisha.'
Keisha pushed her horse into a canter and did a neat step-through, dropping onto her pointed toe, like a dancer, in the middle.
'You make it look easy,' Shelby said.
Keisha pulled into the station without a word.
'It's easier when the horse is moving faster. You can use their momentum,' Molly said.
As she rode around, practising her step-downs, Shelby remembered why she was here. She was supposed to be kibitzing. Shelby tried to think of a way of bringing up Diablo.
'Did you ride that stallion while he was here?' she asked, stopping Texas at the station.
'Do you think we should have? How does he go?' asked Molly.
'I haven't ridden him myself,' she said, with a secret smile, imagining Mrs Edel's horror if she should ask. 'I've seen him move, though. He's got nice action.'
'We've seen him in action too,' Molly said. She and Keisha traded a glance and then burst out laughing.
'What?' Shelby asked. She looked over at Chad, but he shrugged, just as perplexed as she was.
Molly shook her head. 'One of our mares . . . um, we haven't had a vet test yet, but we think she might be in foal.'
'She was in season?' Shelby asked. 'Do you know how much a service from Diablo is worth?'
'About as much as the fence he broke down to get to her,' Zeb called out.