“She is. She has a good head on her shoulders, that’s for sure. It’s mostly about building up her confidenceandher muscle mass. This is where I wish I had the pool already.”
“Pool?”
I nodded without taking my eyes off her. “That’s why I took this job. I need the money to build an indoor swimming pool. The benefits of hydrotherapy are proven to work like a charm for horses, too. It’s not just for rehabilitation, either. The conditioning is equally as important, which would really be convenient for Ramona right now.”
Carter hummed. “For her muscles?”
“Yes. She hasn’t been ridden in a long time. Her body will go through some changes as we exercise more. There is a part of the creek I sometimes use in a pinch, but it’s very boring for everyone and you have to ride the horse back and forth through the stretch of the creek. Not that I’d do that for long this year anyway. The fall is well on its way and the creek gets cold quickly.”
He hummed again. Whatever he was about to say was cut off by a small gasp when Ramona went to paw at the wobbly bridge.
“That’s it. Good girl,” I told her and went to give her a treat. “She prefers peppermint candy to carrot or apple,” I called over my shoulder. “She’ll take any of those, but if you really want to reward her, peppermint is the way to go.”
He chuckled. “Good to know, thank you.”
I attached the lead to her halter and gave her a bit of slack before I stepped onto the bridge. It wasn’t high, around ten inches or so. It was suspended between two ramps and the strong ropes kept it from rattling like a chain might.
I walked back and forth on the bridge without asking her to do anything more than figure it all out on her own. Eventually, she stopped the minute jerking back she did every time something surprising happened and just stood still.
I walked to the end of the bridge onto the ramp and gathered the lead. “Want to come check it out for yourself?” I asked, giving her an apple slice as soon as she moved to where I wanted her.
She walked forward until her front legs were firmly on the ramp. I gave her another treat as she mused on the bridge. She got as far as putting her front hooves onto the wobbly part, then snorted softly and backed away. I patted her immediately.
“That’s a good, brave girl.” I gave her a treat. “Well done.”
I stepped off the ramp and turned her around. “Let’s try the thing you already tested out, eh?”
“Why didn’t you push her more?” Carter asked.
I frowned as I glanced over my shoulder. “What do you mean?”
“I expected you to pull her onto the bridge or maybe….” He tried to form his thoughts into words, but I could imagine what he was picturing.
“Get a whip and make her?” I snorted. “No. That’s not how I do things.”
“Wouldn’t that be faster? More efficient?”
I gritted my teeth and turned around. “Do you want a robot or a horse who trusts humans to do what’s best? To not hurt them?” I wasn’t mad at him for his ignorance, it was more the fact that people still thought it was okay to make animals do their bidding by force that made my jaw clench.
As if on cue, Gemma walked past with one of our abuse cases, a mare around Ramona’s age.
“Gemma, stop. Show her to Carter. Explain what’s been done to her,” I snapped, then gritted my teeth again and turned my attention completely to Ramona.
I calmed myself down for Ramona’s sake, and then went to lead her through the hanging obstacles.
The words my sister was speaking were floating to me. Truths about malnourishment, beatings, even burning the poor horse with a branding iron to punish her for some imagined infraction. She was scarred and skinny and so scared of men that she shook every time one came near and tried to hide from them by making herself small, which wasn’t an easy feat for a sixteen hand high animal. She’d started to tremble as soon as Gemma stopped her next to Carter just like I’d thought she would.
“Good girl,” I told Ramona and handed her a peppermint. She crunched it happily, ears on a swivel in a completely different way than the mare Gemma had on lead.
I showed her the seesaw, and she decided it was too scary, which I completely understood.
We checked out a couple of other things, and then I led her to the gate.
“Do you want to go on a walk with her?” I asked him, staying carefully neutral.
I hoped Gemma had said something that made him understand that there were levels to abuse, and that force wasn’t necessary in the way he’d seen in his youth. There was no need to hurt an animal when you knew how to do things correctly and respectfully.
He looked a little uneasy so I added, “I’ll ask someone to come with you. We have people. It’s okay.”
