‘Amazing. This is—’ she shook her head, settled on: ‘—so freaking cool.’
The certainty she said it with made him smile. He reached up, pulled his rope from the saddle horn in lieu of a lead rope.
‘What do I do?’
‘Zeph is very well trained and very responsive,’ he said as he looped his rope through the underside of the bridle’s noseband. ‘All she needs are a few voice and leg cues. I’m going to teach them to you, and then let you take over.’
Her face fell. ‘You’re not going to leave me though – right?’
‘No ma’am.’
‘Okay.’ She nodded rapidly as if trying to convince herself. ‘Okay, I can do this. Tell me.’
Mav didn’t give her time to doubt herself. ‘Anytime you want her to move, it’s two clicks. That’s it.’ He took two steps back, clicked with his tongue twice, and let Zephyr close the small space to him. ‘It’s the same to make her back up, but you’re going to keep a tight rein.’ He reached up, gathered the reins, showing her how much tension to apply. ‘Horses have very sensitive mouths, so just keep the pressure firm but gentle. Consistent.’ He waited for her to do it. ‘Click twice.’
Nina made a clicking noise, and Zephyr immediately took two steps back. ‘Oh my God!’ Zephyr kept moving backwards. ‘Oh my God,’ she repeated.
‘She’ll keep moving backwards until you release the pressure,’ Mav calmly told her, and watched her hands instantly slacken on the reins.
Zephyr stopped immediately.
‘You remembering to breathe?’
Nina exhaled in an exaggeratedly loud whoosh of air, making him laugh.
‘Okay, so, you’ve got forward and back. Now steering. In western-style riding and with a horse this well trained, most of your control is going to come from your legs. Keep the reins loose and use them for subtle corrections or if you miss a cue and need to quickly get her back on track.’ He talked her through readjusting her hands until the reins were slack. ‘To drive her body right, you’re going to apply your left leg. It seems counterintuitive but think of it as gently pushing her body in the direction you want her to go.’
‘What do you mean byapplymy left leg? Like a kick?’
‘Nope. Just roll your calf a little.’ He reached out to adjust her leg, stopped.
Nina caught the movement, and this time she didn’t hesitate to say, ‘It’s okay. Show me.’
He took her calf in one hand, tried not to focus on the slender shape of it beneath the denim, and gripped her booted foot in the other. ‘You’re just going to rotate your toes outwards until your calf makes contact and then slowly increase the pressure until she does what you want her to do – in this case, go right. The moment she turns, you remove the pressure.’ He let her leg go. ‘It’s the same on the other side, to make her turn left.
‘And the last thing you need to know for Lesson One is the word “whoa”.’
‘Not “stop”?’
‘Nope. She doesn’t know that one.Whoa. She’s got the verbal cues down, but if she needs some help, sit back in your seat and extend your legs forward before repeating the cue.’
He made her demonstrate, nodded with approval when she got it first time.
‘Okay. Are you ready?’
‘Yes.’ She nodded firmly.
Mav didn’t move. ‘You know what to do now.’
‘That’s it?’ she asked, looking slightly dumbfounded. ‘I just go for it?’
Mav held up the rope. It didn’t matter that Nina could have walked Zephyr for days without the horse taking off; he understood that she needed to feel safe and knew from experience to always prepare for the worst when it came to inexperienced riders. ‘I’m not letting you two make a run for it just yet,’ he said gently. ‘But you ride. I’ll just be along for the walk.’
Nina sat down in the saddle, gripped the reins until her knuckles whitened. She urged Zephyr forward with two wavering clicks.
The horse moved forward instantly. Mav moved several feet off to the side and walked in line with Zephyr’s shoulder, the rope in his hands.
After only twenty yards, he turned to look up at Nina on his horse. Her grin was a mile wide and nothing, not even the bruises under her makeup, could detract from how genuinely happy she looked just then. It was her eyes, he realized, eyes that had looked so sad but were now lit with awe and wonder in that moment.
