CHAPTER 19
“What are you doing now?”Cole asked as he looked around and saw Scott saddling a horse. He nudged Shay with his elbow and pointed. “That barn has twelve stalls in it. Each horse has their own stall, as I’m sure you know. You can access the stall from the inside, like all the other barns, but these stalls also have a door to the outside. The horse can look out the top half, and the entire door can be opened if need be. These barns are set up like the regular race tracks all over the world.”
“Okay, but what makes this barn more special than the other three?”
“This one is for the horses that we, or rather, Faith will start racing. Now that we have a jockey on the payroll, the horses that need to be run the most will be housed here.” Cole looked at Shay with a grin. “That means that you’ll have to come over here to muck out the stalls. We can put them out during the day, like the others, but when it’s warming up, and they are raced, they need to go back into their stall so they don’t get overheated. These horses are at the age where they need to start training.”
“I understand, I’m not telling you that you don’t know what you’re doing, but Pedro will be able to direct me also, right?”
“Yes, and so will Faith. I know the two of you are dating, and even living together, and I also realize you were a commander in the military, however, on this, you listen and take orders from Faith and Pedro. They will supersede even my instructions.”
“Understood,” Shay said with a nod. He looked between Faith and Cole and frowned. “What do you want me to do first?”
Cole looked at Faith with a raised brow.
“Go talk with Scott. I’m not quite ready yet to race the first horse.” She looked between the two men and nodded when they listened to her. “Shay, normally, there would be more people doing what you and Scott are doing.”
“Correct,” Cole said, and turned fully toward Shay. “If we were fully staffed, Faith wouldn’t be the only jockey here. We would have a jockey for every horse, a stable hand, and trainer to go along with them.”
“Why?”
“Because then the team can concentrate on the individual horse. As it is now, Faith will be riding all of them, you and Pedro will be doing the training part, and I’m hoping once Clem takes off, he can send people back to us so we can use them until the RRR is ready.”
“What does that mean?” Faith asked.
Cole looked between the two of them, because he’d seen confusion on the other man’s face. “RRR stands for Riceman Rodeo Ranch, it will be going in across the street from Erin’s Way and Broken Wheel.”
“Ah, the new ranch, I know about that, but what does Clem have to do with getting people here?”
“The RRR will be a rodeo ranch, but not a rodeo ranch.” He chuckled when he saw confusion. “Erin wants to build a covered arena, like what is at other rodeos. Instead of holding our own rodeos, we’re going to use it so that people can come here and practice. When it’s done, we’ll have the arena, cabins like youtwo are in, for the workers there, and we’ll start out by boarding, then maybe breeding our own rodeo stock.”
“Like?” Faith asked.
“Bulls, broncs, stuff they use in the rodeo. As for Clem, he’ll be going out to local rodeos and talking to the cowboys. See, Lois and I went to one, and we found two boys. I call them boys because they’re in their early twenties. They love the rodeo, but they don’t win enough to pay their entrance fee to every rodeo they go to. They’re due here soon and they’ll be working at New Double to earn a paycheck before the RRR is complete and they move over.” He saw they followed him and nodded.
“See, these guys, Kade and Lane, are brothers, twins. They love horses, they want to work with them, but they grew up on a dairy farm over in Kansas. They will get the experience of working with horses while I get the hands I need.”
“I get it. Working on New Double will give them the horse experience, and they can learn about the racehorses while they get ready to go across the street.”
“Correct, and that’s why Clem is going to the rodeos. He’s looking for guys that love horses, the rodeo, and are down on their luck, but they don’t want to give up their dream. Don’t worry, we’ll do the background checks on them, there’s no way we’re letting just anyone around these horses here on New Double, nor the ones over at Erin’s Way.”
“What about Broken Wheel?” Faith asked. “Why are they different?”
“It’s not that they’re different, it’s just, ah heck, yeah, they’re different.” Cole pushed his hat further up his head with a sigh. “The horses at Broken came when the local police went to Erin about an abused horse. They asked if she could foster them until the case against the owner went to court. She agreed. After that, the SPCA would reach out to Erin about other cases, and after the court case where the previous owners were not given theirhorses back, Erin made a donation to the SPCA, and was given possession of them. Mind you, every horse was downtrodden, weak, abused, and had just about given up on life.”
“They were broken,” Faith whispered.
“Yeah, pretty much. At first it was just Naomi there, then the girls, excuse me, women, that started coming. Erin hates the word disabled, she prefers challenged, those horses were challenged just to eat, or pick their heads up to look around. The women were just as challenged as the horses. They, both women and horses, are now pretty much healed, and those horses know what it’s like to reach rock bottom and come back. That’s how they’re different. Erin’s Way raises prize stallions and brood mares. Broken has the now rehabilitated, but formerly broken horses, and we here at New Double have the racehorses.”
“And the RRR will be all about the rodeo.”
“Correct.” He reset his hat, nodded once, and looked at them both. “As I said, Clem’s leaving soon, and I’m hoping he’ll send guys, and gals to us. I’m not picky, as long as they know the correct end of a horse, we can train them to do anything.” He scowled when the couple before him burst out laughing. They laughed so hard that they ended up leaning into each other to hold them up.
Cole shook his head, thinking it was an inside joke, then he burst out laughing along with them when they explained about Shay and Tony’s teeth and tail analogy when it came to horses.
“You’re not wrong,” he said with a laugh, but sobered quickly. “Enough stalling, Shay, get with Scott, he knows what needs to be done. Faith, let’s go over the list of horses you’ll be racing.”
Shay walked away, and when he got to the barn, he introduced himself to Scott. It didn’t take Scott long to fill Shay in on what they had to do. He started by going over to the wall, and that’s where Shay saw a giant whiteboard made into columns. He studied it and nodded. “I see.”
