The mare stopped at the threshold, peering out curiously. Her ears were forward, nostrils flaring as she took in the scents. Then she stepped out, and I once again led her a few steps to give Truce the chance to take his time.
I heard Theo murmuring to the horse in a deep, gentle voice that I hadn’t heard from the man before. Something about the tone warmed me from the inside. Maybe it was the utter kindness and patience, or the way it made me feel like whatever was wrong, somehow it would be fixed just because Theo spoke like that.
I blinked the thought from my head and concentrated on Hope, who was now looking back as if to saythere’s nothing to be scared of here, kid, come on.
Truce’s body was tense as he stepped forward, listening. Hope decided enough was enough and started to walk again.
I chuckled and let her move toward the middle of the yard. I listened to Theo, in case he called another stop, but he didn’t, so I led Hope to the arena’s double doors and marched her inside.
She perked up even more, clearly excited, and I let out another chuckle. Her brother was less enthusiastic, his gaze flicking everywhere as Theo made sure the door was closed behind them.
“Turn her this way and wait for my signal before you let her go. She’s gonna bounce,” Theo instructed in an amused tone.
“I gathered as much,” I commented dryly, as Hope practically vibrated with excitement.
We let the horses go, and poor Truce got startled by the way his sister exploded into action.
I backed myself against the wall and stood there with Theo, watching the duo do their thing.
Hope did the enthusiastic jumping and bucking and galloping and turning and farting which was pretty much expected.
“She’s surprisingly agile for a horse her size,” I said as we laughed at her antics.
“She is. I like that. Means she can do a lot of things if we train her right.”
“He’s starting to relax.” I tilted my head toward Truce, who was sniffing every square inch of the arena.
The gelding got to the back where the window to the little office was and froze.
“Oh boy,” Theo whispered.
Letting out a squeaky neigh, Truce turned on his back end and bolted across the arena, almost colliding with Hope, who was standing still, staring at him as if he’d lost his mind.
My jaw dropped when I realized what was happening. “He’s playing.”
“Yup. He chose to act like he got scared instead ofbeingscared.” Theo smiled as the horses began to play together, nipping at each other, trying to put their necks over their sibling and then snorting and nickering before moving away. “It was definitely the right call to bring them here.”
“Once he gets used to this place, you can train him here?” I asked as I watched the large horses, who were acting like puppies.
“That’s the plan. I can train her in the round pen outside, although it’s probably a little small for her, but we’ll see.”
“I’ll let River know he can open the gate.” I dug out my phone and sent the message.
“I’m going to grab a bale of hay from the back.” Theo started toward the office windows.
I wondered if the window was there for competitions, maybe? I’d seen judges at the end of riding arenas before on TV. Was this that sort of thing? Whatever the reason, there was a large window and a door next to it on one side. Soon enough, Theo came out, carrying a small hay bale. He pushed the door closed again.
“I stashed this there for whenever we might need it.” He smiled, as if embarrassed. “Ruth hated when I did that, said it looked sloppy if someone went to get something from the room.”
“What’s in there? I mean the actual office is in the separate building and yours is in the stable.”
Theo pulled the strings off the bale and held out half of it. “Let’s put the flakes down separately. Make them work a bit at least, even if they’ll make a mess.”
“Sure.” I grabbed the hay and walked across the arena to separate it into flakes. “Leave it clumped?”
“Yeah, more work again.” Theo remembered my question. “Oh, mostly stuff we don’t need these days. Random things. But every now and then someone needs something from there anyways.”
“Have you hosted any competitions?” I asked as I held out some hay for Truce, who looked suspicious but interested.
