Seeing her like this, moving under the saddle like a dream despite her too-round body shape that was nothing like any show horse I’d ever seen, was mind-blowing.
The man in the saddle, completely absorbed in his task as he was…well. Enough about that.
I jogged to his cabin, curious to see the inside. Bucky, who had been sprawled in a shadowy spot by some bushes while keeping an eye on his daddy happily followed me to his home.
The inside of Theo’s space was neat, small, and intensely homey. There were a lot of books on the shelves and when I went to put the ice cream away, I saw a few essentials in his fridge, and in the freezer, there was an identical pint of Ben & Jerry’s, only when I felt it, it was almost empty. I smiled at the thought of Theo saving a little bit of ice cream for a rainy day.
I piled the ramen on the counter and wondered what he’d think. I was one of those people who loved giving things to people I cared about, and now it was obvious I already counted Theo in that circle.
We’d gotten flowers for Sierra, and River would take them to the office for her along with a bag of her favorite candy.
Patting Bucky, I headed back to the arena.
I ended up helping Theo with the jumps, and ignored River’s knowing gaze when he saw me beam at being able to feel helpful. This was…different. I felt different here.
In New York, I’d felt like I was supposed to do all these things, go to a job I kinda liked but didn’t love, and just survive on so many levels.
The main satisfaction had been finding the perfect book for the customer who was looking for something special either for themselves or a gift for someone else. Any time someone came back beaming with satisfaction and praised my book recommendation skills…yeah, it made the boring stuff worth it. It made the annoying coworkers and nagging boss worth it.
Here, raising the poles after a couple of jumps to challenge Ursula gradually made me feel like I was doing something meaningful.
Of course, there were things like the funding and the email I’d found in my inbox this morning that made me a bit worried, but I could handle it.
I built a second jump for Theo and Ursula, and then went to lean on the inside of the fence next to where River was on the outside.
“Is that horse really psyched about this or am I reading it wrong?” River asked with clear amusement.
“She absolutely loves it,” I confirmed. “She doesn’t want to be touched, but when Theo gets the saddle on her, she’s a totally different horse.”
“She’s plain…like a normal everyday horse. Unlike those two gigantic ones that are very pretty,” River mused.
I smiled a little. For a non-horsey person his thoughts were always nice to hear.
Theo guided Ursula into a large circle and let her canter a couple of rounds before attempting the two jumps one after the other.
“If I’m right, she should have space for one step between them,” Theo called out, and we watched as they sailed over the first one. A heartbeat and a step later, she jumped the other one, then bucked with happiness, making Theo laugh.
“She’s loving it!” I called out.
Theo collected the reins and made her do something else that looked like dressage maybe, then they repeated the jump in the other direction.
It all appeared effortless and fun, and part of me wondered what it would feel like to fly over a jump on a horse like that.
After one more double jump, Theo patted Ursula and let the reins go slack.
“I think we’re done for the day. She doesn’t get to jump often so she might get sore if we overdo it,” he explained as they walked past us.
“What time do you want to move the twins?” I asked him when they came by the next time.
River had gone back inside, saying something about dinner prep.
“Once I’m done with cooling down and taking care of Ursula.” Theo glanced at me as he reached down to loosen the girth.
“Sounds good.”
* * * *
After we’d taken the twins into the stable—without incident, luckily—and I’d told Theo I’d help him to move the other horses inside later, I went into Ruth’s office to stare at that email a bit more.
