Lake looked thoughtful. “Well, I’ll give you one of the brochures so you can read that, but in general I guess it’s from different kinds of abuse situations. Those situations aren’t always obviously abuse though, not in the way many people might think.”
I frowned. “When I think of that word, I think about a horse that’s not being fed and is being hit a lot.”
“It can be that, sure. It can also be overfeeding and under exercising an animal. It can be yelling and general neglect, not socializing an animal.”
All of that sounded really bad to me. Then I remembered they’d been on a rescue mission the day before I got here. “What were the animals you got recently?”
Lake smiled, clearly happy to talk about it. He began to explain about the animals, starting from the kittens that Rey had talked about, then moving onto a donkey and a pony mare. Towards the end of our lunch, he explained about the last one. A gelding that wasn’t malnourished like the donkey and the mare.
“So, while Izzy is otherwise in perfect health, he hasn’t been socialized. He’s been left on his own, was an intact stallion that wasn’t handled enough before coming to Jules’s rescue, and that has made him dangerous in the wrong hands.”
“Huh…”
I was beginning to realize that even in the rescue world, things had many facets.
* * * *
We went back to the office to work, and around one thirty, there was another knock.
“Yeah?” Lake asked.
Theo peered in. “Hey, do you have time to help me out with Izzy? I want to try something and need extra hands.”
Lake raised a brow at me.
“Oh, absolutely, I know that stuff is more important, and we’ve made good progress here.” I turned to Theo. “Do you mind if I come watch?”
Theo smiled. “Not at all, no.”
We wrapped up for the day and Theo went back out. When Lake and I moved to the door, he pulled on these heavy looking boots while I thought my sneakers were fine.
Lake noticed me paying attention to his footwear.
“It’s so that when the inevitable happens and a horse steps on my foot, it won’t hurt as much. They can be heavy, and if they’re shod, then it’s even worse for delicate humans.” His casual tone made me feel a bit disturbed. Being stepped on by something that weighed that much was probably horribly painful and could cause injuries. I didn’t like the idea.
When we rounded the corner of the office, Theo stood there chatting with who he introduced as the office manager, Sierra.
She was really nice, and I chatted with her for a bit, but then realized I wanted to see what Lake and Theo would do with the horses.
I followed them to one of the paddocks where I saw Izzy, the temperamental newcomer with another, smaller horse.
“What’s the other one’s name?” I asked, walking closer.
“She’s Ursula; she’s the queen bitch.” Lake looked at the mare in a way that told me he was fond of her despite her character. “Horrible to handle, but she loves jumping and basically anything Theo asks her to do.”
“Just need to get her saddled first,” Theo murmured, somehow managing to walk the big gelding to the gate while the mare snapped her teeth, trying to get his arms.
I watched as Lake opened the gate for Theo and Izzy. The mare lunged at Theo because, it seemed, she felt like doing it, before turning around and walking away. Horses wereweird.
“Most of our horses are better around humans than she is,” Lake reminded me, which was comforting.
We walked behind Theo and Izzy. The big horse was doing something that looked like prancing or hell, dancing around the foreman. Then, after only a moment, Izzy seemed to calm down a bit.
“Do you see what Theo did? Or rather didn’t do?” Lake asked me.
I thought hard about what I’d just seen. Whathadn’tTheo done? “Uh…he didn’t like…scold it?”
“Exactly. And Izzy is a gelding, a boy. The important thing with horses is how you react to them. On the most basic level, they’re prey animals. That’s why they can be so easily spooked. If you want to learn more about them, you should chat with Rey. He’s currently stuffing his brain with anything horses.”
