“Oooh, can we watch?”Hannah asks.“I really want to.”
“You should,” I say.“You learn the most by doing, but watching others also teaches you a ton.You’ll also see that even your trainer isn’t perfect.We’re all learning and improving our connections with the horses all the time.”
My phone buzzes, and after Clara goes around the little cross rails I set for the warm-up, I answer the call.
“Hey there.”It’s a man with a German accent.
“Hello.”I get all sorts of calls now that my number’s listed for the horseback riding company.
“I know this is a little last minute, but our other plans just fell through, and I saw that you offer Irish countryside rides.Any chance you could take my friend and me out for a ride?We ride pretty often back home.”His accent makes me think he’s just here on a quick holiday, or maybe for business.
“Sure,” I say.“What time did you have in mind?”
“Soon,” the man says.“The sooner the better.”
“I can help,” Clara says.“No school today.”
That’s the best thing about the weekend—the kids help out a lot.
I finish up the lesson with the three of them, getting Clara around the lines even better than I expected.She and Dara look beautiful together, just like I hoped they would.
By the time the two men arrive, Clara and I have not only gotten the other horses put away, but we have our four horses ready to go.“If I get good at this, could I run tours by myself sometimes?”Clara asks, her eyes wide and bright.
“Of course,” I say.“That’s the goal.”
Her smile makes my chest expand.“That’s so cool.”
“Didn’t you ride Liam already today?”Clara asks.“Can you ride them twice?”
“I just flatted him around in the new arena,” I say.“It wasn’t much of a ride, and for the babies, it’s really good for their brains to be ridden for two short rides, especially when one of them is just a trail ride.His brain needs to see and be around the most things we can expose him to.”
She nods slowly.“And I’m riding the new horse?Is she safe?”
I smile.“I’ve ridden Speckles several times.She’s great, but she gets a little nervous when her new best friend, Rudy, moves too far away.I figure you can work with her on that.”
Clara nods.
“And we’ll put our two surprise riders for this afternoon on Earl Grey and Rudy.”
The men arrive, clearly businessmen from Germany, and they sure look like they already know how to ride, checking their own girths and rubbing Rudy and Earl on their noses, chatting comfortably between themselves in German.I wish I’d paid more attention in high school, because then I might have some idea what they’re saying.
I do catch Richard’s name.
“Did you say Cavendish?”I ask.
They both freeze.The one who called me, a short man named Heinrich, turns.“Do you know him?”
“We’re friends.”I shrug.“He’s got one of my horses at his barn still.He had three, but I brought two of them back last week.I’ll grab the last one next week, now that our new stalls are all finished.”But now I’m even more curious.“How do you know him?”
“We came into town to meet with him,” the other man says.“We’re hoping he’ll use our shipping containers in the future.”
Weird.“Well, good luck.”The trail ride’s pretty uneventful, right up until we reach the River Blackwater.As we round the bend and the riverbank comes into view, so too does something else.
Or rather, someoneelse.
Richard’s on his mare, Cachacco, and he’s holding the reins to another horse, a bright and shiny chestnut gelding.“Fancy running into you out here.”
The German businessmen are smiling, and I realize I’ve been played.“Now, we did as you asked.”Heinrich grins.“You will look over our contracts?”
