“You’re such a beauty queen.” He rubbed the spot between her antlers. She preened for him, asking if he wanted more photos. “I think that’ll do for now. Faith is going to talk to Doc, and we’ll see what we can do to help you get your legs back.”
She lifted her right front leg and looked down.
“I know you can walk and run—but you were created to do more.”
She huffed and moved several steps away from him.
“Turning your back on who you are and what you were meant to be doesn’t change it.”
She sauntered awe’ll see about that.
Arguing with her was fruitless. “Come on—for now, we’re going to work on your gait.”
She lifted an eyebrow.
“Don’t believe it’s off? Here, look at the video.” He turned the camera her direction and showed her the video.
She shook her head.
“Sorry. Forgot you can’t see that. Well …” He stepped back and geared up to demonstrate. “It looks like this.” He ran, dragging his left leg a little behind the right—kind of a slow hop motion.
Snowflake snorted:I do not!
“Bet!” He dared her to show him different. Forest leaned up against a tree and waited.
She started trotting, her one leg falling behind. She gasped and stopped, giving the leg a dirty look. She rushed to him.Don’t just stand there. Fix it!
He chuckled and rubbed her forehead. He could have offered her a hundred fresh carrots and she wouldn’t have worked with him, but show her a flaw in herself and she’d beg for his help. Reindeer were proud animals—and as much as Snowflake wanted to ignore the fact that she could fly, she wasn’t going to wander around with a hitch in her gait.
She huffed and shook his hand off.I’m not your pet.
He schooled his features. Better to not let her know that he’d goaded her into this. Besides, training a reindeer was a lot of fun—and he’d missed it. He itched to get to work, to see what they could accomplish together.
He rubbed his glove over the sling. “We’ll start out easy—like when you were first learning. You’ll progress fast, but don’t get discouraged if you have a hard time, all right?”
She blinked a yes.
He dropped the pack he’d been carrying and began walking around the small clearing, stomping down the snow on the perimeter. “This is our training pen. I’m making the lines.”
She turned in a circle as he moved.
“Just like at home. You know the circle pen?”
She slightly lowered her nose.Yes.
“Right. Same idea here. The trees are a natural barrier. But I’m tromping out where the fence would be.”
She stomped her two front hooves in quick succession:Get on with it.
“Hold your antlers.” He was about ¾ of the way around. “We can’t work without a proper training ground.” This area was anything but a proper training ground. It wasn’t completely smooth, but the six inches of snow on top of ice would help even things out. When he got back to where he started, he pulled a lead rope out of the pack.
Snowflake lifted her chin so he could attach it to her harness.
“Let’s see some wide circles.”
What do you take me for, a calf?
“I told you we’re starting at the beginning.”
