I grabbed the reins of Buckjoy and the horse instantly started to buck with irritation. I could see how he had gotten his name. The horse didn’t scare me though; I saw the fear in his eyes and I knew I just had to step a few steps backward and away from him to get him to calm a little. As I moved toward the door of the barn, I saw the horse start to calm.
“He’s not used to having a woman around,” said a man from the other side of the barn.
“Ah, Garrett, this is my daughter, Sarah,” my Dad said as he motioned for Garrett to come join us.
Suddenly I remembered that I was supposed to have saved some food from breakfast for Garrett. But then again, he hadn’t shown up by the time I cleaned up, so he was out of luck. Any man who couldn’t be bothered to get up at breakfast time wasn’t going to last long around the ranch anyways.
The men that my father kept around on the ranch were hard workers. They weren’t the kind of men who let others do work for them while they sat and watched. Usually when a guy arrived on the ranch, he had already worked at several other places and knew what it was going to be like. They knew how to wake themselves up in the morning, and most of all, they knew that if you didn’t eat breakfast, it was going to make for a really exhausting day. Obviously, this Garrett guy had a few lessons he needed to learn still.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Garrett said as he reached his hand out to shake mine. “Do you mind?” He asked and then grabbed the reins from me, without waiting for me to answer.
“I guess not,” I muttered.
“Garrett has been working with the horses for the last couple of weeks. He’s new at it though, so he’ll need your guidance. But Buckjoy seems to like him. It’s a good sign, I think.”
It was true; I watched as Garrett gently moved his hand down the main of Buckjoy and the horse instantly calmed. I tried not to take it personally, but a little piece of me was pissed off that the horse favored this stranger. Well, he was a stranger to me at least and as I stood there watching Garrett and my father interact, I realized my father really did like the guy.
My father always tended to like the strangest ranch hands. Sometimes he would even favor guys who looked like they had just gotten off a bus directly from New York City without a single shred of experience on a ranch.
Once, I had confronted my father on his favoritism. There had been a man who came to us in the middle of the night and literally didn’t even know what a pair of cowboy boots were. He was an arrogant asshole and refused to work at all. My father let him stay with us in the house for a whole week before the man finally moved on. When I confronted him about it, my father had told me that everyone needed a helping hand at some point in their life. It baffled me and angered me, but mostly because I felt like there was much more to the story than he was letting on.
“You’re not experienced with horses?” I questioned. He certainly seemed to know what he was doing as he had Buckjoy practically purring like a kitten in front of him.
“Never even seen a horse until I got here a couple of weeks ago.”
“Beginner’s luck,” I said softly under my breath.
“Sarah, he’s a hard worker. Be nice to him and teach him what he needs to know about the horses, please.”
My father didn’t look impressed with my snarky attitude toward the stranger and I instantly changed it. I knew better than to make my father angry. There was one thing in the world that I always knew for a fact: my father knew a good man from a bad one. Over the years, my father had worked with thousands of men, and even a few women, at the ranch; he had always been able to tell the hard workers from the wannabes. Even when he said a man was a good man and let him stay for a week without working, I knew deep down that my father had to have some sort of reasoning for this.
“What have you learned so far?” I asked Garrett.
“Oh, pretty much just how to shovel shit,” he laughed.
Both my father and I laughed with him. It was true, the first few weeks a ranch hand was at our place, my father typically had them shoveling poop. It was a great way to test the character of a man. Some of the men would refuse out of pride or whatever else was going on and that just baffled me. Cleaning up after the animals was just as important as any other job on the ranch. The men who understood this did much better and lasted much longer on the ranch.
I get it, shoveling shit isn’t the most glamorous of jobs. But if horses walked around in their own shit all the time, they were more likely to get infections and become ill. That cost the ranch money, not to mention it was gross. Being a rancher wasn’t just about playing with piglets and selling cattle. It was about caring for the animals in every aspect.
“And sleeping in?” I joked.
“God, I don’t know how they do it. Everyone insists I’ll be able to adjust and get up when everyone else does, but apparently, I just haven’t learned yet. I think there’s some sort of trick to it that no one is telling me. But I’m up for a little hazing if that’s what’s going on.”
Garrett smiled and seemed very easy going. I couldn’t help but like him a little bit more than I had when he had taken Buckjoy from me. His bright, blue eyes were mesmerizing as he looked at me and I felt like a bit of a schoolgirl with a crush. Of course, I wasn’t about to admit that to anyone. I didn’t have time for men in my life. I needed to make some big career and life decisions and having a man around was just going to fuzzy up the process.
“I’m sorry, I forgot to save some breakfast for you this morning; I’ll remember for tomorrow.”
“You’re making breakfast tomorrow? Maybe that’s the motivation I need to get my ass up in the morning,” Garrett said as he winked at me.
“I’ll leave you two to work. See you at dinner, dear,” my father said with a quick peck to my cheek. “Garrett, remember that fox I killed last week that was running around the hen house?”
“Yes, sir,” Garrett laughed.
“I bet you can imagine what I’d do if there was a fox around my daughter,” my father laughed as he slapped Garrett on the back and walked away.
“Oh, Dad, don’t be so dramatic.”
Garrett was laughing, but I could tell he was leery about even being near me after what my father had said. He and my father seemed to get along well though and that was a huge plus for Garrett. My father didn’t take many people under his wing like he was doing with Garrett, so if he already liked the man, I knew he was just being a jokester about Garrett hanging around me.