Sunrise Canyon (New Americana 1)

Kira forked hay into the outdoor feeders and filled the big steel trough with fresh water from the hose. Then she opened the stalls and turned the horses out of the barn, into the paddock. Soon the students would be coming outside to clean the stable. After that, Dusty would be introducing them to the horses.

Dusty knew more about horses than anyone Kira had ever met. It would be his vital job to teach the students about horse handling, just as it was hers to deal with their personal issues and the therapy sessions. As a team, they worked well together. Neither of them could imagine doing the program alone.

As the students headed to their cabins for a quick after-breakfast break, Dusty came out onto the front porch. Brushing the hay dust off her jeans, Kira joined him.

“Did you ever find Jake?” she asked. “I didn’t see him come back.”

“I caught him in the kitchen while you were at breakfast. He’ll be cleaning out that old shed behind the cabins, sorting things and separating out the junk. Somewhere in there, I remember a big batch of cedar shingles. After he digs them out, I’ll put him to patching the barn roof and maybe oiling it, too. That should keep him busy for a while.”

“You may want to keep an eye on him.” Kira told Dusty what had happened on the trail when Jake had been startled by the blasting. “He practically tackled me. And he didn’t let me up until I explained what was going on. Oh, and he’s not much for horses, either. He says he doesn’t even like them.”

“That’s what he told me. I’ll keep it in mind. Did you talk about Wendy, or about Paige?”

“No, I thought it best to steer clear of emotional subjects. I suppose that’ll come in time, but I don’t think he’s ready. Frankly, neither am I.”

“That’s fine. It’ll happen when it happens.” He glanced toward the guest cabins. “Right now, here come your students. Time to get to work.”

Kira’s charges finished cleaning the stable, shortening yesterday’s time by almost a third. There was some complaining, but it was mostly hushed by other students who just wanted to get the job done. All to the good. They were already learning to work together, but they had a long way to go.

Once Kira had collected the gloves and shovels, Dusty took over. After lining the students up along the paddock fence and inviting them to sit or stand, he began his basic horse lecture.

“Today you’ll get to walk into the paddock, choose any horse and make contact with it. But before you walk up to a horse, there are a few things you need to understand.

“First of all, horses can be dangerous. You approach an animal that weighs ten times as much as you do, an animal with hooves that can kick and teeth that can bite, you’d better know what you’re doing. And that’s why you’ll be given helmets to wear whenever you work with them, even when you’re not riding. Understand?”

The students nodded in wide-eyed silence.

“Second, when you’re around a horse, there’s one thing to remember. What that big animal wants most is to be safe. For the few million years horses have been around, they’ve been food for predators. That fear of being killed and eaten is hardwired into every last one of them, from a Derby winner to a Shetland pony. If anything scares them—a noise, a moving shadow, a person making the wrong move—the horse won’t take time to figure it out. He’ll take off running, or if he can’t run, he’ll fight. Keep that in mind. Your number one concern will be to make sure your horse feels safe.”

A faint smile tugged at Kira’s lips as she observed her students. Dusty was a master showman. He had those kids in the palm of his hand.

“There’s one other thing a horse wants. He wants to get along. He wants to know who’s in charge and to do what it takes to fit in and be comfortable. In that way, he’s not so different from you. Once he knows you’re his boss and understands what you want him to do, the natural thing will be for him just to do it. But we’ll talk more about that later.”

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sp; As Kira stood by, watching and listening, she could hear the faint thumping and rustling of things being moved in the storage shed behind the cabins. Jake was hard at work and staying out of the way, which was fine. She knew he wanted to work off his debt to Dusty and leave. But what if it was Dusty’s plan to keep him on as part of the ranch family?

And what about Paige? As her father, Jake would have custody of the little girl. If he wanted to take her, Kira would have no legal recourse except to let him—unless she could prove he was an unfit parent.

If it came to a battle, things could get ugly. But whatever happened, Kira vowed, she wouldn’t stand for Paige being torn from her loving, secure home to share her father’s rootless lifestyle and endure his bouts of PTSD. She would fight Jake with everything she had.

“Kira?” Her grandfather’s voice pulled her back to the present. This, she realized, was the point in his lecture where she would walk into the paddock and demonstrate how to approach a horse safely.

“Yes . . . ready.” She walked to the paddock gate, opened it carefully and, after stepping through, closed it behind her.

“That’s the first thing to remember,” Dusty said. “You close the gate. You don’t want to let the horses out. The second thing is to be aware of all the horses, not just the one you’re after. You don’t want to startle them. Make sure they all know you’re there.”

Kira demonstrated by whistling, then speaking softly. The seven horses raised their heads and pricked their ears. “Read their body language,” Dusty said. “Look at the ears. They’re friendly and curious. If a horse has its ears laid back, that means it’s upset, and you should keep your distance. But these animals are all fine.”

Kira chose a buckskin gelding named Buddy, who was standing a little apart from the others. Speaking softly, she walked toward it. “Remember what I told you,” Dusty said. “Always approach a horse from the left side, never from straight on in front, and never, ever from the back unless you want to get kicked. Horses have good eyesight, but they can’t see straight in front of their noses or behind their rear ends. You’ll always want your horse to know where you are.”

“Why not the right side?” one of the boys asked.

“They’re not used to that. Horses are trained to be handled and mounted from the left.”

“Unless they’re Indian horses.” The speaker was a small, bespectacled boy named Calvin. “Indians mounted their horses from the right.”

“That’s true,” Dusty said. “But it was a long time ago. These days, I’m betting even Native Americans mount from the left.”