December 3, 2023
Chilao, Angeles National Forest Just before dawn, the weather shifted. Warm air replaced the cold, invisibly, silently. The dark mare stood in the clearing, listening, smelling, sensing, feeling. There were other horses, somewhere. She wasn't sure exactly where. Her filly was hungry, and not yet weaned. It seemed safe enough. She let the filly suckle. A few hours later, Skye struggled with the side door of the horse trailer, and finally won. The mare inside was beautiful. And big. She took up the entire space. The mare came out of the trailer smooth and easy, swishing her tail out of the way of her hooves, her attention focused on the other passenger in the trailer. The other passenger took a little gentle coaxing to get the idea of backing out, but soon enough she did. Grace and Skye took a moment to study them. They were beautiful Vanners, the mare a bay tobiano, the foal a delightful palomino pinto pattern. A sudden wind storm caught the girls off guard, bringing them out of their reverie with the new mare and foal and promptly into a moment of decision. The wind was deliciously warm, yes, but gusting, wild and unpredictable. "Let's take then to the arena" Grace said. "This place is wild, isn't it?" Skye replied. "One minute it's calm and dreamy, the next you're running for cover...I love it here." Grace laughed. "It's a good thing, because otherwise you'd hate it here." "Right?" In the indoor arena they were joined by Lousin, Anahit and the boss, along with Tosh and Contessa. Grace did a quick double-take when she saw Skye riding the new mare. Where did she even find a place to launch herself up on that substantial mare? Skye was excited to see Anahit and Lousin. "Are you coming to the Christmas party?" Skye asked. "When is it?" Anahit responded. "December 17." "We'd love to. Will it be like last year?" Skye looked to the boss. The boss nodded. "Yes, pretty much just like last year. Just maybe with more dogs and horses!" As quickly as the wind storm came, it went, an audible voice moving through the pines, away, away into another canyon, another place, and the girls brought the lovely mare and foal back outside to enjoy the sunshine. December 10 Autumn's end came, dry and windblown. The air was calm in the early hours, but about the time Grace and Skye departed for a Sunday morning ride, the wind returned. They hugged the rock outcropping's sheltered side, the way the wild horses often did, but the wind found them there too. So they headed back. The wind advisory would end at noon. Perhaps later on conditions would improve. "What horses are you going to bring down for the Christmas party?" Skye asked. "I don't know yet" Grace mused. "Me neither" Skye responded. It was time to get ready for the Christmas party. They fought their way across the arena in the big red Pavement Queen. It seemed like all that tread and all those tires should have fared better in the sand. Just aobut two thirds of the way across, they lost the battle with the sand. "Well, we almost made it." Skye said. "I'll get a shovel." "Let's just unload here" Grace said. "It's not too far. We ought to be able to sort of shimmy the tree into position." Grace lifted the tree so that Skye could get the table out. "Am I stuck on the tailgate?" Skye asked. "Nope, left me lift the tree a little higher." Grace lifted. Skye tugged. And then everything moved quite suddenly. Both girls ended up in the sand. "Are you okay?" Grace asked. "I'm okay. Are you okay?" "I'm okay. Dang it. Now we've got a tree and a truck stuck." "What would happen if you just drove forward real fast?" Grace laughed. "We'll try that next if a little more shoving doesn't work." Skye keyed into the bosses voice when they went back outside. "In Arizona, where they come from, these trees are medicine to indigenous people" Skye heard the boss explaining to someone whom she did not recognize. "Here, they aren't that great. They swell with water in the winter months. If there is a good freeze, they can explode. They grow top-heavy, and not sorted out in a way that the wind can blow through them. So in heavy winds they snap. We were without power for sixteen months when one of them took out a power pole a few years back." Skye looked at Grace, questioning. Grace nodded. The boss went on. "They are prolific seeders too, as evidenced by all these young saplings everywhere. But probably the biggest thing is, they burn readily, and they burn hot. And once they ignite, all the trees around then ignite. And yet, they are medicine." The girls moved along. "Are those trees going to get taken out?" Skye asked quietly. "I think so. I mean, I don't know when or how but I know the boss is hoping to get them gone." Skye frowned. "I know" Grace said. 'It's complicated." Bringing in the calves was a bit less complicated. When they chose to cooperate. Grace noted a bobcat track, made during the last rain, several weeks ago now. Skye watched Grace and La Barilla. He was no cow pony. Not yet anyway. But he did seem to be getting the idea that the calves would yield to him, and that this was desirable. The calves would be an easy mark for a mountain lion, or even a bear, so they had to be brought in before dark. After a rather chaotic gathering together, the calves acquiesced, and headed back to the ranch in an orderly fashion. "Look at that!" Skye laughed. "Like we know what we're doing!" Coyote sounded off as they departed. Skye spun Ladyhawk around, searching the landscape, following the calls. Coyote stayed just out of sight, vocalizing from behind the dense chaparral cover, close, but invisible. She so wanted to catch a glimpse of the coyote. But it was not to be. December 11 The following dayt was time to get the arena back in order. "This sand is so deep" Grace said. "Maybe too deep." "I think so too!" Skye said. "Until I fall. Then I'm like 'oh thank goodness this sand is so deep.'" "True that" Grace replied. With a small rake and a shovel, they evened the sand and tried to ameliorate the deep tracks that the tires had made. "This is going to take forever" Grace said. "I have an idea." Skye replied. "Let's get some help. Let's turn out some horses." "Great idea." Skye brought out her beloved horses. And the new donkey, that the boss named "Honkey." "So you know there's just one problem with this idea" Grace said. "What?" "We should maybe have chosen more active horses. This is still going to take all day." December 17. The day of the Christmas party had arrived, and it was a beautiful day. Skye loved the red dawn effect, and the alpine glow at sunset. Everything was ready. The boss was putting the finishing touches on the food and people were already showing up, well before 11 AM. And horse people too! But no trailers full of horses. It had been a whole year since Redbird Ranch had hosted a gathering, and everyone - even the boss - seemed perfectly content to see old friends, socialize and eat. Once again, the girls had the arena to themselves. Anahit and Lousin wandered through the art garden. A last-moment idea, Skye chose to arrange art pieces by Katy NIles along the wall by the wash rack, donated to the ranch by Shandi Bech, including her deer statuary in the mix of painting s by Katy Niles. Anahit and Lousin found their way to the tack room. Anahit was surprised to see english saddles. "We'll have to tell mom" she said to her sister. "I did not expect to see anything english here." Grace chose to ride La Barilla, and Skye, her odd favorite, Ladyhawk. Grace showed off La Barilla's side pass, which he did quite smoothly from left to right. Skye chatted with the neighbor girls. Tomorrow, she told them, when the party was over and the ranch was quiet again, would be a great day to go for a ride. Anahit and Lousin were quite agreeable to the idea. December 18 Grace glanced at the laptop as she prepared to wake Skye. There was a message from the boss. It was unusually long. "So I bought Skye a horse. Well two horses really. Maybe three. I'm not sure about the third one. Actually i'm not sure about any of them. I bought one of them and then changed my mind and asked for my money back and then I ended up buying her back the next day. Anyway, it's a surprise. But before she sees them I want you to look them all over. However many there ends up being, two or three." Grace wanted to reply, and share her experience with Skye being rather humble about gifts, and being exceptionally selfless and without a lot of material needs. But then she stopped. These weren't possessions such as saddles. These were horses. What young girl alive would say no to a horse. Grace closed the laptop. It looked like the four leggeds were going to get Skye out of bed for her. The skies were beautiful, with a mass of real clouds building, moving in from the southeast. Grace let Skye choose the horses they would ride. Skye offered six choices. "I know the grey gelding is super well trained and pretty much bomb-proof, but he's also an active, high energy horse" Grace said. "I'd scratch that one. And I'd scratch The Black just because of the weather. Her arthritis is probably acting up today. She does need walking, but maybe on softer ground." The next four were all suitable candidates. Grace choose the old mustang mare and Blondie. "I feel like Precious and Spot are so tuned in to you, and occasionally me, that it might be weird for them to have other riders. I mean, I'm sure they'd do fine, but..." Finding a bridle for the Belgian mare proved impossible. Skye found a halter and quickly made reins from a piece of rope. Grace and Skye watched. Anahit and Lousin seemed relaxed enough. "She's enormous!" Lousin called to her earthbound friends. "I'm not sure how to sit on her! She's like a chair!" Outside, there were still a few visible patches of blue in the sky. The girls ventured out, into the stillness. It was quiet. The wind was still. They would just take a very short ride. At the walk. Grace noticed hoof prints. Lots of them. Mingled among the cloven tracks of a dozen bull calves, she thought she saw the delicate hoof prints of a foal. Anahit and Lousin and their mounts seemed content, unruffled. Skye noticed Grace looking at the ground. Skye looked at the ground also. Grace must've seen something. But what. Ladyhawk was busy looking up. A deep, dark layer of clouds moved toward them from the southeast. Baron and Hobo turned toward home. The girls collectively followed. It was perfectly still. And then the soft sound. The rain began. Grace brought La Barilla back to his stall and the other girls brought their horses to the indoor arena. Showers stopped and started, whispers of rain falling for a few moments, followed by silence and stillness. Back inside, the girls were wet, all of them, but not much worse for the wear. "Well, we got to ride in the rain!" Skye said enthusiastically. "Was that La Barilla's first ride in the rain Grace?" She had to think about it. "Maybe it was. We've certainly gotten wet before, but I don't recall rain." Lousin looked a bit chilled. "I'll take you home in the truck" Grace offered. "Skye, I'll help you with the horses in the arena when I get back." "Can we have just a moment?" Anahit asked, her eyes wandering from one piece of artwork to the next. "I just...need a moment to take all of this in." December 24 The day of Christmas Eve "Are you going to come open this box Skye?" "Does it say it's for me?" "How did it get here?" Skye asked, tugging on the bow. "I'm going to guess the boss snuck in and dropped this off, right?" The lid fairly popped off the box. It was quite full. Grace looked at the items inside. "Yup, I think this box is for you Skye." There was a generous amount of clothing pouring out of that box. Grace wondered what had happened with the horses the boss was talking about bringing home for Skye...if they were coming, if they were coming in time for Christmas. There were pajama pants. A hoodie. "And look! Skye bubbled. "Tops!" Skye pulled the pink hoodie on. It was soft and fit her well. A warm and lovely Christmas gift, indeed. #
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November 4, 2023
Alpine glow painted the landscape brilliant. The girls took notice as they made their way as fast as they could toward Mustang Rock. The dispatch radio from the fire station blared an excited jumble of voices and siren sounds. Something was happening in area 39 , but that was all they could make out. Even with the din of the radio, they could hear the horses. Owadan was alive, well, and causing trouble with the one stallion who wasn't going to take any...Crazy. "He looks great!" Skye said. "Now what?" The girls looked on as the horses moved about. The mare they called Lady Godiva moved the foals away from the two stallions. Owadan circled relentlessly. But not challenging Crazy. At least, he didn't appear to be challenging. It was more as if he wanted to join the herd, not dominate it. Crazy had no interest in adding a big stallion to his harem. This wasn't the kind of challenger he was accustomed to. "How are we going to catch him?" Skye asked. "I have no idea" Grace said. "And it's not like I brought a halter." The last rays of light slipped away. Crazy and his band began to move toward the forest, with Owadan never far away. The horses slipped out of sight, and dusk enveloped the land. At least Owadan was alive, in one piece, and close by. All of that was a huge relief. Now, how to get him back. November 5 Dawn came clear and lovely. The girls were mounted up and on the lookout for Owadan. Skye's mare, Ladyhawk, was particularly antsy and headstrong. "Is it just me or is she really full of herself today?" Grace asked. "She is!" Skye said. "Maybe she's coming into season." "Maybe that will work to our advantage" Grace mused. First light over the Angeles. The girls watched, waited, listened, but dawn came silent. They rode through the country to the west of the ranch, into the chaparral. Nothing but birds stirred. They went up into the rocks, taking the trails the wild horses often used. They scoured the landscape. Skye thought perhaps Ladyhawk saw or smelled something...and perhaps she did. But it was not horses, wild or domestic. The morning was silent. Not even the slinking shadow of a coyote or the taunting of the ravens. Having failed to find Owadan, the girls came back to the ranch, to tend to their domestic horses. The boss had turned out the newest addition in the indoor arena. Grace and Skye watched the big silver buckskin mare move gracefully, if a little uncertain, across the arena. "What do you think she is?" Grace asked Skye. "A designer sport horse." "Right, but like, what and what?" "Oldenburg and...something dilute." Grace laughed. "That's not a bad guess." After a few moments, the boss returned to the arena. "She's pretty huh?" the boss said, more of a statement than a question. "She is indeed" Grace replied. "Apparently she was in training to be a jumper" the boss continued, "but she was in an accident...inside of a trailer, like a car accident...and she never got over her fear of trailers after that." "How did she get here?" Skye asked. "In a trailer, but heavily sedated, and hooded, and with a sling under her belly to keep her from falling down from the sedation. She might still be a little groggy." "So she's a rescue" Skye replied. Grace tried not to smile. The boss tried not to smile. She paused for a bit before answering. "No, she's not, but then again, yes she is. She wasn't any use to her owners if they couldn't take her to shows. And anyone who bought her was going to have the same problem. So in that sense yes, she's a rescue. If we sell her we'll have to make sure she goes to someone who understands her history and is willing to work with it." Back at home, Skye came up with a plan. "I have an idea for catching Owadan" Skye said. "A Judas horse." "Like the way they get wild horses to run into the catch pen?" Grace asked. "Yes, like that. All we have to do is train a horse to run back to the ranch." "And that's what most of them would do even without training" Grace mused. "Head back to what's familiar. Who would you choose?" Skye thought about it for a moment. "Not Ladyhawk." Grace laughed. "The only problem with the plan is that we don't have a pen...a catch pen, a fence to funnel him in with...he might just run in one end of the property and out the other. He hasn't really been here long enough to be bonded to the surroundings, I don't think." Meanwhile, not too far from the ranch, there was more squealing and dust-throwing. Owadan had found the bachelor band...or perhaps they'd found him...but he was not meeting with unanimous acceptance. The horse Grace and Skye called The Newcomer was accepting of Owadan. Rain Man was not necessarily opposed to his presence. But Storm was up in arms. Owadan's instinct to be part of a herd, and not alone, was strong. Skye continued her thoughts about catching Owadan. "You know, the other thing we could do..." Skye's voice trailed off. "I'm listening..." "We could run a whole herd of horses. They always head home. Even the one time when we lost Charmer and you had to go chasing after him, he made a big circle and headed back home." Grace considered the plan. "That might work" she finally said. "But. We have to time it right. I mean, the wild horses have to be close. It seems like they all more or less travel together, you know? So it's feast or famine. Either all four bands are close by, or none of them are. So we'd have to just be ready. We'd have to have a plan in place. What horses are we taking. Which ones are we riding. It's not a bad idea. It might just work." November 12 The wind had been blowing for days. And then, just after sunrise on Sunday morning, it stopped. Abruptly. The ranch horses alerted the girls to the presence of other equines. They were fervently hoping to see Owadan returning home. It was Petrichor and his band. It was the first time the girls had seen the mare Skye called Thorn in full daylight. She had seen the girls too, and was leery. The bay mare had grown accustomed to Grace and Skye, and kept her distance, but without fear. Grace could see the nicks on Petrichor's shoulder from his fight, and fall, with Highlander. They were minimal, and healed, white hairs growing in the place of the former golden ones. Petrichor kept his distance also. "Are you going to call him in?" Skye whispered. "No" Grace responded. "He's got his hands full. And I wonder where Highlander's band is." "Right?" "Just when we think we understand something about how these horses operate, they throw us for a loop." "Maybe" Skye paused. "Maybe the presence of the new mares and that fight they had sort of changed the dynamic." "Maybe. But wasn't it pretty much business as usual after the fight? Didn't both bands move off in more or less the same direction?" "They did!" Grace shook her her head. "I don't know. But we should get our act together. In case we get a chance to go after Owadan." And so they began choosing horses. Charmer, the bay gelding built for speed. The lovely golden Lusitano mare from Shandi Bech. Blondie, the Belgian, whose calm, stabilizing influence might come in handy. The seasonal streams and tributaries near the ranch had been dry for weeks, but in the low lying regions, the grass was still lush and green. Owadan, pushed away from Crazy's band and the bachelor herd, shadowed the movements of the wild bands from a distance, and for the afternoon, had the lush grazing of the lowlands to himself. But to find water, he would have to travel. He knew the way. He had followed the other horses to their watering spots for days now. November 13 The wind returned in the night, and Monday dawned blustery. And there was no sign of Owadan or wild bands. The girls set out just the same. Weather was coming, perhaps as soon as Wednesday. They had to try to find that big red stallion. Blondie started out a little slow, or perhaps she just preferred to take her own pace. The girls took the horses down to where they knew there was water, in Chilao Creek. Charmer was energetic, and needed to be redirected regularly. They were taking a slightly different route than they had in past trips, and it was new to him. They saw no signs of other horses at the water. It was calm and cool in the creek bed. The trees all around swayed in the strengthening wind. But there were no other horses, and it didn't look like there had been any in the last few days. There was coyote scat, human and domestic dog tracks. Bicycle tracks. The big, heavy boots of hunters who did not need boots, because they were hunting from the road, from their trucks, inside of the campground, taking deer where it is wasn't legal, and where it required no effort or skill. It would still be hunting season for another week or so. Perhaps that's why the horses hadn't come here. The girls and their herd of horses turned and headed back to the ranch. Grace, Charmer and Dani Girl were getting quite the lead on the rest of the horses. Meanwhile, Skye couldn't resist the water, even if just for a moment. Homeward bound now, it was going to be a challenge to keep Charmer moving at a pace the other horses could match. And a delicate balance of not encouraging him to go faster by trying to pace him. Sunlight began to filter into the creek bed. It was definitely autumn. The wind's strength increased as they made their way home. With the same number of horses they departed with. It was a great ride, but the mission was unaccomplished. Somewhere out there, the big red stallion named Owadan was still on the loose. November 18 Clouds billowed across the sky. Grace ran down the rock face as fast as she dared, heading back to the ranch. Skye stayed and kept watch. Then, Grace stopped short in her tracks. She was not expecting company. Anahit and Lousin were similarly startled by Grace. "Are you okay?" Anahit asked. "Skye is up on the rocks. There's a loose stallion. We're trying to catch him." Owadan was alone, and moving, indirectly, toward the ranch. Anahit, Lousin and Skye watched him. He seemed indecisive. Skye wanted to try calling him, but she had no idea if he would come to her, or run away. Then, something got his attention. The girls heard it also. They scrambled down the rock face. Skye slid down the last part, a smooth bit of granite. Charmer came thundering toward them. The girls watched the two red horses circle each other, energetically and warily. Charmer quickly ascertained that Owadan was a stallion. Owadan gauged the demeanor of the approaching gelding. There was tension. This wasn't how Grace and Skye had imagined it. Turning a gelding loose to bring in a stallion had a lot of ways to go really wrong. But one thing did go right. They began galloping together, not side by side exactly, but together. Their ears were forward. They were tense, but their instincts to be in a herd as opposed to alone was strong. Now if Charmer would just turn for home. Anahit, Skye and Lousin fanned out, hoping to turn the horses in the right direction. "Ana" Lousin yelled out to her sister, "Do your call!" Anahit paused for a moment. "Do it!" Lousin urged. Anahit made a sound. It was shrill, like a whistle and a whinny wrapped into one. It was a bit like a mare's anxious call. It had four sharp, excited notes. Owadan took notice. She did the call again. He turned in toward Charmer, toward the ranch, sweeping the gelding along with him. The horses turned toward Anahit, but they were looking past her, looking toward the ranch, looking for the source of the sound to be coming from another horse. With ample space between them, they ran, past Anahit, toward the sound and smell of the horses in the stable. Grace came running up the ridge, following Charmer's path, just in time to see Owadan and Charmer running back to the ranch, with the girls falling in behind them. She turned around and made her way back, listening to the sounds of horses and the girls and the boss. It was finally over. Owadan was back. She dropped her pace down to a brisk walk. She was relieved, and all at once, exhausted. November 26 The wind was relentless. Skye busied herself in the tack room as the afternoon wore on. "Bored out of your mind aren't you?" "Gahh! How'd you sneak up on me like that?!" "You were very focused." "I'm putting lemon oil on the saddle stands. But I can't even tell if it's helping." "It is. I can see which one you've finished. It'll darken up, it just takes time. You'll see. Why don't you save this project for later and give me a hand turning out some horses." Cloud Nine was first. He was an older stallion, a tall Anglo-Barb, but still beautiful. Luna was next. She was a fun mare with a playful streak about her. Skye tried to keep up with her big trot. "The sand is so deep!" Skye called out. "And her legs are so long!" Luna also enjoyed the company of other horses. That would make life easier for everyone. The most recent arrival, whom Skye dubbed the designer sport horse, was settling in. Mateo, the Lippizan cross, was fabulous, but apparently he'd been lost in the sea of currently popular Spanish revival horses - the Spanish riding horse and the historic Lippizan...perhaps they weren't doing a good job presenting him, or perhaps, as the boss suspected, it was a combination of factors, no doubt including his Kladruber blood. The traditional cross to recreate the historic Lippizan was appaloosa (or Knabstrupper) and Lippizan. The boss still loved him, regardless. The sooty buckskin chap was on the block. Apparently he had a bit of a stubborn streak, and would be staying only long enough to find suitable accommodations somewhere else. The boss came in with Tosh and Contessa, but paused as she saw that Grace was getting La Barilla going on the lunge line. "Come on in" Grace said. "He doesn't mind dogs." "Well, I guess it's a good thing" the boss responded. "I've called and called the number. Francis Loop Caldwell's number. It just rings. I should get a grasp of the obvious. No one is looking for these dogs." "When did you find them?" Skye asked. "In June" the boss replied. "In a few weeks it'll be six months that we've had them. If someone was looking for their dogs, we would have found each other by now." "What are you going to do with them?" Skye asked. "They stay" the boss said, then laughed. "I guess you were right all along Skye. We're heading down the rescue wormhole." La Barilla was a little full of himself, a little prancey and showy and high in the front. It had been a while since Grace had worked him nearly every day. He would come around again. # October 7, 2023
First light. Immediately the air began to warm. The big baroque stallion seemed focused on something. He reared up, intent, fixated on a point in the distance. Grace thought she felt her heart stop beating. "Holy cow. Don't jump the fence." He came back down to all fours, but his attention was forever divided between the space he was in, and the wilderness beyond. The girls looked and looked, but saw no movement, nothing stirring. Just a beautiful sort of forever spring green contrasted with the golden rabbit brush of autumn. They turned out the Bask++ mare and her foal. She didn't seem bothered by anything in the distance. The grey Morgan. He was content to stretch his legs in the morning sunlight and relative coolness. Luna, the new mare, was similarly pleased to be out and in the space she was in. Gunner was himself. High speed, high energy. What a glorious golden sight he was, sunlight setting his coat aglow. And then he too began looking off into the distance. There must be something. The girls looked again. Rocks. Green grass. Lovely flowers. More rocks. When Gunner was put back up, Grace suggested they take a ride. Skye was mounted up and ready before Grace had a saddle on Ono. The silence was overwhelming. Complete. Nothing stirred. And then squealing, gnashing, the sound of hooves against rock. Petrichor and Highlander, fighting. Petrichor had size on the palomino stallion. They whirled and engaged, rearing and pushing against each other, screaming and rolling their eyes, gnashing their teeth but not yet at all-out war. Grace and Skye watched, breathless. Petrichor might have been bigger, but Highlander was bringing it on with everything he had. And then Highlander made his move. They reared up to engage, and Highlander used his lack of height to come up under Petrichor and knock him off balance. Petrichor came down on his right side, landing on his shoulder. Highlander's momentum carried him to the ground with Petrichor, stumbling down onto his knees. Both stallions scrambled to their feet and began to engage again. But Petrichor stopped. He pulled back. It was over. Highlander turned and trotted, victorious, to claim his prize. A new mare. Petrichor lingered for a moment in the clearing. Grace watched from a distance. He did not appear to be limping, but there was probably a certain amount of adrenalin still in his system. He came down hard on his shoulder. Surely there would be a scar at the very least. Soon Petrichor's own band joined him. And the two small herds began to move off...in the same general direction. "Well" Skye exclaimed, "We got our money's worth today!" "Yeah we did." Grace stood in the saddle, hoping to catch one last glimpse of Petrichor...to see him move, to know he was okay. He was a wild stallion, Grace told herself. Sort of wild, anyway. That's what wild stallions do. Back at home, Grace stared toward the setting sun, listless. Skye propped herself up on the table. Time to give her big sister a pep talk. "Petrichor is probably fine. Maybe a little scarred up but not badly injured. He had the good sense to quit before it came to war. He's smart like that. He knows when the risks aren't worth the gains." "And besides" Skye continued. "We can go out looking for him every morning. We can get up extra early and either search for him or get the chores done and then go search for him. Whatever you want." Grace was slow to respond, but finally did. "You're right. Petrichor does seem to be sort of complacent on the herd building thing. Maybe it's for the best." October 8 When the chores were done, the girls set out. Charmer was faster by far than Jesse, and seemed to enjoy proving it. But Jesse and Grace had a secret weapon. They were a bonded team...and they could turn. They could out-turn Charmer all day long. The high speed adventure came to a quick halt when Crazy's band appeared on the escarpment above them. Two mares and three foals, all present and correct, and Crazy, predictably ready to stand his ground no matter the consequences. Crazy stood between the girls and his harem as the mares and foals retreated. "Maybe this is how you have to be if you want to keep a herd" Grace said. "Size might not matter as much as your attitude." Crazy's herd vanished into the rocks. Search though they might, the girls did not find Grace's stallion. There was no sign of the Petrichor-Highlander bands. October 9 The sky was just turning light. Skye surveyed her work with a sense of pride, mingled with awe. It had taken hours to bring everything together. The girls often left halters and headstalls near their respective equines, and the barn had more saddles and saddle racks in it than the tack room. But not any more. If there was going to be a review, this surely needed to be a part of it. Grace's impact on the ranch was a lot more about building relationships and helping horses than it was about the show ring. In fact, the show ring idea had died pretty fast, since the boss was very clearly anti-modern-western-pleasure, and since Grace pretty much refused to do it anyway. Grace came in quietly. Her silence prevailed as she surveyed the tack room. "This is almost everything" Skye said, motioning expansively. "There's three cinches that need repair and a black saddle pad not included. And there's two halters missing - Windy Boy and High Autumn. "There's one broken bridle. The reins came untied and I can't fix them. I had to stack things a little, like the bareback pads under the dressage saddle. But for the most part, here it is. And this is all you. We had one english and one western saddle when you got here, and one western bridle. Some old leather halters." Grace ran her fingers over a bosal bridle by Donna Allen. Looked down the row of halters, bosals and bridles before her. Took it all in, humbly. Most of what her eyes fell upon had been gifted to the girls, to the ranch. Finally she spoke. "Wow." "So" Skye continued, "I want to get a picture. For your review. Because this is you. This is just part of the impact you've had on this place." Grace had trouble digesting that. It wasn't really her. It was that they were surrounded and embraced by wonderful people, most of whom they had never met. "Okay" Grace said. "Well. Let's flip on some lights and do the picture." October 15 The morning started out in the high 50's but it warmed quickly. By the time the girls were ready to go out looking for Petrichor, it was already getting warm. They decided to take a walk instead of a ride, staying close to the ranch, getting the dogs out, getting the black mare some gentle exercise. But they gravitated toward Mustang Rock just the same. Baron noticed something, and soon, all the dogs were looking. Not wild horses, but Lousin and Anahit, moving rather slowly over the dry watering holes and down the rock face. The dogs were off to investigate. Grace and Skye followed. Anahit and Lousin decided to be still as the canine entourage approached. The girls exchanged greetings and the dogs milled about and the air continued to warm. "Where are you headed to?" Skye asked. Lousin looked at Anahit, waiting for her to answer, then spoke up. "To the road. Ana twisted her ankle, and it's getting a little hot for rock climbing, so we thought we'd head home." "Oh! Well we can help with that" Skye volunteered promptly. "Let's put Ana on my mare." Lousin beamed. "That would be wonderful. What's her name?" Skye paused, slightly embarrassed. They'd never named her. She had a lip tattoo, but it was impossible to read, and they never did figure out who she was in her younger years. "The Black" Skye said, saying the words in such a way that they emanated pride and significance. Grace gave Ana a leg up onto The Black. She was standing on the downhill side of one of the tallest horses they could have thought to take for a walk, but failure was not an option, so up the child went. "How about we go back to the ranch" Grace said, "and get the truck, and give you ladies a ride back home?" "Yes" Anahit said, "we would so appreciate that." They were reasonably sure The Black was just about bomb proof, but they'd never actually used her for a rescue before. She was, predictably, the perfect - if very tall - horse for the job. Luna made the first tracks on the freshly dragged arena. The afternoon grew warm but moreover, the insects. They were thick. In October there was only a few hours of heat to deal with before the sun began to sink into the western sky, but the insects made it seem like an eternity. So into the relative relief of the indoor arena the girls escaped. Luna was soon joined by other horses. She seemed to have a bit of friendly competition going with Dani Girl. "We should invite Anahit and Lousin to come for a ride with us" Skye said as she watched the horses. "Sure" Grace said. Her mind seemed to be in another place. Cookie had the arena to herself. She enjoyed the entire length of it. "Did the boss sell the other reining mare yet? The grey pinto I call Twitch?" "Not yet" Grace answered. "But she is still for sale." The heat of the day passed. Grace was forever distracted. Skye could tell. "Does he know how lucky he is?" Skye asked as Anamar danced across the arena. "Huh?" "Does he realize how lucky he is" Skye repeated. "You're the golden girl. All of your favorite stallions are golden. How did he even make the list?" At dusk, the girls ventured out into the forest again. The sun had set and only a distant glow illuminated the landscape. There was no moon. The shadows grew ever deeper. In the tangle of rock ravines along the western edge of the ranch, there was quite a bit of commotion. The girls strained to see what was happening. They could make out Highlander's band. And another horse. Grace caught a glimpse of Petrichor's bay mare just above them. And then Petrichor. He was keeping a bit of distance. There was a skirmish of some sort, but he wasn't in it. The girls watched until the moonless night consumed them, and all they could see were moving shadows. October 16 They returned as the sky lightened to find Petrichor and his band milling about on the flat. Petrichor did have scars on his shoulder, but they were superficial. They girls were out in the open, but the horses seemed preoccupied with something else. In the rocky canyon, continuing commotion. Highlander's dun mare was having nothing to do with this newcomer, a black mare, small and wiry. Grace and Skye strained to see what they could. They got a glimpse of the action just as the dun mare served the unwelcome mare with her walking papers. "I thought stallions chose mares" Skye whispered. "Right?" Grace was pretty sure that was the way it was supposed to be. But clearly the dun mare hadn't read that memo. Petrichor moved toward the dark mare. The bay mare held the foals close to her. The girls watched as Petrichor and the new mare became acquainted. She was definitely wild. No draft influence. And black. Really, truly black. "I want to name her" Skye whispered. "What?" "Black...Rose...Black Pearl...Black...black something..." "I don't know about pearls and roses..." Grace whispered. She was angular, heady, spicy. "I know" Skye said quietly. "Thorn." Grace smiled. The sun was cresting the ridge. "We better scamper!" The girls made their way hastily back to the ranch, and their unfinished chores. In the indoor arena, waiting out the heat of the day, It was hard to get Thorn and Petrichor and Highlander and the new pinto mare out of her head, but Skye was forced to focus as she lounged Hot Cocoa. Grace watched approvingly. "Nice triangle" Grace remarked as Skye turned the big gelding in the opposite direction and had him resume the trot. Grace was next, with the red bay Akhal Teke stallion. "What's his name again?" Skye asked as she watched the big bay on the lounge line with Grace. "Owadan. It means...oh heck, I forget. I think it means "has no brakes'." Something caught Owadan's eye. Grace drew him in. The boss and the two Great Danes she'd rescued in June made their way toward the girls. "I have succeeded at last" the boss said. "Did you find their owners?" Skye asked. "Well, not exactly" the boss responded. "Or not yet anyway. But I know who she is and I know who they are. The black one's name is Tosh, and the harlequin is Contessa. And their owner's name is Francis Loop Caldwell. And I have a phone number." "Awesome!" Skye responded. And then she thought about it a bit. She'd grown rather fond of the big girls. It would be bittersweet to see them go. October 21, dusk The sun was just a few moments from setting. "I think this is a good location" Grace said. Skye looked all around. "Looks good to me. Let's do it." Alpine glow surrounded the girls as they set up camp. They brought no food, because evidence of bear activity was prevalent. Just enough to view the stars in relative comfort, and a place to retreat to if it got damp, which Grace was fairly certain it would not. The moon would be in the sky until about midnight. The dogs were vigilant, and a bit unsure what was going on. The fire was for pleasure at first, but the air cooled with autumn as the darkness deepened. "We aren't going to see any meteors while we are standing by the fire" Grace said, "but it sure feels nice." Skye wasn't sure she cared. It was all good. Fire. Dogs. Stars. Camping out. The moon. All good. "Do you want your poncho?" Grace asked. "Not yet" Skye said. " It's not really that cold right now. Do you want yours?" Grace thought about it. "Probably in a few minutes." But first, they tried to get focused on the stars. The moon was still brightening the night sky, but the air was clear. Soon the stars were more and more visible. Skye tried her best to photograph them. The air began to cool as the night wore on. And as the moon set, a breeze came up, so Skye put away the camera. The girls focused on staying warm, and keeping the dogs close; as the evening wore on, the dogs were ever more on the alert. They saw no meteors...but the stars, and the night...it was enough. October 28 "What are you up to over there?" Grace asked Skye, who was very focused on something in cyberspace. "Trying to help the boss find that lady. The dog owner. Francis Loop Caldwell. And so far, I can't find a thing." "How are you spelling her name?" "Both ways. With an "i" and with an "e". I've found the Loop family, and they have an amazing family tree online. Financial people mostly. But no Francis or Frances yet." "Have you tried obituaries?" "Not specifically, although plenty of them have come up." "Hmm. I wonder if we can get an address from the phone number. " "Oh...I hadn't thought of that." The wind was getting ready to make its season debut. Everyone was a little restless. There were long spells of wind-still beauty, punctuated by unruly gusts. The full force of the wind was not expected until dusk. Grace and Skye decided to take what time there was before the wind arrived in earnest. They hiked to the top of a hill above the fire station. From there they had an expansive view in all directions. "I bet this place was sacred to the people who used to be here" Skye said as they picked their way along a rock outcropping. Grace looked around. She might have been right. But there were so many places like this once you got into the back country a little bit. "Probably this whole place was sacred to them" Grace mused. "Yeah. Like it is to us. All of it." The view was nothing short of amazing. But nothing stirred. They saw no horses. Back at the ranch, the girls turned out La Barilla. Grace hadn't spent much time with him lately. "I'll probably need to put him through all the paces before I get back on him" Grace said. "You think? I don't know. You put a good bit of work on him. I bet you can long line him for fifteen minutes and get back in the saddle and he'll remember everything." "I hope you're right" Grace replied. The girls were taking in the lovely evening when they heard the bosses' excited voice, a lot of whinnying, and the thunder of hooves. It ws Owadan. He was glorious in the red light of dusk, glowing in the lengthening shadows. And he was running free. The boss was calling to him, pretending in a fashion as if she were longing him, but this was no liberty act. Somehow the stallion had gotten loose. And then, all at once, he stopped orbiting, and headed west, into the setting sun. Owadan's red glow vanished over the horizon. The boss drove as far as she could. Darkness was quick to overtake the landscape. The girls hiked to the highest ridge that would give them a vantage point in the fading light. They could hear the truck, but no sound of a horse. No hooves against granite, no exalting nostril blows, no squeals from an unexpecting wild band. Just the occasional gust of wind as it played through the pines. The temperature fell. The darkness was pierced by the full moon rising. And the silence was broken over and over by the sound of the Pavement Queen, going everywhere that it was safe to go. October 29 The girls picked up the shift before sunrise, letting the boss rest. Grace glanced at the temperature as they made their way to the truck. She wondered how the big red stallion had fared the night. It was the first cool night of the season, and Owadan wasn't dressed for it. The wind had arrived. Ravens made their way across the pre-dawn sky. The moon set in the western sky. The wind made the dust swirl and dance in the dawn's light. The girls would get excited, hoping that perhaps it was really the dust from flying hooves, and drive as quick as they dared to investigate...only to find swirling masses of grass, sand and pine needles. But no big red stallion. #
September 2, 2023 Skye found the note on the table. The boss was so sneaky like that! "Are you ready for an adventure? Find the Pavement Queen." It didn't take the girls long to find the bright red truck. But a light drizzle had become an in-earnest rain by the time they did. And in the pavement queen they found a kayak. Skye bubbled with excitement. "Oh my gosh, come on! Let's go to the creek!" "Skye" Grace said, attempting to be the voice of reason. "It's raining." "But it's a warm rain!" And indeed it was. But the wind. The wind was warm too. Tropical. Wonderful. But after a few minutes of getting soaking wet, the wind somehow made Grace feel chilled. Skye was apparently oblivious to the chill factor. "Oh please, please please. Come on Grace. We'll be fine." "Okay" Grace said. "But not now. I wanted to do something else with the truck right now." Grace pulled a hoodie over her wet shirt, and the girls got in the truck. "Where are we going?" "To the campgrounds" Grace said. They ambled down the rod in the light rain. She stopped the truck rather suddenly. "Look. Deer." Skye strained to see. And then she flicked her ears and became visible. In the tall grass and shrubs along the bank of the creek, she stood, concealed. And then, across the creek and up into cover of the mountain she went. The girls drove the length of the campground road, but found all of the gates closed. Grace looked a bit annoyed. "I know where there's fresh manzanita slash" Grace said, "but we can't get to it." They turned around and went the other way. Plants had begun to grow in the cracked asphalt of the picnic area. Grace and Skye got out for a moment, to feel the silence. There is a certain hush about a forest trimmed in clouds. You can hear each rain drop fall, together making a chorus of life giving voices. But this was not the place to find manzanita. It preferred the south facing aspect of the mountain. So back they went towards the ranch. Towards the conifer and chaparral interface. To the firebreak. And there they found what they were looking for. Manzanita. Glorious, wonderful manzanita. The wet ground glowed with reds, yellows and grey, the duff of the manzanita clinging to the textured grey mass of spent yucca. There were several potentially ideal branches. Skye watched as Grace carefully maneuvered her piece around the tailgate, trying not to scratch the truck, trying to use the weight of the wood to her advantage, to find the tipping point where she would be able to push the branch onto the truck without having to lift it. Success. Getting Skye's piece in would be slightly more complicated with this one already in the way, but they were motivated, and they got it done. The boss had been busy in the arena, turning out the most recent arrivals to the ranch, minus stallions. Seven horses altogether. "These are keepers" she said out loud. "For now anyway. All really nice horses." Grace and Skye smiled and nodded. The boss would have more to say. They waited. "You know, it's kind of like a mid-life crisis, except I'm really late. Maybe it's a maturity crisis. But I've spent a lot of time contemplating what's important in this life. I mean, on some level, we are so insignificant. Less enduring than a grain of sand, a tiny speck in the universe, a nano second in geologic time. But, here we are. Now, in this time. So what to do. Say 'nothing matters because I am a nothing in the face of time' or live with purpose. So that is the first choice." Grace and Skye remained silent. This was a deeper than average dive into the meaning of things. The boss continued. "And in this moment in time, horses are becoming something of an endangered species. Luxury animals for the rich. No longer needed for labor. In some ways that's good because the abuse they have suffered as beasts of burden over the centuries...let's not dwell there. But what does the future of the horse look like? In fifty years will young girls still dream of nothing other than owning a horse? Riding like the wind? Being one with the spirt of equus? Or will immersive simulation be the only thing they know?" Skye stopped breathing for a moment. Immersive simulation...what if the boss was right. No real visceral reference to the smell, the feel, the warm breath of a horse. "Anyway" the boss went on, "I'm coming to a point of peace in all of this. A mission if you will. I'd like to shift the focus of our efforts a little bit, and give more attention, selectively, to promoting genetic diversity in rare breeds." "Told you" Grace whispered. "Not a horse rescue." Skye's face must have belied her fear. "Skye, don't worry" the boss reassured her. "The horses you have are staying. We are going to put some more horses up for sale, but not any of yours." "Oh good" Skye responded. All the rest of the talk slipped away from her consciousness as she watched the horses in the arena. She got to keep her horses. That was really all that mattered at the moment. The horses in the arena were very nice. She was familiar with the palomino mare and foal. She'd been spending time with the filly, getting her used to the touch and sound of humans. "Well, let's get these ladies and gents back up to the stable" the boss said. "There's one more horse I want to show you." And he was quite the horse. "Historical references reveal that the foundation stock of the Lippizan breed included much more color. And genetic diversity. And while the color is very gratuitous, it's the strength of the diversity that is the critical element here. The preservation of everything good while refreshing a narrowing gene pool." The boss could have said anything really. There wasn't a lot of need to justify why this horse caught her eye. But the justifications were good. Appropriate for the theme of the afternoon's discussion. Anyone could see bringing this one home was obviously the right choice. Back at home, Grace was still a bit chilled.. "Are you feeling okay?" Skye asked. "Baron always tried to be your favorite lap dog when you don't feel good. Don't get sick on me Grace. I want to take that kayak out tomorrow!" Everybody wanted to be her favorite lap dog, it seemed. "We'll see what the weather holds for tomorrow" Grace said. "There will be water for a few days. Don't worry. We'll get the kayak out." September 3 The day dawned glorious, sufficiently warm, the wind still. Time to give the kayak a go. The creek spilled gently across the road. "If we could park right here it would be perfect" Skye said. "It would, but we can't park on the road. You know what the boss always says". "A fire truck could get around us no problem" Skye countered. "The boss says 'When it comes my turn to be rescued, I want my first responders to be cheerful and motivated.' So, we shouldn't park in the road. We want to keep them cheerful." "Okay fine. I guess that's why the kayak has wheels." The girls eventually found their way down to the water with the kayak. "This life vest is a 2XL!" Skye struggled to tighten the straps as much as she could, but it still fit like a cardboard box. "We'll take it along. It's big enough for both of us to fit in." Skye pushed the kayak into the water, leaving the tail end on land, and slipped quickly and gracefully inside. "Have you kayaked before?" Grace asked. "Yes! But not in anything like this. I've been in sit on top kayaks. Ocean kayaks. It's the same principle though. To get in, you get the kayak on the edge of the water or in the water completely, and you get your butt down and your center of gravity low as smooth and quick as you can." Grace's entry was not quite as smooth...the paddles were large and awkward, her boots notoriously slippery, and her desire to keep them dry pretty strong. It took a little squirming and paddle-shoving and rocking back and forth before the kayak broke free of the land and Grace got her center of gravity where it belonged. And then a few awkward moments figuring out the paddles. And a few more moments to figure out how to work as a team to keep the kayak level in the water. And then the magic happened. Skye fell silent. She let Grace experience it. The different view. The freedom of gliding across the top of a liquid surface. The closeness to Nature. Looking down through the clear water. The sky. The vastness of the sky from the water's surface. The sound of water lapping on the hull, rippling over the paddle. All of it. Skye reached down into the water, splashing it on her face. It was cool but not cold, perfectly clear. Grace broke the silence. "How wet are we supposed to be getting?" "Oh...I don't really know. In an ocean kayak you can get pretty wet, but there's holes in it, so the water is always moving in and out. "Well I'm pretty wet" Grace said. "Me too" Skye responded. "And if I'm not mistaken we're starting to ride a little low in the water." Grace let one paddle rest in the water. Slowly the kayak turned around. The girls were more or less drenched. "Okay so we got a little wet, but wasn't that awesome? Just indescribably fantastic?" Skye bubbled exuberance. "Yes" Grace said. "But I'm not a little wet. I'm soaked. I have more water inside my boots than on the outside." "But look! Here comes the sun! You'll be dry in no time. Those boots will be...well, if you leave them on they'll be custom-formed to your feet!" Grace did eventually dry out. So did Skye. And as the afternoon shadows grew long the boss was also excited. Two new tied rope halters from Eagle Nest Ranch had arrived. Grace put one on Loch'sha, and Skye decided to try her luck on a fully trained but as of yet uproven horse...Dunsmoke. Grace watched Skye's effortless riding. Dunsmoke responded flawlessly to only weight shifts and neck rein pressure. "You know" the bosses' words broke Grace's attention for a moment. "...many moons ago I went to a doctor for some sort of female issue. And she examined me and said I had a very straight pelvis. She said 'It will be hard for you to ride horses, or have children, because your pelvis is so straight.' I was just shocked. I didn't know your skeletal structure could have that kind of an impact on what you do. I mean, if I were looking at an animal yes, I could tell you things about what it may or may not be capable of, but I never knew the tilt of your pelvis could determine how you sat on a horse." Grace was silent for a long time. "I have never heard that before" she finally responded. "But it makes perfect sense." The sun's last light fell upon the place the locals called Indian Rocks. Grace wanted to go there. Perhaps in the morning if they could slip away. And the evening left them with just enough clouds for a fleeting and glorious sunset. September 4 The day dawned lovely, but the wind blew strong. Grace and Skye waited and watched. There would be minutes of stillness...but then the wind would come again, gusting, forceful, singing its wild song with the pine trees. The arena would have to do for now. Grace took Ono through his paces, and decided to work on his ground tie. Perhaps the ground poles would help him get the idea. So far, so good. Skye called from across the arena. "Whoops! Sorry about that!" Ono watched the errant calf, rocked forward a bit on his legs, and then back, but did not lift a hoof. "Good stand" Grace said. "Good boy." Skye and Cookie were sorting out calves when Grace noticed the shift. "Skye. Can you hear that?" "Hear what?" "The wind. It stopped." It was a glorious morning. Not quite 11 am. The heat of summer was apparent once the wind stopped mobilizing the air. And it was likely much too late to catch a glimpse of wild horses, although the girls did think at one point that they heard something... and too hot to ride to Indian Rocks. But even if it was only for a few moments, being outside and on a horse was good. Grace wanted Skye to get used to Cookie. The horse Skye called Twitch, the grey and white pinto that Grace suspected was a reiner, hadn't sold yet. The boss would drop the price a few more times but if she didn't sell, she might make a great horse for Skye. Cookie was so bold and level headed. She picked her way along the rock escarpments with ease and confidence. Grace remembered riding her bareback, working cattle, when she first came to the ranch, using only a neck rein, and that mostly for her own balance. Cookie was a great horse. And Skye seemed to get along with her just fine. September 23 The big Thoroughbred mare trotted up and down the length of the arena. She was inquisitive and unruffled, moving smooth and loose. Grace and Skye watched as she took in the sights and smells without breaking her stride. They watched as her attention was captured by something along the rail. Visitors! The girls had been so busy watching the new mare, they hadn't noticed the entrance of the other young girls. Skye smiled and extended her hand. "Welcome!" "Thank you." The dark eyed girl reached out to receive Skye's welcome. "We were here for your Christmas party last year" she said, "but we didn't stay very long. My name is Anahit, and this is my sister Lousin." Lousin smiled and shook hands, and then returned her gaze to the sabino mare. Lousin was captivated by the horse. Something Skye completely understood. "I'm Skye, and this is my sister Grace. This mare just arrived and we're letting her unwind and get familiar with her new surroundings." "What's her name?" Lousin asked without looking away from the horse. Skye looked at Grace. "I'm not sure what her registered name is" Grace said, "but I believe her stable name is Luna." Anahit and Lousin looked at each other and smiled. The three girls watched as Grace tried to gather up the new mare, but she wasn't ready. She trotted by, again and again, looking rather pleased with herself, rather pleased with her new surroundings. And so the four girls chatted amongst themselves while the mare named Luna made a few more laps of the arena with her big, ground-eating trot. # August 6, 2023
La Barilla's golden coat was slightly muted by the indoor lighting. Still, the boss did her best to get a good shot of him. "I can't believe we don't have any halter photos of him" Skye said. "Well" the boss replied, "If these don't turn out, we'll try again next weekend." And then she headed back up to the house with her camera. La Barilla took advantage of the opportunity to roll, stretch his legs and kick up sand. "I'm surprised we aren't getting show photos of everybody" Skye said after the boss was well out of earshot. "Isn't the show season in full swing?" "It is" Grace responded. When La Barilla had enjoyed a good turnout, Gunner got a chance to run. "Do you think the boss is okay?" Skye continued. "She was pretty quiet today." "I think she's okay" Grace said. "I think she's wrapped up in her head. Re-evaluating her goals and such. That foal that didn't suckle and then the dogs she found on the highway, I think those things had an impact on her. Like a wake-up call." "A wake up call like...what?" Grace thought about it for a moment. "Like, what's important. What do you want to spend your energy on. When I got here she had horses that weren't doing anything and she wanted me to get them under saddle, in shape, sometimes in the show ring. Now it feels to me like she's looking around and trying to find her place - our place - in the bigger picture. I think she's getting more focused, really." "Like a rescue?" "No, I don't think that's what she's got in mind. I think she's looking to make her mark in the world and that might include things like...I don't know, the genetic viability of rare breeds, the environment...that seems to be the kind of things she's interested in." "And rescues" Skye added. "Think about all the rescues. All the dogs, the black mare...she likes rescues too." "True. I don't think we're going to be a horse rescue though. Not intentionally, anyway." August 12 Evening light was fading fast. The wind had died down and the girls were in the outdoor arena, enjoying the warm glow of the sun's last light. "We should change your horse's name from Precious to Pumpkin" Grace called out. "She is glowing in this golden light." "So is that one" Skye said, watching the new horse, a well put together Quarter Horse gelding, intently. He did have a lovely glow. He moved well. Grace liked him. "Does he already have a name?" "I don't know what it is" Grace said. "Let's call him Dunsmoke." Grace smiled. It was fitting. Grace brought La Barilla to the arena as tree shadows began to creep across the ground. The boss trotted down with the long lens on her camera. Some muttering followed as she struggled with the lens. "I don't know Grace" she said after some twenty shots. "I keep thinking this lens is going to magically fix itself like it always does but it doesn't seem to happening this time." "It's okay" Grace said, "We'll try again early tomorrow morning." "Take the short lens" the boss said to Skye as she headed off. The girls were getting ready to pack it in when the boss called out to them. "Do you ladies have a moment for some cuteness overload?" "Sure!" Skye responded. She wasn't kidding. The boss had a surprise for the girls. A donkey. A big donkey. She thought he was a Mammoth/spotted donkey cross, as Mammoths hae a solid coat pattern. "You are adorable!" Skye giggled. "And you're big! And those ears!" "And why do we need a donkey, right?" The boss added. "I'm still working on the answer. I think she is what you call a...err...impulse purchase." The boss had done two impulse purchases. The second was a cob type riding pony. He was very nice. Skye was perfectly comfortable on full sized horses but something about ponies always intrigued her. The girls mounted Precious two up and got ready to head in. "Where are we going to take La Barilla for photos tomorrow?" "I thought we'd try the rocks. Where we saw that dun the first time." "Great idea." "Yeah but the last thing I want is to run into a bunch of bratty wild stallions with La Barilla." "Oh yeah huh. That could be...interesting." And the sun slipped quietly away. August 13 The sun was just cresting the ridge as Grace and La Barilla approached the rock formation where she hoped to stage her golden stallion. Skye came trotting up. "Where's the camera?" Grace was surprised to see Skye running up, empty-handed. "The boss is coming. She said she's sorry she's late, she was up all night watching European nature documentaries." And in a moment, Grace could hear the engine of the Pavement Queen as it approached. The location they'd chosen was great for morning photos. It was, as so much of Chilao is, solid rock, but the rock had a good, toothy surface and this particular location was relatively smooth. But what Grace hadn't thought through was actually getting La Barilla to stand for a halter photo. He could long rein, cross water, address calves, get in and out of a trailer, navigate difficult terrain, and they were working on the Spanish walk. But she hadn't taught him to stand, tied or untied. It really wasn't in his nature. So when she told him to stand, and backed away from him, he really didn't have a clue what she wanted. "I'm not really sure I can get him to put all four feet on the ground at the same time" Grace told the boss as La Barilla more or less acquiesced to the notion of staying in one place. "That's fine, I think I got a nice picture. Now go ahead and take his halter off." Grace opened her mouth to speak, but no word came out. Skye started to move toward La Barilla and Grace, then stopped. Grace and Skye exchanged silent looks. It was going to go however it went. And they would know in a moment just what that meant. Grace took a deep breath, and removed his halter. Grace backed away from La Barilla, speaking to him all the while. "Stand. Good stand. Good stand." The back side of the rock face, beyond where they had chosen to take pictures, curved steeply downward. Chances were good La Barilla wouldn't bolt that way. It seemed unlikely he would bolt toward Grace or Skye just because he'd never done that. He kept his attention focused on Grace, ears swiveling, occasionally appearing frustrated with this barrage of new experience. The boss took picture after picture. "Great" the boss finally said. I think I got some good photos. Can you turn him the other way?" Grace walked to the left. La Barilla began to follow her. Grace put her hand up. "Stand..." He stopped coming forward, but continued to turn so he was facing her. "Good, good boy, good stand..." Click click click click...finally the boss was satisfied. "Okay, I think we got something this time." "Great" Grace said, fetching the halter. La Barilla, still uncertain what was happening, let himself be haltered. "You are the best" Grace whispered. She turned to glance at Skye, who was smiling, a smile mixed with pride and relief. And the sun took its path across the sky, another warm day in the making. August 19 Clouds came rolling in with a strong breeze at dawn. TS Hilary, a hurricane downgraded upon landfall to a tropical storm, was making its way up the mountain.There was something delicious about the warm wind. "Do you suppose it's going to live up to all the talk?" "I don't know" Grace answered. "Seems like we've spent a lot of time waiting for big storms that never happened." "Except that blizzard" Skye said. "That blizzard definitely happened." in case it did start to rain, they turned the flashy chestnut pinto sport horse loose inside the indoor arena. "Ooh he's purdy" Skye said. "Is he a keeper?" "For now. The boss wants to get him a little more conditioned before she makes any decisions." "He looks pretty good to me" Skye said. Gradually the sky darkened, until the day took on a sort of timelessness. After a while the wind fell still, and a shadowless hush enveloped everything. August 23 It was pretty late when Skye found Grace in the tack room, more or less by accident. "What are you doing?" Grace asked. "I'm looking for the old bosal. The one I made. I can't find it anywhere." Grace paused before responding. "How weird. After all this time, our go-to bit of gear vanishes. Maybe it felt unloved now that we have the new bosal bridles. Skye smiled. "Maybe." She looked around a bit more. "What are you doing?" Skye asked Grace. Another pause before she responded. "I was going to shorten the stirrup leathers on this saddle." "Forever why?" "So you'd have a western saddle that fit you. I didn't want to try it on any of the other rigs 'cuz I'm not sure what I'm doing." "Where did this thing come from?" "It looked a lot better in the picture" Grace defended. I bet it did. A lot better." "Humor me and have a seat so I can measure it." Skye got a stool. "When you are done with the stirrup leathers are you going to replace the stirrups? And fix the flat cantle?" "The cantle for sure. Do you hate the stirrups? I kind of hate the stirrups." "You don't really need to do this, you know" Skye said. "Before you got here I had exactly one bosal. No saddle. Never seen a bareback pad before. It was okay." Grace was pretty sure she could shorten the stirrup leathers and raise the cantle. She didn't have spare stirrups and she'd never made finished western stirrups. And then there was the cinch rigging. The leather was fine but the rest had to go. This was way more project than she's hoped for. And endlessly grateful Skye was obviously not impressed. She wasn't even trying to pretend to be grateful. "How does it feel to sit in?" "It's okay. Nice big seat. It sits fine." The girls stepped back from the project saddle. It was going to be more work than it was worth. "All right" Grace finally said. "We'll make this one go away. Are you ever going to work on your native saddles?" There was a very long bit of silence. "Sure" Skye finally answered. "Do you not like them?" "I love them. I love them. They're small. Front to back, the seat area. And I'm kind of nervous about them. I've never made a saddle before. What if I screw them up?" "Then we start over." Grace realized she was forcing the saddle issue on a child who didn't need a saddle to stay on a horse, or to be happy. August 26 TS Hilary had brought the dry creek bed back to life. The girls took the campground road to the creek crossing as the golden hour reached its peak and shadows began to swallow the day's last light. "Do you think the water is warm this time?" Skye asked. Previously the creek had been fed by snowmelt. "It probably is warm" Grace responded. "Let's go in." Skye turned Lochsha back in the direction they'd come from, looking for a good spot to enter the creek. Grace looked and looked...it was hard to see any place to enter that wasn't steep. And from the vantage point of Dreamboat's rather tall back, she wasn't sure her depth perception was accurate. So she slid down from his back to get a closer look. In her famously worn-slick boots. And in to the water she went. It was indeed warm. Dreamboat held steady as Grace scrambled out of the water. She walked Dreamboat along the road edge to a small bit of sand bar. She coaxed him into the water, just along the road's edge, where she could now swing herself back on. Skye emerged on Lochsha. Grace joined her on Dreamboat. The water was deep, and the ground very uneven. But the horses seemed to be enjoying its warmth. They went slowly, and not for a very long way. The golden light faded. Dark would come quickly now. Skye watched curiously as Grace stood with her arms outstretched in front of the fan. "What are you doing?" "Yoga" Grace said. "This pose is called the five pointed star." Grace shot Skye a sideways glance, tried not to smirk. It was no use. "I'm trying to get dry." "Did you fall off your horse?" "No. Worse. I fell off of my feet." "Lourdey. I can't take you anywhere." August 27 Two by two Skye brought her horses down to the arena in the morning's first light. It was going to be another hot, dry day. At least they would have a chance to loosen up, roll, socialize for a bit before the heat took over. Tropical storm Hilary had made a mess of the arenas, and it had taken hours to clean them of debris and spread new sand. Now that the exhaustive work was over and Skye's herd made the first hoofprints on the fresh surface, it was all worth it. Grace watched the horses milling about, trotting on the rail, taking in the sights. After a while she turned to Skye. "You know Models in the Mountains is cancelled for 2023." Skye nodded. "I heard. Heard the road isn't expected to open until maybe the end of the year." "Yeah." "I guess we have lots of time to decide how to hang all the artwork. And plan your review." "Oh, yeah, the review." When the equines were done with their morning outing, Skye brought down the Great Danes that the boss had rescued. She agreed to take them out while the boss was away on errands. "Do you really think these dogs will ever leave?" Skye asked Grace. "I know the boss is trying to find their owners. She put up fliers in Acton and Tujunga, and on the internet. So far no luck. Which makes me wonder if the dogs weren't actually abandoned, you know, on purpose." As the sun rose in the sky, the girls retreated to the relative coolness of their room. The heat kept the girls indoors for the afternoon, as it had for days. They moved furniture around, relieving some boredom, getting better light to Grace's side of the room. Skye liked the bigger dresser, but not losing the manzanita lamp. "Do you think you could make another lamp?" Skye asked Grace. Grace considered it. "If I remember correctly, that piece of manzanita was in the bulldozer line after the Bobcat fire. There was a lot of cut manzanita. And it was fresh. I don't know. I guess we could look around the campgrounds. There's been a lot of work done there lately." The computer equipment was a little overwhelming. "The boss bought it for MIM" Grace explained. "I think she got a package deal on some new but older equipment. The idea was to help us tabulate the performance division." "Will there be another MIM?" "Yes." "Do we get to keep all this in the meantime?" "Ummm, yes. I'm pretty sure we do." "Cool. I think I can deal with that." # July 1, 2023
When the heat of the day broke, the girls went out to look at the moon. The mosquitos came upon them in clouds. The black mare swished her tail, stamped her feet and shook her head but it only deterred them for a moment. "Is the full moon tomorrow night?" Skye asked. "No, Monday night, but it will appear full tomorrow night. I'm not sure the sun will be quite all the way set, but it still ought to be pretty." "Tomorrow night, if we decide to watch the moonrise, let's drench ourselves in fly spray first." "Agreed." July 2 Coyote made his way slowly around the fire station as the girls headed to the eastern edge of the property. Just in case fly spray didn't do the trick, the girls brought a second line of defense with them for watching the moonrise, the truck. And they got to their lookout point just in time. The moon was well on its way over the ridge when they noticed it, the pale sunset sky still bright. "It comes up so fast!" Skye exclaimed. They could hear the sound of fireworks, like distant thunder, even before the sky was dark. Blissfully secluded, they could not see them, but the deep booming sounds reached even into the heart of the wilderness. And then the fly spray started wearing off. "You ready to go home?" Grace asked. "Sure." July 3 Dawn came warm and wind-still. "I never noticed that heart in the rock before" Skye said. Grace had to look for a while before she saw it. It was just a quick morning ride before the heat really poured on. Grace was eager to ride the baroque pinto whom Skye adored. And Skye decided to do something very different, and get Mischief out of the arena and into the big world. She was bright and fearless, and seemed to love being out on the trail. "Did you see that?" Grace said. "What?" "I saw something move up there." "Like an animal?" "Yes. Something big." "Like a bear?" "I don't think so." They found their way through the maze of boulders and ravines, heading toward the movement. It could have been a deer. A big deer. Grace searched the landscape. Nothing. She saw another passage. Her mount seemed willing. There! Not a bear. Not a deer. Skye followed, reining in Mischief as soon as they reached level ground. A single dun horse, with a sturdy build, watched them. He was indecisive. Somewhat curious. Definitely aloof. Skye and Grace looked at each other. The compulsion to come a little closer, to get a better look...it was irresistible. And so off they rode, toward the dun horse. "Is that a curly?" Skye whispered. "He looks a little bit like one, huh? Like maybe this is what a summer coat looks like on a curly..." Curly, dirty, whatever. Skye was in love. They assumed he was young, and they assumed he was a stallion...a bachelor perhaps. He had the thick legs of a draft influence horse, and some feathering. He wasn't flighty, but he kept his distance. And then, in another moment, he'd had enough, and went on his way. A breeze began to stir the air and the sun's heat encompassed everything. Grace and Skye chattered the whole way home. Where did he come from? What was he? Was he really a wild horse or an escapee? Would someone be looking for him? So many questions. July 7 A new arrival had come to the ranch. But not a horse. It was a steer, a gelded male bovine. Good for eating, but as Skye suspected, probably here for Models int he Mountains, the upcoming horse show. "Well he sure came out easier than he went in!" Skye exclaimed. "That's for sure. I didn't think we were ever going to get him in the trailer. Forwards or backwards." The steer wasted no time putting some distance between himself and the trailer. July 8 Skye was hoping to go out looking for wild horses. But bringing home the steer took the better part of Friday, and Saturday was just as busy. In the morning they welcomed the newest edition to a growing pony herd; a lovely Fjord mare. She was the light type of Fjord, a show pony, and she was fabulous. The boss had decided to put Remmie up for sale, so the girls were tasked with getting some good photos of him. And she was looking to get some photos of the appaloosa mare too. The fast one. Pretty soon the day was about spent. When they were done photographing the horses, the boss brought the Great Danes down to the arena. The two big purebreds were female. They were a bit detached, not terribly interested in engaging Grace and Skye's pack. The smaller dog, definitely some sort of Dane mix, did not have the luxury of detachment. Baron, Hobo, White Dog and Charles were all various degrees of keen to figure out who the new kid was. "Where are the pups?" Skye asked the boss. "They have new homes" she replied. "Unfortunately, when I went to PetCo, they didn't have a way to scan the big girls for an ID chip, so I'm going to have to take one of the them to the vet or something." "What are you going to do with this guy?" Skye asked, pointing with her nose toward the spotted mix. "He has to belong with the girls. So I'll hang on to him until I can reunite all three of them with their owner. The pups, I feel pretty good about finding new homes for them. But I have trouble believing that the big dogs were thrown away." The girls and the boss watched the dogs as they interacted. So far so good...everyone seemed to be more or less accepting of the new spotted dog. July 9 And so the weekend passed without a chance to go out looking for wild horses. Skye brought a package in pretty blue and white checkered paper into the tack room. "Have you seen this?" Skye asked. "Nope. What is it?" "It's a gift from Daphne Headley! She sent it along with some donations for The Collective champ show. The boss just gave it to me." "And what about the dog behind you? Did she give you that too?" Skye giggled. "No, not yet. I like him though." Skye tried to keep the pretty blue and white paper in one piece, but it was hard, because se really wanted to get to the gift inside. "Oh wow! How the heck..." Skye studied the tied rope halter in awe. "I have no idea how to tie these kinds of knots, and I've been making rope bridles my whole life." Grace wasn't much help. Skye was the expert at making tack out of nothing. Particularly impressive was the loop at the bottom where the matching lead rope with its hand-stitched leather accents attached. After a spell, Grace's attention was drawn to the other side of the tack room, where saddle blankets concealed something. The girl took a peek. "Oh!" Skye exclaimed. "I think it's a horse shaped object!" They unveiled him carefully. A resin casting by Sara Mink. A smaller version of a horse called Stormwatch, a wild stallion, fabulous in his every incredible detail. It was several moments before Skye found something to say. "Is he ours?" Grace pondered the notion. "I am pretty content just to stand in his presence" she finally replied. "I think he's ours to enjoy and admire and study, and possibly display." Skye was silent for a long time before she responded. "He's just...wow. Wow." July 17 In the cool of the morning the girls let Remmie out for some exercise. The pictures they took were apparently good enough to get him sold. "Are you going to miss him?" Skye asked. Grace pondered the thought. "I will. He's a good boy, and super pretty. I think one of the prettiest chestnuts I've ever seen." "And he's so sweet!" Skye added. "He is. But he's going to a performance shower in New Jersey, and she's so excited. I think she also has cattle. So he'll be busy, and have a great life." "I guess that's all you can really hope for when you let go of an animal...that they end up having a great life." As the day evolved, cloud cover dimmed the morning heat ever so slightly. The girls went through Chilao looking to see where there was still water. There were some deep pools where Coyote Canyon become Cougar Canyon. They would eventually stagnate, but for a few more weeks there would be some water there. Closer to home, their own little portion of the creek had deer tracks, but no sign of horses yet. But they knew where to look, and pressed on, quietly. And there they were. Both bands were together, and there wasn't any time for hiding. So they held still. It took the girls a moment to notice. Highlander's pale mare was also missing. They watched, looked, waited. Only one mare with Highlander. Highlander made his disapproval of their presence known, but from a safe distance, flinging rocks and sand and pinning his ears. Petrichor drew nearer. His demeanor lacked disapproval. He would linger for a moment near the girls before leaving the water for the dry creek bed. The black colt was aloof, like his dam had been. He kept his distance. The cloud cover moved off, and the heat of the day grew. The horses moved on, down the dry part of the creek, and out of sight. Grace and Skye made their way back to the campground road. It was molting season, and Skye found feather after feather. "Are you going to collect them all?" Grace asked. Skye hesitated. "So I found the big owl feather first. And then the black and white one. Then the raven and I was going to leave it behind. But I had this thought...either everything is sacred, or it's not...so I need to honor all of them...or leave them all behind and honor them that way..." July 22 Sunset looked promising. Grace and Skye went through the campgrounds, looking for a place to watch it from. The clouds were a mixture, a hybrid sky, things that were natural and things that weren't, but there seemed some magic about the evening, about its stillness...they took it all in. There were blue clouds, Skye's favorite, caused by the absence of a full spectrum of light in the sky. "We should go to a place where there are less trees" Grace said. "And less mountains directly in the way of the sunset." Grace studied the sky quietly. Skye wanted to photograph the gaseous orange band, but hesitated. It wasn't water vapor and she knew it. "Go ahead." Grace said. "I'm not here to stifle your creative process. I'm here to protect you from others who might. This is what we have to work with. Just humor me and get a picture of the whole sunset if you can." And so Skye did her best to capture all of it. And every now and then to let the camera rest, and just look, and be present in the silence. Back at the ranch, Skye took a picture of the lone deceased tree, still standing. Who knew for how much longer. At home the girls prepared to reassemble the final portion of Grace's bed. The dogs had broke it apart in such a fashion that there was just enough of it still connected, they were able to figure out where the disconnected pieces went. Only the headboard was left. Grace mumbled numbers. "You know" she finally said, "there are five of these upright pieces. And each one of them could be installed with one or another side up or down in each of the five positions. So that's ten options per upright. There's like fifty different ways we could put this back together." "Actually" Skye said, there's way more than fifty, because there's a fairly countless variety of ways that the five uprights might interact with each other as a whole." Grace fell silent. July 23 The girls were out before sunrise on Sunday morning. They were missing a steer. Grace scanned the terrain for movement. There was so much cover. That steer could be anywhere. At last, Cookie, the black and white paint mare, had a bosal bridle fitting of her calibre, made by Donna Allen. The reins matched her saddle, but more importantly, the bridle allowed her to be ridden with the freedom of movement that she deserved and needed to do her job. Grace was loving the feel of the reins and the way the bosal fit. She took the high rode, up onto a rocky bluff. Skye took the low road, circling the rock formation. The flowers of July surrounded Skye. She came around the southern face of the rocks, and saw something move. Grace could see him from above. The steer was coming down, away from Grace, toward Skye. Skye backed away enough to give him room. Then she flanked him, pointing him homeward. Grace made her way off the rocks, joining Skye. But as she did, something caught her eye. Skye saw it too. Rain Man, the bachelor silver dun sabino wild stallion, like an image from a classic western movie, standing on a precipice above them, rearing. The steer kept heading back to the ranch. Grace and Skye let him go, and took a little detour. Soon they found Storm, the other bachelor stallion, and the dun horse, which they had been searching for whenever they could since they fist laid eyes on him. Storm appeared to be uncomfortable with the newcomer. "I think he's trying to join them" Grace said, not particularly quietly, as Storm wasn't being particularly quiet with his squealing. Rain Man was similarly excited, but less confrontational. Another young stallion to join their band of two. The new horse kept out of striking distance, but persisted. "This is no place to be alone" Skye said. "I don't blame him." And then it was time to get back to work. "I reckon we ought to go find that steer" Skye laughed. "I reckon you're right! I'll take the high road. Steer secured, the weather took a turn. As if a thunderstorm were approaching. The skies darkened and the wind blew. The girls took a break for a little bit...and took their chances on the bed. "It's sure not as pretty as when Katy Niles put it together the first time" Grace said as she balanced the final upright. "Yea, but as much glue as we're using, it'll probably be dog proof from here forward." While the wind blew outside, the girls spent the afternoon in the arena, along with the boss, who was fussing with Katy's artwork. Grace brought down a very tall sport horse. "Is he new?" Skye asked of the big bay. "He is" Grace replied. "He's a retired competitive driving horse. That's all I know about him." "And he's tall." "Yes" Grace laughed. "And we need to smooth the arena. Not only is he tall, but I'm standing in a hole." Skye brought out the grey Morgan, and put Daphne Headley's rope halter to attractive use. The boss moved things around. And around. Katy's artwork was stunning. "We only have five easels" she said, "and thirteen pieces of artwork. "We can get more easels, that's not a problem really. But where to display them?" Grace, meanwhile, brought down more horses, the big baroque Friesian cross and his sidekick, the paso fino. "Hold still big guy. I'll turn you loose in a second." Skye listened on and off to the boss and Grace conversing. Little bits and pieces. "You know I heard that work on the highway has stopped for lack of funding" the boss told Grace. "So I don't really know why I'm so focused on getting the arena ready for MIM. If the road stays closed, we'll have to cancel." Grace went through the art pieces, and some of them were too small for full sized easels. "What if we mounted them on the wall?" the boss asked. "I mean obviously you don't want a horse crashing into the artwork or a rider getting a leg caught...do you think that would be completely unacceptable?" "I guess we can ask people what they think" Skye chimed in. "If it's too much or a safety hazard...pretty soon the arena is gonna look like our house!" Then the boss brought down the big girls, and the dane mix. "They are great with horses" she said. "Did you find out anything about them?" Skye asked. "No" the boss shook her head. "Drove all the way to a different PetCo with the harlequin, and they didn't have a chip scanner. And this one lady was looking at me like I stole the dog or something. You know I didn't want to say I found her. The whole pet rescue thing has become an industry unto itself and sometimes these rescue groups treat you like it's immoral for a regular person to rescue an animal. Like if it's a rescue, they own it. It's b.s., in my opinion. Real people rescue animals. Get over it." Skye held back a smile. She had never heard the boss get wound up over anything. Kind of comforting, really. The big Great Danes were impressive. Even to big horses. Then, something in the atmosphere changed. The girls walked outside for a moment. The wind had stopped. You could feel it. You could smell it. Petrichor. Just the smallest few drops of rain. And then the finale to a busy weekend. A glorious summer sunset. July 30 Before the heat of day settled in, Grace was taking horses out for exercise. Valiant was full of himself. Grace was loving his new halter and lead, made custom for him by Shandi Gabriiella Cristel Bech. He was waiting eagerly for the moment when she would release him. Her mind wandered in the relative cool of morning. This review coming up. Was that what the boss called it? What would that be about? How do you capsulize two years? No, three years really...almost four. There was a lot. Maybe that was a good thing...there was a lot of progress Grace could point to. Like for instance showing Valiant in western dressage. Her thoughts were interrupted by the boss. The water tank that fed the ranch was empty. There was water at the school but non at the barn, the stables or the house. So while troubleshooting got under way to find the problem, the girls pulled water from the school with a series of hoses to fill water tubs in the arena. And then bring down horses in small groups to get water. They brought mares with foals first, and then they just went down the line, trying to be as efficient as possible, hoping the problem would be resolved quickly. The Bask++ mare and her foal were doing well. (wearing another gorgeous halter by Shandi). Skye was looking past the water crisis. "Do you think it will be cool enough to ride this evening?" Grace was also eager to see if they could catch up with Rain Man, Storm and their new friend, the young dun. "I don't know if we'll have time to think about it. If we still don't have water by this evening, we're gong to be working all night to get the horses watered this way." Skye brought down two of the newer mares. Her fondness for the brown pinto was obvious. Grace chose her words carefully. If she understood correctly, there were some horses going up for sale...about ten, or maybe a dozen, and all the horses in the arena at the moment were among them. Probably not a good time for Skye to be getting attached to any new horses. "You already have a high-headed mare, Ladyhawk. And to her credit, she has a great head on top of that long neck." "Yeah but I think this girl would look fantastic all tacked up. And she'd probably be a ton of fun to ride." "What about the other mare?" Grace thought the grey and white paint - she was pretty sure it was a paint, anyway - would probably be the better performance horse. "She's twitchy! I like her though. Honestly I haven't spent much time with either one of them. Maybe I better do that." She was twitchy. Maybe that would be her name...Twitch. But she did have kind eyes and she was very well put together, and very pretty. July 31 Monday dawned gorgeous and ten degrees cooler. The hunt for wild horses was on. The girls traced their way through the rugged landscape where they had first seen the new dun horse. Skye's mount, the grey Morgan, was substantial, with well sprung ribs, a supple neck and head and a big, easy way of going. But the granite pass held no wild horses. They headed out behind the fire station. The grasses were tall, as tall as they had ever seen. They followed the creek bed, now dry. They saw no sign of horses. The dark line in the stone told of how high the water had been in the winter, and though they lived through the epic blizzard, it was hard to imagine this parched landscape under nine feet of snow. They went to the ammunitions bunker, not really expecting to find horses inside...but it was there, so... Skye's mount had been in the entertainment industry. He'd done jousting, worn costumes, performed tricks for cheering crowds. He was fine with the bunker, although turning around inside of it wasn't easy. It was just wide enough. Grace decided not to push Anamar much past the entrance. Although he was smaller and would have a far easier time getting turned around, Grace was just getting to know him. He seemed comfortable enough near the mouth of the cavernous building. That would do. "Let's go up the back side of the station before we head home" Grace suggested. "Okay." It was never too difficult to talk Skye into riding a little farther. Still, no matter where they went, there was no sign of wild horses. # June 10, 2023
Grace and Skye propped themselves up against the wall of the foaling stall. Finally. Almost fourteen days overdue, but here he was. They had missed the powwow. They had lost countless hours of sleep thinking the mare would foal at night. "He's got great color" the boss said softly. "When he took so long to get here I started looking up potential problems. Turns out Arabs don't usually have much trouble giving birth, but there is one terrible thing called Lavender Foal Syndrome, and he obviously doesn't have it." "He's definitely not lavender" Grace said. "Bay or black bay would be my guess." The mare was a good momma. Skye gave her some love. "What is Lavender Foal Syndrome?" Skye asked. "It's a hereditary neurological disease that cannot be cured. The first clue is the color of the foal - pale, from silver grey to lavender, but the real problem is they can't stand up or sit up or nurse. They don't recover from it" the boss explained. "Are all Arabs at risk for that?" Grace asked. "Apparently Egyptian Arabs are usually the ones who carry it. So then I had to scramble and figure out if *Bask++ was Egyptian. And he wasn't. He was Polish." The foal was trying to get those lanky legs under control, nearly landing in Grace's lap. "Well" Grace said, "He was worth the wait. He's gorgeous. Just like his mom." There were other new arrivals that Grace and Skye hadn't met yet. They were outside, enjoying some fresh air and sunshine. A lovely palomino mare and her mini-me foal. The feisty foal was robust and quite playful. And her mom was beautiful.. No wonder Grace had such a fondness for golden horses. "Oh I really like her" Skye said. "I can see that" Grace replied. "Think the boss will let me work with her?" "I don't see why not..." Back inside, Grace was hoping for a few hours' nap. It was a lovely day for riding, yes, but she wasn't very mentally alert, and days and nights of sitting in and around the foaling stall had left her a bit stiff. As she eased into bed she heard the laptop. An email notification. From the boss. "You ain't gonna believe this" Grace said aloud. "What?" Skye answered. "We need to get back to the barn." "Oh no. A problem?" "No, I mean I don't think so. I don't know. Come on, let's go." The boss was there with another mare, Wink My Way, an off the track Thoroughbred. "Surprise" the boss said softly. "Another late arrival, except this one was wholly unexpected." The foal was tiny. Well formed, healthy looking, but quite small. Skye edged a little closer. The mare appeared to be a bit surprised about the whole thing herself. Grace guessed it was probably her first foal. She also noted that the mare didn't seem to have very full teats, but hopefully they would in fact be full of cholostrum-rich milk, and the mare would find her maternal instincts, and the foal would be able to stand tall enough to nurse. They watched for some time. The colt was slow to his feet, and didn't stand long when he was able to get up. "I'll stay here with them for a while" the boss said. "You two go get some rest. Hopefully everything will work out okay in the next hour or so." "He's adorable" Skye whispered. "He is" Grace replied. "He looks good...he's just awful small. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how it goes." "I don't really want to leave" Skye said. "Well, let's give them a little space at least, and see how they work things out." June 11 Wink My Way's little colt wasn't doing well. He had nursed twice, with assistance, but reaching the mare's teats required a lot of effort, and her milk production was scant. With the road still closed, there was no way to get a vet to come up, and not much a vet could do that the girls couldn't. They tried one more time to help the colt feed. He just wasn't responding. Nursing was going to take supreme effort on the colt's part, and he didn't have it. "Let's get him to a vet" the boss said. "Do you want to take the mare too?" Grace asked. "No, I don't think so. If her milk comes in we'll take her down but unless it does, there's no point. The only other option we have is to see if the Bask mare will let this little guy nurse, but he's going to get trampled by her foal." "Can we bottle feed him from her milk?" "I tried last night" the boss replied. "He had a little, but not enough to get him up and moving around." It was a difficult awakening for everyone. The remoteness of the location compounded by the road closure meant that if anything went wrong, you were pretty much on your own. Most of the time nothing went wrong. But now there was a problem, and the clock was ticking. In their room, Grace and Skye launched into action. Skye took the dog bed, leaving its owner looking a little puzzled. Grace tore apart her bed, then realized putting her mattress in the back of the truck wasn't going to work. "You'll be up too high" she said. "The bed of the truck is shallow. This isn't going to work." "The buffalo robe will" Skye replied. The girls fuddled around with the truck while the boss made some phone calls. Ultimately, the buffalo robe proved the perfect gurney for the foal, whom they hoisted carefully into the truck bed. Skye settled herself in next to the foal. "You good?" Grace asked. "We're good." "Okay" Grace said. "Let's go over this one more time." "Okay" Skye replied. "It is totally illegal in the state of California for people to ride in the back of trucks on public roads, so once we get off the mountain I am to bury both of us in blankets and stay under the blankets until we get to the vet." "Correct. And if something goes wrong while we're driving?" "Bang on the window." "Yup. Okay. Let's do this." Skye peered at the flowers blooming in the mist-shrouded forest. They made their way down the mountain. June 17 All at once it was summer. Flies, sun, heat, all of it. The girls turned out a couple of mares including Wink My Way. She looked good, healthy, not in any discomfort. Her milk never did come in. "Is the colt coming back?" Skye asked. "No" Grace said. "Apparently one of the vet techs who has been bottle feeding him would like to keep him, and the boss agreed it would be best. She said it was kind of a rough awakening, having a horse that needed help and so many obstacles to getting it. She said the foal will be better off in veterinary care for now and in the future, in case there are any complications from the ordeal, or, you know, if there's something wrong with him. Something we don't know about." "I bet he grows up just fine" Skye responded. "He very well could." When the girls returned home they were greeted by a rather unsettling and puzzling scene. Grace's bed was in pieces on the floor. Literally. Lots of pieces. The sheets weren't ripped, the mattress was intact...it didn't make any sense. "I don't get it" Grace said. "I can't wrap my brain around this." The big dogs were acting a little odd. Guilty odd. Hobo was more or less hiding behind Baron who was more or less hiding from Grace. Which gave the pups the idea they should maybe hide too. Grace sat on the edge of the table, watching Baron and Hobo mill around. "Is there something we need to talk about?" she asked them. "Well" Skye said. "Thank goodness we have this wonderful bunk bed. Until we get your bed put back together, I'll be happy to give you the top bunk!" Grace pulled the laptop out from the wreckage. Skye turned to Ginger cat - "You tore that bed apart all by yourself and told the dogs we're going to think they did it, huh?" "Skye....we have more surprises in the barn" Grace said after a quick scan of her emails. Big surprises in the barn. Dogs. Six of them. "I found them in Upper Big Tujunga Canyon" the boss said. "I almost think I should call Search and Rescue and see if they can fly over and look for an accident. These are really nice dogs." "How did you get them all?" Skye asked. "They were hot, and their feet were burning on the asphalt, and they were thirsty, and there wasn't any shade. It was pretty easy. Driving with them all in the cab was not easy, but getting them in was a piece of cake." There were two very large Great Danes, a Dane mix, and three puppies of who knows what origin. Skye's attention shifted to the dog in the corner. He was at least part Dane, and his body language was mixed...he looked scared, but his tail wasn't tucked. He wasn't shaking. Just standing very still in the corner. Like maybe if he didn't move, no one would notice him. "These two are sure friendly" Skye remarked of the pure Danes. "They are" the boss said, "and really in good shape. Someone is missing them. These aren't throw away dogs." And then Skye noticed the rest of them. "This is a mutt mash" Skye giggled. "What do you suppose these guys are?" The boss shook her head. "I have no idea. They are young, and I don't think they are related to the big dogs." And when the dog in the corner turned around it became immediately clear that he was neither aggressive nor overly shy. But he was completely disoriented, confused, and entirely unsure what to do. "Oh by the way, when I first came home I went by your place to see if you could help me with these dogs" the boss said. "And I guess all of your dogs were inside and they about went crazy when they saw these two big girls. I heard something crash. I'm just hoping it wasn't a horse shaped something." "No, no horses were harmed" Grace said. Her lips parted again to tell the story of finding her bed completely destroyed...but then she stopped. No need for the boss to know about that. She'd just feel bad. They would figure the bed out on their own. "Oh my gosh" Skye said. "Six more dogs. I love them all." "Oh I don't plan on keeping them" the boss said. "I'm going to find their owners. I won't take them to a shelter, but I'm not keeping them." Grace turned her face away from the boss and smiled. She'd heard those words somewhere before. June 18 Grace's bed was all salvageable. Somehow. But the sun was shining and the wind was still and the air was deliciously rich with the smells of late spring. And how exactly the pieces went back together was a bit of a mystery anyway. Probably if the girls left, and then came back, the bed would still be right there. It was a much better day for getting horses out. Especially since Grace suggested Skye ride the big baroque Friesian sport horse. And so they took that ride Skye had envisioned and cherished the memory of. They took a small herd of horses across Chilao and through the creek. To have water in the creek in June was a blessing they needed to take advantage of, or as Skye liked to say, they needed to honor the water with their attention. Grace wasn't sure where she'd learned that way of thinking, but she liked it. The water was clear and just cool enough to be invigorating. But the girls and their horses weren't really all that welcome. A coyote made it clear with its constant vocalizations that this land was coyote land, exclusively. They had forgotten to bring the paso fino, Vivaldi, and they chose to take Charmer, the horse that had bolted last time they took him for a tour of Chilao. Skye hadn't recalled the path through the creek being so narrow. The calves they had driven through a month earlier were significantly smaller than horses though. At last, they came to the place where the creek widened, and the horses could find their own pace to get across. Charmer turned on the speed. Love Letters from Heaven gave him some competition. Outnumbered, the coyote eventually moved off. The horses stayed together for the trip back home. The girls kept an eye out for signs of the wild horses, but saw none. Grace quietly recalled the times before Petrichor had a herd of his own, and he would appear out of the rocks and chaparral while the girls were exercising the ranch horses. June 24 The big Coulter pine, the last one standing from a group of three that had succumbed to age and drought, was finished. The prescribed burn some seasons earlier foretold its weakness. Instead of being nourished by the ash and strengthened by the heat at its base, as a fire can sometimes do for trees, the already brittle tree was compromised. Nine feet of snow and six inches of rain came too late to save it. Skye penned her observations in a note to the Forest Service. "To the US Forest Service Chilao Station firefighters. Thank you for giving this tree a chance. We were sure hopeful it would pull through. But that doesn't look like it's going to happen. We understand why the tree will be felled. We know it is for our own safety, for everyone's safety. We will miss seeing it, like so many things that have gone away. But we understand. Thank you for all you do. With respect, Skye. " A breeze was blowing. The girls watched the boss leaving in the Pavement Queen, the big red truck, with the harlequin Great Dane in the cab. "Where is she going again?" Skye asked. "To a clinic at PetCo. She wants to see if those dogs are chipped so she can find their owners" Grace answered. "I think that dog is sitting on her lap! How did she get them all home in that truck?" "I think she told a little fib myself." Grace confided. "There's no way she got all those dogs in the front. I bet some of them went in the back and she drove real slow and prayed the whole way here." The girls took their own definitely-not-a-pavement-queen Jeep in the opposite direction. Skye stepped on something as she squeezed into the driver's seat. "Grace! Your long lost hat!" "No way...How in the..." "We thought we lost it at Willow Springs but I guess it blew down onto the floor and we never saw it." "It's tweaked! But I'm still so glad you found it." "Well" Skye replied, "in this wind you'll probably just lose it again." Skye was right. The afternoon breeze was growing stronger. The girls took a ride up the road a piece, below the quarry, to the sand bank. Grace marveled at the plants, like none she had seen before. Skye sunk her feet deep into the red-brown sand, the stuff they used to make their best arenas, and the stuff the wind was constantly taking away from them. This was the source of that wonderful sand. The gate to the hilltop above was open. The road beckoned. "Let's go!" Skye said. Grace pondered the idea. "I think the bosses' old Suburban would be better. We don't have much ground clearance in the front." Grace spotted something a little less challenging. The dry creek bed adjacent to the sand bar. The vegetation was lush, thick as they had ever seen. And despite Grace's best intentions to avoid deep sand, they did end up pushing their way through a little bit of it. While the wind had been blowing all afternoon, Skye had made a sort of display in her studio, showcasing an unintentionally growing herd of sculptures. KS Twister, a 3D printed resin in brilliant white. Grace marveled at his smoothness. Skye had forgotten his name and he wasn't a resin, but she was still completely smitten by the Criollo horse. "You know he's plastic, right?" "I do" Skye said, "but I just love him." "And I love this one too. She's a tank." Skye ran her hand over the grey draft horse. (Maggie Bennett's introduction to 3D printing horses that she graciously offered for free so hobbyists could get a hands-on feel of the 3D experience...by printing their own). "And I haven't forgotten you" she said to her NaMoPaiMo horse, still only partially painted. "I think about you all the time. I just don't know when that's going to translate into action." June 25 Sunday morning dawned cool and wind still. The sunlight quickly warmed the mountain air. The horses at the ranch had tipped the girls off to the presence of wild horses. But who. And from where would they emerge. On foot, the girls made their way to Mustang Rock. Soon they heard the clatter of hooves. Highlander's band. The girls stopped, waited. Highlander saw them. The mares saw them. They seemed relaxed, keeping their distance, but unruffled. Next, Petrichor's band. The bay mare, the two foals. The orphan black colt looked good. Highlander looked healthy. The girls edged closer, found a place to sit among the rocks, and waited. Petrichor's band fell in behind Highlander and started to move away. Grace's heart seemed to swell into her throat. Where. Where was Petrichor? And then he emerged. Gleaming, golden, glorious. He too was relaxed. More bothered by flies than the presence of the girls. Grace moved closer to him as he made his way toward her. He was going to come right up to her this time. She just knew it. It was maybe no more than a minute. She touched his face, gentle fingers running the length of his head, near his eye, along the contours of his muzzle. He flipped his head in a measured way to rid himself of a fly. His eyes were pools of calm amber. And then he was off again. Skye wondered how many people had such a bond with a wild stallion. Grace's relationship with that big horse was like the stuff of novels. And the horses disappeared back into the forest. # May 6, 2023
"Pick a really steady horse" Grace told Skye. "We're going to do some rugged terrain." Grace wasn't kidding. The mare Skye chose was one she hadn't ridden before, but the boss was gradually giving Skye more responsibility, and more horses to ride. The mare was level headed and sure footed, and older, so Grace chose their path with that in mind. Except for the crevice. She didn't remember it being so steep or so wide when they'd hiked it with all the dogs some time back. She recalled lifting some of the dogs over and it really wasn't that big of a thing. As long as you didn't look down. Because it was a long way down. Survivable yes, and you'd be able to walk out at the bottom of it if you were a dog or a human...hopefully...but from La Barilla's back it looked somehow much more intimidating. La Barilla felt her hesitation and halted. The rock face had excellent tooth. He wasn't going to slide in. He had room to go in any direction. Grace focused her intention on the other side of the crevice. After a few tentative steps at the edge, La Barilla went over. But Skye's mare wasn't having it. Period. She tried getting off and walking her over. Nope. Not happening. "I"ll ride around the way we came and meet you at the bottom" Skye said. "Sorry Skye. We can come back across if you want." Going up over the crevice would probably be less scary than what they had just done. "No, it's okay, I'll go back, you go down and around." At which point Grace realized she had never taken La Barilla this far from home without a riding companion right next to him. Her mount seemed to be reading her every thought, and bunched up underneath her a little bit. She focused again, weight down in the saddle, hands low and calm, and they made their ways in opposite directions. It was not long before they joined up again, on smoother ground. They continued away from the ranch. . "So what's next?" Skye asked. "Funny you should ask." High above, a pair of red tailed hawks circled. Fo r a moment Skye forgot about whatever was next, and watched them. The girls were both glad to leave the rocky country behind. Probably so were the horses. When they emerged from the rocks, the red and white gleam of the truck and trailer stood before them. "Oh boy!" Skye said. "You do have a big day planned for us." "Shi..." Grace exclaimed as La Barilla did a rather sudden side step and the saddle didn't exactly follow, and her foot came out of the left stirrup. "What?" "The cinch is loose. Really loose. It's all right. I just wasn't prepared for that." "See, if you rode bareback you wouldn't have to worry about things like that...Kidding, just kidding..." Grace dismounted without incident. Skye's mare was apparently trailer savvy. She just needed to know what side to load into. "Are you going to leave him saddled?" Skye asked as she pushed the side door open. "I am" Grace said. "I think. At least for now. It might keep him from hurting himself. Or not." From here forward, there was no script. Grace hadn't really thought the rest of it out too far. You couldn't. Things were going to go however they went. Skye's horse went in. Without too much drama, La Barilla also loved into the trailer. "Well...now what?" La Barilla had been in and out of the trailer before. But Grace had never actually trailered him anywhere. He was already at the ranch when she arrived. He seemed to be all right. A little stomping around, but he was more or less always stomping around and testing the world with his hooves. "Let's see if we can trailer them home. It's only about a mile. If it doesn't go well, we'll stop." Grace eased the truck forward, listening for the sound of flailing hooves or other thrashing. So far so good. Slowly, carefully, they made their way back. The last part of the drive was steep, but it was straight and pretty much level. Skye's mare unloaded quietly. La Barilla was a bit impatient to join her. Horse and rig appeared unscathed. "That was a good ride" Skye said. "That was awesome" Grace replied. "We should all get some extra treats for today." May 7 For Grace's next La Barilla adventure, she chose a much kinder, gentler terrain. It would involve a water crossing. But not here, where they first approached the creek. This was a little steep and a little deep. They could not escape the feeling they were being watched. It was quiet, they saw nothing, the dogs saw nothing...still. Grace found a gentler place to cross the water. Still a nice, wide expanse, but an easy entry and exit. La Barilla liked to splash the water, and that was fine. Skye's mule lapped at it, drank a little, dribbled a little. What a great mount. The boss was encouraging her to take out some of the horses - and in this case, a wonderful mule - that weren't getting as much attention as others. What a great feeling it was to be given that responsibility. "Woop!" La Barilla sank into the soft creek bed. There was a bit of splashing and a little more getting wet than Grace anticipated, but it was all good. They stomped their way across and back into the sea of fleeting green. The warm days were here now. The non-native grass would not be this verdant green for long. The dogs saw something. They were off. The girls watched. Between rock outcroppings, movement. The signature bound of a deer. A small deer. "Oh!" Skye exclaimed. Grace whistled for the dogs. They did not stop immediately. The girls kept their eyes trained on the rugged terrain, waiting to see another grey-brown bounding deer leap. But no! A coyote popped up from the thick brush and vanished into the rocks. Grace called the dogs back again. This time they responded. "I don't know what I just saw" Skye said. "When are deer born...July? I could have sworn that was a baby deer..." "I know. Well. We're being watched all right" Skye responded. The water crossing was one of three elements Grace had planned for La Barilla. The bunker was next on the agenda...the thing. Bunker, ammunition locker, whatever it was, old thing of a forgotten desert. "I love this mule" Skye chatted, noting La Barilla's apprehension. "He's not stubborn at all. He's pretty solid. Not too much seems to bother him. And he has a nice round back." Baron and Hobo had done the bunker before. White Dog...not so much. Skye rode about half way in. It was a long, deep structure and the back of it was dark. It was clean, there was nothing to worry about...Baron and Hobo had made sure of that. Now it was La Barilla's turn. He hesitated. Slowly, tentatively, put one hoof inside, then another. Inside. La Barilla wasn't comfortable. Grace decided not to push. He'd gone in. He'd done the big scary thing and didn't lose his head. There was enough room to turn around, but La Barilla did a sort of roll-back turn and his hindquarters touched the wall of the thing. He didn't like that. He came forward for a moment, and then instead of completing his turn, started backing out. Grace was thinking he was probably going to spin the moment he was clear of the door. But he didn't. He stepped back until he was well clear of the mouth of the bunker thing, and stopped. That was plenty good enough for Grace. "Another good ride in the books!" Skye said. "I was going to ask you if you wanted to ride him when we got back" Grace told Skye. "But I wanted to get that wet saddle off of him. And maybe we've done enough for one day." Skye watched the golden stallion, turned out in the arena to shake off the day's adventures. Wondered what it would be like to ride him. He was exceptionally good for Grace. Would he treat Skye as well? Perhaps she'd find out some day. May 8 The girls turned out a red bay arabian stallion. He was pretty. "Seems like we have the real typey little arabs and the great big tall arabs and not much in between" Skye mused. Grace nodded. "This might be the prettiest of the little typey ones." Grace nodded. They turned out a lovely golden mare. "She's a Morab right?" Skye was doing all the talking this morning. Grace was unusually quiet, but the question forced an answer. "Yes, three quarters Arabian." And then silence again. Skye knew sooner or later she'd spill the beans. Finally she did. "The boss wants to have a review." "A what? What's a review?" Grace took a heaving deep breath. "I'm not exactly sure. In the corporate world I am pretty sure it's a performance survey. How much did you sell, how much profit did you make the company, that kind of thing." "If that's the case" Skye replied, "we're probably in deep trouble." "Right? Let's hope it's not quite like that. I don't think I've added too much cash flow to the operation." Next came the big grill geldings, the twins. "But we still have these two" Skye said. "Cash flow can't be everything or she would have sold one of these guys. I know!" "What?" "We'll give her a review all right. Let's put on a show for her. Like remember the day that big batch of stallions came in and we did Circus Knie with them? Let's do something like that." Grace fell silent again. But in a good way. She kind of liked Skye's idea. It was a glorious day. They should have been out riding some more. But the boss wanted to adjust the arena lights again. So every time Skye brought a horse down, she went the long way, so she could watch the light changing on the trees. Gunner, glorious in his pearly cremelo coat, served as a reference for a light horse. 'This is as white as the lights go unless we pull the covers off" the boss said. "I think it's all the warm colors. The paneling, the rail, the sand. Grace do you think we should have painted the railing a different color?" Grace thought about it for a while. Recalled how much thought and effort went into warming up the cold white of the arena after it was first built. "No, I think you made appropriate choices with the color. I'd rather experiment with the covers over the lights." At least they got to be outside in between horses and adjustments. When it came time for a black horse, Skye brought down the old mare, but slowly, savoring the day. It was high spring. So many flowers, so many varieties of flowers, like the lupine...this one, Skye thought, ought to be called something like giant, spiney lupine. Blanket on, blanket off...the slightly warm light brought out the sunburnt hues in the black mare's coat. Next came Donkey in a colorful flower print blanket. "The lights are white" Skye said. "We just aren't getting the magic outdoor blue sky reflection." The colors were true though. Pink, red, green, blue, yellow... The last horse of the day, Precious. Grace spoke softly. "We have until some time in the fall to put something together regarding this review, and I like your idea Skye. Let's make a bit of a show out of it." Skye pretended to be speaking to her beloved mare. "All right. Let's do it." May 20, mid afternoon The thunder beings danced. It was hard to predict what they might do, and where, but Grace took a guess that they had enough time. Skye had been clamoring about wanted to drive a herd of horses along the creek and through Chilao again. But Grace thought it might be fun to drive the calves. And so they did. Twelve not exactly one after the other in an orderly fashion little calves. Soon it became evident that in some places, the water was higher than the calves were tall. They were apprehensive at first. Grace and Skye watched their little bodies slip deeper and deeper into the water. Probably everything would be fine. Probably calves could swim. The thunder clouds added a sense of drama and immediacy. Skye watched the lovely black raramuri criollo slip into deeper water. "Dear Boss" she chimed, "Do you think you could get us twelve more calves before October?" "Dear Boss" Grace responded, "We really thought they would float." "Dear Boss" Skye giggled, "This is not to be included in Grace's review." "Dear Boss" Grace replied, "This was totally Skye's idea, and I tried to talk her out of it." And after a little bit of tension and chaos, it turned out that they could in fact swim. And then, after a proper initiation to the creek, and a little swimming lesson, back toward the ranch again, more or less. The calves seemed curious about everything. Grace had that sensation again. The one that often came to her when they were riding in or near water or snow. Like living a dream, in a perfect world. "Yee-oooooh! Get along little doggies!" Skye tried to keep them together, and heading the right way. The distant thunder was a constant companion as they rode home, twelve calves still present and correct. And there were blue clouds. Skye's favorite. Back at home, they waited on the thunder, the storm presently west of them. No real telling which way it would swing. In the last hours of daylight Grace and Skye went out to greet two new arrivals. "Who are they?" Skye asked. "Couple of mares that need a new home. Someone with too many horses." Skye laughed. "There's some irony there you know." "Oh yes" Grace said, "I know." The mares took an interest in Skye as soon as she entered the arena. "They're pretty horses. Are we keeping them?" "That I don't know" Grace replied. They were pretty. A little on the wild side but nicely dressed. Skye made a mental note not to get too attached to them. Just in case they weren't staying. The thunderstorms continued Sunday, missing Chilao by about twenty miles and pouring down on the Acton area. The storm cell was powerful, but brief, the big puffy thunder beings blown out and gone by sunset. Still, it was worth a look. May 22 While the girls were chasing sunsets and dunking calves, the boss had been busy working on the arena. Where she found, tucked in a box, the lovely works of Katy Niles. Grace and Skye brought them in and went through each beautiful piece. "Weren't we supposed to hang these last year? And then things got kind of hectic and it never got done?" Skye asked. "Yes we were. But what we didn't realize is that all the works were still here." Skye put one after another on the easel. Each piece so unique. Landscapes and abstracts and abstract landscapes. "This year let's make sure we get them up in the arena." "Yes. Totally agree." As the day drew to a close, Skye strolled past the dumpsters. Where she noticed a very large poop. Made entirely of vegetation. It was thoroughly dried so it was at least a few days old. And it was by the trash cans so it could have been a bear. A really big bear. A really big vegan bear. She looked for tracks...any tracks...and found none. And the spring marched on. # April 1, 2023
The scenery sped by. Grace and Skye had never been to Acton, never been on Soledad Canyon before. The boss plied the highway at a leisurely pace with her old favorite truck. It was no pavement queen, but, she said, it made a fine camper once everything was emptied out of it. "Is that where we live?" Skye asked, pointing with her nose toward the snow-covered ridge. "Yup" Grace said. "We're on the other side of that ridge" the boss said, "and to the left of those big power poles." Grace noted the wide open spaces. Thick vegetation. Wild canyons. There wasn't much but open country between them, as the crow flies. There was actually quite a lot of open country, dotted with the occasional ranch or fence line. They reached their destination in the late afternoon. Willow Springs International Raceway. It was mostly silent now, the desert breeze making its way through low scrub, the sun moving across a wide open sky. The tracks were all behind locked gates, but there was plenty of open asphalt. As soon as the old truck was unloaded, Grace and the boss freed the Jeep from the tow hitch, and Skye took the wheel. It was a perfect place to get some driving practice. Grace was lost in thought. Thoughts about what she's just seen. The big, wild country between their home in Chilao and the hills of Acton, a land still at least partially devoted to a rural lifestyle. There was plenty of room for horses there. And some of those steep canyons might even boast year round water. The desert ground was hard, as if it had never rained. But it was also mercifully flat. Gradually Skye would relax, sit down in her seat, let her shoulders fall naturally. Driving the little Jeep was fun. April 2 Grace took the wheel for the track day. The girls didn't have a lot of experience with motorcycles, so the whole of it was new and exciting. The smells, the sounds, the beautiful machines, the leather riding suits and shining helmets. Everyone seemed happy and friendly. Many people had dogs with them. "You know" Skye said, "if we had a tent, we could do stuff like this more often." Grace was quiet for a long time. "If we had a tent..." Grace trailed off mid-sentence. And the girls were not the only ones with an old Jeep. The day had gone by fast. At some point, the wind claimed Grace's black hat for good. When it was over, the truck was packed back up, the Jeep hooked up behind it, and the journey back into the snow line began. Grace's head swiveled from side to side as the boss drove. So much open country. What if. What if the wild horses came from this place. April 3 Monday dawned cold and threatening to snow in Chilao. Then the wind picked up. The girls were a little worn down from the weekend, and decided to turn out some horses in the relative warmth of the indoor arena. "Funny" Grace said, "When I made these ponchos they were really just to hide your Christmas present under. I had them draped over the saddle trees. And now we've worn them all winter long, and it's spring, and we're still wearing them. When are you going to start working on those saddles?" Skye let out a deep, long sigh. "I have...artist's block. Or something. I don't know. I can't seem to get things started, or finished. I want to, but then...I think I'm scared of the saddles. I don't want to screw them up, you know?" The girls watched the twin grulla horses. "There's still two of them" Skye noted. "Did the boss decide not to sell the lighter one?" "I don't know" Grace said. "She hasn't said a word about it, and I'm sure not going to bring it up." Skye went to see the old Coulter pine. It seemed to be clinging to life by a thread. It was a thin thread. But there was new green. It was sparse, it was tenuous...but there was green. There was a little bit of hope left. Maybe, just maybe it could recover. April 12 Skye found Grace in the tack room. She was making quite the mess. "So" Skye questioned. "I guess the calla lily experiment is concluded?" "Yup." Grace answered. "I can't take it any more. I quit." "Can we at least keep those two giant ones?" Grace really wanted to say no. "Even though we now have until October to see if they will bloom in pots, I don't think I can stand another minute of lugging them around trying to find the right place for them. They dry out, then they freeze, they get too much water, not enough water...we tried." "The boss asked me if I wanted to do another guest blog on the website." "Skye that's very cool. What will you write about?" "The Raramuri criollo. Well, the criollo cattle in general and then specifically, the Raramuri. I wish I knew where Mikki was these days, she could probably help me. But there's a ton of stuff on the internet. I think I can do it." "Yes you can" Grace affirmed. "Maybe we'll chase some calves around this weekend and see if we can inspire and inform your creativity. If I let you ride Cookie will you let me get rid of all these dang plants? I won't burn them at the stake or anything. I'm going to...liberate them. Yes, that's it. I will return them to freedom." Skye laughed. "I'll think about it..." April 14 "The boss helped me make these posters" Skye said. "We struggled with the words a little, because we don't really own the mare, but I wanted to do something." Grace studied the poster for a few moments. It was a lovely image of Petrichor, the pale mare and her foal, taken on the last day they had seen her. "I think it's good" Grace finally responded. "I mean, it assumes someone has the pale mare, but any other consequence is out of our control, so I think it's fine. I think she was probably further away than one hundred yards from the ranch when we saw her last though." Skye looked perplexed. "You think?" "It's not a big deal. You get the idea. This horse is missing and we want her back." "It's still light out" Skye responded. "Let's go out and calculate the distance." The air was heavy with moisture. It was more than a hundred yards. And that was okay. Pretty soon the girls were entranced by the green. Green grass, green trees, everything so vibrantly green, the moist earth drawing close the moisture in the air, the dampness setting on them, invisible and yet present. The sound, fainter now but nonetheless omnipresent, of seasonal streams everywhere. They heard a sound. Skye jumped up and spun around. They scanned the landscape. And then they appeared, quite close. Crazy's band. The twin foals were both in good shape. Crazy saw the girls, but didn't respond except to do a little more head shaking and hoof stomping than he normally did. They were going to wherever they went for the night, wanting for neither food nor fresh water. And the night came softly. April 15 Grace got her wish. Apparently the boss had connections. Arena sand from the quarry up the road had been delivered. The load was apparently thirty per cent water and the truck stopped twice on the way down to tilt and drain. But there it was. Arena sand. It just needed to dry. The boss also got a new lighting system for the indoor arena. She asked the girls if they could bring out a couple of black horses. Of course the problem with black horses is you have to watch your camera metering. But as far as the lights working, it appeared they did. Grace turned loose a particularly proud, lithe Thoroughbred stallion. "Oh, who is this handsome boy?" "He's got the best name" Grace said. "My Darkest Hour." "I bet the old black mare looked like him in her day." "I bet she did." And it was laundry day, although Skye isn't sure there was any saving the white shirt. It had stains she didn't even recognize. The boss was on a role. When they got done with the arena lights there were a few hours of daylight left. She asked if Grace and Skye could help her get a few horses photographed. The first one was a pony named Joey...and Joey hit the dirt and rolled before anyone got a picture. "Ooooh! Joey! Why? Why?" Grace laughed. "I think it's a pony thing" she said. "They seem to have a special sense of humor." Grace got Vinnie to take a bow. The boss was impressed with the bow but not with her pictures. "He's so hard to photograph" she said. "I never quite get that shimmer in his coat. But you did a great job grooming him." Grace wasn't sure she liked his ribbons colors. But it sounded like this might not be the last photo session with Vinnie. Last horse for the day. Another looker. Wild Bill, a gift from Carissa Kirksey. "So" Grace said to Skye, "Tomorrow morning let's get up really really early, and we'll go out and play with the calves before the boss can catch us and give us another all day chore list." Skye grinned. "Okay." April 16 The alarm went off at 5 AM, but Grace silenced it. The girls had been up watching programs until the wee hours of dawn. A little after 6 AM they began to stir. First slowly, then more quickly. But the dawn came even faster. Grace managed to break the buckle on her chaps, and then they could not find Cookie's bridle. The one they put on her was made for a draft horse and barely clung to her head. They turned the calves loose, and watched as they immediately went to the eastern ridgeline...a rocky ground wholly unsuitable for stock work. "Just go easy" Grace said. "I guess our goal will be to get the calves out of here and on to softer ground." "What if we split them?" Skye said. "You take six, I take six." It sounded so simple. "I'll take the slow six" Grace said. "You are on a real cow pony. I'm on a horse that may have never seen a calf before." So far so good. The sound of rocks against Cookie's hooves was unsettling, but she seemed able to navigate them. "I thought cows just followed the leader" Skye said, as her six calves continually proved to have independent ideas about which direction they should be going. The reins on the drafter bridle were very long, and she mostly didn't need them, but they were cumbersome. Dawn's light spread across the landscape. One calf back in the bunch, and another one veers off in the wrong direction. Separating the group was easy. Keeping them that way was proving challenging. Just as the sunlight crested the ridge, Grace lost two of the slow calves. The two fast slow calves. They joined Skye's loosely knit group. La Barilla was more or less getting the idea, but his style was a little different. When a calf tried to break rank, he threw a strike with a front hoof. And for the most part, it worked. "All right" Grace said, "Enough separation anxiety. Let's get them out of here." And once the calves were all together again, they did more or less move as a unit. Or at least, in the same general direction. A gentle breeze swayed Skye's shirts, swinging from hangers on the arena fence. It seemed like a good idea at the time. But the next thing she knew, Grace was turning out horses. Skye scurried to grab her shirts as Anamar got ready to kick up some dust. The grey seemed to have a fondness for Skye. He certainly wasn't afraid of flapping shirts. "So I have a plan for next weekend" Grace said. "Let's have it" Skye replied. "Next weekend, let's do a traditional regalia ride." Skye smiled. Bewildered. "Okay I don't have anything to wear but we'll get Anamar in his traditional tack and we'll get you on a horse in traditional native regalia. Skye smiled, and remained silent. "I know, your saddle isn't done. It's okay. I have a plan." What that plan might be, Skye couldn't even begin to imagine. "Okay. Let's do it." April 22 Skye stood looking at her beautiful dresses. "I'm kind of scared to put on the buckskin dress" Skye said. "I don't want to get it dirty." "If you're going to try riding in a cloth dress, I'd say wear this one. I think the extra leg room will come in handy." Skye was excited. She still had no idea what Grace had up her sleeve, but she was excited. "Did you find anything to wear for riding Anamar?" Grace shook her head. "Not that I have anything even if I did find some reference photos, but so far I've not seen any traditional women's regalia for him." Grace had also thought it might be fun to watch the meteor shower tonight, and let Skye try to get some pictures. The boss had done a pretty fair job on a whim just yesterday evening. But it wasn't looking hopeful. The girls watched the sky as it filled quickly with what people referred to as chemtrails, a word which never failed to register emotional and opinionated responses. "Do you think it'll blow away by tonight?" Skye asked. Grace paused and looked around before answering. "I'm thinking X marks the spot and today it's our turn. It looks like they're just getting started. We could be under a glowing white sky by noon and a night devoid of stars entirely. But we'll see, I guess. Skye didn't recognize the horse she was about to ride. He was a solid black quarter horse gelding. And he was tacked up in a lovely, older plains saddle and beaded bridle. This was a surprise indeed. "You good?" Grace asked. "Yeah I'm good!" Her feet didn't quite make it into the stirrups. It was close though. She could do one stirrup or the other, both not both at the same time. The saddle was big and roomy. Grace handed her the blanket that would make everything look proper and acceptable. Anamar was ready to go. Grace watched the sky. She was almost positive there would be no star gazing tonight. No meteor shower, no mountain magic. Although Skye was mostly absorbed in her first ever ride in regalia, she saw the look on Grace's face. She looked up too. "You know what's ironic?" Grace said. "What?" "I'm pretty sure today is 'Earth Day.' " Skye's mount was calm and steady. Anamar was animated. "Is this the first time you've taken him out?" Skye asked Grace of Anamar. "It is. I really like him. He's very alert but also sure of himself. No hesitation." Skye imagined herself in a time long ago, riding across the prairie, through mountain passes, seeking out what wild foods she might harvest. "This is a big saddle" Skye said out loud. "It is" Grace said. You could carry a baby or a child in that saddle with you. Or...whatever." Grace was probably right. It was just about noon and the sky was nearly transformed from blue to white. "So if we are so woke" Skye questioned, "how come we can't talk about this? The sky. I mean we watched it. These aren't clouds. This time for sure I know you aren't crazy. We watched a blue sky get transformed and we watched commercial jets fly through that same sky and their vapor trails dissipated. This is not a natural phenomenon and it covers a whole region." "Because we aren't that woke" Grace said. "If humanity was all that woke we wouldn't kill each other over religion or racial differences. If we were woke we would be engaging in global environmental restoration and we would go about progress thinking of long term impact. People would care more about the quality of air and water and less about fashion and make up. Now as for the sky that's a slightly more complicated issue. Two things are happening. Most of the world's population is bent down over their jobs all week, and then consumed with whatever they do to forget about their miserable lives over the weekend. Or they are working seven days to feed their kids. They don't look up. People haven't seen the sky in a long time. The other thing is denial. We know that some day in the near future humans are going to try to colonize Mars. But we don't want to believe under any circumstances that something is going on right now in the skies above us. No way. Not possible. There's something deep and psychologically terrifying about that. People don't want to be woke about that. Let's argue over language, or bar soap versus liquid...or anything. Just don't tell me the sky is being manipulated." Skye thought about those things for a little bit. She thought about the times she'd spent off the mountain. Tried to think if she looked at the sky, except here, being on the mountain. On the mountain it was different. For one thing, the sky was big, and everywhere. For another, what you paid attention to was different, and more immediate. A sound in the bushes meant something and you better look. Around people and cities there's the whole created world. Traffic, shopping, eye candy, small talk, being proper, choices, needing money for everything...the sky didn't figure too prominently in that world. You would have to really focus and look, and pay attention over time to realize how it got cloudy. They rode in silence for a little while. Their shadows grew soft, the sunlight filtered. There were few flowers blooming, save for the filigree, but there would be more flowers soon. Skye tried to find her way back into her happy dream place. It took a few moments, but eventually the gentle sway of the black's smooth walk and the rhythmic sound of the horses' hooves on the not exactly soft soil worked its magic, and she let go of the sky above for a little bit, and focused on the view from between her horse's ears. There was a sudden and immediate shift in awareness that brought Grace out of her head and into the moment. She and Anamar spun around as one. They faced Petrichor and his band. Skye watched the stallion and forgot everything previous. She imagined writing a blog about the morning. She composed it in her mind as a gust of wind tussled her blanket and tugged at her hair. "My first ride in regalia. To be true, it was pretty much one long wardrobe malfunction. First there was the matter of getting situated in my ribbon dress. And my moccasins coming untied again and again. The saddle itself was adorned with an aged wool blanket that seemed to come to life as the day grew warm. The wind and sunlight felt delicious on my bare legs, which would not have been showing except for the trouble I had keeping the modesty blanket arranged. And then, just as I was trying to get all these things under control and look like a proper lady...a wild stallion appeared!" Petrichor looked fit. There had probably never been better pasture in the Angeles than there was this spring. Grace kept Anamar gathered under her, and for the first time ever hoped Petrichor would keep his distance. It was still just the bay mare and the two foals, her own and the orphaned black foal. She waited for the appearance of Highlander and his band, but Highlander never came. Petrichor and his band lingered only for a moment, then turned westward, disappearing into the jagged landscape as suddenly as they had appeared. The rest of the girls' ride was uneventful. Grace had been a few hours off on her prediction. When they returned to the barn at 3 PM, the sky was a mass of white, as far as they could see. The juxtaposition of dreams and reality, past and present had been a little difficult for Skye. Still. There was something radically different about the ride they had just taken. She would need some time to process all the things. April 29 The day was warm and glorious. The girls waited for the wind to die down. As the afternoon wore on the wind rose and fell, took long pauses between breaths, but never really stopped. And wind made it hard to control horses. So they made the mutually unpopular decision to turn the ponies out in the indoor arena. Particularly since they'd never taken the ponies - as a group - out on the property, or through Chilao. It was definitely on the to-do list. Joey, the smallest of the ponies, was quick to roll. Surprising, with so many other ponies in the arena. Grace watched a pretty bay riding pony interacting with one of the welsh type mares. She was sure he was a gelding. His expression wasn't convincing somehow. Although big and sturdy, the Chincoteague foal was a bit shy. Skye was entranced with a pinto mare. Whether or not it was smart was debatable, but Skye decide to ride Mischief. So far, so good. "Eighteen!" Grace counted. "That's a lot of ponies! I think we're at capacity." Except for the mares with foals, Skye tried to get them all moving in the same direction. "You better stay on" Grace said. "There's a lot of tiny hooves in here." "I'm ready this time" Skye said. "I'm either gonna grab a hand full of mane or just jump off." In the last hour of daylight, the winds lessened, the gusts becoming an occasional breeze. And finally, as the sun set, it was wind still. Skye's beloved tree was probably not going to make it. The boss had taken a pictures of it dappled with snow, and Skye thought she might like to try and paint that scene. It wouldn't be too long before the firefighters felled it, leaving it to lie next to its sibling, collapsed onto the ground. Aerosol particulate refraction made a disorderly rainbow in western sky. Home at day's end, Grace and Skye examined the American Saddlebred bust. Skye had done a little more work on her NaMo horse. "I can see lights and darks emerging" Grace said. I think you're going to survive this." Dawn, April 30 The girls rode the eastern ridgeline on La Barilla and Ladyhawk. Birdsong filled the air and dewdrops clung to the vegetation. The sky grew ever lighter at the sun's approach. They left the race property, crossing the road toward the fire station, dipping down into the tributary stream above Mustang Rock. The sound of hooves striking the occasional rock hidden in the soft sound, La Barilla pawing at the water, raven's call just above. But not a word out of Grace. Skye couldn't take the silence any more. "What are you thinking about?" she asked Grace. There was a long, serious pause before she answered. "Coffee." # March 18, 2023
It was a good day for riding, no excuses necessary. The grass was as lush as the girls had ever seen it. There was water everywhere. And both of them wanted to look...however futile the search might be...for the missing wild horse that they called the pale mare. Ladyhawk was giving Skye quite a ride. She was snotty and prancy and full of herself. And the dogs were on to something. Highlander's band emerged from the remaining snow field. The girls rarely had the dogs along when they went looking for wild horses, and Highlander didn't look too pleased about them. Grace called the dogs back. Petrichor's band came into view across the swollen creek. The black foal, presumably now an orphan, looked no worse for the ordeal. The bay mare, accustomed to the girls now, paused before turning away from them. Petrichor held ground on the creek's edge, watching Grace, Skye and the dogs, and watching his herd. Highlander was approaching. The bay mare moved to greet them. Grace and Skye suspected she was related to the dun mare, as they frequently ignored the rants of their respective stallions to greet each other. Petrichor was not ranting this time. Just swiveling his ears, swishing his tail and occasionally stamping his hooves in the water. Grace watched Skye's horse dancing along the creek's edge. "I think Ladyhawk has a crush on your stallion" Skye said. "I can't blame her" Grace replied softly. "Let's hope she doesn't pitch you in the creek and go join his band." Highlander and his mares made their way across the creek. The girls watched quietly. There was a lot of behavior happening that they hadn't seen before. First of all , the two small bands were almost always close together, but not this close. Secondly, the dun mare had an attitude, and she should have been the lead mare, but the new pale horse...grey or palomino or palomino going grey, they weren't sure what to call her...was the first one to go into the creek. Whatever her color, she was a big girl, well put together. "She's a...dunalino with the grey factor...maybe" Skye mused softly. Grace wasn't really sure. Highlander was the last to cross. The stallions stayed apart. The mares mingled as they chose. The bay mare seemed to have more or less adopted the black foal, or perhaps it just appeared that way because the black foal was never far from her and her own filly. That was natural. What else was he going to do? There was no fighting over mares. Just some stamping and snorting, head tossing and eye rolling. From a distance. The girls could see the shadow of the black foal's last few ribs. They sought to recall if he hadn't always been on the lean and lanky side. In any case, he did not appear to be suffering. The girls put some distance between themselves, the creek and the two bands of horses. The cloud cover grew ever thicker as they watched the horses interact. Back inside, Hobo and Skye exchanged greetings upon the girls' return. Hobo had a gash in the pad of his right front paw. It was healing quickly, but home was a better place for him today. Skye was surprised to turn around and find Grace with covers pulled over herself. "Are you okay?" "I just have a chill" Grace responded. She had a bit of a sore throat too, but perhaps it would pass. "Did you hear about all the damage to the highway from the last big rain?" "I did" Grace said. "And there's more rain coming." "Are you sure you're okay? The dogs don't seem to think you're okay." "I think they just want the nice soft blanket. And the pillows...and for Baron to get off the bed because he's too big..." But then, maybe Grace had the right idea. It was nice and toasty under the covers. March 19 It wasn't supposed to start raining for at least another day. Grace and Skye hauled in senior feed and bedding straw, and as they approached the ranch, so did the rain. What an amazing winter it had been. Rain and snow right into spring. The wind blew and the chill of it turned the runoff into ice. The going would be slow, so the girls started early. It was noon by the time they'd finished the second trip. The winds had stopped, the sun was out, the roads were no longer icy...and their first load of live cargo had for some reason chosen to head for the worst of the mud. Grace followed them, cautiously as she could, but when they got into the deep mud it was hard to navigate. They hit something that jarred the trailer hard. They heard a metallic clanking sound. "Can you see anything?" Grace asked. "No, I mean, the trailer is still following us, I see that..." Grace tried to think of a comeback. They hit another bump. "This is good enough. I'm stopping here." Seven calves fit in the first trailer load. The remaining five wasted little time trying to catch up with them. They were clean when they went into the trailer. That was short lived once they got to Chilao. They seemed to love the water. Despite being a very colorful bunch, Grace and Skye quietly observed that in a few moments, they seemed to blend into the landscape. Perhaps because all it took was a few moments to get covered in mud...but even the mostly white ones become one with the scenery. Some of them it was easy to tell who their moms were. Some of them not so much. "I can guess who some of them are...I mean whether or not they have Hereford moms" Skye said. "Do you remember who is who?" "Pretty much" Grace said. The black one was a pure criollo. No guesswork there. "This..." Skye's voice trailed off. "What?" "This is so good. This just feels...I don't know. Right. Good. I don't know how to explain it." The calves explored the back pasture, the snow quickly giving way to mud and seasonal streams. Skye was pretty sure the grey was pure criollo. She couldn't exactly articulate why. The girls watched the calves, mostly in silence. The Criollo, and particularly the Raramuri, were better adapted to arid environs than the more common European breeds like Hereford and Angus. Crossing them was not as ideal as having pure Criollo cattle, as the behavioral traits that made the Criollo a better fit for the western landscape might get lost in the mixing. But their weren't many Criollo cows in southern California. "Do you want to go for a hike?" Skye asked. Grace was pretty much exhausted from the driving. And it wasn't over yet. They still had to get to dry ground. It took her a long time to answer. "Maybe." Grace hadn't really wanted to go for a walk. She was tired. But the day was glorious and there would be plenty of time for sleeping later. Before long, they heard horses. Skye couldn't quite see, and Grace was silent. Crazy's band. And they were close. Grace's eyes widened. Skye knew something was happening but she had no idea what. She moved, slow and silent, up the rock face. They had never gotten this close to Crazy before without his awareness. Skye could see the mare they called Lady Godiva. They were down-wind of the horses. She crept a bit higher up the rock. Babies! And it looked like they both belonged to Lady Godiva. Roans, both of them. And the smaller one looking an awful lot like Crazy. The bay roan foal was quite a bit smaller than the blue roan. But no less lively! Crazy went into high alert mode. Grace nudged Skye and pointed down the rock face. Both girls ducked down as quietly and quickly as they could. Crazy was too close, and with brand new foals. Not a good time to test his patience, which he did not appear to have much of. Skye couldn't see again. Grace got ready to switch places with her. And then a gust of wind sent her hat flying. They froze for a moment. The hat fell into the snow, and stopped. The horses passed right in front of them. The foals enjoyed a frolic in the snow under the watchful eye of their herd. The horses moved past them, the girls remaining undetected. "Well" Skye said, "are you glad we went for a walk?" Grace laughed. "I suppose." # |