Melting Snow

Creation Saturday: A Working Horse Ranch

Saturday, August 19, 2017
The "Blogging Circle of Friends "  prompt for DAY 1738
It's Creation Saturday. Create something with these words: wise, flimsy, martingale, humanly, approximation, fire.

A Working Horse Ranch

"Rufus," Rita was standing outside the stall watching her cousin attempt to saddle Firebrand. "Do you need any help with that?"

"No!" He glared at her before picking up the standing martingale he had tossed on the ground a few minutes before. He approached the horse, who backed away from him. "What I need is for this stupid gelding to stand still."

She shook her head, while attempting, unsuccessfully, to hide her amusement. "Cousin, Firebrand isn't a gelding! He's a stallion, and if you can't tell a gelding from a stallion you damn well shouldn't put a saddle Firebrand."

She opened the stall door, walked in, and rubbed Firebrand between his ears to calm him. Then she took the martingale from Rufus, and pushed her cousin out of the stall. "Go down the third stall on your right. That mare is Miss Lilly, she is the gentlest horse we have. She will let anyone ride her with or without a saddle."

"Relax, Firebrand," she said, hanging the martingale on a hook. "I'm not going to ride you, and I'm not going to let Rufus ride you." She rubbed the blaze on the stallion's forehead. "what I am going to do is put you in the corral with the new mare Papa bought." She opened the stall door, and held it open for the horse. "He thinks the two of you will produce some good looking colts and fillies." She ambled toward the stable's exit with the stallion following her.

As she stood outside the corral watching the two horses get acquainted, Rufus came out of the stable leading Miss Lilly. "Aren't you going to ride Firebrand?"

"No," she turned to face her cousin. "I'm going to let Firebrand do what every good stallion is supposed to do." Rita laughed at the perplexed look on Rufus' face. "I'm going to let him breed that mare." She point to the gray horse standing next to Firebrand.

"Do you want me to saddle another mare for you?"

"No, thank you, Rufus," she rubbed Miss Lilly on the forehead as her cousin mounted. "I have too much work to go riding this morning. Pa wants me to write an approximation of our winter hay cost, and The Wise Carpenter is dropping by to give us an estimate about redoing the kitchen cabinets. Ma decided that the old ones are too flimsy to hold the new china set she got for Christmas." She sighed, "I, also, have to clean the bunkhouse in preparation for the new winter hired hands."

"Can you do all that in one morning?"

"I'll do what is humanly possible." She patted his hand, "If I don't get everything finished before you get back, you can help me clean the bunkhouse. Pa and Ma won't be back with the new hires until Monday or Tuesday."