Maddy Greene has been working to become a winning professional hunter rider her whole life and now it seems everything is falling into place. With a new farm, and a slew of talented horses, what more could she need? But Maddy will learn the hard way...
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Simply Stellar aka Stella (left) and Neverland aka Peter (right)
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The next week flew by. I spent my time working all the horses to prepare them for HITS including my two new client horses. The mare was a beautiful 12-year-old dapple grey Holsteiner named Simply Stellar or Stella. She had been showing in the 3'6 Performance hunters and hunter derbies. The gelding was a 5-year-old bay Hanoverian named Neverland or Peter. He had been imported only two months ago and was ready to start showing in the 3' green hunters. They were both quite talented and sweet although Peter had a bit of a refusing problem, he would hopefully improve with experience.
I had been doing my best to distract myself from Cal and his injury. The ultrasound had confirmed Dr. Altman's devasting news. Cal had a small tear in his suspensory ligament putting him out of work for at least six months. It ruined all of our plans to compete this year but even worse, we didn't know if he would make a full recovery to be sound to ride again. It was a big blow to me as I had never experienced something like this.
"Maddyyyyyy," Caitlin's voice pulled me from my thoughts.
"I'm sorry. I zoned out," I chuckled. "What did you say?"
"I said do you want Chloe and Stella in the two-horse trailer and then the boys in the four-horse trailer?"
"Oh yeah, that sounds great. I'll grab Stella and you can get Chloe."
Caitlin and I walked into the barn and each grabbed a mare. Stella was patiently waiting with her black standing wraps on. I clipped a lead rope on her halter and led her out of her stall. Caitlin walked ahead with Chloe and we prepared to load them.
Caitlin walked Chloe up the trailer with ease and I locked the butt bar behind her. Caitlin finished tying her up and then jumped out the emergency door to come to help me load Stella. I had been told by her owner that she was quite the pain to load. With a few swats of a lead rope from Caitlin and me urging her with treats, we managed to get her loaded.
"Okay so you'll get the boys and I'll meet you there?" Caitlin said. "Barn 4 right?"
"Yep I'll probably be 20 minutes behind you," I said. "You can go ahead and bed the stalls down and fill water buckets."
"Aye aye captain," she laughed and fake saluted.
I laughed as I watched her hop in her truck and pull out with the mares. I waited to make sure drove away safely before turning on my heel to get the geldings.
I grabbed Olly first giving him a kiss on the nose before leading him out of the barn and onto the trailer. He immediately began munching on his hay and I sighed. I had received a call from someone the other day who had seen him show and was interested in purchasing him for a junior rider. It was a perfect home for him but I hadn't even thought of selling him yet or even at all. I had really come to love him and so had Caitlin. She was even showing him this weekend along with Chloe.
