Changing Ways

Chapter Nine

CHAPTER NINE

"Robin! Come down here! I need to show you something." Mom calls. Groaning, I kick off my heavy brown duvet cover and roll off of my mattress. My back hits the wooden floor with a heavy thud.

"Ow," I grumble and stumble down the stairs. "Where are you?"

"In the driveway hon," She yells back. Rubbing my eyes, I step out of the house. "Aren't they gorgeous?!"

"What? Oh-" Startled, my eyes make contact with the two horses standing patiently beside my mom. On the left, is a tall chestnut gelding and on the right is a medium sized black mare.

"Your Dad's friend gave them to us." She smiles and rubs the mare underneath her forelock.

"Are they named?" I raise my eyebrows and step closer to the gelding. He eyes me cautiously, then butts my chest with his large nose. "Well, they're certainly friendly!"

"Yes, they are named," Mom says. "This is Hecate," she indicates towards the black mare, then points to the gelding. "And that is Rebel."

"Rebel, Sage, Havoc, Hecate Rene and Harley. Perfect," I smile, and scratch Rebel on his neck. "Want me to bring them up to the barn and settle them in?" I offer.

"Would you? Thanks Robin." Mom says appreciatively.

"No prob. Come on guys," I take the lead ropes from Mom and give them a slight tug. The two horses follow behind obediently. "This is it! Your new home." I put them in stalls next to each other, and they spend the next fifteen minutes worth their noses pressed against the bars, sniffing each other.

"They're cute," Kaya walks in with her arms crossed snugly over her chest. "Where are they from?"

"Not sure really," I shrug. "Mom said one of Dad's friends just gave then to us."

"Really? Thats strange," Kaya muses and strokes Hecate's dainty nose. "Do they have names?"

I step out of Rebel's stall and loop his lead around my hand in a neat loop. "Yep. This guy here is Rebel," I point to Rebel, then to Hecate. "And that little lady is Hecate."

"Want to try them out?" Kaya asks eagerly.

"Hell yeah!" I whoop and sprint back down to the house to search for two spare saddles.

"Whoa, woah, woah Robin! Slow it down." Mom orders when I come running into the house.

Breathing heavily, I screech to a stop. "Do you know where we might have any extra saddles?"

"Hmmm...." Mom considers for a minute. "Why don't you check the feed room? We might have some extra saddles there." Nodding my thanks, I rush back out the door accidentally slamming it behind me. When I reach the feed shed, I throw open the door and jump inside. Flicking on a light, I suing my eyes, and search around. After limiting up countless bags of empty feed bags, I find two saddles that are in tact with a cinch and everything.

Coughing, I wipe of the dust off the saddles with my sleeve and lug them back up to the top of the hill. "Will these do?" I set them down on a small wooden saw horse stationed by the door of the lesson horse barn.

Kaya walks over to inspect them. "Yep. They look like they're in pretty good shape."

"Here then, you take this one," I hand her the larger of the two. "This should fit Rebel." Silently, we tack up the horses. When I go to put the bit in Hecate's mouth, the mare violently jerks her head up and backs up quickly , causing her to crash into the back wall of the stall.