Bloodless Day

In Which stuff Happens

Jack was there.

He leaned against the fence, outside of the paddock, shading his eyes from the sun. "What are you doing back here?" He asked conversationally, watching the stallion with a thoughtful frown. "He's a pretty good mover."

Behind me, I heard Bloodless Day stop and felt his eyes boring into my back, considering. "I'm trying, uh, join-up."

"I've heard about that. Never felt much use for it though... is that the new horse?"

Footfalls rang in my ears as Bloodless Day stepped towards me, curious. I choked back a laugh. Jack thought he was a different horse! A little haircut went a long way. "No. It's Bloodless Day." I answered, slowly reaching behind me. A soft muzzle touched my palm.

Jack snickered. "What's his name? Why are you in charge?"

"No one else wanted him." I said simply as the energy behind me spiked. Bloodless Day had caught sight of the jockey. Before he could attack, I bent down and retrieved the halter, slipping it over his muzzle and holding it by the cheek.

"You can't be serious!" Jack exclaimed. I turned back to him to find that his expression had darkened. "He's dangerous!"

"Does he look dangerous?" I snapped, releasing BD's halter as I remembered what was next. Following. I jogged away, the stallion trotting after me. Each step was firm and relaxed, but when I circled around the paddock towards where Jack had been, I saw that he had hopped the fence and was standing, tensed, ready to rescue me. "Jack, honestly, I'm safer than you are."

No sooner had the words passed my tongue than BD caught sight of Jack and flattened his ears, eyes rolling back in his head. My hand shot out and caught his halter. Constricted, the stallion squealed and struck out with a hoof, but I moved deftly to the side and led him forwards, clucking my tongue instead of pulling the halter to encourage him.

"How'd you get him this way?" Jack asked, amazed. "He looks so different with his coat clipped. And nobody's noticed?"

I frowned. "Of course not. No one goes in to look after him. He nearly snapped that groom's wrist this week."

"But this is amazing! You- we could redo his training! He could race!" Jack retreated as Bloodless Day rolled his eyes and snorted threateningly, dancing. My arm jerked as he pulled against the halter, forcing me to let go. Once Jack was on the other side of the fence, both males relaxed.

"Race? With what jockey?" I sniped, rubbing my arm. "Let's take things one step at a time."

There was a longing burning behind Jack's eyes. "If you've felt this horse's power beneath you, you'll understand. He needs to be on a track. He needs to be flying far ahead of the other Thoroughbreds."

"I'm not dumb enough to ride him." I answered swiftly, locating the lead line and attaching it to BD.

Jack grinned suddenly. "Touché."

He walked a safe distance away from me as I led Bloodless Day back into his stall, then joined me as I exited. "Want to go on a trail ride? That's why I was over here in the first place."

I only had to think about it for a moment. I hadn't ridden in a week and the only thing that would be more welcome than a trail ride at that moment would have been a hot chocolate. "Of course!" Then my face fell. "I have to soak Holiday's hoof though."

"Abscess? No worries, I'll get our horses ready while you go do that." Jack departed before I could call out a thanks, or ask who I was to ride. Shrugging to myself, I went to Holiday.

*****

"Here we go. Need a leg up?"

I glanced away from Holiday, who was resting in his stall, and found Jack holding Skip and Magic by the bridles, the stallion trying to provoke the filly with nips and nickers. She pointedly ignored him.