Walker: Secrets

Chapter 16

The rest of the week passed by rather uneventfully, with the exception of Bonham leaving early Thursday morning to go on a business trip to buy some new broodmares for his breeding operation. He had invited Maddie to go along with him but she had declined, saying that she wanted to keep working with Bel. 

Working with her mare she had been doing too and it was paying off big time. Every day after she finished her chores and her schoolwork, she could be found out with Bel. Not every moment she spent with her was training though, most of the time she was just there, hanging out with her and enjoying her company. The mare enjoyed having her around and it was clear to see that the two of them were bonding rather beautifully. With the mare being able to be turned out into the pasture now she was a lot happier to have the extra space to run and play in though Maddie still brought her into the yard and shelter each night. 

Apart from the short message that Liam had sent her in response to her telling him about her winning third in the Eisteddfod, she hadn't heard from him. Things there were still rather tense in the household though not quite as bad as they had been the first week Liam had been gone. In all honesty, Maddie tried her best to keep out of the conflict, preferring to not know what was going on though she did wish that Liam would come home soon. Even though she wasn't as close to him as the other members of the family, she still missed his company and had mentioned that in the numerous texts she had sent him. 

Even so, life went on.

~~~~

The sun was out Saturday morning, the snow that had been laying on the ground finally melting away. The past couple weeks had been colder than normal and with that, more snow then was usual but Maddie didn't complain. It had been nice having the snow and it made for beautiful videos of her and Bel playing and training against the white landscape. 

Bel met her with a whiny as she walked over to the yard and a smile came to her lips. 'You happy to see me this morning, hey?' She questioned with a soft chuckle and Bel responded by nuzzling her coat pocket through the fence. 'Oh, silly me... You want what I've got in here, dontcha?'

The mare trotted along the fence as she walked up to the gate and Maddie joined her in the pen, giving her a pat before pulling a horse cookie from her pocket. The day before she and Abeline had done some baking and she had made a batch of oatmeal cookies especially for her mare. 'What do you think, hey?' She asked as Bel quickly ate the cookie she had given her.  'Pretty good right?' 

Bel started nudging her pocket again and she showed her that they were empty. 'All gone, you might get more later.' She assured her, giving her another pat. 'Come on, morning chores await us.'

Under the mare's close watch she cleaned out the shelter and filled up her water buckets before taking her out to the pasture to turn her out. As soon as she was loose Bel did her usual gallop around the pasture before taking a roll. 'Oh Bel...' With the melting snow came mud, lots and lots of mud. 'You're going to have to have a brush now.'

Bel, quite pleased with herself for getting dirty, trotted back to Maddie. 'What am I going to do with you, hey?' She chuckled, shaking her head. 'Come on, we'll have a play then you need a brush. A good brush.'

They played, Maddie using the time to incorporate a little training into their fun time. Bel loved to rear and it had only taken her a couple sessions to teach her to rear on cue. It was only on cue though and at a safe distance from her so she didn't get hurt. The day before she had been teaching her to come when called then stop and rear at a distance, Bel having enjoyed it quite immensely. 

Something else she had been teaching her for fun and with August's help was to find someone on command. With there being numerous trees in the pasture they made for perfect hiding places and Bel had picked up how to play their 'hide and seek' type game easily. It had started as a game for fun at first but when Maddie had come across an article on Tuesday night about scent training with horses she had started to wonder if maybe she could train Bel to do the same thing. Even though she thought it wasn't something she would probably need to use, it was just something fun to add to their training.