Shelton Family Saga

Chapter 29

Thirty Two Horses
Memphis, TN - 2003

His voice was formal, stern and to the point as he clued them in, "Thirty two horses. That's how many we keep here on the grounds at any given time."

The blinding lights from all the flashbulbs in the paparazzi cameras went off in random succession as the eager crew of them clicked away. There wasn't anything photo worthy to be captured at that moment, but the paps in attendance were overly excited about being among the very limited amount of news crews allowed inside the gates. Inside the gates meant the private estate grounds of  the legendary Ms. Vanessa Shelton, more notably recognized by the public's admiring fans as the billionaire founder and sole owner of the thirty two horses boarded at Shelton Stables.

Franco continued with his guided tour, "Ten of them are for schooling, ten are for racing, ten are for pleasure riding belonging to boarders and, of course, two are for English equitation dressage training."

Again, the cameras went off in rapid succession shooting practically nothing as they were all still right inside the entrance gate, and had yet to cover any new terrain.

Finally, after Franco, the groundskeeper, announced the rules of acceptable etiquette while on the estate grounds of Shelton Stables, the shuttle began its way chauffeuring the paparazzi around to get actual newsworthy photographs. In doing so, more information was distributed audibly through the shuttle's speakers informing everyone that there were also two very large barns. The barn facing the West boarded the show horses. These were the ones used for schooling, which consisted of weekly riding lessons by patrons who were mostly kids preparing for Western horse shows and  rodeos across the nation. The barn facing the East housed the racehorses and English riding champion broods that were high dollar horses insured for millions of dollars. These particular horses were expertly trained and either leased or sold to compete in equestrian shows like the Kentucky Derby and The Belmont Stakes, both of which are a part of  The Triple Crown Race. Deeply in awe of all the extravagant wealth that surrounded them, the news crews wondered if they would be able to catch a glimpse of Ms. Shelton herself lolling about the grounds.

The sprawling estate had a guest cabin for visitors, a twenty five bed bunkhouse for the ranch hands, two barns, a full sized open rodeo arena as well as a second riding arena that was covered. The barns were long with epoxied concrete floors in the breezeways and rubber flooring inside the tack rooms. All of the horse stalls had runout shoots that turned straight out to the pasture. There were wash racks at both ends that wrapped around to the back of the barns leading to the cowboy quarters where the ranch hands would gather for breakfast, lunch, dinner and breaks. It had an elevated wooden deck with commercial size grills and smokers as well as built in drink stations holding everything from filtered water to sodas and a variety of juices. There was even a station for ice cold beer on tap, but the line to it was shut off and only opened after six o'clock in the evening when the work day had officially ended. The ranch hands were expected to be up and ready to work by six o'clock every morning. This required them to get up around four thirty in the morning as they were expected to cook their own breakfast daily and eat together as a family and have their messes cleaned up before beginning their workday at six a.m. Inside the tack rooms, everything was always kept immaculately clean. The covered riding arena is where the horses used for English riding were trained. The horses used for dressage had a special trainer whose name was Pietro Alexander San Luis Estebán. Hailing from South America, he was the absolute best trainer in the world. He possessed innumerable ribbons and had won numerous purses and championship titles, which is why Vanessa employed him to train her horses for world titles. Vanessa never rode any of the horses, because her pleasure came from caring for them. Although no one knew, she had a die hard belief that you could involuntarily control anything that was immaculately cared for by providing it with a simple  display of affection, more commonly recognized as love. She felt the appreciation would then be reciprocated by the loyalty exhibited in return. She had read it in the Bible a long time ago in I Corinthians 13:13. It clearly stated, And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. Once her horses were broken, she didn't have any incidents of them bucking or being known as a hot horse, and she attributed their well mannered temperaments to the patience and compassion bestowed upon them during training. She fiercely believed love could solve any problem and she used that belief daily in her business negotiations with both horses and humans all over the world. It had never failed her. Ever!