Taming Grey

Chapter 19- In town

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Tiredly, Banjo walks away from me to the other horses who are standing in the paddock. I smile and walk back up to barn to switch out his halter with Grey's.

Grey is waiting for me by the gate and offers a small nicker. She nudges my hand when I try to run it down her face. I laugh and pull the carrot out of my pocket. I lay my hand flat so she can easily take it. As she chews it I slip her halter over her head.

We walk up to the barn and I place her in the cross ties. First, I use the curry comb to bring all the dirt to the surface of her coat. Then, I use the hard brush, easily flicking the dirt off. The medium brush I quickly swipe over coat. Finally, I use the soft brush over her body, legs and face, before moving on to brushing out her mane and tail. After that I attempt to clean out her feet.

It was easy to get her to pick up her front feet by squeezing the chesnut, but her back feet were a problem. I either struggled to get her to pick them up or I struggled holding on to her foot to keep her from kicking me. In the end, I decided to save them for another day.

I clipped my neon green lunge line onto Grey's halter and walk her down to the arena where I have all my stuff laid out. Instead of untacking Banjo in the barn, I untacked him by the arena so I was able to leave my saddle and saddle pad to use on Grey.

I lead Grey into the arena and grab my carrot stick from the ground. Once I get to the center of the arena I point in the direction I want her to go in. She eagerly bounds clockwise wanting to please me.

"Good girl!" I coo.

I have only been working on lunging for about a week and she quickly picked up how to do it. She is beginning to look to me as her leader instead of a scary being.

As she reaches the spot across from my shoulder I switch the rope and stick to opposite hands. I back I few steps and she turns towards me before she bounds into the opposite direction.

After I lunge Grey I lead her through a few a trail obstacles that are still set up. She hesitates at all of them, but with a few words of encouragement we get through them.

Finally, I bring my tack into the arena. The whole time I drag it in Grey follows cautiously. After placing it on the ground I take a few steps back. She sniffs all the leather before trotting back to my side. She snorts and paws the ground as if to tell me she is unsure about it.

Slowly, we walk back up to it. She sniffs it again and quickly shuffles back a few steps after her nose accidentally hits it. I chuckle.

Once she has gotten used to it I carefully place the saddle pad on her back. I swing it on, then off, then on again. She throws her head up and flinches away from the touch. I repeat the action until she calms down. Then I do the same thing to the saddle. Each time she gets more relaxed until finally she hardly flinches. That is when I decide to stop for the day.

I lead her back to the barn where I put her in cross ties, while I carry and put away all my tack. Running all my brushes over her, her coat begins to gleam once again. Just as I finish Clayton comes walking through the barn doors.

He spots me instantly. "Hey, I've been looking for you."

I raise an eyebrow, "oh?"

"Yeah, we're headed into town as thought maybe you'll like to come?"

"Yes! As long as we get ice cream."

"Deal."

I clip the lead onto Grey's halter and unclip her from the cross ties. "Let me just put her up and we can leave. Maybe see if Issak's wants to come?"

He scowls. "Why him?"

"He's my friend, too. And like I told you before, you two will get along great."

"Yeah, yeah." He waves me off. "I'll ask him just for your sake."

"Thank you!" I call after him. "He needs to stop with the whole 'I don't like Isaak thing," I tell Grey as I lead her to a empty paddock. "Clay is just jealous he doesn't my undivided attention." She just snorts in response.

Unclipping the lead, I give her a good scratch on her neck the. close the gate behind me. "See ya, later girl."

Quickly, I run the lead back up to the barn before I rush down to the waiting truck. I climb in the back seat.

"Ready to go Kor?" Clayton calls from the passenger seat.

"Yep. All ready."

"Alright let's go."

Isaak sits quietly next to me, staring out the window as Gus drives us the hour into town. Clayton and I talk over the radio which is playing the local country station.

The time there felt short and before I know it we arrive. We all climb out if the car.

"So, what's the plan?" I ask.

"Gus and I need to head down to the hardware store and pick up some tools."

"Ok, so I'll show Isaak around town and meet you at the ice cream parlor?"

I notice the glare that Clayton gives Isaak. "Sounds good," says Gus as he starts walking down the sidewalk. Clay throws one last nasty look at Isaak before following.

"He hates me." Isaak states. We start walking in the opposite direction.

I wave my hand. "No, he doesn't. He just doesn't know you yet?" I meant for it to come out reassuring. "I'm working on it."

He doesn't say anything else as we continue down the sidewalk. We come across my favorite store. It's a little tack shop that has a piece of everything. Well, I guess it only looks little. I drag Isaak into the store with me and look around. I walk through the aisles looking at all the tack. Too bad I didn't bring my money.

Fifteen minutes later Isaak and I were on our way again. We pass a little clearing that is lined with different kinds of flowers. There was a brick walkway and in the middle was a dance floor, where people were swaying together to the music. The music switched to a song from footloose and people rushed in and began to line dance. I grabbed Isaak's hand and dragged him with me to the group of people.

A look of confusion swept across his face before a grin took its place. I smiled as we joined the dance. I leaned my head back and laughed.

All too soon the song and they played a random pop song. However, the smile never left my face.

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I'm proud of this chapter for some reason. :)
So, I might rewrite chapter 18  or delete it. What do you think I should do?

I'm really enjoy creating the relationship between Kory and all her friends, including Grey.
I also want tank you for sticking with this story for this long. You guys are awesome!
Please comment, vote, and follow. ;)

Hope you have a good night!