Bloodless Day soon came under saddle. He took to it calmly, for him. Three broken halters and a snapped fence board later, he was lunging along as sweetly as any lesson pony. Jack sighed as he leaned against the gate. "I can't decide if I'm relieved he's reacting this well or mad he didn't before."
I didn't reply. The Thoroughbred bent neatly into his circles, ears trained on me, watchful but trusting. It was still an honor for him to trust me so much, an honor I was scared I'd chase away.
"Alright, let's put him back before he snaps." Jack finally decided as BD started acting up. I knew he wasn't anxious, only bored, and tugged against the line as he hop-skipped and let out a kick.
"To me."
At my command, he turned towards me. The line went slack as BD walked straight up to me, dropping his soft muzzle into my palm. I murmured nonsense to him as I unhooked the line and led him in.
He was turning out gorgeous. Constant exercise made him round and muscular, and his fuzzy clipped coat smoothed out with regular grooming. Dapples were beginning to show, dark as night on his points. Bloodless Day was truly stunning.
He stepped neatly into his stall and waited for me to remove his saddle before he spun into the corner, head already lowered for hay. I lifted my eyebrows at Jack. "So much for friends over food."
"What are you talking about?" He asked, perfectly straight faced. "To him, friends are food."
He chuckled as I laughed and pointed at the saddle. "Get Shamrock. The track is clear today."
My heart nearly stopped. The track! In my mind I could picture the flat expanse, the raked sand and inviting oval. A peaceful place for war. "Seriously?"
"Better late than never." Jack rapped on the helmet I wore around BD as a precaution and slipped from the barn. Dazed, I stumbled towards Shamrock's stall, where the filly greeted me with a nicker.
Where Bloodless Day was made of shadows and the stuff of mysteries, a constant swath of darkness, Shamrock was light. She was honest. Her eyes shone a caramel brown where Bloodless Day's were black, her flaxen mane a friendly poof where Bloodless Day's was dark and slick, like water. As different as they were, I loved them both equally, but for different things. Bloodless Day for needing help, and Shamrock for helping me. The student and the teacher.
Shamrock stood patiently as I saddled and bridled her, and soon we were heading out to the track.
It was a beautiful day, one that inspired laziness and a longing to lay in a meadow, picking grass and staring at the clouds. A brisk breeze lifted my hair and my spirits, but the sun had decided to show its face once more. Winter was on its way out, after so long. Beneath the blue sky, Lilac and a bay colt were already jogging around the perimeter of the track, looking easy and natural. I felt like a fraud- what was my three months compared to her lifetime?- but Jack shot me a grin as bright as the sun above us.
"Let's get you up and out! Lilac will help rate you."
Shamrock danced as Jack threw me up into the saddle, mouthing at the bit and impatient to move out. Her ears were pricked, knowing what was next.
The bay colt whinnied at us then quieted as we stepped on the track. I pushed my filly into a trot and hovered easily above the saddle, careful to check Shamrock. Nothing could go wrong today. It was a day for a living, a day that cleaned out the ghosts of winter.
And I had a lot of ghosts.
Clucking Shamrock into a smooth canter, we soon reached Lilac and her mount, who she let run alongside us. "Ready for a gallop?" She asked, voice playful, eyes dancing.
Was I ever.
"Just let them gallop for two furlongs. Nothing record breaking, just a conditioning gallop. Got that?" Jack called as we passed by. Lilac and I nodded, checking our reins and our stirrups. Then, slowly, her bay colt edged out in front of Shamrock. Their round, floaty canters flattened into a gallop, the speed wrenching tears from my eyes. I curled over Shamrock's withers, giving her room to lengthen her stride.
Running on the track was different from the trails. It was a smooth ribbon that spilled in front of us, beckoning, and Shamrock was only too eager to eat the distance with her speed. We rounded the bend, and Lilac signaled to slow down. Using the turn to rate Shamrock, I finally wrestled her back to a trot. She shook her head, upset. "I know," I sympathized, "I'd rather be running too."
Lilac glanced at me, gasping for air and laughing. "Isn't it the most incredible feeling? And racing! If there was a moment I had to be stuck in for the rest of my life, it would be in a gallop, where nothing else matters but what's in front of you."
I nodded, beaming and breathing heavily too as if I, and not Shamrock, had been running. "Wow, that was just..." Lilac didn't notice that I had trailed off, but there was no way to describe galloping. It had moved me to speak but left me wordless.
We walked the horses out, bringing them slowly around to where Jack stood waiting with a big grin on his face. "We'll make an exercise rider out of you yet!"
"He's excited because this means, as the greenie, you'll take the dull horses and he'll be moved up to more important ones." Lilac informed me, though a smirk traversed her face.
"How'd you like it though?" Jack asked eagerly as I slid from Shamrock's back. I automatically bent my knees to compensate for height as I hit the ground, feeling a familiar soreness in my legs. The gallop had been fun, but not easy.
"Indescribable." I said simply.
Jack shook his head as he reached to hold Lilac's colt in place so she could dismount. "I've found one word. That pounding, that soaring, that song at your feet? Yeah, that's freedom."
It was as close as anyone could ever get to describing a gallop.
*****
Soon I was waking at four every morning so I could arrive at the farm by four thirty, work Shamrock by five, say hello to Bloodless Day, be on another colt by six, and another at six thirty, and go off to school at seven. It was exhausting, but I began to live for that moment, where the night folded into day and revealed the possibility of speed between my horse's ears. Plus, my paycheck grew dramatically, which was nice for my bank account, but I had no idea what to buy except maybe a truck. So it became my college fund, though my parents had that covered with my mom's first publication.
Sunday morning woke up long after I'd already been working, finding Jack and I rating our colts as Lilac and her filly swept past us in a mock race. It was supposed to bring up the filly's confidence, and as far as I could tell, it was working. We three rode back, chatting amiably about which horses would do well next week- Shamrock was running again, as well as Jersey Boy and a few other older horses. Lilac and Jack were arguing the merits of a field Red Hot, a liver chestnut gelding, was going against when we reached Willifred, leaning against the railing and looking pleased with himself.
"Nice workout, all of you. Anna, watch yourself or I may be tempted to name you as a jockey one of these days."
I laughed as Lilac coughed. As much as I'd improved, I was still many years from being a jockey. "Thanks."
"Any other rides? It's the weekend, we don't have to rush to school." Lilac asked hopefully.
Willifred glanced at his watch and considered. "Kind of. I'd like to give Bloodless Day another shot. Maybe he's shaped up after a two month break."
"Yeah, right," Lilac said, but Jack and I exchanged panicked glances. The stallion was not ready for this! Jack looked away first and cleared his throat.
"Will, are you sure-?"
Willifred nodded. "You're up on him. Boss will have my head if his daughter gets hurt on that horse."
"Great. I'm expendable." Jack growled, sliding down from his tall, bay colt. I hopped off mine as well and glanced at Lilac. She smirked at Jack.
"This will be intresting. I'll go put Magic away and get a video camera, we can submit this to one of those comedy shows."
Jack rolled his eyes, but took my horse's reins as we walked off. "Go get that beast ready, I'll take care of the colts."
"Thank you!" I scurried off, already wondering what tack malfunction I could fake to keep Jack off of BD's back.
The gorgeous Thoroughbred wasn't paying attention to me as I approached his stall. His face was turned towards the sunrise, slim ears flickering in curiosity at the sounds of the morning.
"Hello, bud," I murmured, holding out a hand. He arched his neck as he sniffed me suspiciously, smelling the other horses on my hands. His ears flattened momentarily and his eyes darkened in annoyance, but I ignored his warning and slipped the cracked leather halter over his face and ducked into his stall to ready him.
Soon enough the saddle lay on his back, nestled against the comfortably thick saddle pad. I checked and rechecked the bit and bridle for any irregularities that would annoy BD and found numerous, scratchy teeth marks against the bit. I switched it for a new, smooth snaffle and slipped it in his mouth.
If Bloodless Day had been awake before, now he was electric. The bit signaled him to prepare for a job, but whether that job meant bucking or running we were soon to find out. I slipped a sugar cube between his teeth and let him slobber it energetically as we walked towards the track. Jack met me halfway there and stood a good two lengths away from BD. The horse shot him a filthy look and stiffened.
"I can't do this. It would completely ruin all of the work we've- you've done with him." Jack sighed, crossing his arms.
"Well, what are we supposed to tell Willifred?" I demanded, reaching up to rub BD's neck. He calmed down somewhat, though his arrogant gaze was still clamped menacingly on Jack.
Jack grinned. "You'll ride him."
I froze.
I wasn't ready. He would kill me. And for once, I didn't want to die. I had gallops to live for, this horse to live for, and while he gave me life, I knew that he could throw me far further than I trusted him.
Did I have any other choice?
Numbly, I complied when Jack laced his fingers together to give me a leg up, and I was on Bloodless Day's back. Underneath me, the stallion trembled with energy. I felt the powerful engine of his hindquarters propel us forwards, the sureness of each step, the swinging way he moved his head as he looked around. A bird rustled in the bushes. Remembering the way Shamrock had spooked and thrown me, I curled forwards and buried my hands in his silky smooth mane.
Bloodless Day stopped. His body shifted to accommodate my changing balance, and he curled his head around, staring at me. At that moment, I felt our gazes connect. No other horse had ever done that before, but suddenly I knew he wasn't looking at me, but at me. Bloodless Day was fully aware of where I was. Suddenly reassured, I sat up and gathered my reins.
"I can do this," I said to Jack.
And I could.
Heaven spilled onto the track, gilding it, casting gentle colors across it into a liquid dream. BD swam through the light, the pink and the orange and the unnamed beauty, and when we reached the end picked up a trot. I posted lightly, savoring the floaty sensation of his trot, and at the bend I asked for a canter.
He slipped into it as easily as one slipped into and out of life, just a fact that it would happen. Perfectly balanced, the only thing that existed was me and the horse and the golden rays falling down on us.
We passed by people, but they stopped mattering. We moved into a gallop, and it stopped being Anna, Bloodless Day, and a racetrack. All we were was speed in a slew of a honeydew morning.
I never wanted to wake up.
Finally we slowed down, bumping into a trot and then a dedicated walk. Bloodless Day breathed, heavily but steadily, and with a start I remembered to breathe too. My lungs expanded as I granted them air, unstolen by the magic of a gallop.
Lilac, Jack, and Willifred greeted us when we finally turned towards the gate, all in varying degrees of shock. Jack came out of it first and strode towards us, broadly smiling. "You rode him perfectly! Well done!" Bloodless Day, content for once, permitted a single pat to the shoulder before he remembered himself and nipped at Jack. With practiced ease, the jockey moved away.
Lilac and Willifred approached us then, Lilac practically dancing with glee. "That was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen! That horse loves you, Anna, he would've killed anyone else. I can't believe it! He looked like he was flying, he'll-"
Over her gushing, Willifred said loudly, "well, this changes everything! How did you do this?"
Lilac stopped, an odd expression on her face. "Yeah, how did you?"
"I'll tell you soon," I said. At my voice, Bloodless Day swung his head around and amiably nudged my boot. I leaned down and rubbed his shoulder, hair in my face and happiness in my heart. "But someone deserves an extra helping of carrots."
*****
Hey! Exiting chapter! Love it? I do. But appreciate it now because the next chapter is going to ruin everything ahaha oops.
Iggy out.