The next morning, I woke everyone up at 6 am. They said they wanted to experience how my life was like before moving to LA, so that's exactly what I did. Waking up at 6 am every day was my reality.
However, it's not a reality for them. I had to practically drag them out of bed, especially because it's still 4 am in LA.
Once they finally got up, my dad had breakfast made for us including scrambled eggs, toast and fruit along with coffee, which I think was the most important part for everyone.
"Okay I'm going to take y'all to the garage to grab boots," I say and they all follow. We finally find boots that fit everyone, and I lead them to the stables on the side of the house.
I start handing out shovels, and they all look confused, some looking disgusted.
"We're going to start shoveling out the stalls so I can let the horses in to feed. Who wants to help me feed and water instead?" I ask and everyone raises their hands, making me laugh.
"Zane and Todd, why don't you help?" I ask and they sigh of relief. Little do they know it's the harder job.
"I need y'all to take the water buckets out back and rinse them out before filling them with water," I say and they nod before starting. Everyone else started getting the stalls emptied out, and it's a pretty steady process. I start feeding all of the horses. I didn't need any help because each horse gets a specific amount and may have supplements added on, and they don't know which horse needs what so it just makes it easier doing it myself.
Zane and Todd realize shortly after they started that they have the harder job, because carrying the water buckets back in is definitely not fun. I bring them over a wagon to help wheel over multiple at once, but still lifting the waters onto the hooks on the wall isn't the greatest.
About an hour later, everyone was done, and I helped with the watering process.
"Now what?" Carly asks, wiping the sweat from her forehead.
"We grab the horses. I'll tell y'all who to grab because we do have a couple that will give you a hard time," I say.
"What do you mean a hard time?" Todd asks nervously.
"They like to figure out how comfortable and confident you are. So they'll pull back, pull ahead and just try to make you give in to them," I say handing everyone lead ropes. I get a few nervous looks.
"I'll bring them in. I'll give y'all the easy ones," I say and I see everyone visibly relax.
I start telling everyone who to bring in and where they go. It goes so much quicker than when I used to live at home, mainly because it's usually just me bringing in the horses.
Once they're all in, we have 3 remaining, the 3 that always cause trouble. They even cause trouble with me, so I tell everyone to step outside so they don't get kicked or anything.
I start with Talia. She's a younger horse with a spunky attitude. Today, she didn't give me too much trouble though, and only pushed me into the wall. Everyone gasped, but I just led her in before heading out and grabbing George.
George was the horse that gave me the worst of all of my falls. I ended up with a torn meniscus and a severe concussion, so I've been timid around him since then and he knows that. He started walking quickly almost at a trot, so I walk him in a tight circle where he steps on my foot. I grimace slightly but pull on his halter to stop him. We stand still for a few minutes before I lead him inside, and he listened for the rest of the way.
The last horse was Moose. He's named Moose for a reason. He's by far the biggest horse we own and has the biggest attitude. I don't really have a trick to put up with him, except gripping onto his halter to prevent him from bolting.
He always looks for any reason to bolt. He doesn't like going in his stall, even though he knows that means food.
He tried to bolt twice as I led him in, but I stuck my heels into the ground and only got pulled a few feet before he gave up.
"Okay so now we're going to go get hay. Obviously, everyone can't fit in my truck, so some of y'all will sit inside while others sit in the back," I say and they all looked at me shocked.
"What?" I ask confused.
"You just got thrown into the stall door, stepped on and dragged by those horses. Are you not realizing this?" Erin asks. I just shrug.
"They were pretty good today. There's a reason I didn't let y'all handle them. You'd be halfway across the field right now and probably kicked," I say and they all follow me toward the truck.
"Holy shit this is sweet," Heath says looking at my truck. Everyone else watches us as I tell him the specs of my truck.
"Dude your girlfriend is more of a man than you," Heath says to David, and David punches him in the arm.
"My truck holds 5 but we can fit 6 so the other 4 ride in the back. I'll let y'all figure that out," I say as I jump in the driver's seat and pull my phone out. I know this is going to take a while, and next thing I see is David jumping into the seat next to me, and Todd squeezing next to him by the window. Scott, Kristen, and Alex squeeze in the back, while Heath, Carly, Erin and Zane climb in the bed of my truck. Heath looks like the only one who doesn't mind.
We arrive at Rhett's place a few minutes later and we're greeted by Austin.
"Hey Austin," I say jumping out of the truck, followed by everyone else.
"Hey, Taylor. Got the whole crew," He said looking at everyone else.
"Yeah, these are my friends from LA. Guys this is Austin," I say and everyone says a quick hi.
"Hello David," Austin says, glaring at David. David nods toward him, the same glare in his eyes.
"Austin,"
"Where's Rhett?" I ask, changing the subject.
"Is that Taylor?" His voice comes from behind the barn, and a few seconds later he comes into view.
"I thought that was you," He said bombarding me in a hug.
"Back so soon?" He asks and I nod.
"These are my friends from LA. They wanted to see what my life was like before I went to LA. So we're doing the usual routine," I say and he laughs slightly. I don't blame him. There they are in their LA style of clothes with mud boots on. It was a funny look.
"Hey almost didn't recognize you without your camera," Rhett said to David. David laughed slightly, shaking his hand.
"Yeah decided to leave it behind this time," He said and Rhett nodded.
"The usual for hay?" He asks and I nod.
We quickly load up the hay on the back of my truck, and everyone takes their same spots. We drive back to my house, and this time, everyone except David is surprised when I drive the truck down into the field.
"Why are we back here?" Zane asks.
"The horses need hay. This is to get them through until we get our actual delivery tomorrow," I say and they nod. I jump out and Zane and Heath help push the hay off the back of the truck.
I drove my truck back out and closed the gate, before heading toward the stables and letting all of the horses out.
"Do you need help?" Heath yells at me. They're all still standing by the truck.
"No, I'm just opening the doors. They'll go out by themselves," I yell toward them, and I watch as half of them grab their phones and go on them.
The rest of the day, my dad and I took them on a trail ride through the area. We brought dinner with us and stopped and ate in a field a few miles from my house. Although they complained their legs were sore and they were tired, I knew they had a fun time on the trail ride.
While we were there, some of them wanted pictures for their social media, and others wanted vlog content, so my dad and I watched as they walked around with cameras and phones in their hands, posing and quickly coming up with skits for their vlogs.
"Is this normal?" My dad asks me and I laugh.
"You get used to it," I say and he nods slowly. He watches them in awe, especially because in my town it wasn't too common to have phones.
People usually had flip phones for emergencies, but the service in my area wasn't the greatest, so we didn't get iPhones. I got one as a Christmas present a few years back, and used it mostly for games, but started getting into social media shortly after. I didn't realize that social media was such a major part of my lives though until they came into my life.
We stayed until after the sunset, just hanging out and having fun. It was their first real sunset, not the ones drowned out by city lights.
We rode back shortly after, as everyone was tired and ready to head to bed.
"Did you guys enjoy your day?" I ask as I dry my hair. I let everyone else shower first. Call me a good host.
"I actually had a lot of fun," Todd says first. He shocked me, as I thought he would be the one to have the least amount of fun with it.
"Yeah, I did too. It's interesting learning about how you became you," Alex says and I smile.
"You know I had fun. I wish I could be living this life," Heath says and we all agree.
"Thanks for letting us come, really. It's a nice break from social media and our real lives, and just getting fresh air," Carly says and I smile again.
"Good I'm glad. I hope I didn't work you too hard," I joke and I hear some groans.
We hang out for a little bit before everyone decides to head to bed.
Having everyone I care about under one roof I thought would be impossible, but it's been such a dream.
~~
Do y'all like the vlogs in Texas or do you prefer LA?
Let me know! I can easily speed up the Texas trip if you'd like them back in LA sooner!