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Natural Attraction

Page 23

by C L Green


  The more I think about it, the more I realize that I am excited and not afraid to ride Maverick anymore.

  I normally would be.

  I realize that I am no longer afraid because I trust Jax fully and I am sure there is no way he will let me ride Maverick unless he knows it's safe. It makes me feel confident. It makes me feel like I will be riding with a seat belt and I won’t fall off.

  Bring it on.

  Feeling pumped with excitement, I whizz through the house and out the back door to find my riding boots under the pergola. I am pulling my second boot on when I see Jax and the girls leaving the barn and heading my way. I take a moment to watch the way he strides along in his brown boots, filling out his jeans and t-shirt in a way that makes a woman sigh.

  Hot damn!

  Letting the girls go in front of him, he swings through the new access gate and I see he has his sunglasses trained in on me. I feel like a rabbit in his headlights once again.

  With just a few long, quick strides, I watch him stalk the ground between us. He pulls his sunglasses from his eyes as he approaches.

  Good boy!

  He then leans down and grabs me by the ponytail and I am jerked forward to feel his mouth smash against mine in a hot, branding, kiss that tips my world upside down.

  This is not a peck. This is a full-blown, lip blistering kiss that goes on for a considerable amount of time. By time he’s finished I’m glad I was still sitting because I swear my legs would have been too weak to hold me up.

  Giving my bottom lip a quick nip, he pulls away. “Good morning, beautiful.”

  “Good morning to you,” I breathe mesmerized, having trouble remembering what I am even doing outside.

  “Did you find the muffins?” He asks with a grin on his face.

  “I did, and they were delicious. Thank you. We do however need to talk about making some other arrangements for my breakfast. This is because frittatas, bacon, eggs, hash browns and delicious muffins are all fine for big muscle-bound men like you. They are not however fine for women who are trying not to turn into Sumo wrestlers. When we go to the supermarket this afternoon I am going to need to buy yoghurt and muesli.”

  “Sure. I couldn’t help but spoil you a little bit this morning though. You earned it.”

  He wiggles his eyebrows at me and swoops down for another short, but sweet, wet kiss. “You ready to get cracking with Maverick?”

  “I sure am!” I chirp. “I’m even excited. It's been years since I’ve been this excited about riding a horse. Usually I am worried as well as eternally optimistic the ride will go well. This of course stems from my track record on rides versus injuries over the past few years being too weighted to the injuries side. I can feel that today is going to go well. How can it not? You will be there.”

  I watch him smile softly at me as he puts his sunglasses back on and offers me his hand. It would appear he is moving on from the grabbing my hand stage to the offering me his hand stage. Being offered his hand feels nice.

  I soon realize that this reprieve does not extend to yanking and dragging. I realize this as he tows me off towards the barn at his usual breakneck speed. As we fly along he starts muttering, “Good, ‘cause I’m more interested in what is going to happen after you ride Maverick. Let’s get this over with.”

  Not wanting to be left behind, the girls have preempted that Jax is on the move and they are waiting at the access gate to ensure they don’t get left behind. I chuckle as I manage a quick rub across each of their heads as they file through the gate.

  I am soon annoyed when I realize that they are immune to my touch when they have far more important things to do like say, follow Jax. They barely acknowledge me.

  Bitches alright. Traitorous bitches.

  Deciding I’m going to need to bring out the big guns, I mentally note that I need to buy peanut butter cookies for them while I’m at the supermarket. Peanut butter cookies and maybe a big bone each.

  I also vow silently to watch Jax closely today. I need to work out how he has managed to impress my girls so much. I am secretly suspicious he is carrying treats. Not that I can say I’ve seen him slipping anything to them. From what I can see he doesn’t even touch them.

  My mind wanders off. I start to wonder if I was closer to the truth than I originally thought with my Twilight family theory on Sunday. I am now wondering if my supernatural radar was only a little off course, but still on the right track.

  Perhaps my only mistake was to not realize that Jax is actually on team Jacob, not team Edward. Perhaps Jax is a member of the wolf team? That would explain his new pack. I add another mental note to check the calendar for full moons. They could give me trouble.

  I am dragged from my reverie to realize that we have arrived at the barn and Jax his holding a rope halter up in front of me. Jax is also holding a horseman’s stick and a longline but he doesn’t hand them to me.

  “You catch Maverick and I’ll grab your saddle and hat from your car,” he offers tipping his chin towards my car.

  “Sure. Sounds great. Meet you in the round yard?”

  “Yeah babe,” he replies as he gently rubs a circle with his thumb on the palm of my hand. He then lets my hand go to head to the car, golden girls still in tow.

  Left to my own devices, I head to Mavericks paddock and make swift work of catching him. I then bring him to the round yard.

  He again seems to be in a nice calm mood, following along happily at my elbow while I yabber to him about how we are going to be riding today.

  His eyes are blinking nice and slowly and his ears are pricked. I get the distinct feeling he is listening to my conversation and the thought of a ride doesn’t bother him at all.

  Jax is already at the round yard when we arrive. My saddle and saddle blanket have been slung over a rail and he is casually drawing pictures in the sand with the rubber end of the horseman’s stick. His golden followers are all lying patiently at the edge of the yard. I wonder how he has convinced them to not only stay outside the yard, but to just lie down without heading off for other adventures.

  There is definitely something fishy going on there.

  Seeing me approach, he moves to hold the gate open while Maverick and I calmly walk through. He closes it softly behind us. Grabbing the longline from off the rail near the saddle, he flings it to me and then follows the toss with the horseman’s stick. I grab both with ease and fire a grin at him.

  “Quick run through, same as the other days. You can do some liberty as well if you want, but it's not needed for what we are gunna be doing today. Anything he won’t do calmly and relaxed, keep going over it until he is.”

  I give him a quick nod and set about running Maverick through all the groundwork that Jax has taught me. He is calm today and I find him spinning his front and hindquarters away from me at the lightest request from either my fingers or the stick. He feels so light today that I am only applying enough pressure to depress his hair before he quickly responds to my touch.

  Thinking back, I can remember our first day when Jax taught me to maneuver his body this way. He was so unresponsive that we would often have to push so hard the horseman’s stick would start curving in the middle. Boy is he a different horse, lighter and quicker to respond.

  I finish our groundwork by sending Maverick sideways along the wall of the round yard towards Jax before stopping to ask, “Do you think that’s enough?”

  Jax draws his attention away from his phone, which once again he is fiddling with and nods his agreeance.

  “Should be. Now you need to saddle him up and do it all again. This time you could probably put a bit more time into backing him up and bringing him in forward ‘cause he looks like he’s starting to preempt you on circling. You don’t want him doing that, you want him to wait for your commands. You okay with that?”

  “Sure.” I answer happily heading over towards my saddle.

  Preparing to tie Maverick up while I saddle him, I soon realize I have a problem. My problem is
the longline is a long line and it seems impossible to tie him up short with it.

  I have been fiddling with various types of intricate knots for a time when I finally huff loudly with exasperation. Building up the courage to seek help I ask, “Jax, how exactly do I tie him up with this?”

  I turn around to see him standing behind me smirking, his blue eyes twinkling. “Wondered how long you were gunna fuck about trying all those granny knots.”

  “They were not granny knots!” I snarl, narrowing my eyes and giving him my best version of a death stare.

  “Looked like granny knots to me,” he chuckles as he steps back slightly, feigning fear at my death stare. “Need to spend some time teaching you to tie a horse up as well I see.”

  “I can tie a fucking horse up asshole,” I growl swinging back to the rail feeling pissed that he is picking on me. “I just can’t do it with this ridiculously long lead rope.”

  I start fiddling about with the long loops of rope again, feeling frustrated but more determined than ever to tie them to rail.

  “Whoa there tiger, don’t get pissy with me, I’m just trying to be helpful.”

  I hear him moving up behind me as he starts speaking.

  “There are a couple of things you need to know. First one is that you should not have to tie your horse up to saddle it. If you have to tie your horse to saddle it, it means the horse doesn’t want to be saddled. If it does not want to be saddled, it is not ready to ride. Second, you don’t tie a horse up with a longline, ‘cause, well, it's too long.”

  He chuckles again at his own words as I feel his lips hit the back of my neck and he breathes gently in my ear. I feel myself instantaneously soften against his lips but soon regain my thoughts and swat him off with one of my hands.

  “Nick off, I’m focusing here and that will not help. Don’t tie him up, got it. Although I’m not convinced that makes any sense because I have only ever seen people tie their horses up to be saddled. That would be because everyone knows that’s the safe way to do it.”

  “No Ash, that is not the safe way to do it, it’s the dangerous way to do it. It's forcing your horse to have the saddle put on whether he wants it or not. It doesn’t give him a chance to show you that he’s ready for it. Believe me, he’ll stand dead still while you throw the saddle at him from the other side of the round yard if you take the time to let him know he gets a choice in the matter.”

  Giving him another half strength death stare I ask, “So what do I do with this rope then?”

  “Just drop it on the ground right there in front of him,” he replies simply. He also replies as if it's the most natural thing to do. Mortified that that is even more dangerous than not tying Maverick up, I hesitate.

  “What if he stands on it?”

  Jax grins at me before replying.

  “If he does it close enough to his head he’ll probably yank his head backwards and then not stand on it anymore. If he does it further down, nothing. Leave it up to him to make the choice. Believe me, he’ll work it out and he won’t bother standing on it anymore.”

  I roll my cheek and shrug at him before dropping the rope on the ground. “If you say so.”

  I see Jax smiling at me again as I begin saddling Maverick.

  Grabbing the saddle blanket first, I plunk it down on his back and then realize the mistake I have made. His head is high in the air and once again, he’s not blinking.

  “I stuffed that up didn’t I?” I look to Jax for moral support.

  “Pretty much,” he nods his agreeance. “What do you think you did?”

  “Direct line, just whacked it on,” I respond guessing my mistake instantly.

  “Yep, your catching on little girl.”

  He grins at me as he steps in to take the saddle blanket off Maverick’s back and hands it back to me again.

  “Think like we did with the rope, try rubbing him with it and sliding it on and off a few times. You won’t need to do this forever, but by the way his head just shot up, I’m guessing no one has bothered to let him enjoy being saddled. I’m also guessing he’s never been given much choice about it either.

  Also, it never does any harm to hold it out for him to sniff and touch it first before you start touching him with it. Wait for his head to come back down and for him to start chewing again before you start touching him with it and make sure you give him plenty of time to chew between on and offs.”

  “Okay. Got it.” I accept his advice. I then decide to give him a scratch while I’m waiting for him to chew and relax.

  “Perfect.” I hear Jax mumble as he starts fiddling with his phone again.

  What is it with him and that phone?

  I finally see Maverick’s head lower and he starts blinking slowly again while licking his lips. As far as I can see we are good to go so I hold the saddle blanket out for him to sniff.

  He hesitates briefly before jamming his nose into it and almost shoving it out of my hands. I figure he’s giving me the go-ahead to progress, so I do.

  It takes a few more rounds of me rubbing him and slowly dragging the blanket off before he stops jamming his head in the air and he’s chewing within seconds of me taking it on or off.

  I figure he is over whatever it was that was bothering him and I look to Jax for confirmation. “Do you think he’s okay with it now?”

  “Yep, you’ve done a good job. Now do the same thing with the saddle.”

  It doesn’t take anywhere as long for Maverick to relax with me putting the saddle on and off and I quickly have it settled on his back ready to do up the girth. I decide that it has been the longest saddling session I have ever experienced in my life. Usually it's a three-minute job. I’ve just spent over half an hour and I still haven’t done up the girth.

  Leaning under Mavericks belly to grab the girth and preparing to slide the leather straps through the buckles to do it up, Jax breaks what has been a long silence.

  “Gunna give you a tip before you keep going ‘cause I’m sure you won’t know this one. Only do the girth up to the point where it just contacts his belly, lightly, but firmly. A girth should always been done up in three phases. I know most people are taught to just yank it up as tight as you get it, but that is not a nice way to go about it. Doing it in three steps gives a horse a chance to adjust to the feel. It also saves you the need to do that ridiculous stretching thing that you see folks doing where they pull a front leg forward.”

  This was a new idea to me and one that I had not been taught at pony club with Twinkle. It made sense though, so I went with it.

  After fitting the girth up loosely by my standards I looked to Jax asking, “Groundwork time?”

  “Yep. Do a few things, tighten the girth, do some more and then tighten it one last time.”

  Well at least I got something right for the day. I knew when it was time to do more groundwork.

  Going about my business, Maverick seems fully on board with saddling as he continues to respond to my ground commands, quickly and calmly. It doesn’t take long and I have finished my third adjustment to the girth and I look to Jax for my next set of instructions.

  “Bridle next I assume?” I ask.

  “Nope. No bridles until you can convince me you know how to use one.”

  What the fuck?

  “What do you mean convince you? How the hell am I going to ride him with no bridle?” I throw him yet another of my death glares and start to wonder if he’s gone mad.

  Keep me safe, my ass. He clearly wants me dead.

  I hear him chuckling again.

  Not funny Mister.

  “You don’t need a bridle to ride a horse. You should know that, you’ve seen me on Trouble. And before you launch at me,” he adds quickly, “I don’t expect you to go completely bridleless. You can most definitely still use the rope halter. Swap the longline for the short lead and I’ll show you what you need to do. Bits are a savage tool in heavy hands and until you can convince me you are soft with your hands, no bits, not bridles.”


  “You’re the boss.” I concede defeat and head to the side of the round yard to swap the ropes over.

  “And don’t you forget it.” I hear him ru-mble teasingly as I’m walking away.

  Following me over to where I have now swapped the ropes over, Jax puts his hand out gesturing for me to give him the rope. “Got a few things to show you before you get on.”

  Handing him the rope I watch him step over next to the stirrups while he starts to explain what he is doing.

  “First thing we need to do is make sure that he is flexing his head. One of the first cardinal rules of riding is that once we get on, we need to be sure we can stop our horse. Stopping a horse is a bit more than just yanking on two reins. Sometimes, if you’re horse has a mind to, no matter how much you yank on both reins he’s just gunna ignore you and not stop.

  One thing a horse can’t ignore is a flex. If you bend his head to the side, flexing him, he has no other real choice but to slow down and stop. The worst he’s gunna be able to do if he does get a mind to ignoring you is circle, but most usually he’ll just stop.”

  “Okay,” I let him know I am listening before he continues.

  “First we practice on the ground. Tip his nose towards you like this. As soon as he gives, you give.”

  I watch him do this a few times on each side and notice that he does it for longer each time. He does it until Maverick is quickly turning his head as far as he can to the left and right.

  “Your turn. Don’t forget to give quickly,” he says handing me the rope.

  It doesn’t take me long to work out the pressure needed. Soon Maverick is flexing for me nearly as good as he was doing it for Jax.

  Feeling confident that it is all going well, I look to Jax for further direction. Nodding his agreement, he leans in and takes the rope from me and throws it over Mavericks neck. He then brings the end of the rope back to the bottom of the halter and ties it off it at his chin. The lead rope now forms a set of reins.

  “Time to mount up little girl.”

  Finally!

 

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