Maple Dale ~ My Forever Home (Maple Dale Series)

by MaryAnn Myers

  Mindy took hold of Bethann’s arm and pulled her close. “Act nonchalant and don’t say anything about Rex in front of Kristin and Jamie.”

  “Because…? Never mind. I don’t want to know.”

  Mindy put the lids down on the pizza boxes and motioned to Shane to follow. When he hesitated, she smiled a cute little smile and he found himself tagging along. Rex stepped back when Bethann opened his stall gate. “What are the odds of his being named Rex?”

  “Uh, not all that good,” Mindy said.

  Bethann looked at her.

  “I’ll tell you about that later too.”

  Bethann just shook her head again. “Well, let’s take a look. Hey, big guy, how are you?” She petted the side of his neck and ran her hand down over his shoulder. “He’s way too heavy.”

  “I know,” Mindy said. “That was almost his demise.”

  Shane looked at her.

  Bethann gently slid her hand up Rex’s neck, talking to him, and scratched behind his ear. “I’m just going to check your mouth for a minute. I want to take a look at your boo-boo.”

  “Boo-boo?” Mindy said

  Bethann chuckled. “I’m getting in practice.”

  “Congratulations on your baby,” Shane said, catching on.

  “Thank you.”

  Jamie and Kristin walked down to say hello to Bethann and see what was going on. “He’s a little tender in the mouth,” Mindy said, sounding as casual as she possibly could.

  “He’s pretty,” Kristin said.

  “Very,” Jamie added. “Are we all going to get to ride him? Is he going to be a school horse?”

  Rex raised his head.

  “It’s all right,” Bethann said. “You guys are in my light. Move.”

  Kristin and Jamie stepped to the other side of Shane. He nodded when they both looked at him.

  “Is he yours?” Jamie asked.

  “No.”

  Both the women’s expressions conveyed the same thoughts. ‘We’ve never had a guy boarder here before. And you are sooo good looking.’

  Mindy watched as Bethann reached inside Rex’s mouth and took a hold of his tongue. He tried to pull away but she kept a firm grip and looked up into the top of his mouth. Mindy watched her expression as she looked first one way then the other and bent down a little to get a good look at the wound from the front. “Wow,” she whispered.

  “Is he okay?” Kristin asked.

  “Oh yeah, he’s fine,” Bethann said, pressing gently against the most inflamed area. The horse flinched but didn’t try to pull away. She let loose of his tongue and patted him on the forehead. “Good boy. Yes, you sure are pretty. Yes, you are.” When she walked out of the stall and closed the gate, the horse stepped forward and stuck his head out.

  Mindy nudged her sister. “You’d better get going.” She was afraid Bethann would start leaking again. “Go! You have a baby waiting”

  Bethann nodded. “I’ll see you all in a couple of days.” As Mindy walked with her to her car, Shane stopped in front of Malaki’s stall and stood looking in at her for a moment.

  “She’ll bite you,” Kristen warned.

  “So I’ve heard,” Shane said. Malaki came to the front of her stall and sniffed his hand.

  “Go ahead with the saline solution,” Bethann told Mindy at her car.

  As Shane joined them, Mindy asked her sister, “Is that sore caused by pulling back on the horse during those sliding stops?”

  “No. More than likely it’s the constant tugging up on the reins to get them to keep their heads down. That repetition over and over and over.”

  Shane looked confused. “Tugging up to get their heads down?”

  “The bits have huge curbs.” Bethann demonstrated how alternating the reins in a scissor kind of action would put constant pressure on the top of the horse’s mouth. “With such a high curb, every time the rider lifts the reins, the horse instinctively lowers its head to try and get away from the pain. Judging from the severity of the irritation on the top of Rex’s mouth….” She paused and shook her head. “Poor thing. I have yet to see one horse trained and ridden that way that looked even the slightest bit happy. They’re always trying to avoid pain, not to mention what it does to their topline.”

  “Topline?”

  “The top of the necks and across their backs. They’re essentially always protecting themselves. It would be like us walking around holding our backs stiff and necks rigid. It’s not natural for anyone, let alone a four-legged animal carrying a saddle and rider on its back.”

  Shane nodded. Made sense to him.

  Mindy smiled and gave her sister a hug. “Go home.”

  “Nice to meet you, Shane,” Bethann said.

  As she drove up the hill, Mindy and Shane sat back down to finish their pizza. Mindy looked inside her can of soda. “Look inside yours,” she said.

  “For what?”

  “Yellow jackets. It’s that time of year.”

  Shane looked. “All clear. Okay, so your sister is the manager and the owner. I can see why. She sounds like she knows what she’s talking about. She explained it perfectly.”

  “She’s taught me everything I know.”

  “Do you have other sisters? Brothers?”

  “No. It’s just me and Bethann. There’s fourteen years difference between us. I was born right around the time she inherited Maple Dale.”

  “Inherited?”

  “Long story.” Mindy glanced at her watch. The students for her seven o’clock were due soon. “Eat.” When they heard another car coming down the hill Mindy turned. “Oh wonderful.”

  “Why? Who’s that?”

  Mindy hesitated. “Remember the boyfriend I said I didn’t have. Well, that would be him.”

  Shane propped an elbow on the table, assessing the situation.

  “It’s over,” Mindy said. “He just doesn’t get it.” She watched her former boyfriend get out of his car and walk toward them. “Hey.”

  “How are you?”

  “Good. What about you? You home for the weekend?”

  “Yep. I go back Sunday night.”

  “Shane, this is Gordon. Gordon, this is Shane.”

  It was as if both men were waiting for the other to extend his hand. Neither did.

  Gordon sat down next to Mindy. “So what’s new with you?”

  “Oh. Pretty much everything’s the same. Bethann had her baby.”

  “I heard. My mom sent a gift.”

  Mindy nodded. “And then there’s Shane here, who’s working on marking the earth for future destruction.”

  When Gordon looked at him, Shane shrugged. “It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it.”

  Mindy and he looked at one another and smiled.

  “So, are you two an item?” Gordon asked, looking from one to the other.

  “No,” Shane said, answering first and distinctly man to man. “Not yet.”

  Mindy laughed. “This is like a scene in a bad movie.”

  Shane laughed too, though Gordon didn’t appear to find any of this all that amusing. “Well, I just thought I’d stop and say hi.”

  Mindy smiled genuinely. “Thank you. Tell your mom and dad I said hello.”

  Gordon nodded, exchanged glances with Shane and left, then here came another car and then another. “My seven o’clock lesson,” Mindy said, wiping her mouth and standing. “Thanks for the pizza.”

  Shane smiled. “You’re welcome. So, uh…are we on for tomorrow night?”

  Mindy looked at him and grinned. “Sure, if you want to go to a town hall meeting.”

  Shane appeared hesitant. “Let me guess. About fracking?”

  “Yes.” Mindy nodded. “It should be interesting, don’t you think?”

  “Well, it would be pretty hard to say I suddenly just remembered I’m busy tomorrow night.”

  Mindy smiled. “Ah, I like what you’re made of, Shane Thornton. Meet me here around six-forty-five. Town hall starts at seven and I want to get a good s
eat.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Leah Oliver had no idea of the legacy she would leave behind. She had no idea about the impact she would have on her students, particularly Bethann, or that Bethann would be passing that legacy on to her sister Mindy. No idea, unless she was perhaps a ghost and witnessed it day after day. Rumor has it she used to haunt Maple Dale. But if you asked Bethann as well as the others closely associated with the Equestrian Center, they would say they honestly felt Leah only looked out for everyone at Maple Dale and that in their opinion that could hardly be called “haunting.”

  An advocate of the ‘Balanced Seat’ of riding, if she were alive today, Leah would be nearly as old as Sally Swift herself. She would probably also be gray-haired, probably still have that thick braid down her back. She would probably still be wearing a ratcatcher shirt, breeches and field boots, and she would probably still be set in her ways. Utmost to her was the safety and well-being of the horse and rider. It was also of the utmost importance that the world around her be genuine, real. She had no time for “BS” and no time to squander on senseless so-called “progress.” The fact that she died fighting the development of Maple Dale was a testament to the depth of her caring. It was her demise and it became her legacy. A legacy Bethann took to heart and Mindy now as well, not to mention Richard and Christine and Bill Forbes. When someone literally dies in protest, it’s hard not to carry on the cause.

  “Fracking? I don’t get it,” Bethann said, when her sister stopped to visit.

  “Well, apparently,” Mindy said. “They shoot water and these chemicals down into the earth so they can find all the pockets of natural gas, only there’s nothing natural about the process because of the chemicals.”

  Bethann held little David to her chest, patting his back gently and slowly rocking back and forth. “Not here? Right?”

  “They’re going to try. They’re going to frack up and down and all around if we let them. They’ve already secured leases from most of the Amish farms if it gets okayed from what I understand.”

  “You’re kidding?”

  “Nope.”

  Living this close to the Amish community, the farming practices were no secret. Though living a simple life according to their religious beliefs, their righteousness apparently did not extend to Mother Earth or loving their horses either for that matter. Chemical fertilizers were the norm; retirement for the horses after years of service, not an option. When they were done with the horse, as a rule, it was disposed of. Some members of the Amish community were on a first-name basis with the kill buyers at the Monday horse auction.

  “Obviously they’re not going to care about fracking,” Mindy added. “And even though the majority of those farms are fifteen or so miles away, it’s still going to affect us. It’ll affect our land, our well water, our children.”

  “You don’t have to convince me,” Bethann said, kissing little David on his chubby little cheek. “Why doesn’t everyone care? What is wrong with people?”

  “Economics,” Mindy said, and glanced at her watch. “Well, I’m going to go ride Rex. For however long he’s here, I want him to be the happiest horse on earth, and that ain’t going to happen as long as he has his head dragging the ground like an anteater.”

  Bethann nodded. “What time’s the meeting?”

  “Seven o’clock.”

  “Let me know how it goes? Are you prepared?”

  “Oh yeah! Shane’s going with me.”

  “Shane?” Bethann smiled and shook her head. If this guy only knew what he was up against with her little sister. “Don’t put him on the spot.”

  “I won’t. But I want to make sure he’s aware. I want to see what he’s really made of.”

  Bethann looked at her. “Because?”

  Mindy paused at the door. “Because, I don’t know. I think I really like him. I just don’t want him to be a disappointment.”

  “Don’t get your hopes up too high,” Bethann said. “You know how you get when someone disappoints you.”

  “I know.” Mindy sighed. “I guess I would just rather know now than later.”

  ~ * ~

  Mindy tacked Rex and led him down to the lower arena, talking to him as they walked along. “Listen, as long as I have anything to say about it, no one will ever put one of those mean old bits in your mouth and yank-yank-yank again. God, I’d love to put one in their mouths and yank-yank-yank and show them how it feels. Idiots. And they call themselves horsemen.”

  Rex walked along, bobbing his head as if he agreed. Mindy had checked on him twice during the night and he had been quiet in his stall both times. He seemed to have settled in nicely. Something they were saying or something they were doing was apparently reassuring him all was well. He even stayed put in the pasture this morning.

  She closed the arena gate behind them, mounted from the ground, and walked him round and round on a loose rein, a plain snaffle bit in his mouth; a light gentle pressure on his tongue and the sides of his mouth. No more archaic medieval-type bit pressing painfully against the roof of his mouth; one of the most sensitive areas on a horse.

  Mindy looked up and smiled when she saw Julia standing by the gate.

  “He is just so pretty. And so nice. He likes it here.”

  Mindy agreed. “If I can just get him to trust me enough to raise his head.”

  Julia watched as Mindy urged him to pick up the pace a little.

  Down went his head.

  “It’s okay. It’s okay.” Mindy stroked his neck. “It’s okay.”

  Rex picked up his head for about a second and then put it right back down again.

  “Why would anyone want a horse to do that anyway?”

  “I don’t know. It’s ridiculous. You’d never see a horse doing this out in the pasture. So much for their ‘natural horsemanship’ claim.” Mindy urged him to pick up the pace again. Up went his head and then right back down went his head.

  “How are you going to get him over that?” Julia asked, mesmerized, her arms crossed on the gate. Just watching Mindy ride was a treat, let alone watching her school a horse.

  “Oh, a little at a time. No pressure on the bit at all. No pressure on him.” When she urged the horse to again pick up his pace, he raised his head for a few seconds this time. Mindy stroked his neck. “Good boy. Good boy.”

  Then down went his head again.

  “He’ll get it eventually. He’s smart. He is a good boy,” Mindy said.

  “Do you plan to keep him? I understand he’s here on trial.”

  Mindy hesitated. She had to watch whatever she said not only for the sake of keeping his rescue a secret, but again, in case the horse was listening and perhaps understanding her every word. “Yes,” she said, avoiding a detailed reply.

  She urged the horse into a trot and was amazed at the slowness of the pace. It was nothing more than a little stutter walk. Using her legs, seat, and the lightest touch on the rein, she worked him in a small circle. The tighter the circle, the higher he raised his head. After a few minutes, Mindy straightened him out to take him down the outside rail and down went his head.

  “Maybe he can just be ridden in little circles the rest of his life,” Julia joked.

  “It’s hard work, particularly for him. It goes against what’s been browbeaten into him.” Mindy continued working him in small circles at each of the four corners of the arena and again mid-way on each side of the rail, all the while saying “Good boy. Good boy.”

  “Are you going to trot him or canter him?”

  “Not today. This is hard enough work. He’s working neck and back muscles he probably hasn’t used for years.” Mindy brought him to a halt and made a fuss over him. “You’re going to be a star. Just you wait and see.” She looked at Julia. “Do you want to cool him out for me? I need to go make a phone call. My cell’s still down.”

  Julia’s eyes lit up. “Sure. For how long?”

  Mindy dismounted and ran her stirrups up. “I don’t know, maybe a half hour or so
.”

  When Julia took the horse’s reins, Mindy removed her saddle. “Just keep him moving at a nice slow walk. Try and keep his head right around shoulder height. When he lowers his head, talk to him and get him to lift it back up. Don’t tug on the bit, tug on the cheek strap.” Mindy looked back from the gate. “Remember, just a nice slow walk.”

  Rex walked along next to Julia, rubbing up against her with each stride and had a swing in his step. At the moment, if ever a horse was happy, it was him. He nuzzled the side of Julia’s face and walked on, leading the way with his head held high.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Shane was a few minutes late, but close enough. Mindy climbed up into the passenger seat of his truck and pointed the way. “What’s that for?” he asked, referring to the folder in her hand.

  “It’s for taking notes. Go right at the light, first drive on the left.” There were about thirty cars in the parking lot already. “Nice turnout,” Mindy said.

  Shane looked at her. “Do you come here often?”

  Mindy smiled. He was just so darn cute. “Often enough.” The two of them walked to the back door where they were greeted by one of the trustees.

  “Mindy,” the man said.

  “Mr. Smith.” She didn’t particularly like Mr. Smith and the feeling was apparently mutual. Mindy didn’t bother introducing Shane to the trustee. She pointed to three seats in the third row then waved to several people as they sat down and put her folder on the aisle seat next to Shane.

  “Who else is coming? Your friend Gordon?”

  “No. My dad.” Mindy glanced over her shoulder and waved. “There he is.”

  As soon as Richard sat down next to Shane and Mindy had introduced the two and they shook hands, the trustee called the meeting to order. First on the agenda, the budget. “Boring,” Mindy whispered to Shane.

  He smiled. She had her notebook open, a list of questions, and pen in hand.

  Next on the roster was zoning variance applications. The first three were approved. The last two declined. After a lengthy debate, both “losing” parties left angry.

  “Wow. This gets pretty heated,” Shane said. Mindy’s father nodded. “Anyone ever get arrested?”