Training
“Becka! When did you get here?” I said, rushing to hug her.
“Last night.” Becka laughed, hugging me back. “I’m glad to see you well, m’lady.”
“None of that.” I frowned at her, knowing she was teasing me. Still, I was so glad to have her here for this, to finally have someone who understood what I came from.
Becka smiled at my silliness. “Come on, let’s get your lesson started.”
“You’re teaching me how to ride?”
“I happen to be the daughter of the clan’s stablemaster. I was riding horses long before I could walk. Not even my old man can best me at trick riding,” Becka said, her blue eyes shining with pride.
“How have I known you my whole life but know practically nothing about you?” I asked. I hung my head, unable to look her in the face.
“It was part of my job to keep an eye on your family, so even if you’d asked, I wouldn’t have told you the truth.
Your family is the only one that has ever left the clan to gain riches that were not earned, so the clan always had a presence in their home to make sure they didn’t sell out the rest of us,” Becka explained, taking my hand in hers and squeezing it gently.
“Come on, the lesson will take your mind off past things. You have a new future to live for now.”
“I guess the bright side is that we’ve been riding a bunch of times, so you already know what you’re working with.
” I smiled, remembering picnics out in the fields with my father and Becka before Mother would deem we’d been gone long enough and send a manservant for us.
“I think Father would’ve loved living among these people. They are so like-minded.”
“It would make sense since this is your lineage. Quick wit runs thick in this bunch,” Becka commented, grinning.
“So where do you want to start?” I asked once we reached Grace’s stall.
“We’ll start where everyone should… the beginning,” Becka said, handing me a brush. “Get her all brushed out, and then we’ll go over saddling her up. Depending on how fast you pick that up, we might get you in the saddle today.”
“Funny, Becka, really funny,” I said, opening Grace’s door, grabbing her halter, and tying her to the stall door.
True to her word, we went over all the basics of taking care of a horse for the next hour. Then we moved onto learning all the parts of the saddle and bridle before I could even put it on.
“Why are there so many things to know about such a simple saddle?” I grumbled as I was finally allowed to put it on the horse.
“Knowledge is power. It could be the difference between making it out of a situation or not. Think of it this way… you’re in a fight and someone manages to cut up your saddle. If you know every inch of it, you’ll know whether it’s safe to keep using or if you need to ditch it before you get hurt.”
With Grace now finally saddled under Becka’s watchful eye, we moved on to the arena.
“We will now be attempting to get you on your horse.” Becka grinned at me like a cat who’d just caught a mouse.
“Finally. So, are you going to help me up, or do you have a mounting block for me to use?” I questioned, looking around the arena since I knew the saddle had no stirrups.
Becka just looked at me, shaking her head. “No, Cassarah, you’re going to learn how to get in the saddle without any help. As I explained, having stirrups on the saddle adds something you could get hung up on in trick riding. You need to know how to get on your horse without anything to aid you.”
Now her evil grin from earlier made more sense. She knew I was never going to get on Grace today. Either that, or she was expecting miracles to happen.
“Don’t give me that look. Here, let me show you,” Becka said as she walked up to Grace’s shoulder. “Now grab some of her mane here at the base of her neck, then take a step away, then hop forward and swing right on up.”
Becka made the whole action look so effortless, like simply leaping onto a horse was no big deal. Sadly, I’d never had any reason to leap in my life until now.
I steeled myself and squared my shoulders. I could do this. I walked up to Grace and positioned myself like I’d seen Becka do a moment ago. Becka was close by, watching everything I was doing, giving me pointers as I prepared.
“Grasp her mane tightly. You won’t hurt her. Now the trick to this is not to doubt yourself. If you do, then you’ll never make it in the saddle. Just take your step back and go for it. No second-guessing.”
I took a deep breath and pictured myself going through the motions and landing smoothly in the saddle.
I opened my eyes, took a step back, and leaped with all the effort I had.
For a moment, I thought I had it and was going to do this on my first try.
I could see my leg making its way almost over the saddle just before I slammed into Grace’s side and fell to the ground.
“That was amazing, Cassarah. You should be very proud of yourself,” Becka exclaimed, offering me a hand up with a wide grin. “No one ever makes it on the first try, and most people don’t actually get their feet off the ground.”
“I have a feeling I’m going to be used to falling off a horse by the time I figure this out,” I grumbled, brushing off my bruised rump.
Becka chuckled. “I never thought of it that way, but it’s actually a good thing to get used to. Saves you worrying about it later. Now dust yourself off and try again.”
After five more tries, Grace started to get upset with me and would move just as I was getting ready to throw myself at her. A moving target was ten times harder to even try to swing myself up on. Crashing to the ground yet again, I laid there, looking up at the wooden beams of the arena’s ceiling.
“I can’t feel my butt anymore,” I whined as Becka came to loom over me.
“Your ass is big enough to handle it,” she teased, making me gape at her. “Let’s call it a day. Even the world’s most patient horse can’t take much more of this.”
Rolling over, I groaned as I got to my feet. Muscles I didn’t even know I had were crying out at the abuse. “Thank God. I don’t know how much longer I could have kept that up.”
“Get Grace settled for the night, then you can head back to the house. Helena should be waiting with dinner for you. Let’s do this again tomorrow,” Becka said, waving and heading out of the arena.
Getting Grace set for the night took more effort than I thought it would.
My arms felt like noodles, unwilling to be held up for any length of time.
Finally brushed, watered, and fed, Grace was good until the next day.
Slowly, I trudged back to the house and climbed the few steps before flopping down at the large kitchen table.
“Goodness, child, you look like you got trampled,” Helena tutted as she set a bowl of stew and a plate of bread in front of me.
“I’m glad I look like I feel,” I mumbled, dipping bread into the bowl.
After doing that a few times, I gave up and picked the bowl up with both hands and poured it into my mouth.
I didn’t care what I looked like. I was starving and didn’t have the energy to do much more.
Setting down the bowl, I looked up to find the rest of the table watching me with wide eyes.
Abbott even had his spoon frozen halfway to his mouth while Cole tried not to laugh.
Helena glared at him before she looked over at me. “I’m thinking you need seconds but not sure you’ll stay awake for it. Come on, let’s get you cleaned up and to bed.”
She took my dishes to the sink and came back to assist me up the stairs to my room.
I fell back on the bed while Helena helped get my boots off.
Done with that, she left and returned with a small tub, followed by Cole who had two buckets of hot water.
He poured them in and quickly left, not saying a word.
“Let’s get a move on, child. You’ll not be filling your sheets with half the sand from the arena. Chop, chop.” Helena clapped, giving me the motivation to get up.
I sank into the scalding water and felt my muscles sigh with relief as they relaxed.
I scrubbed my scalp to make sure all the sand packed in there was truly gone.
Out of the tub, Helena dried me off briskly and sat me down in the chair, setting on my hair with a comb.
I must have fallen asleep at some point because the next thing I knew, I was being shaken to get in bed.
“Poor thing, these next few weeks are going to be tough on you,” Helena murmured as she pulled the blankets up around me. “Sleep well.”
The next morning went much the same—up before the sun, eating breakfast, and meeting up with Abbott. True to his word, I had to do the course twice, but this time it didn’t take me nearly as long to accomplish. I still struggled with the tunnel, but the repetition helped to ease some of the panic.
Since I finished faster, Abbott and I worked on some sword skills.
He handed me a weighted pole, showed me some basic stances, and had me repeat each drill twenty times before moving on.
Even with the cool fall breeze, I was dripping in sweat, my shirt clinging to me as I laid in the grass, catching my breath.
“You’re catching on quickly, Cassarah. You should be proud of yourself,” Abbott said, handing me a jug of water.
I sat up to grab it, and our fingers overlapped as I took the water from him. Trying to hide my blush, I gulped the water down, relishing the coolness of it. “If I can use my arms for anything else today, then I’ll be proud. I thought they hurt yesterday, but I was mistaken.”
Abbott laughed as he unpacked the lunch Helena sent with us.
“Once you get past the pain and soreness, it gets better. I remember my training days. I was ten when I first started. Believe it or not, I was always a chubby kid and wasn’t very skilled at anything, but it made me work harder, seeing everyone else advancing faster than I was.
Now I’m the best swordsman in our clan and not too shabby with my fists, either. ”