Chapter 19
“What are you doing now?” Cole asked as he looked around and saw Scott saddling a horse.
He nudged Shay with his elbow and pointed.
“That barn has twelve stalls in it. Each horse has their own stall, as I’m sure you know.
You can access the stall from the inside, like all the other barns, but these stalls also have a door to the outside.
The horse can look out the top half, and the entire door can be opened if need be.
These barns are set up like the regular race tracks all over the world. ”
“Okay, but what makes this barn more special than the other three?”
“This one is for the horses that we, or rather, Faith will start racing. Now that we have a jockey on the payroll, the horses that need to be run the most will be housed here.” Cole looked at Shay with a grin.
“That means that you’ll have to come over here to muck out the stalls.
We can put them out during the day, like the others, but when it’s warming up, and they are raced, they need to go back into their stall so they don’t get overheated.
These horses are at the age where they need to start training. ”
“I understand, I’m not telling you that you don’t know what you’re doing, but Pedro will be able to direct me also, right?”
“Yes, and so will Faith. I know the two of you are dating, and even living together, and I also realize you were a commander in the military, however, on this, you listen and take orders from Faith and Pedro. They will supersede even my instructions.”
“Understood,” Shay said with a nod. He looked between Faith and Cole and frowned. “What do you want me to do first?”
Cole looked at Faith with a raised brow.
“Go talk with Scott. I’m not quite ready yet to race the first horse.” She looked between the two men and nodded when they listened to her. “Shay, normally, there would be more people doing what you and Scott are doing.”
“Correct,” Cole said, and turned fully toward Shay. “If we were fully staffed, Faith wouldn’t be the only jockey here. We would have a jockey for every horse, a stable hand, and trainer to go along with them.”
“Why?”
“Because then the team can concentrate on the individual horse. As it is now, Faith will be riding all of them, you and Pedro will be doing the training part, and I’m hoping once Clem takes off, he can send people back to us so we can use them until the RRR is ready.”
“What does that mean?” Faith asked.
Cole looked between the two of them, because he’d seen confusion on the other man’s face. “RRR stands for Riceman Rodeo Ranch, it will be going in across the street from Erin’s Way and Broken Wheel.”
“Ah, the new ranch, I know about that, but what does Clem have to do with getting people here?”
“The RRR will be a rodeo ranch, but not a rodeo ranch.” He chuckled when he saw confusion.
“Erin wants to build a covered arena, like what is at other rodeos. Instead of holding our own rodeos, we’re going to use it so that people can come here and practice.
When it’s done, we’ll have the arena, cabins like you two are in, for the workers there, and we’ll start out by boarding, then maybe breeding our own rodeo stock. ”
“Like?” Faith asked.
“Bulls, broncs, stuff they use in the rodeo. As for Clem, he’ll be going out to local rodeos and talking to the cowboys.
See, Lois and I went to one, and we found two boys.
I call them boys because they’re in their early twenties.
They love the rodeo, but they don’t win enough to pay their entrance fee to every rodeo they go to.
They’re due here soon and they’ll be working at New Double to earn a paycheck before the RRR is complete and they move over. ” He saw they followed him and nodded.
“See, these guys, Kade and Lane, are brothers, twins. They love horses, they want to work with them, but they grew up on a dairy farm over in Kansas. They will get the experience of working with horses while I get the hands I need.”
“I get it. Working on New Double will give them the horse experience, and they can learn about the racehorses while they get ready to go across the street.”
“Correct, and that’s why Clem is going to the rodeos.
He’s looking for guys that love horses, the rodeo, and are down on their luck, but they don’t want to give up their dream.
Don’t worry, we’ll do the background checks on them, there’s no way we’re letting just anyone around these horses here on New Double, nor the ones over at Erin’s Way. ”
“What about Broken Wheel?” Faith asked. “Why are they different?”
“It’s not that they’re different, it’s just, ah heck, yeah, they’re different.
” Cole pushed his hat further up his head with a sigh.
“The horses at Broken came when the local police went to Erin about an abused horse. They asked if she could foster them until the case against the owner went to court. She agreed. After that, the SPCA would reach out to Erin about other cases, and after the court case where the previous owners were not given their horses back, Erin made a donation to the SPCA, and was given possession of them. Mind you, every horse was downtrodden, weak, abused, and had just about given up on life.”
“They were broken,” Faith whispered.
“Yeah, pretty much. At first it was just Naomi there, then the girls, excuse me, women, that started coming. Erin hates the word disabled, she prefers challenged, those horses were challenged just to eat, or pick their heads up to look around. The women were just as challenged as the horses. They, both women and horses, are now pretty much healed, and those horses know what it’s like to reach rock bottom and come back.
That’s how they’re different. Erin’s Way raises prize stallions and brood mares.
Broken has the now rehabilitated, but formerly broken horses, and we here at New Double have the racehorses. ”
“And the RRR will be all about the rodeo.”
“Correct.” He reset his hat, nodded once, and looked at them both.
“As I said, Clem’s leaving soon, and I’m hoping he’ll send guys, and gals to us.
I’m not picky, as long as they know the correct end of a horse, we can train them to do anything.
” He scowled when the couple before him burst out laughing.
They laughed so hard that they ended up leaning into each other to hold them up.
Cole shook his head, thinking it was an inside joke, then he burst out laughing along with them when they explained about Shay and Tony’s teeth and tail analogy when it came to horses.
“You’re not wrong,” he said with a laugh, but sobered quickly. “Enough stalling, Shay, get with Scott, he knows what needs to be done. Faith, let’s go over the list of horses you’ll be racing.”
Shay walked away, and when he got to the barn, he introduced himself to Scott. It didn’t take Scott long to fill Shay in on what they had to do. He started by going over to the wall, and that’s where Shay saw a giant whiteboard made into columns. He studied it and nodded. “I see.”
“What?” Scott asked. “What do you think you see here?”
“These are the horses that will be ridden,” Shay said as he stepped up to the board and pointed. “Since they are listed on the side, one on top of the other, and other things written across the top, then I’m assuming that information is for each horse.”
“Correct, or at least that was how it was explained to me. I do know that I need to saddle the first horse, take it out to the staging area, and come back to get the second one ready. I don’t know how many times Faith will run around the track, but once she’s done, talking with the trainer, I take that horse back to the barn, again, not until she tells me she’s done.
As it was explained to me, she might want to go back out with the first horse.
If everything is a go, I bring that horse back to the barn, remove the saddle and blanket, rub him down, and make sure it’s comfortable. Then I saddle up the next one.”
Shay nodded and something Cole said earlier about having more help. He totally understood why now. He turned and went to the first horse to be saddled and didn’t say anything when he had to have Scott help him. Ann had taught him, but he had only watched it done twice.
“These are different saddles than the western ones.”
“Yes, these are specially made for racing.”
Shay looked around and saw the spot the saddles were stored, and asked, “How many saddles are there?”
“Six. I don’t know how it’s going to work, but I trust Faith and Cole to tell us what to do.” They looked up when the people he just mentioned walked into the barn.
“I heard you,” Faith said. “Normally, each horse would have their own saddle, jockey, trainer, and equipment. However, for the time being, I’m it for the jockey, you guys are the hands, and Cole is going to train Shay on how to take down the stats.
All the horses can use these six saddles.
However, never, ever reuse a saddle blanket unless it is completely dried.
There should be a stack of them over by the saddles.
When you do up a new horse, grab a new blanket.
Also, make sure the used blanket it spread out over these hooks, do not just toss them in a corner, they need to be dried before they can be used again. ”
“Is that what that board is for?” Shay asked as he pointed to the board he had seen earlier. “The stats?”
“Yeah, part of the trainer’s job is to fill in the boxes at the end of the day, then we’ll discuss them. We’re only going to run six a day for now. Maybe less, depends on how they run.”
“The other saddles are on their way. Like I’ve said many times, each horse usually has their own team, but until the others can get here, it’s just us four.”
“We can do this,” Scott said. He held out his fist, and Shay bumped it.
“I’m going to want Champ first,” Faith said, and pointed to the board, and that horse was listed as number one.
“All ready,” Scott said, and grabbed his reins and led him out. “The next two are saddled and waiting. If you don’t mind, I want to watch you race him.”
“I don’t,” Faith said.
They went out to the track, and Shay stopped Faith as she was checking the saddle. “How long is or big is the track?”
“A mile and a half to go around once,” Cole said. “We made it this big because the race at the Kentucky Derby is a mile and a quarter. I figured that a mile and a half, then we would be safe.”
“Got it,” he said, and watched as Faith double-checked the cinch and started talking to the horse as she ran her hand over his neck.
Cole took Shay to the side and handed him a gun.
“Whoa.”
“It’s nothing. This is the type of gun they use at regular races. These are virgin horses, they’ve never run a track before, we need to get them used to being on a track. Don’t worry, it’s loaded with blanks. I promise.”
Shay took the gun, but emptied the bullets, then realized there was only one, and studied it. Being former military, he knew what a blank looked like, he saw that Cole was correct, so he took it, and placed it in the small of his back. He looked at the clipboard handed to him, and the stopwatch.
“I’ll operate the stopwatch for the first couple of runs, then I’ll show you how to register the numbers.” He pointed to the track and they saw Faith was in the process of mounting the horse. Cole told him to get the gun ready, and said, “Raise it in the air, when she gives the nod, fire it.”
Cole did, and watched Faith, when she nodded twice, he fired it, and stared in shock when Champ took off like he had been shot out of a cannon. “Holy shit,” he whispered, and could actually feel Cole’s grin.
“Is that fast?” Shay asked when Cole lifted the stopwatch and pressed the button. He looked at Shay and actually jumped up and down. Shay was confused, and watched as Faith and Champ started slowing down, and when she came to them, she too wore a gigantic grin.
“I don’t know if I’m more excited about being on the back of a horse again, or because of that ride. It was awesome!” As she spoke, she rubbed Champ’s neck and beamed at Shay.
“What was his time?”
“Twenty-eight point one four.”
“Are you shitting me?”
“What? What does that mean?” Shay asked when both Cole and Faith cheered.
Faith turned to him with a wide smile. “The fastest recorded quarter mile, which I just ran because these horses are virgin at racing, is during an official race was ran in twenty point five-seven seconds. The fastest mile was run in one minute, thirty-four point one five seconds. Both those horses were clocked at roughly forty-three miles an hour.”
“Holy shit. How fast did Champ go?”
“I don’t know, we didn’t register it,” Cole said with a grin. “We’ll do it the next time.” He looked at Faith. “Do you want to go again?”
“Yes, do you have the speed gun?”
“I do, it’s in the golf cart.” He turned and walked away, but was back in seconds.
They set it up for Faith to run again, and this time, Scott was there, he used the speed gun, while Cole timed the run, and Shay started it.
Faith thought six times around the track was good enough for Champ’s first race.
Each time around the track Shay noticed his speed improved in both faster times, and faster speed.
He had a million questions, but decided to wait for them until he got home that night and it was just him and Faith.
Scott switched out the horses, and though Faith did the same with the other horses as she had with Champ, and they were good, they still weren’t as good as him.
By the time they called it a night, Shay was exhausted with all the horse lingo being thrown at him all day, and looked forward to a hot shower, and a relaxing night.