Derby Dreams (Acropolis #1)

Chapter 13

The fun ride loomed upon them surprisingly quickly and Carla had more on her plate than ever. For a start, she was beginning to exercise ride out on Vow with the string in the morning. It was amazing but it did mean that, as ever, she was pressed tightly for time. Friday night before the fun ride was busy as ever. She was down at the stall of Edward Preston, a massive, bay two year old, watching him be backed for the first time. The two year old had broken a leg as a foal and only this week had the vet and James agreed that the horse was fit to be broken. He wasn't owned by the stud, in fact he was owned by the very same Mrs Mockingwood who had recommended the fun ride, but the horse was trained here. He was stood, tacked up in a bridle with a browband in his owner's colours and a lightweight exercise saddle, in the middle of his stall. He was watching Kat's every move very carefully. Carla was watching with the same intensity. Charlie and Terry were stood at the head of the massive horse, he was well over sixteen hands, whilst James and Kat made a fuss of him at his shoulder. Finally, Edward Preston dropped his head and began to snuffle up the food that Terry was offering him. Kat lightly pressed weight onto the colt's back. He threw up his head to look at her. Kat stopped and he went back to eating. Kat pressed weight on again and the colt turned to look again. Kat didn't stop this time, she kept pressing lightly down. Eventually the colt turned back to the food. Now Kat very gently grasped the withers and James legged her up so that she was leaning over the colt's back. Edward Preston through up his head to look around, dancing his quarters sideways. Kat stayed still, draped over his back. The colt eventually stood still, a little uneasy but sniffed at the food again and remained on all four hooves. Kat slipped off with a smile.
"This is an easy one." She told Carla, "Some horses will be up on their back legs at the first stage but he seems to be relatively on board with this idea."
"Why do you feed him?" Carla asked.
"It's a distraction technique." James told her, "Quite a lot of people don't do that but I always feel that it's better for the horse to have positive connotations with riding from the start. When she gets on his back, he gets fed. Means he doesn't get stressed at the sight of a saddle." James was not only an incredibly knowledgeable man, Carla had found, but also one capable of thinking exactly what a horse was thinking.
"So what do you do now?" Carla asked.
"I'll do that again and again until he settles then I'll sit astride." Kat was lifted neatly up to rest on the brown back again. This time the colt's reaction was less and the time after next he barely lifted his head.
"Now I sit astride. It's one of the most vulnerable times in a horse's career, that and running free for the first time." Kat lifted one leg and James gave her an easy leg up. Edward Preston lifted his head with unease to look around at the rider balanced with both legs hanging down his sides but other than this he did nothing.
"Very good." Kat looped her fingers through the mane and slid her feet into the stirrups; still the colt was unperturbed. She clicked her tongue lightly and Charlie led the colt round the stall in a circle twice. The colt was stiff beneath unfamiliar weight but seemed happy enough with the situation. He came to a halt and Kat slipped off, rubbing his neck as she loosened the girth of his saddle.
"We'll repeat that for two days and then I'll start doing it out in the yard and eventually in the arena on a lunge." She told Carla.
"What if you have a really dangerous yearling, where do you break them?" Carla asked.
"They're babies. If they're handled right they're very rarely dangerous, just scared and frisky." James told her, "When you have a big one or a difficult one you tend to break them in a lunge pen though, it makes life easier if they do go wild."
"How often do they go wild?"
"Every now and again." James replied non-committedly, "You know which ones they are by how they behave under saddle, Dove was one of them."
"And he'll never let me forget it." Kat sung as she rubbed down Edward Preston's back, "Although at least she was worth the hassle unlike Volcanic Equation."
"She'd have been a good filly if that colt hadn't got to her." James sighed grumpily.
"By that colt he means Mischief and the result was TC." Kat informed Carla, "We'd better go pack up the lorry, I assumed we can leave him to you" She grinned at Charlie who rolled his eyes.
"I think you probably can but I want your help on Sunday when I try and catch the yearlings, they haven't been in for two weeks."
"That sounds like fun." Kat sighed, "I'll help I promise."