Crossing Paths

Chapter 7

Lina's POV

We've been in Nevada for about a week, and I really missed Ria. She was the only one who could really understand my pain. It wasn't just me who would miss New York-Ria would miss all of her horse friends. I sighed. At least she'll be here in a few days.

At least I had one thing to look forward to: I had a riding lesson today.

We had found a barn called Faithful Friends Stables, and today we were touring it to see if it would be suitable for Ria to be boarded at. I was also going to take a lesson there, too.

"Lina! Start getting ready for your lesson!" Mom called from downstairs, and I replied, "Okay!"

I had begun to unpack a lot of my things. Now, there were only a few boxes left to unpack.

I opened the bottom drawer of my dresser, and pulled out my favorite pair of riding pants. They were Kerrits, and they were black with a lavender checker-like pattern on the sides. I slipped them on, along with a thin, white v-neck t-shirt. It was much warmer in Nevada than it was in New York.

I pulled my hair back into two dutch braids, then put on a pair of cute tall socks that fit over my riding pants. I looked in the mirror, and decided that I was ready.

I raced down the stairs, and scooped Charlie into my arms, and he rubbed his little head on my face. He was so soft! I kissed him on the head, then set him down gently on the floor, and headed to the car where Mom was waiting.

I hopped into the front seat, and we drove off onto the streets of an unfamiliar place that I was now to call 'home'.

* * *

In only minutes, we were pulling into the driveway of Faithful Friends Stables. We parked, and we were met outside the gorgeous barn by a lady with short, dark brown hair.

"Hi! My name is Mandy Lowe, and welcome to Faithful Friends Stables! You must be the Greenes," Mandy said happily.

"Hi, and yes, that's us!" Mom said. "I'm Jennifer and this is Lina," Mom introduced, and we both shook Mandy's hand.

"Great, well, how about we get right on with the tour?" Mandy suggested, and I nodded. She smiled. "Right this way."

"First off, we have our stables. Faithful Friends has 45 stalls, and 15 pasture suites. Currently, 27 of our stalls and 4 of our pasture suites are being used, so we have plenty of spots available. The pasture suites are $250 a month, and the stalls are $300 a month," Mandy said as we strolled down the wide concrete aisle.

She led us into a tack room. It was huge! "This is our tack room. Each border is provided with 2 saddle racks and 2 bridle hooks. You are allowed to bring in other supplies such as tack boxes, buckets, etc., as long as you can stow it under the saddle racks," Mandy informed us. I nodded.

"Next, we have our feed room," Mandy said, and led us into a much smaller room that contained bins of every type of feed and supplements you could imagine. We glanced around the room for a minute, and then she led us up some stairs.

"Here, we have a sky box that allows people to view lessons in comfort. There is A.C. in here and heat, too. On the other side of this floor, we have all of our hay, and we have doors located on the ceilings of each stall that allows us to drop flakes of hay into the stall," Mandy said, and we peeked at a few of the horses that were lounging in their stalls.

We left the hay loft, and she led us to yet another room. It was big and had couches, a mini fridge, and a coffee table. "This is our lounge. We have competition team meetings in here, and announcements, too."