Earning Trust

The First Glimpse

The above picture is Aurora's tack room after it was cleaned up.

It has officially been a month of Aurora owning another horse and riding again. She has slowly gained more and more confidence in the saddle again. Slowly the wild horse is calming and becoming less afraid of the world. After a few failed attempts she managed to get the gelding to eat a treat out of her hand, and eventually he let her run her hands over his smooth coat. Today the young woman smiled as she climbed out of her old beaten up truck.  Still in her work clothes she ran inside and changed quickly into a pair of skinny jeans and a flannel shirt before she slipped out the back door and towards the barn. The gelding was still in the round pen and nibbling quietly on grass. When he saw Aurora approaching he lifted his head and snorted. She giggled and walked past the pen to the feed room. She mixed his daily sweet feed and grabbed some hay for him before hauling it over to his pen.  Sliding everything in for him she watched as the gelding stared at her for a minute before approaching and eating slowly.  After a few minutes of observing the horse, she walked back into the barn and grabbed a halter. It was black, and she smiled absent mindlessly as she walked back out and climbed into the round pen. Sitting on the fence she stared off into the distance and started to speak quietly. "You know, I still haven't given you a name, have I? She said glancing at the equine below her. "I'm thinking, something along the lines of Cowboy." The gelding snorted as he continued to eat and she chuckled a little. "I know, childish, how about, California Dreaming? Cali?" She mused tilting her head slightly before frowning. "Nah, doesn't really suit you. You need something more gentleman like." "How about Romeo? Or Prince? Wait, I'm thinking maybe a name that starts with a D, Dixon? Devon, Dally? Dallas, Dean, I like that one. Cowboy's Homecoming would be a nice show name." Aurora grinned and nodded, "Alright, that'll be it!" She chirped before slowly climbing down into the round pen and approaching the snacking horse. "Now boy, I don't know much about your past, but by the looks of it, you where kept pretty nice. I don't know what happened to make you so wary of humans, but I think you're getting better. So, if you don't mind I am going to put this halter on you." She explained as she rubbed Dean's shoulder gently. When he lifted his head she took the opportunity to slide the halter onto his nose. He backed up a step but let her lift it over his ears and buckle it. "See? Not that hard." Aurora whispered as the gelding shook his mane and went back to eating. "Alright, now for the lead rope. Pulling it off the fence she clipped it to the ring on the halter and watched as he lifted his head again. Giving a slight pull of the rope she clicked and watched as the gelding took a few steps with her before pulling back to his food. She stumbled and caught herself before nodding in agreement with her mind. "Alright, we will let you finish your food."  The brunette girl waited patiently for her horse to finish his food before she gave another little tug on the rope. "Alright boy." She muttered as he lifted his head and ambled around behind her slowly. He seemed so different then the horse she had brought home just a mere month ago. As they walked around the round pen in silence. Just horse and woman, together and calm, he didn't spook at the banging of the barn door being blown, or the sound of a neighbors dog barking. His head was drooped and his ears were lazily flopped to the side.  That was until her phone rang and he reared up twisting away from her. In her shock she managed to get him down and calm before slipping his halter off and exiting to check her phone. It was the hospital were she worked at, ringing back she heard the phone click. "Hey, listen we need you to come in, there was a building collapse down town and we could really use your help." Aurora agreed and hung up before running into the house. She slipped on her tennis shoes and grabbed her coat before darting back to her pickup. In no time she was at the hospital and had her scrubs on. A folder for her first patient in the ER was thrown at her. Twenty nine year old male, John Doe, needed complete work over. Grabbing a nurse she quickly rushed over there and stopped dead in her tracks in surprise. The man was Mark, fear bubbled up in her as she quickly worked with others to check his vitals. Once he was sent away for tests she moved on to the next patient, a young red headed female.

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