Silver Opportunity

Chapter Ten

"Emily, look, the baby's here!" Hannah shook me awake. I quickly got up and rushed to Mama's stall. Sure enough, there was a little black foal thrashing around on the floor.

"Oh, he's adorable," I said. "Did you decide on his registered name yet?"

"I was thinking Endless Possibilities," she suggested. "And his barn name can be whatever."

"Billy," I thought. "Wait, no that's awful. What about... Beau. Yeah, I like Beau."

"Beau is cute," she smiled. "I like it. Oh look, he's almost there!"

Beau was struggling, like all babies, but he was almost standing. After a few failed trials and the help of the wall, Baby Beau finally stood up.

"Aww, yay," I clapped lightly. Suddenly I heard the squeally neigh of a baby from behind me. I turned and saw Hotshot standing at the door of his stall, staring at Beau.

"Aww, Hotshot, do you have a new friend?" Hannah laughed. "Look at them!"

Beau was slightly intimidated by the bigger foal, and raced back to his mom. Except, he tripped over the pile of hay and went sprawling underneath her.

-

"How's it going with Titan?" Hannah asked from the outside of the round pen. I was lunging Titan so he got used to me and got some of his pent up energy out. He threw a massive buck.

"Yeah, it's going great," I laughed. "He's actually very responsive. He's just... I don't know how to explain it. Defensive?"

"Yeah, that makes sense," she said as she leaned against the fence. "He's been through a lot, remember. He's going to need a lot of love and affection."

"Yeah, I know," I nodded. "Whoooaaah. Good boy, Titan."

He turned towards me and walked in, breathing heavily. He seemed happy though, and let me pet him.

"I'm glad he likes you," Hannah smiled. "He needs a friend."

"What are your plans with him?" I asked, running a hand through his unruly mane. "Is he ours, or are you selling him?"

"I'm not sure yet," she admitted. "As of right now, we own him. If he's too much to handle, we can always send him off to the trainers. But I want him to have a chance with you."

"Yeah, okay," I agreed. "I'm going to see if he wants to go for a walk around property."

"Be careful," she warned. "Use a chain. Please. He's a big horse."

"Got it," I smiled. Hannah left to go take care of some business, so I headed back into the barn and grabbed a halter, chain lead rope, and my grooming kit. I learned real quickly that Titan hates being tied up — as soon as I looped the lead over the fence, he took off. Instead, I had to trust him to stand on his own while I groomed him. He did, and I made sure to give him lots of pats and treats.

He let me brush his entire body, trim
his mane, and even pick his hooves. I just had to show and let him sniff every brush before it touched him. Once I got him looking decent, I gathered up the rope and opened the gate.

I half expected him to take off. Instead, he stayed right before me and allowed me to lead him around the property. Titan was a very good horse, clearly with some very good training. He was brave, not afraid of anything, but his recent accident left him anxious of what's to come next.

I walked him around everywhere, but his favorite spot was the riding ring. There were some jumps set up, and a boarder was busy going through a course. Titan's ears perked up and he seemed to watch the other horse jumping.

"You were a jumper, weren't you?" I asked him as I patted his neck. He kept his full attention on the jumping pair until I led him up.

"How's he doing?" Hannah asked me as I met her near the ring.

"Really well, actually," I smiled. "He was a jumper, wasn't he? He was hypnotized by the horse jumping in the ring."

"Yes, he was," she nodded. "He's had some really good training, but after the accident, no one wanted to buy him."

"I'm going to try free jumping him," I said after a moment's thought. "Have a second to help?"

A while later, Hannah and I had set up a simple free jump with guide poles. It was a pole, then a two foot cross rail, then a four foot vertical.

"Alright, lets give this a shot, Titan," I said as I unclipped his lead rope. He trotted off, and with the help of a lunge whip, he picked up a quick canter toward the jumps. Hyper focused, he went over the pole, then the cross rail, then soared over the vertical with feet to spare.

"Scope much?" Hannah laughed. "Wow, he's incredible!"

"Incredible is an understatement," I said in awe. "This horse is nothing like anything I've ever seen before."

"I can't wait to see what he's like under saddle," Hannah watched him canter around. "Don't ride him just yet."

"I won't," I promised. "I want to make a schedule for him, lunging and working with him."

"Good idea," she agreed. "I've gotta get back to work. I'd call it a day with him."

"Okay!" I nodded. "I'll go put him outside. I might ride Dub."

"Sounds good!"

After I put Titan away, I tacked Dublin up and did some stamina training on one of the trails. We cantered around, up and down hills, over some fences. Dub loved to work, so he happily listened to my every cue. Once he got a nice workout, I walked him around and bareback and then hosed him off when I was done. After I sweat scraped him, I let him loose back into his paddock and let him have the rest of the afternoon off.

I headed back into the house and made some lunch. As I ate, I came up with a training schedule for Titan. Sundays would be his off days. Mondays he would be free lunged, without jumps. Tuesday he'd have some surcingle training to build up his topline. Wednesday we'd do a bit of jumping, just small things for now as he built up his strength. Thursday he's get more surcingle work, and Fridays would be desensitization. Saturday he'd get handwalked around or free lunged again. This schedule would change as his condition improved, and hopefully soon enough, I could start riding him.

I decided to do some research to see if I could find anymore information on him. I googled 'Absolute Zero' and got tons of hits. A lot of the information was about the barn fire he was in, but I managed to find a few videos of him during competition. His old rider was riding him, and he was incredible. There was some of him doing some basic dressage, and he was elegant, but nothing compared to how he jumped. The videos showed him soaring over jump after jump, each one looking more effortless than the last. He did crazy jumper turns during jump offs, and in cross country, he was the most sure-footed and confident horse around. I sent some of the links to Hannah. We'd have a lot of work to do before he could perform like that again.