It's Only 8 Seconds

Chapter Eight

Just a few days after my first rodeo back on Bird I took the new mare from Peta out into the round pen to start my work with her. River was asleep in the airconditioned tack room and all the horses were fed and turned out. I took the end of the led rope and let the mare walk up to me on her own accord, while I watched her and took in everything about her my mind was buzzing with new names. The little mare rested her nose on my arm and her bright eyes looked up at me. She really was special, and I know that I am giving her another life, a life that is going to help her and be better for her than the life she was bound to get. If I hadn't have taken her home that day and someone else brought her I don't know what I would have done.

''Your not bad are you?'' The mare threw her head around and let out a little squeal. I didn't want to give up on this mare or Apache again. There was something so amazing and brilliant about these wild horses and having the opportunity to give them a second chance. You could tell that they were forever grateful for the new life you had given them. 

I walked around the ring with the led lose while she followed me around and around in circles. As we walked around I began to catch onto all the quirky little traits that this horse had. But I was yet to find out that this mare could be the game-changer in my career. I didn't want to push my limits with her today, so I put her up in the stall we had set up for her in the stables. I had left her out in the pasture since I had gotten her two weeks ago, so I decided to put her in there today and give her the first lot of hard feed. It was such a blessing to watch this mare dig into her feed and not even worry about the smaller space she was in and that's when I decided to call her Juniper. 

There were moments that I did become scared on this new journey with Junie, but I knew that I just had to push through and make the best of what we had. I got scared that I might not be doing this all right and there were points where I thought that I was failing her. But that, that was all in my own head.