By Chance: Day 14

Word Count: 84,161

Summary of Events:

Steele went for the x-ray and was pleased when the x-ray showed he was healing well enough that the doctor gave him permission to go without his crutches — although he was to keep wearing the flexible knee brace for awhile — as well as approving his competition in the CFR. When Steele informed the kids they were all somewhat disheartened that he would be leaving, but understood that rodeo was his main occupation. In preparation for the CFR, Steele went to the property of Dolan Haggerty, a fellow roper who was, in fact, the man he was renting his horse from, to do some practise runs…

Excerpt of the Day:

Inside the barn proper, Steele turned and headed down the aisle to the stall he was looking for. Many people said — usually when Dolan wasn’t around to hear them — that Dolan had certainly gotten all of the financial contribution out of his father-in-law he could in the barn project, seeing as insurance wouldn’t cover the collapse because the barn had been deteriorating before its collapse, and Dolan wanted to add onto the structure.

Some people, thus, considered it fitting that the building wasn’t technically owned by Dolan, but was mostly owned by a combination of the bank and other rodeo competitors whom he had to pay on a regular basis, because if he missed payments — especially to the bank — the property would undoubtedly get foreclosed on, as Dolan’s parents had sold him the property and he hadn’t fully paid off the mortgage.

The gelding turned around at the sound of Steele unlocking the door, nickering deeply.

Steele lifted the halter off the hook fixed to the door as he slid it open on its rolling track before slipping inside and putting his arm around the gelding’s neck in order to bring the halter around the gelding’s head.

With the gelding secured, Steele led him out of the stall and toward the grooming area closer to the arena.

He clipped the cross ties to either side of the gelding’s halter and fetched a bucket of brushes to give the gelding a light going-over before he went to the tack room and fetched the tan-coloured tack that was fitted to the gelding.

Steele personally didn’t like the tack colour. He didn’t feel like a black horse looked good in tack that was the colour of peanut butter. A darker tack colour, more like a mahogany or a cherry wood colour was much more appealing in his eyes, but Dolan had bought the tack, and he’d chosen that colour.

Thus, Steele put the tack onto the gelding and led him out into the arena, which was actually slightly smaller than the area that Alida had at her disposal. Dolan had wanted a larger arena even though he didn’t actually need the space, but his father-in-law and the bank had conspired together to put the kibosh on that for financial reasons.

Getting into the saddle caused a twinge of pain, just as it had with Farley, although not quite as bad of a twinge as Steele had been expecting he might feel. Once he was in the saddle, however, his knee felt fine and he started riding the gelding around in warm-up.

As ever, the gelding moved well beneath him, responding to his cues easily. The gelding was honestly a well-trained horse, even if he lacked the little things necessary to be a successful roping horse in the professional ranks.