Page 57 of Kayla's Cowboy
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ALEX DECIDED THAT horses weren’t too bad. In fact, he kind of liked riding, even if it jolted his butt.
DeeDee had been wild to get on a horse for the past year. He hadn’t cared that much, even though Sandy had told him he was a dope; she loved it and had gotten her parents to take her riding every week.
After a while Jackson called out for them to stop.
“Are there mountain lions or wolves ahead?” DeeDee asked excitedly.
“No, I just think we should turn back.”
“We haven’t gone that far at all,” Morgan complained.
“Yes, but remember what happened with Kenny and Lynne.”
“Oh. Right.”
“Huh?” Alex asked.
“Sore bums,” Morgan explained. “My cousins visited from Chicago and they got it bad. Like, they couldn’t sit or lie down or walk for days without groaning and moaning.”
“Uh...okay.”
“But after lunch we can get in the pool, and tomorrow we can go for a longer ride. You get used to it pretty quick.”
Alex nodded. Morgan expected him to come out to the ranch every day, and maybe it wouldn’t be too bad. Jackson might not be too bad, either, if they could just be friends.
And he’d liked meeting the McGregors. All of a sudden he had regular grandparents, the same as most of his friends. He even had more great-grandparents that he hadn’t met yet. He’d emailed to tell Sandy more about it last night; she’d written back and said it was good he was too old to get dorky birthday clothes. That had made him laugh. The first time he’d met Sandy was in the first grade and she’d been spitting mad because her mom had made her wear a sweater from her grandmother with Big Bird on the front.
Anyway, the McGregors were okay. Jackson had seemed surprised when he’d called them Grandpa Parker and Grandma Sarah, but Alex didn’t mind doing it. Other than his grandparents, he only had Uncle Pete on Mom’s side, but Jackson’s family was humongous. Grandpa Parker had promised to give him a chart of the McGregor family to help sort it out.
At the barn, Morgan showed him how to unsaddle Betty. She did the same with the Black, then casually lifted her stallion’s front right foot.
“Don’t fuss, ya big baby,” she scolded as the Black snorted, though she didn’t sound annoyed. “This is a hoof pick,” she told Alex, showing him how to use the tool to clean around the horseshoe.
Alex nervously took one of the picks from the grooming trays on a shelf. Luckily Betty didn’t seem to mind her feet being messed with, though she leaned on his back a little.
Next came a currycomb, then the body brush; he liked doing that part more even though his arms started aching.
“We take good care of our horses on the Crazy Horse,” Morgan said. “If you wanna ride, you gotta know your way around a currycomb and hoof pick.”
“That’s right,” Jackson agreed. He was helping DeeDee, who couldn’t reach as high as she needed to get Boop’s head and back with the body brush.
Alex saw his mom was grooming Madonna as if she knew exactly what she was doing. For some reason he was surprised to find out that Jackson had taught her to ride a horse, but he knew they’d dated and done stuff together...yeah, a lot of stuff. Yuck.
He tried to think about lunch instead, hoping it wouldn’t be barbecued burgers again, or anything else that smelled real good. Being a vegetarian was hard, but he didn’t want to stop being one in front of Jackson...or in front of Dad, not after all the snotty jokes Dad had made about vegetarians with Brant.
He and Morgan finished by cleaning Betty’s and the Black’s bridles and the stirrup treads and went outside to hang around and wait for the others.
“Phew,” he muttered. “That’s a lot of work.”
“You get used to it,” Morgan said, climbing up to straddle the corral fence. “The Black trusts me more because I take care of him. And this way I know where he likes to be touched the most, and what he doesn’t like, all sorts of stuff.”
Alex could see how it would help. He’d already discovered there was a spot on Betty’s neck where she loved being scratched, but he didn’t think he’d ever get used to cleaning a horse’s butt...the dock, as Morgan called it. She’d told him it was the place around the tail, but as far as he was concerned, a butt was a butt.
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JACKSON ENJOYED SHOWING DeeDee how to take care of Boop and even took the time to explain the basics of cleaning and oiling saddles. But it was obvious Alex wasn’t interested, because he left with Morgan. At least he’d seemed to enjoy the ride.
One step at a time, Jackson reminded himself. With every scrap of the patience he could muster, he brought everyone into the kitchen.