Wild Horses (Aniela)

Sighing, Aniela leaned into Goliath, resting her chin on her folded arms as she lay them against the crest of his neck. His ears twitched as he detected her disappointment and grunted an inquiry. She rubbed his neck to reassure the horse that she was all right.

"It's okay, Gol. I just really wanted to take the trail with the new tack today."

Annie leaned back in her new saddle. She had saved for months to buy it, but had only been able to raise enough to pay half the cost. Uncle Neil's stable manager paid for the rest on the stables' account.

Her uncle hired awesome people to work for him.

She rubbed Goliath's neck again, running her hand through his rough, black mane. "How's it feel? Better than using uncle's, right? Wanna go for another round?" Clicking her tongue, she tapped his sides with her heels and lightly tugged his reins. He seemed to nod, as he turned and began another steady trot around the fenced-in field.

Her new saddle wasn't really better than her uncle's, not regarding quality. Goliath was Uncle Neil's horse after all, so he already had a custom saddle designed specifically for him. When her uncle bought something, he only bought the best, sparing no expense. Her step-sister Faith could attest to that.

But a custom saddle wasn't made just for a specific horse. It was also made for a specific rider, and Annie wasn't big enough to fit a seat designed for a grown man.

That hadn't really stopped her, though. Once she had learned how to tack up and ride a horse by herself, the first thing she had done was saddle up Goliath with her uncle's tack and take him for a ride. Or try to.

She barely lasted three minutes. With the saddle too big, she couldn't keep her seat, and Goliath knew something was wrong with her unfamiliar weight constantly shifting on his back.

The stablehands were in a panic when she fell. It was a small miracle she didn't break anything hitting the ground.

That was almost three years ago, soon after her father died.

She frowned. Shaking the reigns, she clipped Goliath's flanks with her heels again, and called for him to go faster. He did.

Thinking back now, it really had been a stupid idea. Goliath was a stallion. Stallions were notoriously difficult to train, often needing an expert handler to groom them for riding. Even then, stallions by their nature weren't the best choice for a beginner to ride. There were certainly other horses more appropriate to her skill level to ride in the stables. Aunt Beth's horse, a mare called Ruby Star, had a calmer disposition, and Pedro the family pony was already familiar with her and her siblings. Even some of her uncle's workers had their own horses in the stables that would have been safer to ride.

But Goliath was different. He was tall, strong and fast; she'd seen him run during his daily exercises, and felt his muscles twitch and flex when she helped the stable crew groom his coat. And when Uncle Neil was around, he made riding and handling the stallion look deceptively easy. She wanted to be able to ride him too.

Uncle Neil tended to be away alot, and with the stable crew reluctant to tell their boss' niece what she could and couldn't do, Annie had managed to get away with more rides than she should have in the large saddle.

She was glad nobody snitched on her to Aunt Syl. The girl had learned to be cautious riding so long in the awkward tack, and over time, the horse grew accustomed with carrying her smaller, unsteady weight on his back. But Annie still had been taking more risks than her aunt would have allowed.

Now with a proper saddle, Annie and Goliath completed two more laps around the field with ease. The new saddle was factory-manufactured tack, not customized to fit either of them, but the saddle fitter from the tack shop knew his trade. He had selected the proper standardized size and made various adjustments so that the saddle, despite not being tailored specifically for them, was still a decent fit.

Annie grinned. With the new tack, her weight was properly balanced and positioned on the stallion's back, and no longer interfered with his movements. Now she and Goliath can see what they could really do. But the fenced field limited them; they could only move so far, so fast in the enclosed area. Annie was itching to hit the trails and really feel him fly. The stallion's muscles twitched underneath her, telling her Goliath felt the same.

Unfortunately, that wasn't possible today. Sighing, she pulled the reigns, slowing Goliath back to a light trot, and directed the horse to approach one of the fences that surrounded the field. Voices were chattering on the other side.

"Pedro doesn't want to play anymore!"

"I don't think Pedro was playing in the first place. I think he still doesn't know how."

"But we've been trying to teach him since forever!"

"I know! But I don't think he's listening."

Annie heard a faint thump. Looking over, she watched a black and white soccer ball roll slowly through the grass to tap the nose of a pale-coloured pony as he grazed. The equid glanced up a moment. A few feet in front of him, two boys stared with anticipation.

Grunting, Pedro nudged the ball with his nose. It rolled a few inches out of the way, then the pony continued grazing. Groans of disappointment escaped from the boys.

The smaller of the two looked up at her with pleading eyes. "Annie! You know horses! Can you help us teach Pedro how to play football?" Her brothers hadn't grown up in North America, so they knew soccer by another name. "Pleeeeease, Annie?"

She sighed, nodding reluctantly, and dismounted. Unbuckling his bridle, Annie began to remove Goliath's tack, so he could graze comfortably while she helped her siblings. She lifted the headgear off his head, and caught what looked like disappointment in his eyes. Annie rubbed his nose reassuringly. "We'll try to hit the trails tomorrow, Gol. Okay?"

She really hated babysitting her little brothers when they followed her out to the stables.