Read Online Emma and the Cutting Horse by Martha Deeringer - Free Book Online Page B

she was big enough for someone Kyle’s size.
    “Ask him if he can come to ride on days when
he doesn’t usually work,” Emma’s dad said. “I like Kyle, and he
gets along well with the animals. Teaching him to ride will
probably make him even better at helping with the horses.”
    “Okay,” Emma said, strolling as casually as
possible out of the room.
    Two days passed before Emma saw Kyle again.
When she did see him, he was helping her dad spray weeds that were
growing up around the pens. Taking a halter, she walked down into
the back pasture to catch Rosie, who was napping in the shade of a
tree with the other broodmares. Rosie was friendly and easy to
catch, and when Emma shook out the halter and held it up, Rosie
pushed her nose into it. Emma buckled it on and looped the long
lead rope around the mare’s neck, tying it to the halter ring to
make a rein. She led Rosie to a fallen tree and stepped up on it to
hop on her bareback. Riding back to the house, she saw that her
father and Kyle were finished spraying weeds and were hitching her
dad’s pickup to a flatbed trailer. Her father got in and drove off
down the lane. Kyle looked around, spotted Emma, and started in her
direction. She rode Rosie up to one of the empty pens, slid off,
and led her inside. Kyle turned on the hose and began to rinse and
fill the water tub in the pen.
    “Is this Rosie?” he asked.
    “Yeah, she’s the one you’re going to learn to
ride on. My parents said it would be fine for me to teach you to
ride.”
    “I know,” Kyle replied. “Your dad told
me.”
    “Then come on in and get acquainted,” Emma
said.
    Kyle came into the pen and patted Rosie
gently on the neck. She sniffed him curiously, but when she
determined that he had no feed for her at the moment she rested one
hind leg and enjoyed the attention as Kyle stroked her long, black
mane.
    “So when do you want to start?” Emma asked
him.
    “How’s tomorrow? I usually don’t work on
Thursdays, so you tell me what time and I’ll be here!”
    “I guess you’d better come right after
school. It will take a while, and I’ll have to feed and water the
horses in the pens before it gets dark. Since you’ll be here, you
can help.”
    “Deal!” Kyle said, taking her hand and
shaking it with playful violence.
    * * *
    Kyle developed an instant rapport with Rosie
when his riding lessons began. Emma took him into the pen and
showed him how to fit the halter over her nose and around her
jaw.
    “Be patient with me, Rosie,” he said rubbing
her gently under her tangled mane. “I’m a beginner.”
    Although he teased Emma as usual, Kyle was
kind and gentle with Rosie. As he carefully combed the tangles out
of her mane, the mare’s eyelids drooped and she rested one hind
leg, on the verge of falling asleep. After Emma’s demonstration,
Kyle insisted on practicing putting the saddle and bridle on the
mare over and over again until he was sure he had it right. He used
Emma’s father’s saddle, which was big enough for him but a good bit
heavier than Emma’s.
    “Don’t help me,” he warned Emma. “Just show
me if something’s not right.”
    Emma demonstrated how to stand as close as
possible to Rosie’s left side and mount quickly, swinging her
weight up over the mare’s back without pulling the saddle sideways
any more than necessary. When Kyle mounted, he climbed on awkwardly
and sat slumped in the saddle. His weight had pulled the saddle off
center.
    “Sit up straight and put your weight in the
stirrups with your heels lower than your toes. Then you can scoot
the saddle over in the middle of her back.”
    Cautiously, Kyle scooted the saddle over and
sat up straighter, pushing his heels down.
    “Wow, I have always wanted to see the view
from up here,” he said softly. He leaned over and patted Rosie
fondly on the shoulder.
    Although it was getting dark, he practiced
getting on and off a few more times. Rosie seemed confused by all
the mounting and dismounting, but