“Only three of them are mine, but we board a few for friends, or Jack does, but most of them are for breeding. This is all Jack’s. I just help when I can. He’s been great about letting me base a therapy program here. The kids love it out here and after spending as much time as they do inside hospital walls, it’s good for them to spend time outside. I give some private lessons to the kids from the hospital that are interested and cleared medically by their doctors,” she said.
“I’m impressed,” he said. “And your husband? I thought I might meet him today. Is he not a horse person?” Though how he couldn’t be if he was raised among all these beautiful animals he couldn’t imagine.
“My husband, Kolton, passed away. We started the therapy program in memory of him,” Sarah said, turning away from him and stopping to rub the neck of a beautiful white horse that was nudging her with his head. David stood and watched the two of them as he tried to think of something to say. But what was there to say? She was so young to have lost her husband. He had noticed that she didn’t mention anything about her family, but he had assumed that she was just a private person when it came to her home life.
“I’m so sorry, Sarah. I didn’t know,” he said. It sounded so inadequate.
“It’s okay. It’s not something I talk about. It’s in the past,” Sarah said as she continued to talk quietly to the horse in front of her, which seemed to comfort both of them.
“And this, Davey, is Sugar,” Jack said as he and David’s son walked up behind them making it easy to change the subject from one that he could see made Sarah uncomfortable.
“So she’s named Sugar because she’s sweet?” Davey asked the older man. David could see the wonder in his son’s eyes as he stared up at the large white horse. He’d heard of people getting horse fever and he could understand them now. He was sure it would be easy to fall in love with any one of the animals.
“She’s named Sugar because she was the sweetest gift I was ever given,” said Sarah. “Do you want to pet her?”
David tensed as Sarah lifted his son up on her hips and showed him the proper way to touch a horse and explained to him how Sugar liked her neck rubbed in long strokes. He’d been a little apprehensive about bringing Davey around the big horses, but after talking with some of the nurses at work, he’d learned that Sarah had a good reputation for working safely with the patients from the hospital. Still, he’d have to buy Davey a safety helmet if he was going to spend more time here. And from the look on Davey’s face, they would be back.
Looking over at the majestic animal, he had to admit he would like to learn more about the horses himself. Maybe this was something the two of them could do together; and Sarah was right, the fresh air was good for children.
“Can I touch her?” he asked Sarah.
She gave him a smile and a nod and he reached out to the horse and rubbed its neck. It was easy to see why his son enjoyed this as the horse leaned her head against him.
“I’m thinking this horse definitely deserves its name. What do you think, Davey?” he asked his son.
“You should see the big black one down there,” his son said as he pointed to the other end of the building. “His name is Thunder. Mr. Jack says it’s because he makes a really loud noise when he runs. Mr. Jack said I might get to ride him some day when I’m bigger. You want to see him?”
Letting Davey down onto the floor, Sarah explained where they would be and David let his son pull him down to where the large black horse whose temperament seemed to match its name stood with a look that seemed to dare the two of them to come any closer. He knew immediately that he would never be comfortable with his son riding such a big horse. As his son rattled off the names of other horses, they headed out to where Sarah was working with the other children.
“That was great, Ryan. Take him around one more time. Loosen up on the reins a bit,” Sarah said as she directed a boy that couldn’t have been over ten. “There, you see. She’s not fighting against you when the bit’s looser.”
David leant against a fence and watched her as she took time with each child, making sure they felt comfortable with the horse as well as that the horse felt comfortable with them. He’d learned so much about Sarah today. He had assumed that Sarah was married after she had mentioned that she ran the therapy program with her father-in-law. He’d never imagined that she had lost a husband. Sometimes he forgot that he wasn’t the only one who had things in their past that they didn’t want to discuss with others.
When Jack returned with a small brown pony, he watched Davey’s eyes light up and there was no telling him that he couldn’t take a ride around the paddock on him. He pulled out his phone and started a search for a helmet with a good safety rating.
Sarah watched as Jack worked with Davey on the pony he had brought up from the small paddock they had behind the house. She could barely pull her eyes away from the child that looked so much like his father with his dark hair and those beautiful eyes. He had been shy at first, hiding behind his father. Cody had been the same way when he had first met strangers, though like Davey the
