Grand Theft Equine - Chapter 3

Here are the links if you missed Chapter I – Rider Up and Chapter II – Off Track by our featured writer, Margo Moon.

Chapter III - Early Fractions

Two mornings after Cailen’s arrival, as Joan stood alone in the serenity of her pre-dawn shedrow, she heard that distinctive release of Brie’s lock and warned before the door had time to open very far, “Put on one more layer, Brie, it’s a damp, windy one.” The door banged shut.

When Brie came back out, Joan trailed into the office behind her, cradling her coffee cup and speaking gingerly. “Sassy’s coming to town sometime this week.”

Brie uttered the prettiest sentence in Spanish, giving it a sweet, melodic tone. Joan had no doubt its meaning was filthy and spiteful.

“I really do have to find some time to learn Spanish,” she said after a longish look at Brie, followed by a contemplative sip of coffee. “Listen Brie, she’s bound to be around the barn some in the next day or two. All I ask is that you don’t make faces and obscene gestures behind her back where I can see them. You know I lack the maturity to keep from laughing.”

Brie had to giggle at that.

Joan continued, “And it puts me in a bad position.”

“Ol’ Rainier Farms wants to put you in some position, all right. Don’t know if I’d call it bad. No, I take that back. With her it’d be worse than bad.”

“What do you say, Brie? Will you lay off the antics this time?”

Brie manufactured a labored sigh. “Yes. But only as long as she doesn’t bring her uppity self around to my stalls with all that shit she talks.”

Joan smiled. “If she tries that, she’s fair game—and on her own. But after the last time, I doubt she’ll toy with you.”

Brie was getting together a fresh pot of coffee, but stopped counting scoops to fondly recall the last time Sassy had tried to mess with her. Through a widening grin she predicted, “Sure she will. That kind of stupid is special—it never learns.”

“No comment.” Joan couldn’t afford the same degree of objectivity toward Sassy that Brie enjoyed. Sassy or Rainier Farms, there was no functional difference, owned the cream of Joan’s current string of horses, and difficult as it was, Joan had a huge stake in focusing on Sassy’s good points. Admittedly, the quest for Sassy’s virtues was ongoing.

The coffee maker was gurgling and spewing by the time Brie took her tack and cup to the stalls. Cailen was already dumping a load of manure out in the muck pile. She had been making a habit of getting to work early enough to clean a stall for Brie each morning. A head start like that could lift enormous pressure from a groom’s entire day.

Joan watched Cailen upend the wheelbarrow. “It’s a good friend who’ll clean stalls for you, Brie.”

“Sure is.”

Joan moved on down the shedrow to inspect feed tubs, finding that Pennington’s Lass had left her food untouched again.

*****

Back at the office end of the barn, Brie and Cailen were cleaning adjoining stalls and talking through the wall. “So do you ever plan to tell me about you and Lara?”

Cailen’s flat timbre was meant to quell further discussion of Lara as she said, “There isn’t anything to tell. You already know how it is.”

“Still? You mean things are still going on the way they were two whole years ago?”

“Basically.”

“Cailita, come by the room this afternoon. I can’t talk to you constructively out here.”

Cailen shook her head and laughed softly.

“Quit laughing. I really want to just talk. I can’t believe that, that…Cailen, I swear, if not for respect for your feelings, I’d tell you exactly what I think of her.”

“Let’s just drop it, Brie.”

“So you’ll come by?” Jade was tacked up and Brie had a jump on the stalls thanks to Cailen, so she parked her wheelbarrow and went into the stall Cailen was bedding down. “Here’s how I see it. There’s nobody Lara won’t mess around on you with, and there’s nobody you will mess around on her with. That’s lopsided. And I think it has to be unhealthy for you.” Brie realized she was fussing and toned it down some. “You seem so sad, Cailita, and I am hurt to see you this way. I mean it.”

“I know, but it’s temporary. I came down here to clear my head.”

“You were clearing your head two years ago. It’s time to move on. Come by the room this afternoon.”

Cailen laughed again. “We both know what that’s code for.”

“So what? Who better than me? You’ve got your ideas about being faithful no matter what she’s doing. Fine, knock yourself out. But with me it’s not exactly being unfaithful, since we’ve already been that route and we know we aren’t going to fall in love or anything. It’ll be for your sanity. I can’t imagine how you survive.”

They could hear Joan talking to Jimmy on the other side as she got to their end of the barn, so Brie started out for the muck pit, but paused. “And I’ll tell you one more thing. You’ve got Joan all wrong. I wish you’d quit treating her like she insulted your family or something. All the things you hate about other trainers don’t apply to her. She is good to these horses, mija.”

Joan barreled around the corner wearing her training smile—the energized one, very distinct from her after training smile, which was relaxed to the point of beaming alpha waves. “Brie, if you see Doc Blevins before I do, will you ask her to take a look at the new filly for me?”

“Penny? What’s wrong with her?”

Joan shook her head, “Hasn’t touched her feed since shipping in. I called the training center yesterday and Mag said she’d been cleaning up just fine until the day she left.”

“I’ll tell Doc if I see her.”

*****

Cailen heard their conversation over the rustling sounds of shaking out clean straw. She had noticed the forlorn chestnut filly already. Everything about that animal screamed loneliness. That was the kind of thing she held against trainers.

To her, removing a horse from a home where it had been happy among other horses, and standing it alone in a ten by ten stall, was cruelty. Some of them adjusted, although for any horse, isolation was highly unnatural. But others, like this filly, were never able to make the transition. Joan Caulder might be courteous and seem kind and thoughtful on the surface, but the heart of a horse trainer beat within her. And to train horses, you had to put money and expediency above horses’ true best interests in countless ways every day. That, and the fact that she’d never met a trainer who wasn’t a jerk, was why Cailen had originally left the racetrack.

Hearing Joan’s call for the first set, Cailen threw down the rest of Knucklehead’s bedding and retrieved her helmet from Brie’s footlocker.

One by one, Joan halted the other three horses and tossed their riders up ahead of Singer so he would be last. The flicker of intimacy as Cailen’s side and thigh slid along her upper arm was becoming a much-anticipated part of Joan’s mornings. And by legging Cailen up last each set, Joan could savor that shadow of sensation for the entire walk to the track.

*****

After the last set Cailen headed directly to her truck instead of dropping by Brie’s stalls on her way out like usual.

“Where you going so fast?” Brie didn’t miss much.

“Back to the apartment.”

Brie undid DotCom Implosion’s halter and released her to munch hay. “Wait a minute.” She threw on her jacket and jogged out to Cailen in the parking area. “Nice truck. Let’s sit inside for a few minutes.”

Cailen started the engine so they’d have heat soon. “Brie, I know what you’re going to say and you’re probably right, but—”

Brie examined the heater controls and flipped them on. “You do know what I’m going to say? Great.” She leaned her head back on the upholstery and shut her eyes. “Because you can say it for me then, while I catch a few minutes of rest.”

“Okay, you want me to talk about Lara. I’ll talk about Lara. Only this isn’t about Lara anymore. I’m not foolish enough to think the two of us can still salvage anything.”

Brie opened her eyes. “This is encouraging news. Then why don’t you cut free completely and find yourself a woman who’ll treat you right? You’re a smart, beautiful, strong, kind person. You don’t deserve to live the way you have—no love, no sex, no nothing.”

Cailen laughed. “How did I survive two whole years without seeing you, Brie?” She squeezed her hand for a few seconds. “As I was saying, it isn’t even about Lara anymore. I have to find a way out of it, though, that doesn’t leave me feeling like a failure. I have to do it right, be sure I gave everything I had before giving up. That’s the only way I’ll be able to trust myself to make those same promises to somebody else someday, on the off chance somebody else ever comes along.”

Brie considered. “That makes good sense. See? All you had to do was talk to me.”

“Glad you understand.” Cailen was sure Brie did not understand.

“So, you have all the facts in perspective and you know you need to dump Lara once and for all and get on with your life. When and how do you plan to do this?”

“I’m not sure.”

Brie clapped her hands once, loudly. “Back to the first square! Cailen, I repeat myself, this is where you were two years ago.” But Brie was finished pushing the point for now. She knocked the back of her hand against Cailen’s arm. “Go on home and enjoy your afternoon. I am still thinking you should come by the room, though.”

Cailen was finding it increasingly difficult to turn down Brie’s invitations. They had been lovers a long time ago. In one of those rare fits of emotional lucidity, especially for people so young at the time, they’d recognized that the two things they had going for them were a strong friendship and electrifying sex. Beyond that, they’d somehow both divined they would never be in love. So, their paths had gradually diverged. They had, however, resurrected their sexual connection occasionally before Cailen met Lara.

Through the side view mirror Cailen absently watched Joan’s truck return, followed by a small white-paneled van. In imitation of Brie’s friendly blow, she swept the back of her knuckles into Brie’s arm. “Probably shouldn’t come by the room.”

Brie swung open her door and bounced from the truck, but leaned her elbows back onto the seat, dimpled smile and dark brown eyes flashing. “Whatever you say, mi amor. I’ll be there until feed time if you change your mind.” She winked at Cailen and turned to catch up with Joan and Dr. Blevins, who were halfway across the gravel, heading for the barn.

Anna Blevins had been Joan’s veterinarian since before Brie showed up at the Rainier Farms training center in Camden six years earlier. When Brie reached them, she had to pull up to get in step.

“Slow down, Brie. I was just telling Joan that you and she seem to be getting younger all the time. And here I am, full of aches and pains and about to go menopausal any second. It’s just not fair.”

Joan cut in, “And I told her she has too soft a life. She needs to be up and cleaning stalls like you before five in the morning.”

Brie was about to part directions with them. “You can borrow some of my stalls anytime, Doc.”

Joan howled in protest. “You weasel!” Then to Anna she said, “We have a new exercise girl who’s already coming in early to catch a stall for Brie every morning.”

Doc Blevins’ laughter cracked back and forth between barns. “Brisada, I swear! Joan, what did you call it once upon a time? Brie’s cavalcade of exercise girls?”

“Yeah.” Joan felt herself deflate. For some reason, even though she was well aware of Brie’s unabashed weakness for the female rider, it hadn’t occurred to her that Cailen and Brie might be more than friends. Now that the notion had surfaced, she found it so unsettling that she concisely told Anna where to find Penny before excusing herself for a minute. “Be right down, Anna. Just need to check something in the office.”

Joan closed the office door behind her. This preoccupation with Cailen was getting worse. Unable to sleep the night before, she had tried to pin down a few of her emotions, but honestly could not figure out whether her attraction was from general loneliness, the simple need for sex, or something specifically about Cailen that was beginning to drive her crazy. Being totally thrown off balance by the suggestion of something sexual between Brie and Cailen, which she realized was absolutely none of her business, gave weight to the Cailen-specific option.

As this analysis raged on in her mind, Joan’s body was washing away on a wave of jealousy. She dried her palms roughly on the thighs of her jeans and took a couple of deep breaths. Quick as that, Joan realized she was beyond needing a date with just anyone, and she optimistically resolved to work on getting Cailen to hate her less. After another long intake of air, she plunged back out to her shedrow.

Anna was finishing Penny’s exam and labeling some vials when Joan got down there. The vet ventured, “Let’s see how this blood work comes back, but honestly, I don’t think there’s a physical problem here.”

*****

For the next hour, Joan circulated through the barn, following up on a slew of mental notes she’d made during the morning. Heading back to her office, all pleased that a new fleece cover had kept the girth from chafing Dreamer’s Fantasy, she noticed Bean’s stalls.

“Bean,” she called, as she went from one to the next of his doorways.

“In here.” He was inside the final one she came to.

“These stalls are still bedded much too sparsely.”

“Sorry about that. I’ll do them thicker tomorrow.” That had been his reply the last time.

“Let’s make it this morning, instead. Temperatures are going to drop tonight.” She knew she was throwing a real curve into Bean’s day, since he was probably counting on being out of there soon and bedding the stalls correctly would take at least another hour. He’d have to lay down the straw while the horses were inside. “Put a whole bale in each one, please.”

“That ain’t no fair, Joan.”

“Fairness is a subjective concept, Bean. Uppermost in my mind is that it isn’t fair for your horses to have a colder stall, and one with less cushion to stand on, just to save you the small amount of effort required to shake out enough straw.”

Bean grumbled something else as Joan walked off.

She met up with Car before reaching the office. “Car, I can take care of things this afternoon, since I have to come by here later anyway.” She wanted to bring Penny another treat and visit with her.

“You sure?” Part of Car’s job was to oversee afternoon feed time, when the grooms returned around three-thirty to pick the most evident piles and wet spots out of each horse’s stall and to help set up hot mashes for their suppers.

“I’m sure. In fact, you may as well plan on letting me take over afternoons for at least the rest of the week.” She wanted to get Penny in the habit of having something to look forward to.

“Man, Joan, outstanding. If you change your mind, though, let me know.”

“Okay, but I won’t.”

The moment her truck door closed, rendering Joan truly alone for the first time since coffee before daybreak, her mind latched onto its new favorite subject. Cailen galloping a horse, her body at home up there, arms relaxed, rein tension perfect, and her delectable rear end tipped up at precisely the right angle was an image Joan couldn’t get enough of. For the two and a half hours that remained for lunch and to relax before feed time, she replayed the few encounters she’d had with Cailen since that first morning. Most of them featured Joan knocking herself out to be nice, while Cailen, poker-faced, gave off that vaguely hostile attitude. Joan smiled as she recalled one of Cailen’s slights and thought, God, her obstinance is even starting to appeal to me.

*****

Brie was already out and picking stalls when Joan returned.

“If anyone comes looking for me, Brie, I’ll be grazing Penny over by the old gate near Longfield Avenue.”

“That filly doing any better?”

“She’ll take mints from me. If she’ll graze and doesn’t get too up in the air over there by the road, I’ll start sending her out with a hotwalker for thirty minutes twice a day. That’ll help, but she has to pick her head up and start eating grain.”

Penny behaved angelically outside the barn, in the open, where some horses succumbed to a heady excitement that made them unruly. And she dropped her head as soon as they reached the grassy patch. Joan waited for a solid hour after feed time, doing small jobs around the barn, hoping to find that the filly had cleaned up. But the mash sat cold and undisturbed in her tub.

“Okay, my friend, we’ll try again tomorrow.” Joan gave Penny one more piece of candy, a few pats on the neck, and a kiss under her forelock before shutting her in the stall for the night.