Page 29 of Undone

I’d remembered to bring my camera that time, and I’d stepped back to take some photos while Josh played with the horses. My heart had swelled watching it all. Josh might be hardworking and overly focused on the ranch, but that had been a candid moment that clearly showed his love of horses, and it had almost felt too personal to take the photos.

So yeah, horse exposure wasn’t all bad. But that didn’t mean I looked forward to it. Especially when I knew Josh was going to keep pushing me to upgrade in the size and scariness of the horses.

“Don’t forget your camera,” he reminded me as I grumbled and stepped into my shoes.

Maybe if I stalled and delayed enough, there wouldn’t be time to get me comfortable around all the horses. And then I wouldn’t be able to take the close ups needed for the website, which would mean that I’d have to stay longer.

Otherwise, my time here would end soon.

Which should be what I wanted. This was never meant to be permanent. I’d needed a place to stay and a project to submit for grad school. But somehow, being here had come to mean so much more than I’d ever expected.

Josh clapped his hands oblivious to my thoughts. “Come on, time to meet Nelly. She makes Sugar look downright speedy.”

I gave myself an internal shake to get rid of my confusing and contradicting thoughts and grabbed my camera bag as I followed him out to the paddock closest to the barn. Walking behind him, I barely heard what he was saying because I was still stuck up in my head.

When we got to the paddock, I was surprised to see it was already occupied with a mare the color of chocolate. I froze. While she didn’t necessarily look dangerous, she did look like a smaller version of Jude and I wasn’t prepared for that.

I didn’t realize that Josh was talking to me until he was standing right in front of me. “Zo.” My eyes snapped up to look at him.

“I don’t think I can. She looks a whole lot like Jude.” Before I could move, Josh reached out and gently took my hands, which were shaking.

“It’s just the color of her coat. I promised that I wouldn’t let anything happen to you and I meant it. Nelly is a sweet old lady living her best life. Look.” He turned so he was standing behind me and wrapped his arms protectively around me. “Breathe, Zoe. In and out. You can do it.”

Josh took exaggerated breaths, and I copied him. Together, we watched Nelly slowly make her way around the paddock. When she got closer, I gasped and she instantly picked up her head and turned, as if to look at us.

“Is she blind?”

“She is. My parents rescued her years ago when she was already starting to lose her sight. So long as she’s familiar with her surroundings, she knows her way around, but we’re very careful with her. Would you like to meet her?”

“Is that okay? I don’t want to confuse her or anything.”

“You won’t. Come on, let’s give her a treat.” Josh took my hand and together we entered the paddock. Nelly’s ears twitched as she keyed in on where we were. Josh started whistling and she immediately picked up the pace toward him, which was still only slightly faster than a snail’s. We crossed the paddock before she’d taken ten steps and she walked right into Josh and rubbed her head against his chest.

“Awww. That’s so sweet.” She tilted her head when I spoke and I reached out a shaking hand to pet her neck. “She’s almost as soft as Agatha,” I whispered, not wanting to startle her.

“And smaller than Sugar,” Josh pointed out. “Would you like to give her a treat?”

“Sure. Did you bring any apples or carrots with you?” I remembered how much Lollipop had enjoyed crunching the apples.

“No, I brought something else.” He reached into a side pocket and pulled out a banana, which he broke open and peeled, before breaking off a chunk to hold under the horse’s mouth. “Nelly’s lost a bunch of her teeth over the years, so her food and treats need to be soft. This old lady loves bananas.”

I watched as Nelly delicately picked up the banana chunks and gummed them up as if they were the best thing she’d ever tasted. After she finished each piece, she’d wait patiently until the next was offered to her.

He handed me the last piece of banana and tilted his head toward the horse. As I took it, Nelly seemed to immediately clock that someone else held her treat and she turned her head to look at me with her cloudy eyes.

I held my hand out, palm flat, and she sniffed my hand first before reaching for the banana. Her lips were just as soft as the other horses I’d met and she carefully picked up the chunk and made some sort of happy horse noise as she finished it up.

“We try to get her out to walk at least once a day, more if she’ll handle it. She’s the oldest horse we have here and frankly, it’s been a huge surprise that she’s lived as long as she has,” he said. “Come on, walk with us.”

“Okay, but doesn’t she need a harness?”

“Nope, she’ll stay between us and a few pats to one side or the other will have her shifting direction. I’ll show you. You take her right.”

We walked around the paddock slowly and just as he said, the horse stayed between us.

“This is amazing, Josh. How come I didn’t know you guys also took in rescues?” This was a side to Lost Valley that I didn’t know about and I was already trying to figure out how to incorporate it into the website.

“It’s not something we do regularly. It’s hard enough covering all the costs on a working ranch, and rescues often have health issues or behavioral problems or both. Bills can rack up quickly with added vet costs and special feeds. When my parents got Nelly, my dad swore that she was the last one and now that I’ve had to deal with exactly how much it costs to run this place, I understand why, but at the time…” Josh rubbed his chin. “Well, when I heard about Lollipop, I couldn’t stop myself from hooking up the trailer and jumping in the truck to bring her back here.”

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