Page 14 of The Pieces We've Lost

“They’re good! The little one has been pretty fussy lately, but our oldest, Jackson, has loved spending time with the grandparents.”

“That’s good to hear. Well, I’d love to chat longer, but I’ve gotta get my horse. Let’s catch up another time, though. Good to see you.” I patted him on his shoulder. If I hadn’t ended the conversation, we would have been talking there for hours.

About ten minutes later, I had made it back to the trailer and tied up Bullet. Tacking up a horse properly was essential. If any of your equipment was damaged or ill-fitted, it could cause discomfort for the horse when competing and, in the worst case scenario, serious injury.

I brushed Bullet starting from his neck, working my way down to his back and girth and finally his hindquarters and legs. This ensured the horse didn’t get sores from either the saddle or cinch.

After getting the saddle pad on, I set the saddle on top of it and fastened the cinch. This step was important to get right. You didn’t want the cinch to be too tight, but you also didn’t want it to be too loose or the saddle could slip. Finally, I attached the breast collar and undid the halter so I could put on the bridle.

It had only taken about five minutes to saddle up, but with Wyatt stopping me, Reid and I wouldn’t have to wait anymore to do our practice runs. He had already tacked his horse and was almost certainly waiting for me.

I got into the practice arena and did a couple laps. Cattle companies provided steers and calves for the competitors to practice with. There were also staff there to help so teams didn’t have to find someone to open the chute for them when they practiced.

Reid and I ran a couple times sowe could make sure we were synced up. Reid missed the first time, but the second time was a perfect run. We clocked six-point-two seconds, which wasn’t terrible. We’d need to be faster tonight, but for practice, it was a good time.

“Looking good out there, boys,” a familiar voice called from the side of the practice arena.

“Well, I’ll be damned. Coach Aaron, what are you doing here?” Reid waved at our old college coach, Aaron Sawyer, with a big grin on his face.

“I was in the area with the family. Thought I’d stop by and support a couple of our own.” He shook Reid’s hand and pulled him in for a hug.

“It’s good to see you here, sir.” I tipped my hat to him.

“Come here, Colter, and none of that ‘sir’ bullshit.” He chuckled at me and extended his arms for a hug from me too.

I knew Aaron hated being called sir because it made him feel old, so I mostly did it to mess with him.

“How’s everything been with you two?” he asked.

“We’ve been good. It’s been a pretty successful year so far,” Reid answered.

“I saw you both were in the top ten in the world standings, that’s great. I always knew you two were going to go far.” He sounded like a proud father. In a way, he was comparable to a father, or at least a father figure in the way that coaches often were.

“We’ve been working hard this year,” Reid added. He wasn’t wrong. We spent as much time as we could perfecting our craft. When we weren’t working, we were roping.

“I can see that. Well, if you boys have any time in the next couple of days, we should sit down together fordinner. Talk about how you can be involved with the team in the future, if you want to at least,” he offered.

“Thank you, Aaron. We’ll definitely keep in touch with you. I’m sure we’ll have some time.” I nodded.

“Good luck tonight. I’ll be watching.” He gave us a parting wave.

“Do you think you’d ever take up coaching?” Reid asked me once Aaron was out of earshot.

I had never really thought about coaching. But eventually, I wouldn’t have as big of a career in professional rodeo. It was never too early to start thinking about the future. At the same time, though, thinking about a life where I didn’t travel for rodeos was terrifying.

“I don’t know. It’s hard to even think about not having a career at this point,” I admitted. But then I chuckled thinking about my college days. “I also know how I was in college and I don’t know if I want to have to deal with that.”

“It might be good for you. Get a little taste of your own medicine,” he kidded.

“If I go back and coach, you know you’ll have to come with me, right? Aaron’s not going to be happy with one of us. He wants the duo,” I pointed out.

“Eh, I’m sure he could live with having only one of us.” Reid playfully rolled his eyes.

Aaron was always trying to get alumni to come back and coach. Probably because he eventually wanted to pawn off the job to one of us so he could hang up his coaching hat and retire, even though he was only in his late thirties and we all knew cowboys never really retired.

“All right, let’s get out of here before someone yells at us for still being in the arena.”

We led our horses out of the arena, but put them inone of the corrals off to the side of the practice arena so we didn’t have to untack them quite yet. I wanted to watch a few other people practice first.

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