by Ann Dennis

Created on: May 27, 2008

Chapter one
On the trail

He stood on the barn drive with his arms crossed on his chest watching his two sons try to load a stubborn horse into a trailer. They were supposed to know better but there stood Kyle with his strong hands gripping the lead rope and pulling for all he was worth. His younger brother was pushing on the dark gelding's rear end. He didn't know how these boys who had been raised around horses could be making such fools of themselves. Or, he corrected silently, letting the horse make fools of them. He gave them five more minutes and then stepped forward. He didn't want them to tire out. They had a distance to go yet today. He stepped to the older son and held out his hand. "Had enough yet?"

Kyle sighed and pulled the lead rope out of his cramped fingers. "Yeah, see if you can do any better."

He nodded to Ben on the rear end and the boy grinned and stepped away. It took time to get a horse to get the same idea that you had about what was going to happen. He led the gelding away from the trailer, and began lunging him slow and even. The gelding calmed down and listened to the man on the other end of the line. Within a few minutes he led the horse back to the trailer without stopping and led him right inside the trailer.

"Hell," Kyle muttered.

Harden Wyatt smiled and tucked the lead rope inside the tack locker. "Do you think you can get the other two in?" he asked his son.

"Yes, sir," he said sullenly.

Ben was already leading the mare and Kyle ran to the round pen for the second gelding.
With the horses safely ensconced the younger men jumped into the truck and began the trip to the horse show Harden had scheduled for them. Harden was following with a smaller car. The show itself was a two day show but the men would be in town for four days and the Blazer was better on fuel and saved the men from disconnecting everything. As he watched the trailer in front of him move smoothly down the road he couldn't help but say dryly, out loud. "Hope they remember how to ride better than they remember how to load." Both young men had taken jobs off the farm and had been adamant that they still wanted to live and work there. It was working OK, he guessed, except when he saw them forgetting things they needed to remember for day to day operations.

Carly ran over to her mother and waved a girth at her. "I can't believe Joan thought this was alright to use."

Jenny sighed and looked over to see the old dirty girth in her daughter's hands. "Would you please just find the

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