Casey
Copyright© 2025 by A Bad Attitude
Chapter 3: Christina
Casey
I love my job! I work with horses all day every day. There seems to be a steady flow of tourists who want to learn to ride and I really enjoy teaching them how to sit on a horse. I have laid out a couple of different trails and on the days I am not guiding tourists, I break and train horses. One day I had just finished feeding and was about to take one of the green broke geldings out to lunge him when this red-haired girl came into the barn. She was going from stall to stall looking at the horses. I hurried back inside.
“Miss, I am sorry you can’t be in here. If you want to ride, you need to sign up at the hotel. They will handle...”
She interrupted me.
“Why is this mare in this closed stall?”
“That’s ‘Diabla’. She bites and has resisted being trained. We are going to have her bred, then turned back out with the other broodmares. She’ll spend her life having babies. Like I said, you need to go back to the hotel and...”
“Get me a halter and a lead rope.”
“STOP! Don’t open that stall door!”
I watched in shock as she opened the door and walked in with Diabla. That mare always snorted and began backing up, ready to fight to avoid being handled. When I got to the door of the stall, that black mare was nuzzling this girl as she whispered softly in her ear while rubbing a hand down her neck. I watched in amazement.
“The halter and lead rope.”
“Yes Ma’am.”
I hurried off and returned with a halter, lead rope and a nose twitch. When the mare saw the twitch, she snorted.
“Put that away and don’t ever use it on her again.”
“Yes Ma’am,” I said as I dropped the twitch to the floor of the barn.
I watched as she kept stroking the mare and whispering in her ear. Then she put the halter on her and led her out of the stall.
“This is unbelievable. She fights every time I try to handle her. One of the cowboys gave her the name ‘Diabla’. Do you know what that means?” “She-Devil, I speak Spanish. I was born here on the ranch.”
“By your accent I thought you were American.”
“I get that from my daddy. He’s from Mississippi.”
“Who’s your daddy?”
“Travis O’Shea.”
“Mr. Travis is my boss!”
“My name is Christina, but everybody calls me Christie. And you are?” “My name is Casey.”
“Well Casey, while I take her out to the riding ring, why don’t you go get me a saddle and bridle. Bring a hackamore, she doesn’t like anything in her mouth.”
“Miss Christie that mare has never been ridden. It is always a fight just to get the saddle on her. Why don’t you pick another...”
“First drop the ‘Miss’. She is the best horse in the barn and she is going to be mine. Now get me a saddle!”
She led the mare out to the ring as I went to get what she wanted. When I returned, I placed the bridle and saddle in the middle of the ring and sat on the fence watching as she let the mare smell everything then whispered in her ear. In minutes she had the hackamore on and was saddling her!
Diabla stood perfectly still as Christie mounted her and began slowly walking around the ring.
“She’s really good with horses.”
I was so startled when I heard him, I almost fell off the fence. Mr. Travis continued as we watched Christie urge that mare into a slow lope around the arena.
To read the complete story you need to be logged in:
Log In or
Register for a Free account
(Why register?)
* Allows you 3 stories to read in 24 hours.