Free The Mason List by S.D. Hendrickson

them?” I looked at the two horses and shuddered.  I was a tall
girl, but these beasts towered over my head. 
    “They’re
really nice, you just have to give ‘em a chance,” Jess said over his shoulder
as he tied the lead rope to the fence.  “Here’s some carrots.  Feed ‘em to Blue
Bonnet.”
    “Which
one is Blue Bonnet?”  I looked back and forth between the two tan horses. 
Maybe they had name tags like a dog.
    “That
one’s BB,” Jess said, walking to the other horse.  I was surprised he could
even stand up straight with the excitement.  Once we got here, he’d switched
over to pancake-syrup talk, slurring every syllable into Texas gibberish.  I
knew me riding horses meant the world to him. 
    “I think
BB is bigger than the other one.  Maybe I should get the smaller one.”  It was
only a few inches but a few inches seemed a little less terrifying at the
moment.
    “No, you
don’t want to ride Clive.  You need BB.  Here, take the carrots and feed her
one.  Like this.”
    My eyes
grew wide as I watched Jess shove the carrot into Clive’s mouth.  I didn’t know
horses had such big teeth.  Jess moved his hand up Clive’s neck to scratch
behind his pointed ears.  I knew Jess loved his horses.  He desperately wanted
to share his pretty animals with me. 
    Looking
at BB’s silky hair, I reached up to touch her neck.  She lunged forward, and I
screamed.  BB knocked the carrot from my hand to the ground.  Her big teeth
scooped it up.  The horse chewed with her big brown eyes fixed on me.
    “What are
ya’ll doin’ back there?”
    “I’m not
going up.  I can’t even feed the carrots right.” 
    “You’re
goin’ up.  Stop chickenin’ out!  You said you would do it!” 
    We stared
at each other for a few moments.  I took a deep breath and offered a
compromise.  “Fine, but I’m only sitting on her.  No walking.  Just sitting
tied to the fence.  Promise?”  I needed a firm understanding with that boy
before I ever got on top of his horse.  I knew how he worked.
    “Promise,”
he said with a grin.
    After
several attempts to boost me up, Jess finally got my behind on top of BB.  Jess
climbed up on Clive.  He leaned over and untied them both from the fence.
    “Hey! 
What are you doing?”  BB followed along behind Clive.  My fingers trembled,
clenching the rein in one hand and the saddle in the other. 
    “You’ll
be fine!  We can just go down the fence row!”  Jess yelled back.
    “You
promised!”  I was so angry but too scared to say anything else.  I managed a
few deep breaths and let them out slowly through my mouth.  Each step jarred me
sideways a little in the saddle.  My thighs clung to the horse.
    We
traveled at a steady pace in a single line down the fence.  Maybe Jess was
right.  I was doing ok.  I wasn’t upside down on my head.   Feeling brave, I
glanced around the fence.  It was a different experience than a four-wheeler. 
So peaceful and quiet.
    I
released my tightly-clenched hand from the saddle and patted BB’s neck.  Her
hair felt really soft against my palm.  I calmly stroked her until suddenly, a
loud yapping came from my right.  One of the cattle dogs chased a small orange
cat around the stables then through the grass directly toward us.  I felt BB
move faster and then like a flick of a switch, she broke off from the fence row
and out toward the meadow.
    I
screamed and yelled.  I grabbed a hold of anything my hands could grasp as I
bounced along on top of BB.  My screams got lost in the wind and the barns
faded from view.  The trees and grass flew by in a blur as the horse continued
to gain speed.  In the distance, I saw a fallen tree directly in our path.  I
panicked and felt the horse go airborne.  She cleared the massive tree trunk,
but I couldn’t stay in the saddle.   
    I hit the
ground with a hard slam that sent my body rolling for several feet.  Everything
hurt and I couldn’t catch my breath.  I