Free Rodeo Rocky by Jenny Oldfield Page A

it!”
    She felt her legs shake, her heart beat fast. Rocky had reared up again, he was intent on bringing his hooves down on the coyote, which rolled clear at the last instant. The mustang reared again, the wild dog writhed and staggered to its feet. Tail between its legs, head hanging, it crept away before the flailing hooves landed a second time.
    Then Hadley was there, taking hold of Rocky’s tether, making sure that the coyote had had enough and really was on its way. He watched it slink into the brushwood in the shadow of the rocks.
    “How’s Rocky? Is he OK?” Kirstie came to all of a sudden, as if a hypnotist had clicked his fingers and released her from a spell. Shock made her body tremble from head to foot.
    The old wrangler held him tight, checked his back and haunches for scratches and bites. “There’s not a mark on him,” he confirmed.
    “Gosh, you were lucky!” Lisa gasped.
    Kirstie shook her head. “Not lucky. It was up to Rocky. He saved me!”
    She leaned weakly against him, stroking his neck while he lowered his head and turned toward her.
    “Sure thing,” Hadley agreed. He pulled his hat low over his forehead and gave no other sign that a crisis had been narrowly avoided all the time they were at Bear Hunt Overlook, nor during the ride back to the ranch. It was only when they were unsaddling the horses in the corral and Sandy Scott hurried over to find out how Rocky had coped with his first trail ride that the wrangler let anything slip.
    He was taking the bay stallion’s heavy saddle from Kirstie and carrying it into the tack room when he crossed paths with the anxious ranch owner.
    “Well?” Sandy demanded.
    Kirstie watched Hadley’s face. She held her breath and prayed for him to give the right answer. The old man’s narrowed eyes and straight, thin-lipped mouth gave nothing away.
    “You got yourself a good horse,” he said at last with the ghost of a smile. “He’s worth every cent you paid.”

8
    “OK, we can relax!” Matt announced. He came off the phone with good news for Sandy. “I’ve been speaking with a guy called Jerry Santos. He’s staying with his wife and three kids at Lone Elm Trailer Park. Lennie told him about this place and now he wants to book a cabin and a riding holiday for the whole family, starting tomorrow!”
    It was a week after Kirstie had started riding Rocky out on the trails, when the mustang had first won Hadley’s approval. Ever since the day with the coyote, the old wrangler had insisted on taking horse and rider out with his advanced group to show Rocky the most difficult rides and to test out his temperament to the limit. As a further test, both the head wrangler and Charlie had also ridden him. So far, so good, Hadley had reported to his boss. The bay horse had taken every overlook, every cascading waterfall, each challenge that the mountain trails provided easily in his stride.
    As yet, there had been no decision to put a guest rider in Rocky’s saddle, but confidence in him was growing. Kirstie felt that it wouldn’t be long now before the ex-rodeo horse became a full working member of the Half Moon Ranch team.
    And now the cash flow problem caused by Sandy’s impulse buy seemed to be easing, too. Extra, last-minute guests recommended by Lisa’s grandfather would bring in much-needed money, and even Matt was smiling as he gave them the news.
    “Great! So we get to keep Yukon and her foal?” Kirstie walked out of the house with her brother and mom, passing the round pen as they made their way to the corral. Inside the fenced ring, the tiny, coal-black horse skipped and pranced in the early sun.
    Sandy nodded, then paused. “Time to give her a name?” she suggested. It was all the answer Kirstie needed.
    Stepping on the bottom rung of the fence, she leaned in and smiled at the foal’s antics and at Yukon contentedly nipping hay from a net on the far side of the pen. “Your turn to choose,” she said to Matt.
    “A name for the