Free Strongheart by Don Bendell

as good as having it back.”
    He said modestly, “Oh, I wouldn’t say that.”
    She interrupted, “I would.”
    She started breakfast for him while he checked out his new horse, Gabe. Strongheart found the bill of sale in the saddlebags and figured he would get sworn statements from Annabelle and the driver that the horse and gear were left to him. He had a good rough-out saddle, saddlebags, and the horse was trained to work with a hackamore instead of a bridle and bit.
    The hackamore was a firm leather band going across the bridge of the gelding’s nose, and when the rider would move the reins to the left, it would push down on the left nostril. Horses only breathe through their nose and not their mouth, but if the rider had light hands, the hackamore was very comfortable for the horse. If, however, the rider had heavy hands or short-reined the horse, then the hackamore could even cause a horse to rear or start bucking. Heavy hands are when a rider jerks on the reins or pulls hard. In the case of a hackamore, this would pull down hard on the horse’s nose, and if held, it could cut all the air off, making the horse panic.
    Joshua Strongheart would soon be riding the magnificent spotted horse and would learn that he could turn, stop, or motivate the horse with leg aids alone.
    Leg aids are when you use your heels, calves, and knees to touch the horse or push on parts of the horse to turn it. For example, if you want a horse to turn left, you would slightly move the reins to the left while lightly squeezing your left calf against the horse’s left side, or even touch it on the left side with a heel or spur. You could even make a horse turn faster if you also pushed inward on his front shoulder with your right knee. Gabriel was so well trained, even before Long Legs bought him, that he could feel the body lean of a rider or a leg aid and respond, even without the rider touching the reins.
    Gabe was also trained to ground rein, which was critical for a traveler like Joshua who traveled long miles over large distances. What that meant was that Joshua would be able to dismount and leave his reins hanging down and Gabe would not move. At the breeder’s where Long Legs bought him, the trainer had had pieces of lead line tied to logs buried in the ground. The lead lines had hooks on the ends of them. He would teach Gabe to follow him when his reins were up over his neck or wrapped around the saddle horn. However, whenever he wanted Gabe to stop and stand, he would drop the reins, and secretly do it at each lead line. Without letting the horse see it, he would hook the lead line up to the bottom of the hackamore.
    He would then command, “Stand,” and walk away.
    Gabriel quickly learned that if he moved at all, the band on his nose would pull down and make it uncomfortable. Horses are pattern animals, so they quickly learn and develop certain routines. Gabe found that if he moved when the reins were hanging down, it was no fun, so from then on, he would ground rein, or never move an inch, if the reins were dropped.
    There were two other things Joshua would soon be learning about him. The first was that he always would come when called, whistled at, or even given a hand signal. The horse had learned even as a foal that he would get rubbed and nuzzled when he did that. This was going to be refreshing for Strongheart, because unlike so many horses just picked out of the remuda, or the horse herd with cattle, the kind so many cowboys were used to, Gabe would become Joshua’s trail partner.
    The second thing Joshua would learn was that Gabe had a mile-eating, very comfortable fast trot that he always went into. However, if Joshua wanted to eat up ground but slow things down, he would simply be able to say, “Slow trot,” and Gabe would trot much more slowly. The normal walk on this long-legged athletic horse was much faster than some horses’ trots anyway.
    Joshua returned from