Page 30 of Cougar Chronicles

“How’re you doing, sugar? You ready to trot?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Sure she is, Dad.” Little Sam sped forward.

“He’s quite the horseman,” Holly said.

“Sam would rather ride than just about anything else. Now, for the trot. While we’re walking, squeeze her side with your legs again, and she’ll move to a faster pace. Just a warning, though. It’s going to get bumpy.”

Bumpy? Bumpier than it was already? She was going to need a sitz bath for sure.Epsom salts, here I come. She squeezed her calves, and Ladybelle started to trot. At least Holly assumed it was a trot. The way her ass was plunking up and down didn’t bear any resemblance at all to what Jack and Sam were doing ahead of her.

Jack slowed down and soon rode beside her. “Uncomfortable?”

“Just a touch.”

“Try to move with her movement. I know it’s hard at first.”

“Hard doesn’t even begin to describe it.”

“I’ll massage you later.” His dark eyes gleamed.

While a massage from his master hands sounded like heaven on earth, Holly wasn’t anxious for him to see her bruised behind. “No thanks.”

He laughed. “Don’t underestimate the therapeutic value of a good butt massage. Try to post to the movements. Post up and down in the saddle in time to the beats of the trot.”

“Right.”

“Sometimes it helps to say ‘up, down, up, down.’”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope. That’s how I learned.”

“But you weren’t forty years old.”

“True enough. I was four. Just like Sam was.”

“I’m afraid I’m old and set in my ways. I love horses. I really do. They’re noble and beautiful animals but I’m not sure I was meant to ride one.”Up, down, up, down.

It wasn’t working.

“Anyone can ride a horse, Holly. We all start out the way you’re starting out. It’s completely normal.”

“Come on, Jack. You look like you were born on a horse.”

“Hell, no. I did my share of fallin’ the first day. You’re doin’ way better than I did.”

“You were four.”

He chuckled. “I suppose it helped that I had no fear. Four-year-olds don’t, as a rule. But as an adult learnin’, you have sense enough not to spook the horse. So you’re ahead of me.”

“I don’t particularly feel ahead of anyone at the moment.”

Plunk, plunk. The bones in her butt ached. Weren’t butts supposed to have lots of cushy insulation?

Jack whistled to Sam. “Turn around, pal. I think Holly’s had enough for this mornin’.”

“Oh, I hate to cut his ride short.”

---