Page 26 of The First Day of Breeding Season
I vault over the railing before I can pull her into my arms again.
“You gotta listen to their movements inside. Time it just right. When this door swings open, I gotta get clear, because ifthey push against it, they could crush me between it and the railing.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Brynn nod calmly. “You’ve got this.”
Her easy vote of confidence shouldn’t surprise me—she’s shown me who she is over and over again already—but it still gets under my skin.
I adjust my hat instead of looking more directly at her, and then, when I hear my opportunity, I pull the heavy-duty latch before leaping over the rail to safety.
Ten Gallon comes roaring out of the trailer, mad as hell. He charges into the wood, thinking he’s found freedom. Or maybe we’ll follow him and find he’s already caught the scent of the herd.
Thor bashes his way out of the trailer next, and that’s it. Brynn’s research project is officially under way.
Raul and Brynn work together to get the trailer out of the way and the horses through the gate.
A dull roar starts in my ears.
This is it.
What was meant to be her chance to prove herself professionally has become something far more complicated.
“Ready?” she asks from the other side of the fence.
I take one last look at my truck, which is going to stay where it is in case we need to come back to it at any point over the next few days.
No. Not at all.
“Yeah, all right,” I mutter, raising a hand to wave goodbye to my ranch manager. “Let’s hit the trail.”
CHAPTER 13
BRYNN
Clouds roll in as we climb into the hills, threatening some rain.
“You all right to press on until the weather hits?” Drew hollers over his shoulder.
I lift my voice so I know he hears me clearly. “Smart plan.”
And it really is, because by the time the bulls find the first few cows, the sky is as growly as my mentor. In the distance, thunder rumbles, and the wind carries the first few drops of rain our way, although the heavens don’t actually open up, much to the dismay of the horses.
One of my favourite facts about horses, learned when I was a little girl, is how much they usually like rain.
“It’ll come soon enough,” I promise Ace after I dismount at our campsite on high ground, just a short walk from a watering hole where Ten Gallon is already sniffing at a mature cow.
I notice Drew do a quick count of the cows, and I do the same, while also thinking about what the best observation points would be.
“You want to set up your cameras?” he asks.
“Do you mind?”
He waves me down the hill. “Go before it rains. I’ll get the horses taken care of and set up camp.”
I grab two of the cameras that Dr. Lowry helped me secure through a student grant.
It’s not possible to observe the herd twenty-four hours a day, so the cameras have a lot of advantages. In addition to more complete data collection, the footage will also add a multimedia element to my final project, and can also be used by Wildfire Ranch on their website and on social media.
This first week will be about figuring out the optimal places to leave them to capture footage across the entire two month-long breeding season that the bulls will spend on the mountain.
