Greener Pastures - Alyssa Brugman [14]
'There's nothing in the world like seeing a happy, healthy horse enjoying life,' she said out loud. Then she headed back to the stables to move the other horses out to their paddocks.
Just after she had let out the last horse in the row she heard the quad bike coming in. She looked down the laneway and saw Mrs Edel hauling the poo vac on the back of the bike. Remembering what Erin had said at school the other day, Shelby decided to help. That way she would be able to gauge her boss's mood.
In a corner between the Edels' back garden and the stallion enclosure was the poo pile. When Shelby had first arrived at the stables the manure was contained in a nice timber pen, but now it was full. There were new piles on either side, and in front too. Next to that was a pile of soiled rice hulls that had been used for stable bedding. It smelt strongly of ammonia.
'It's getting a bit stinky around here,' Shelby observed, holding her nose. 'How come these piles have grown all of a sudden?'
'A fellow used to come in with his trailer once a week and take it to the community vegie garden, but he's moved house now,' Mrs Edel explained.
Between them they lifted the hatch on the back of the vac and tipped the manure out.
'I'm sure if you put a sign out the front people would come in and take it,' Shelby suggested.
'We tried that once,' Mrs Edel said. 'We had all these cars and trailers zooming up and down the driveway – people who knew nothing about horses. Sometimes they'd get lost and drive up between the stables. It was an accident waiting to happen.' She slipped one of her gloves off and wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. 'The best thing would be to fill up the old chaff bags and put them out the front. That would solve two problems, but I don't have time to do it.'
It was the sort of thing Shelby would have volunteered to do not so long ago, but over the past few months she had been doing the bare minimum of help around the stables. She must have wheeled three or four barrows full of poo to this pile every day, but she had been too tied up in her own thoughts. She simply hadn't noticed that it was mounting up.
'If anyone had told me just how much of my adult life would be spent handling poo I would have found a different business,' Mrs Edel said, climbing back onto the quad bike. 'I could have been a florist, or a jeweller, but no, I'm a poo vacuumer.' She slipped the earmuffs over her head. 'I think I can probably get one more load in before everyone arrives.'
Shelby followed the bike along the path for a way and then she turned towards the paddock where the school horses were kept.
Lindsey was there already. 'Morning,' she said, with uncharacteristic cheerfulness. She had put Blue into one of the smaller yards and saddled a few of the favourites – Hiccup, Cracker, Scooter and Blockhead.
'What's the plan for today?' Shelby asked, giving Blue a cuddle. He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead on her arm, pushing her off-balance. 'Hey! That's not nice manners, little man.'
'We have a birthday party today. Four little girls and one dad.'
So that's why she was smiling! Four little girls were easy. Sometimes they had groups of older girls who thought they knew all about riding, but worse were the grown men who behaved like yahoos and wouldn't listen to what the girls said.
They were so strong, and they always acted as though the horses were playing up when they weren't. Those men wanted to make it look like a battle so they would seem tough to their friends. Shelby always worried about the school horses' mouths. Once or twice she had seen bruises on their sides the next day from men kicking them too hard.
'Apparently one of the girls is really scared. Do you mind?'
'No, that's fine. My Blue will look after her.'
Some of the school ponies were quiet because they were lazy, like Scooter; some were quiet because they were old. Hiccup was one of those. Others knew that the humans they were carrying