Excerpt
It must have been three o’clock at night. Joel awoke to the
rumble of a vehicle pulling into the ranch yard. Peering out
the kitchen window, Joel confirmed what he already knew from
hearing the distinct sounds of the engine. It was Harry pulling
in with the old half-ton. Harry parked behind the ramshackle
caboose that served as his home, shut off the truck, and disappeared
inside.
Joel couldn’t sleep. When the clock on the wall finally showed
five he rose from the chair that had become his bed and started his
routine. It was six by the time he was down to the barn and he was
surprised to see that Harry was already at work. After exchanging
cordial “mornings,” the two men went about their routine of
brushing and then saddling the three-year-olds. The engineer in
him told Joel that it would be far more efficient if they saddled
more than two horses at a time, but with only two saddles between
them this was the best they could do. And besides, Joel was starting
to enjoy the break between working horses that allowed him to
think about what he had accomplished with the last horse, what
he would do differently the next time out, and what he would do
with the horse he was about to ride. As he became handier at saddling
and unsaddling, Joel was finding that he had less time for
this kind of thinking. As he learned more and more from watching
the old cowboy he didn’t need nearly as much time to think about
his game plans for the schooling that day. Without a doubt,
Manolis Aligizakis 