Nellie's For Sale

Jill wasn't sure how to help when a horse was up for sale.

The woman who stopped by had an Intermediate horse that she doesn’t think will go Advanced.

Jill smiled at her and she smiled back. Then she asked the boss's partner
"Does anyone around here ride her for the boss? Sometimes the staff at the barn are sorry to see a girl go…"

He mostly just avoided the question and introduced his brother to the client/buyer but not Jill.

Jill wandered away thinking "I am just a groom."

She had wanted to tell the woman what it was like to ride Nellie (wonderful!), and the woman had wanted to hear from her, but apparently, that was not Jill's place.
*
Her first day of working Jill did four stalls three times, pulled five manes (Nellie, Fyn, KC, Not-so and Tempi) and cleaned and polished several bridles. She was not terribly familiar with stables that looked like no horses lived there, they were kept so clean, but the boss seemed reasonable and they did all work hard as a team...

Her second day of working she pulled another four manes (Steve, Sam, Vit, Weston)
And the third day of working, rode three of the high level event horses, just at a walk, as well as cleaning all the tack, show jumper and eventer. And, Sweeping, so much sweeping. Then she had to go to an American Thanksgiving party where she felt like the oldest working student ever and and sat beside a grown woman with two jobs – one at the factory and one as an office assistant for a photographer. Her husband was an employee of our horse people hosts... The hostess said ‘I’ve never seen this girl before in my life" when Jill hugged her on the way out, because she’d hugged the guests on the way in. Jim turned out to be dead wood at a party since he was shyer than Jill. She was finding his attention flattering and his mother’s disapproval annoying.

The next day of working she rode three horses with one 10 minute set of trot each. And, her bottom ached.

There had been much trouble hitting the fan already. Wheelbarrows don’t go in the stalls. You must pick out the stalls even when the blacksmith is in the way and the priority is to get the horse ready etc. etc. Jill found that saying sorry helped, and wanted not to accidentally rat out the rest of the team with comments like “but that’s how I was told to do it!” as she moved forward.