Heartlandians

As she sat on the porch and sipped what was left of her drink from earlier, Amy spared a thought for Asher and Helico, the other two participants of the accident and her former clients. She had sworn herself she'd contact Asher as soon as she would settle back home from the hospital, but she had yet to do it.

Was it because she didn't think she was settled yet? How long did she think realistically that would even take? The recovery - overall - could last weeks, even months.

Did she think that she was just giving the injured trick-rider and his horse time and grace to heal as well? But would the situation only become harder the longer she would wait? How were Asher and his horse even doing in the first place?

Or was she just scared to face the fact that she had failed, on many levels? Could she ever repair anything ever again?

While she pondered it all, Amy saw movement in front of the open barn sliding door and her eyes fixated on it, tracking the person moving around.

It was Lou.

She had probably taken Venus in before Cassandra had left and was now doing something else as she no longer had a lead on her hands.

After a while, from the darkness of the barn emerged her horse, Spartan, behind Lou. Amy was surprised to see the two together. Lou barely rode these days, and if she did, her sister had had Venus for that.

Even more surprisingly, Lou had put on Spartan's English saddle and the longer Amy examined them, she noticed little cues that revealed what Lou was about to do. Her sister's right hand was holding onto the black leather reins, but on her left hand, a helmet was dangling along. Lou then headed to the jumping ring.

Amy quickly glanced after Lyndy, who was playing on the grass, and since everything seemed alright with her daughter as she was in her own little world, Amy's eyes returned to Lou and Spartan.

While she was unable to do any riding, others had taken over exercising Spartan for Amy, which was probably what Lou was doing now, but the younger sister had never even considered Lou could be using him for English lessons, even though she had a background in showjumping.

Amy couldn't even remember the last time she had seen Lou go for anything other than trail rides, and to be fair, it had been a while since Spartan had done anything other than those as well since Amy no longer competed with him.

Still, she knew Lou to be a good rider, despite not doing it very often, and so she trusted her to take Spartan for a spin.

Amy wasn't sure if Lou had seen her observing from the porch, but if she had, she didn't seem to show it. The older sister walked into the jumping ring with a determined manner and after Spartan was in, she closed the gate behind them.

Sliding down the stirrups, Lou began the preparations to mount the horse. When she was done, it only took her one swift jump before he was on Spartan. Even though Lou didn't ride often, she kept herself fit in other ways, through running and yoga, for example, and those activities no doubt helped her with her riding as well.

Lou moved her hips from side to side on top of the saddle as she adjusted herself into it better and then checked the girth and stirrups again before she seemed happy with them. First, she urged Spartan to walk around the jumping ring, trying to warm him up and get a feel of the horse and the saddle.

Amy couldn't help but wonder why Lou had opted to take Spartan to the jumping ring. Most of the family loved doing the laid-back trail rides, especially since the scenery around the ranch was so beautiful this time of the year. The jumping ring was mostly used by Georgie these days and occasionally whenever Amy would need it with a client's horse.

After all, Lou had said that she had been nervous about Henry coming to Heartland and having to confess Amy what she had done with her phone, so a calming trail ride would have seemed like a better fit for her to try and relax.

With the rails around the jumping ring blocking some of the view and the distance between the three making it harder to see, Amy couldn't fully catch the nuances of the rider and the horse, but was still able to tell from the body language that her horse wasn't on his best behaviour.

But it seemed like Amy wasn't the only one noticing it, because as she took it in as well, Lou quickly tried to switch things up by turning Spartan around to walk the other way to see if there was any difference.

As they were warming up, Jack and Lisa drove in with Grandpa's golden Chevy truck, and he parked the pickup in front of the house.

Meanwhile, Amy set the empty glass on top of the rustic chest next the porch bench and realized how she was a storm of different emotions right now.

Confusion, regret, anger and dread came to mind.

At least her hands no longer shook uncontrollably.

In order not to have to explain herself to Grandpa and Lisa, Amy tried to make her mind as blank as she could.

"You two are back from Mitch's", Lisa announced cheerfully as she and her husband stepped out of Jack's truck. "How'd it go?" she wanted to know.

Amy smiled a little as she revisited the memory quickly on her mind. The visit to Big Sky Ranch had been a slice of paradise, especially compared to her situation now.

"It was good. We enjoyed ourselves", she admitted. "Where have you two been?" Amy asked in return.

"Oh, you know - Dude Ranch. Taking care of some of the chores", the matriarch said as Jack was opening the tailgate and getting stuff from the back. "Honey! I got those", she insisted, almost as if the old cowboy was up to no good.

Jack waved his hand dismissively, his mustache twitching as he muttered something under his breath, feeling like it was just easier for him to let his wife handle it.

He then began to sway toward the ranch house gate. Amy could probably recognize him from a far away from that walk alone.

"Have you heard from dad...?" Amy asked from Jack.

She had promised to give Tim space after he had requested it - according to Mitch - but maybe there were things her dad was willing to tell Jack and not his daughters, in order to keep them protected somehow, so perhaps she could now ease her mind through Grandpa.

That still meant she was giving Tim space, right?

"Not much", Jack admitted to Amy, glancing at Lyndy. "But I feel like his dad might be leaving us any given moment now..." he passed the information on with a gloomy expression.

Amy nodded, feeling for her dad. It was hard to process losing a branch of the other side of the family tree when she had never really known it. Not in a way maybe she wished she had.

"Is he sure he doesn't want us there?" Amy checked, getting up.

Jack nodded, sighing. "Yeah, that's what he said. -- At least Casey's there, so he's not completely alone."

"Thankfully", Amy admitted.

As Jack was about to go greet Lyndy and ask what she was playing, they heard a thud and almost this hollow clatter of some kind.

Amy's eyes wandered around, trying to find the source of the noise. She then noticed Spartan standing in the jumping ring, his ears pulled back, but Lou was no longer in the saddle.

As her hearing perked after that realization, Amy could make out low whimpering coming from the same direction.

"Watch her!" Amy hastily requested from Jack and began to rush toward the jumping ring, pass Lisa who was holding things from the Dude Ranch and looking confused.

"What happened...?" Lisa asked.

Amy felt a little light-headed as she ran toward the jumping ring, but she didn't care. It seemed like maybe Lou had fallen down and gotten hurt.

"Lou...?" Amy tried to call out her name before she could get a good visual on her. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah... I'm okay... I just-- I fell..." the older sister groaned and sounded like she was in pain and maybe a little out of breath too; like the wind had been knocked out of her.

When Amy got closer, she saw Lou on top of the poles on the ground, trying to get up. It appeared like she had tried to do some pole work with Spartan, but something had gone wrong.

"What happened?" Amy checked to assess the situation.

Spartan seemed annoyed more than anything.

"I guess I lost my balance..." Lou offered, holding her back and wincing as she touched it.

"Here, let me help you up", Amy said, coming to her sister's aid, even though she didn't feel exactly level either after running all the way from the house, but she couldn't just watch Lou lie there.

She used her hands and brushed away some of the sand on her sister while Lou was unbuckling the helmet and evening out her breathing.

"Do you feel any pain?" Amy asked.

"My back, but... it's okay... I think it'll just bruise", she assured, feeling embarrassed. "So stupid..." Lou then muttered.

"What is?" Amy asked after getting most of the sand off.

"What I was trying to do", Lou almost whimpered, looking a little pathetic. It was as if she was mad at herself.

Amy frowned. "You mean pole work...?"

Lou shook her head. "No. Trying to prove myself something."

"Oh...?" Amy was curious what that meant.

Lou shook her head. "Never mind. I should take Spartan back inside. Thanks for the help..."

Lou walked back to the horse who had stayed close-by, took his reins and then began to head toward the gate. She no longer looked as effortlessly athletic as before since it was obvious the poles had done a number on her back.

Amy stood there, wondering what that had been about.