Today’s teaser looks at the fifth book in my young adult series, Thoroughbred Breeders. Below is an affiliate link to Focus on Amazon. It is also free to read on Kindle Unlimited.

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Savannah found she had an opportunity that Sunday evening. She arrived back at Nestleby by 8 and was surprised to find the lights on in the stables where the yearlings were kept. She strolled over to investigate. Nev was standing outside one of the boxes, watching a yearling pace back and forth. She frowned when she realised it had a bandage on the near fore.

That’s new. I hope it’s nothing too serious.

“Trouble?” she asked, wondering what Nev was up to when the bandage looked secure and the other horses seemed settled.

“Hey bub,” Nev acknowledged her, “Just trying to motivate myself to change that thing! We didn’t get around to it earlier in the day as things got away from us, but it needs changing. Doc said to change it every other day and once things settle down, we can stretch the bandage changes out a little longer.”

Savannah nodded, wondering if he should be attempting such a thing with a worked up colt without assistance, or whether she should volunteer to help him. She knew that her study was important and that she needed to get some done that evening. Plus she planned to crash early, knowing sleep was just as important.

“What did he do?”

“Reared up and caught himself on the feeder, little terror. It’s ok; he freed himself just as quickly but managed to break the skin and cause a bit of swelling. As long as it doesn’t get infected, there should be little to show for it once the sales are here. How was your weekend?”

“Great, thanks. It’s always nice to catch up with the family and I got heaps of study done on Saturday.”

“I know I don’t follow all your mad study stuff closely, but isn’t it semester break? I thought you didn’t start back until March?”

Savannah laughed and nodded.

“I took on an extra subject over summer school. I want to get this degree done and I hate the idea of not studying when I have the time!”

Nev grinned at her and she felt herself grow warm.

“Although… time is a funny word. Even though it’s only one subject at the moment, I am finding that it is pretty full on alongside yearling preparation.”

Her boss nodded.

“Glad it’s you and not me, bub. But don’t you normally have to go up north for a few days for your study?”

Savannah agreed that she did.

“Except this one is optional. That’s why I picked it. I wanted to be able to do the study but wasn’t sure I could get time off in the middle of a sale preparation to go.”

Nev took a drag on his cigarette before turning his focus back to the pacing colt. The horse was watching the pair of them as he walked.

“So how many days is this one, Savvy?”

She glanced at the older male in surprise.

“Three,” she murmured before checking the colt’s feeder.

She realised he had eaten everything and his hay was quite low. Out of habit she ducked to the bales of hay at the end of the aisle and grabbed two biscuits to put into his hay rack.

“So when is it?”

Savannah frowned, thinking back to the dates.

“Umm… January 22 – 24… it falls on weekdays… the Monday to Wednesday after my weekend on,” she informed him.

Nev took a last drag on his cigarette and butted it out under his shoe.

“Tell you what, Savvy. I’m going to get a coffee and I’ll be back out here in ten minutes. If you organise the bandaging gear and help me change this fella’s leg, you can have those three days off to attend your uni thing. Deal?”

He didn’t even wait around for her response, but turned on his heel and headed back toward his house. Savannah stared after him, amazed.

Her attention was quickly drawn back to the pacing colt as he snorted at some hay that was poking his nose. She laughed and headed to the medications room, making sure she had plenty of cotton wool, a gauze dressing, some cream and wrapping bandages.

“Helping the boss tend to a horse quickly before bed gets me three days off work to focus on study – thank you God!”

By the time Nev returned, Savannah had all the bandaging items sitting in a bucket waiting and a head collar on the fidgety colt. With a cheeky grin Savannah told him he’d better get to work as she had some study to do.

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