Amy stumbles out of the freshly painted white farmhouse with its blue trim shining in the morning sun. Her two dogs, a Collie named Shadow and an Irish Setter named Red, race past her and out to the barns, barking and tumbling about happily. Amy laughs and walks down the thin path down to the barns. She walks over to the closest barn and slides the large wooden door open. Amy smiles at how easily it slides open. The contractors had done a good job, oiling all the doors, painting all the barns and the farmhouse in white with blue trim, Shadow Creek colors, and hanging up a sign with ________ Barn on each barn. Amy walks over to the first stall and opens the top half of the stall door. The 2-year-old filly tosses her head over the half-door and snorts, a few stings of hay falling from her mouth. Amy laughs and runs her hand down the Malia’s neck. She gives her a sugar cube and lets herself into the stall. Malia had already been worked that day and was still slightly sweaty. Amy fetches the filly’s lead shank from the tack room and clips it onto the leather halter with Malibu engraved in a gold plate on it. She leads the filly out of the stall and into the sunlight. The filly blinks and nickers softly. Amy pats her neck and leads her into one of the outside wash racks. She quickly hoses Malia off and removes as much water as possible with a sweat scraper.
While Malia is drying, Amy mucks out the filly’s stall and refills her haynet. Then she walks over to the Weanling and Yearling Barn and goes into the first stall. Possessed, the tall grey colt, nickers and bobs his head. Amy gives him a sugar cube and clips his lead rope onto his leather halter. She leads Cairo out of the stall and into the barn aisle. She cross-ties him and goes into the tack room to get a grooming kit. Amy grooms Cairo until he shines. She mucks out his stall and refills his haynet. Then she unclips the cross-ties and leads the colt out of the barn and toward the pastures. As they pass the wash racks, Malia whinnies loudly and Cairo rears, almost pulling the lead out of Amy’s hands. She lets the colt rear, talking to him softly, trying to get him to calm down. Once he stops rearing, Amy leads the prancing colt into one of the one-acre one-horse pastures. She removes his halter and watches Cairo run off, bucking and kicking happily. As he tears around the pasture, Amy sees that he has some real speed. She smiles and walks out of the pasture, latching the gate firmly behind her. She hangs the halter on one of the freshly painted, white rails and walks back to the wash rack. Amy makes sure Malia is dry, then unhooks the cross-ties, clips her lead shank back on and turns the filly out in a pasture as well. Then she finds her dogs playing in the Foaling Barn and walks back to the farmhouse with Shadow and Red following close behind.