indicating the sweep of land to the mountains with his head.
Parker smoothed the horse’s muzzle. “Let’s see.” He eased back the horse’s lip and nodded. “About fifteen, unless I miss my guess.”
“Fifteen?” she asked.
“Years old,” he said.
“I thought he was only a year or so!”
He shook his head. He hung the feed bag over the horse’s head and smoothed his hand alongside him, all the way to the back.
“You know about horses?” he asked Teddie.
She shook her head. “I’m trying to learn. Mom knows a lot, but she doesn’t have time. There are these YouTube videos. . . .”
“You never walk behind a horse unless you let him know you’re going to be there,” he explained as he smoothed his way down the horse’s flank to his tail. “Horses have eyes set on the sides of their heads. They’re prey animals, not predators. Their first instinct is always going to be flight. As such, they’re touchy and sensitive to sound and movement. They can see almost all the way around them, except to their hindquarters. So you have to be careful. You can get kicked if you don’t pay attention.”
“Nobody said that on the video I watched,” she confessed.
“You need some books,” he said. “And some DVDs.”
She sighed. “Mom said I didn’t know what I was doing. He was such a pretty horse and I didn’t want them to put him down. They arrested his owner.”
Parker just nodded. He was seeing some damage on the horse’s back, some deep scars. There was a cut that hadn’t healed near his tail, and two or three that had on his legs. “Somebody’s abused this horse,” he said coldly. “Badly. He’s got scars.”
“They said the man took a whip to him.” She grimaced. “They told me not to touch him on his front leg, but I was trying to look at his hoof and I forgot.”
“His hoof?”
“He was favoring that one.” She pointed to it.
He patted the horse’s shoulder, bent, and pulled up the horse’s hoof. He grimaced. “Good God!”
She looked, too, but she didn’t see anything. “What is it?”
“His hooves are in really bad shape. Has a vet seen him?”
“I don’t know. The animal control man brought him to the ranch for us. Mom was calling to get the vet, even before he knocked part of the fence down and ran away. She’s going to be really mad.”
Parker noted that the horse had no saddle on. “You didn’t try to ride him bareback, did you?” he asked.
She grimaced. “Mister, I don’t even know how to put a saddle on him. I sure can’t ride him. I’ve never ridden a horse.”
His black eyes widened. “You don’t know how to ride?”
“Well, Mom does,” she said hesitantly. “She grew up on a ranch in Montana. That’s where she met my daddy. She can ride most anything, but she’s been on the phone all day trying to get the movers to find a missing box. They think it went back East somewhere, but they haven’t done much about finding it. It had a lot of Daddy’s things. Mom’s furious.”
He shook his head. “That’s tough.”
“She said we’ll . . . uh-oh,” she added as a small SUV came down the road, pulled in very slowly next to the man and the child and the horse, and stopped.
“Who’s that?” Parker asked.
“Mom,” Teddie said, grimacing.
A blond woman wearing jeans and a black T-shirt got out of the SUV. “So there you are,” she said in an exasperated tone.
“Sorry, Mom,” Teddie said, wincing. “Bartholomew ran away and I ran after him. . . .”
“Bartholomew?” Parker asked.
“Well, he needed a fancy name. He’s so pretty. Handsome.” Teddie cleared her throat. “He did.”
“He broke through a fence. I was on the phone trying to find a vet who’ll come out and look at him, and when I went out to tell you what I found out, the horse was gone and so were you!”
“I was afraid he’d run in the road and get hurt,” Teddie said defensively.
China blue eyes looked up at Parker. “Oats, huh?” she asked as she saw the feed bag over the horse’s muzzle.
He nodded. “Quickest way to catch a runaway horse, if he has a sense of smell,” he added with a faint smile.
“She’s Katy,” Teddie introduced. “I don’t remember who you are,” she added with a shy smile at the tall man with the long black ponytail.
“Parker,” he said. He didn’t offer any more information, and he reached out to shake hands.
“You work for Mr. Denton, don’t you?” Katy asked, and her expression told him that she’d heard other things about him as well.
“I do. I’m his horse wrangler.”
She drew in a long breath. “Teddie, you never leave the house without telling me where you’re going.”
“Sorry, Mom.”
“And obviously the horse doesn’t need a vet immediately, or he wouldn’t have gotten this far!”
“You know about horses, do you?” Parker asked her.
She nodded.
“Come here.” He smoothed down the horse’s leg and pulled up the hoof. “Have a look.”
“Dear God,” she whispered reverently.
“If they lock his owner up forever, it won’t be long enough,” he added, putting the hoof back down. “There are deep cuts on his hindquarters, and on one of his legs as well. One needs stitches. I imagine an antibiotic would prevent complications from the hooves as well, if you got Doc Carr on the phone.”
She made a face. “He’s on another large-animal call. I left my cell phone number for him.”
“Your daughter knows very little about horses,” he began. “An animal that’s been abused is dangerous even for an experienced equestrian.”
“I know. But she was so upset,” came the soft reply. “She’s lost so much. . . .”
“She can learn how to take care of him,” Parker interrupted, because he understood without being told.
“Yes, and I can teach her. But it’s going to take time. I’m in a new teaching job. I’m not used to grammar school children. I taught at college level. . . .”
“We
