Read Saddled With Trouble for Free Online Page B

now I need to oil him.”
    “Oh, no. I’ll be right there.” She hung up and told her mother what had happened.
    “Go, honey. There’s nothing you can do right now. Your father and I need time anyway, and we need to get ourselves over to Lou’s, see what happened, what we can do. I think it best if you take care of the colt.”
    “Oh, Mom.”
    “Go. I’ll call you if we need anything.”
    Michaela hugged her and headed home. God only knew what else might be in store. She was all cried out at this point. Her mind whirled in a mixture of total confusion: her beloved uncle lay dead— murdered— in his prize stallion’s stall, Ethan was keeping something from her— she knew that because of his abrupt disappearance on his rafting trip— her parents were fighting, and if she didn’t know better, her dad seemingly also had something to hide. She could have sworn he’d been lying about how he’d hurt his hand. Benjamin Bancroft never was a good liar, and her intuition said that he hadn’t told her the truth about his injury. Why ?
    And now Leo was colicing. This could be bad. Michaela knew that colic was one of the leading causes of premature deaths in domesticated horses. It presented itself as abdominal pain and usually manifested from some type of impaction in the intestine. If Ethan hadn’t come by, then chances were that Leo would be gone now. Catching colic in the early stages was one of the only chances for a horse to survive. Hopefully Ethan had caught it soon enough. She didn’t want to think about losing her baby right now.
    * * *
    ETHAN HAD ALREADY STARTED MEDICATING him, but oiling the colt would not be pleasant. Michaela knew she’d have to help Ethan get a tube down into Leo’s stomach. Hopefully the oil would cause the impaction to move through his intestines.
    She pulled up next to Ethan’s truck and got out. He was in the stall with the colt. “Hi,” he said. “I’m sorry to have to track you down. I’ve kept him on his feet and had him walking. I don’t think he’s been down too much.”
    That was a relief. If Leo had had much of a chance to lie down, he probably would have started rolling, twisting his intestine, and that would mean a costly surgery that was not always very successful.
    “The Banamine should be kicking in,” he said. Michaela knew from growing up with Ethan— who’d always wanted to be a vet— and helping him study for his finals during vet school, that Banamine was used to help alleviate the pain. “I was thinking I could give him a little ACE to ease him further while we tube him, but he’s got a good nature about him and I don’t think he’ll give us too much grief.”
    Michaela nodded and took the lead line. She faced Leo, holding the rope tightly under his chin, lifting his nose in the air. Ethan began to slide the plastic tube up into one of his nostrils and down his throat. Leo stomped the ground and tried to shake his head, but Michaela kept a tight grip on him. Once the tube was down into his intestinal track, Ethan was able to pump the oil through. Leo didn’t put up much of a stink. After finishing with the tube, they took him out of the stall and walked him around for some time to keep him from lying down to roll.
    “I think we caught it in time. Good thing. He’s a beautiful animal, Mick, and I know what he means to you.” She nodded; her face grew taut and she felt the tears starting again. “Hey, hey, it’s going to be okay. He’ll be fine. We just have to keep a watch on him, but like I said, it looks like we caught it just in time. So relax now, okay? Let’s get him in the stall and see if he’ll eat some bran.”
    Michaela couldn’t respond. Ethan put Leo back as she got a small bucket of bran for him. She poured it into his feeder; he started to eat it.
    “See, look at that.”
    Michaela choked back the grief tightening her chest. Ethan put a hand on her shoulder. For the first time since she’d arrived back at her place, she