Both Henry and Jessie had a full day of projects. Henry had some leatherwork he wanted to catch up on. There were at least seven saddles that needed repair, most of which needed their saddle horn caps restitched. Many of the wranglers during the season had set saddles on the ground by propping them up on the saddle horn. It was a common practice by a lot of people in the horse business because it kept the sheepskin on the underside of the saddle out of the dirt. Unfortunately, when done a lot, or when the saddle is dropped onto its horn, the practice has a tendency to pop the stitches that hold the top of the horn to the bottom. It was a practice that Jessie didn’t allow for that reason, but inevitably it still happened and every year the caps would need to be repaired. It was a job that would take Henry most of the day.

Jessie, on the other hand, needed to inventory the hay she had on hand. Up till now she fed small square bales of hay that weighed between sixty and a hundred pounds each. The hay would come in on a semi and then would be stacked in the barn. There was a tally sheet that hung on the wall in the barn that was used to keep track of the hay that was fed out. Anytime anybody fed, the amount they took was to be marked down on the sheet so it would be easy to keep track of what was left. Unfortunately, about halfway through the last season, the practice of marking down what was taken was abandoned as their season had gotten busier. Jessie had no idea how much was in the barn.

She had been considering changing the long time practice of feeding small bales, and replacing them with the large, one-ton, round bales instead. The round bales were cheaper and much easier to keep track of. By feeding them, the horses would never run out of hay. Plus with the large bales, the staff would only need to put them out once a week, instead of feeding small bales twice a day. Still, there would be additional up-front costs to feeding round bales, such as buying round-bale feeders for the pastures and pens, and acquiring equipment to move the huge bales from place to place—expenses Jessie wasn’t sure she wanted to incur right now.

That was one of the things on her mind as the two of them got ready to part ways after leaving the round pen. Neither one had said much since they left the colt, which wasn’t all that uncommon after they worked with him. Both seemed to become somewhat introspective about what they had seen or done with the youngster, and it was often an hour or more before either one said anything at all. But today was different.

“I wanted to thank you again for taking me out to see them mustangs yesterday,” Henry said just before they parted. The comment brought a smile to Jessie’s face as she immediately recalled the horses from the previous day running through the valley.