“This is the best show ever,” Alice said as we all flopped exhausted on the grass.
“You’re only saying that because your classes are over,” Andy said. “I’m still riding in the mini Grand Prix, remember?”
And as I listened to them talk about the big class, I couldn’t help thinking how surprised they’d be when they saw me ride into the ring on my pony.
CHAPTER FIFTY THREE
I slipped away to check on Bluebird and found him napping in his stall. Napping wouldn’t win Grand Prix classes, even if they were mini ones. I was about to take him out for some grass when my father came striding down the barn aisle. I pressed myself against the wall, hoping he would just pass me by but he didn’t. Instead he stopped and stood next to me, looking in at my pony.
“You did good today kid,” he said.
“Thanks,” I replied.
“I mean it,” he said. “Your pony won a difficult class, Encore placed in an equally difficult class and Missy told me how you helped her out with the pony.” He paused for a minute. “She said that you were right and that she should have listened to you but that you didn’t gloat or shove your righteousness in her face. You handled it like an adult and I’m proud of you.”
I opened my mouth but no words came out. I couldn’t say anything because he may have been proud of me now but later on he wasn’t going to be. He was going to be really mad.
“You didn’t push the Grand Prix thing either,” he carried on.
I felt my face get red and wished he’d just stop talking.
“And I know you’re going to miss Encore but you’ve handled him being sold like a pro and I’m going to make sure you get another horse to ride. In fact, I have one that I am going to look at next week. You won’t be left out. I promise.”
“Thanks Dad,” I managed to squeak out.
He slapped me on the back, his version of a hug, and then left me standing there feeling like the worst daughter in the whole world.
CHAPTER FIFTY FOUR
I’d spent so long planning to secretly enter the mini Grand Prix. Plotting and scheming and trying to figure out how I was going to win that I never stopped to think about the consequences of my actions and I could see them now, glaring me right in the face like giant stop signs. Missy would hate me forever. My father would be furious. I could forget about new horses to ride. Maybe he’d even stop me from going to shows with them. He couldn’t stay mad forever but who knew how long it would last. And it wasn’t just the selfish consequences either. It was the fact that my father thought I was mature and had respect for me and I was about to ruin it all.
I ran to the show secretary as fast as I could. She probably didn’t have a place for me anyway so she’d be relieved when I told her that I’d changed my mind. But when I got to the desk she saw me and beckoned me over instead of rolling her eyes.
“I got you in,” she said with a grin.
CHAPTER FIFTY FIVE
I stood there for a moment, wondering if I was really going to go through with it or not. The forbidden fruit was right in front of me. It was practically being handed to me on a plate. All I had to say was yes and I could ride my pony in the big class and maybe with the way my horse show luck had been going, maybe I’d even win. I could see it now. The giant cup. The big check. The huge neck ribbon. Bluebird and I galloping around the ring while everyone cheered. But even now I could see them in my mind’s eye. Missy crying. My father’s disappointed face. Even if I won they wouldn’t be happy or proud of me. They’d be disappointed that I’d gone behind their backs and betrayed them so I took a deep breath and swallowed my pride. Then I said the hardest words I’d ever had to say.
“I can’t ride in the mini Grand Prix.”
The show secretary’s face fell.
“What are you talking about?” she said, starting to look mad. “You’ve been pestering me all day. I’ve had to pull strings left, right and center to get you in. This isn’t a game you know.”
“I know,” I said. “And I’m sorry. It’s just that I realized that I can’t do it.”
“Well,” she said, slamming her clipboard down on the table. “Don’t ever ask me for any favors again. And you’re not getting your entry money back either.”
“Okay,” I said with a shrug. “I am sorry.”
She didn’t say anything else and I slipped away feeling both devastated and relieved. I wanted to wow everyone and show them how brilliant Bluebird was but not at the price it would take. I’d been working so hard to get to know my father and earn his trust and I couldn’t wreck that now. If I wanted to make it in the horse world then I was going to need him on my side because without him I had no connections, no money and no place to live. I’d been stupid to think that I could betray him and still have all that.
“Everything okay?” Dad asked when I got back to our stalls. “You look a little sick.”
“I’m fine,” I said. “I was just wondering if Missy needed any help getting ready for her class?”
CHAPTER FIFTY SIX
Helping Missy felt weird but in a good way. Like I was restoring the karma that had almost been ruined by my deceitfulness. I polished her boots and ran a last minute rag over Socks while she went to the bathroom. I hoped she wasn’t throwing up. This was supposed to be the fun part.
“I know you guys have kind of been a bit rocky together lately,” I told Socks. “But you really need to try your best for her. She’s just really nervous so maybe you could help her out and be nice for a change. I’ve seen all the silly things you’ve been doing, giving her a hard time and stuff.”
He rubbed his nose on my shirt.
“I know,” I said. “I miss you too and maybe if things were different I’d be riding you in the mini Grand Prix today but that’s just not the way things have worked out and there is nothing that we can do about it so we just have to accept it and hope that maybe we’ll get another chance next time.”
There was a small cough behind me and I turned to see Missy standing there with her gloves in one hand and her crop in the other.
“He’s all yours,” I said, holding out the reins.
For a moment I thought that maybe she was going to push them back to me and say that I should ride him instead but that was only wishful thinking. Instead she took the reins and walked out to the warm up ring and I walked behind with my rag and grooming bucket in case Socks needed a touch up before he went in the ring. And even though I thought I would be devastated at not riding in the class, it turned out that I didn’t feel that bad about it after all.
CHAPTER FIFTY SEVEN
The mini Grand Prix was full of really great horses and riders. A lot of top competitors had turned up for it and even a couple of world class riders had brought some of their young up and coming horses to ride, hoping to give them experience at the lower levels. Then there were the people like Andy, who had the talent but not the experience. Mousse seemed a little overwhelmed by the size of the course and Andy had a refusal at a very spooky gray fence and then a couple of rails down. He came out of the ring looking flustered.
“I don’t think we were ready for that,” he said.
“At least you didn’t fall off,” I told him.
Despite the show day being a seemingly lucky one, the class itself seemed to be cursed. Riders were falling off left and right, which was weird because usually you might have one or two hit the dirt but there had been five or six people who’d flown off one way or another and each time there had been a delay while their horses were caught and the paramedics called in to check the rider over.
“I can’t do this,” Missy said, looking rather green.
She was next to go in but they were helping the last woman who’d fallen off out of the ring. She was limping quite badly but the crowd cheered anyway. In fact they seemed to be getting rather into the fact that the class was almost kind of life and death and for the first time I felt glad that I wasn’t riding in it.
“Of course you can,” Da
d told her. “You’ll be fine.”
“Just give him the reins,” I told her. “He only tries to run away when you hang on his face.”
“Thanks,” she said and then she was gone, cantering into the ring in a flash of bay and white.
CHAPTER FIFTY EIGHT
Missy didn’t win the class. It wasn’t her big comeback. She had a clean first round and made it to the jump off where Socks got completely excited and she forgot not to hang on his face. He got flat at the last few fences and had three rails down before bolting out of the ring just like he used to do in the old days. But Missy didn’t seem mad. In fact she seemed kind of relieved that she had survived and that the whole thing was over and she kept talking about how much she missed Owen, who had been left behind with the babysitter.
Motherhood had changed her and maybe she would never go back to being the fearless rider she was before. I mean she had her child to think about now. It was silly to imagine that wouldn’t change things.
And Gustav Gray won the class, a tall guy on a skinny black horse that no one had ever heard of before. So the show was lucky for him even if it wasn’t for most of the other riders in the mini Grand Prix.
Back at the barn I slipped into Bluebird’s stall. He was laying down sleeping, his chin resting on the shavings and his eyes closed. I lay down next to him and he didn’t move so I snuggled against his neck.
“I’m kind of glad we didn’t ride in that class after all,” I told him. “I still think you could have won but there was a lot of bad luck floating around in that ring and we don’t need any more of that, do we.”
He sighed and nudged my pocket until I took out the carrot that was in there and fed it to him. There would be other shows and other big classes to win and we were leaving with our dignity and respect intact and for right now that was good enough for me.
“Come on,” I told my pony. “Let’s go home.”
THE END
COMING SOON
SHOW JUMPING DREAMS #18: BEGINNERS LUCK
Emily Dickenson didn’t get to enter the big class at the Easter show. Instead she and Bluebird won the pony jumper championship and she is okay with that. Sometimes you have to wait your turn and now Emily feels like it’s her time to shine.
But even when you are born with natural talent there will always be someone who is better than you and when Mickey’s new friend shows up at Fox Run to ride, it’s clear that she has talent too. Dakota may have been raised chasing cows and running barrels but the new girl seems to be good at jumping as well. In fact she seems to be good at everything.
And while Emily is busy securing her spot at Fox Run, she’s finding it hard to think about being number one when all she can think about is Jordan instead. He stood her up at the Easter show and she wants to know why. But now that he has gone missing, she’s not sure if she should be mad or worried. Did he really stand her up or has something bad happened to him?
BEGINNERS LUCK: CHAPTER ONE
“You said you’d come to the show and help me. You promised and you broke that promise. I want to know why.”
I ended the call and slammed my phone down on the table. It had gone through to Jordan’s voicemail. Again.
It was the day after the Easter show. The day when the barn was quiet and most of the horses got the day off. I’d woken up and looked at the silver cup that sat on my bedside table and felt a proud wave surge through my body. My pony had won his championship class. I couldn’t stop thinking about how awesome he was. And we hadn’t got a chance to prove ourselves in the mini Grand Prix and we hadn’t beaten Missy but she hadn’t won either. Competition had been fierce and I was almost glad that I’d ducked out of it at the last minute. Bluebird was good. Really good. But did he have what it took to jump against horses like that? I wasn’t so sure.
I’d rolled over with a smile on my face and then suddenly remembered that Jordan had stood me up. He promised to come to the show and help me enter the mini Grand Prix. In fact he’d said that he would be riding. I’d been looking forward to seeing him ride but in all the excitement of the day, I’d forgotten that he hadn’t shown up at all. That was just rude.
I pulled on my clothes feeling huffy. The happiness of the show day fading away, replaced by a lingering sour feeling. I didn’t like it when people went back on their word. When they promised to do something and they didn’t. Mickey was flakey. I sort of expected that kind of thing from her but even she’d had a legitimate reason for not going, a dentists appointment that she couldn’t get out of. What was Jordan’s excuse? He’d better be lying in a ditch somewhere because if he wasn’t then I was going to kill him.
Bluebird nickered when he saw me coming. I slipped into his stall and unwrapped his legs. They were cool and tight. No swelling.
“Good boy,” I said, patting him on the neck. “You were awesome yesterday. I’m so proud of you.”
He nodded his head as if to say that of course he was awesome, what else did I expect?
I took him out into the bright morning sunshine and turned him loose in one of the big fields. As soon as he got inside the gate he dropped and rolled, scrubbing himself into the sand one way then flipping over to make sure he got the other side good and dirty too. When he was done he jumped up, shook himself sending clouds of sand into the air and then galloped off.
“I guess you’re not as tired as I thought you were then,” I called after him.
When he had settled down to graze I left him and wandered back into the barn. Arion was eating his hay. Popcorn and Ballycat were being brought in from the lesson horse turnouts which were in the back. Now that it was hot they spent the evenings outside and were brought in during the day so that they could be used for lessons. When Popcorn saw me she pinned her ears.
“Nice to see you too,” I told her as the groom lead her into her stall.
I found myself outside Encore’s stall, looking at the beautiful bay horse. He was leaving later in the day. A trailer was coming to pick him up and take him to Tara’s barn and I’d never see him again. Only that wasn’t true. I’d see him at shows where Tara would be riding him. It made my heart hurt just thinking about it.
“I’m going to miss you,” I told him.
And then I walked away because it was too early in the morning to be crying about a horse leaving.
Henry, the head groom, came out of the office and waved to get my attention.
“There is a phone call for you,” he said.
“What, here?” I asked, remembering that I’d left my phone on the table back at the house. “Who is it?”
“I don’t know.” Henry shrugged.
I went into the office where the smell of coffee hung thick on the air and picked up the sleek black phone, wondering who would be calling me on it.
“Hello?” I said.
“Emily?” the voice on the other end said.
“Yes.”
“It’s Taylor. I was wondering if you’ve seen Jordan?”
Taylor owned the local tack store and also happened to be Jordan’s mother. She hadn’t seemed too happy that Jordan and I had been spending more time together and I was almost sure that she was the one who’d talked him into not going to the show but if she hadn’t seen him either then I didn’t know what was going on.
“No, I haven’t,” I said, sitting down on the edge of the desk. “He promised he’d come to the show and he didn’t.”
“Well that is strange,” she said. “I don’t know what has happened to him. He’s not answering his phone.”
“I’m sure he’s fine,” I said. “I bet he met a cute girl or something.”
The words stung in my throat. I was supposed to be Jordan’s cute girl but it was turning out that I wasn’t after all. He was older than me anyway. I should have known that he was never really interested in me in the first place.
“Maybe,” Taylor said, sounding distracted. “Well if you hear from him, let me know.”
“I doubt that I will,” I said. “But if I
do, I’ll tell him that you’re looking for him.”
“Thanks,” she said.
And I was hanging up the phone when Dad came in with my riding schedule for the week and I immediately forgot all about stupid Jordan, the boy who stood me up.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Claire Svendsen fell in love with horses at age two when she got her first pony. The only trouble was that it wasn’t a real horse, it was a rocking horse. From that day on she begged, pleaded and bribed for lessons, riding clothes and a horse of her own. She had to wait and work really hard to finally get her first real horse but when she did, it was a dream come true. Over the years she has trained horses, given lessons and even run her own stable.
No longer able to ride due to injury, Claire lives vicariously through the characters in her books. When she’s not busy writing, you’ll find her hanging out at the barn with her retired Thoroughbred Merlin who loves carrots, apples and bowing on command.
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Show Time (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 17) Page 11
