Sale Horse (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 5)

by Claire Svendsen

  Now I felt sick. I’d almost accepted the fact that I couldn’t do anything more to stop Hampton from being sold but to some nice girl who would love him not Jess, the person who used Bluebird up and then tossed him away like a piece of trash.

  “Trust me,” Esther said. “I don’t like it any more than you do but what do you want me to say? That he’s not for sale?”

  “Not to them,” I said.

  “Selective selling? I can’t afford a reputation like that and neither can you. He could kill my business if he wanted to. Then we’d all be out in the street.”

  “It’s not fair,” I said.

  “Life’s not fair. Now go and get his tack for me. I know this is hard but there really is nothing we can do. Maybe they won’t like him,” she said.

  But I knew she was only trying to make me feel better. What was there not to like? Hampton was perfect and even an idiot like Jess would be able to ride him. I stood in the tack room looking at Mickey’s stuff. Itchy boots and saddle pads wouldn’t work this time. It was over.

  “Mickey?” I said. “If you can hear me, you need to wake up right now. It’s serious this time. Jess is coming to try out Hampton and there is nothing I can do to stop her. You hear me? That horrible, evil girl is going to buy your horse. Is that what you want?”

  A lunge whip that was leaning against the wall fell over and I jumped backwards out of the way. Either it was just a coincidence or this time Mickey had got the message. I hoped it was the latter since I could hear a car coming down the driveway.

  CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

  Jess and I glared at each other down the barn aisle. It was just like a western where two cowboys face off in the street opposite the saloon. We glared daggers at each other while her father and Esther talked in the office.

  Up until now I had tried to be nice to Jess. Sure, I’d almost got her kicked out of the jumping clinic but that was only because she was a danger to both her horse and herself, as she clearly found out when she ended up in the hospital. But the whole time I’d harbored this belief deep inside me that maybe she was a good person who had just gone seriously wrong somewhere. Only how could I ever forgive her if she bought my best friend’s horse?

  “Why are you doing this?” I finally said. “Mickey is going to get better and when she does, she’s going to need her horse to be there for her.”

  “Then why is he for sale?” she said.

  “Because her parents are idiots, that’s why.”

  “Not my problem,” she sighed.

  “Look Jess, please. Don’t do this. I know you don’t like me. I get that. But don’t do this to Mickey. Do you know what it would be like to have your horse sold out from under you?”

  “Of course I do,” she tapped her crop against her boot. “My father has done it a whole bunch of times. That’s life. If she wakes up, she’ll get over it.”

  “I’ll do anything, please.”

  I’d been reduced to begging. Begging that the girl who hated my guts wouldn’t hurt my best friend this way. I felt about as low as you could get but I did it for Mickey. After this, if she woke up, at least we’d finally be even. I would have made up to her the fact that I had been mad about the saddle.

  “Look, I don’t even care about the stupid horse,” Jess finally said. “There is a jumper up in New York who’s been cleaning up in the ribbons. That’s the horse I want but my stupid father thinks I should go back to the hunters so I have to try this horse first. Okay? It’s not personal. It’s business.”

  Beneath the stern expression I saw a shadow of the girl Amber had told me about in the one standing before me. A girl who’d been raised and groomed to be a winner. A champion. A girl who did what her father demanded because she had to and somehow along the way it became what she wanted too.

  “Just don’t do anything stupid,” I told Hampton as I slipped his bridle on.

  The last thing we needed was Mr. Eastford suing Sand Hill Stables because Hampton tossed his daughter halfway across the ring like a ragdoll.

  CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

  I hated to admit it but Jess’s father was right. She needed to go back to riding hunters. She sat on Hampton and not only looked nice but Hampton actually looked happy with the way she was riding him. She had him in a nice, steady trot and when she asked him for the canter he pricked his ears and went forward. She even took him across the diagonal and asked for a flying change which she got. He wasn’t even late behind which was what he tended to do when you asked him wrong.

  I looked desperately at Esther but she just shrugged. Jess rode Hampton better than any of the other girls who had come to try him out. It was awful and yet I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Instead of getting horses that were clearly out of her league, Hampton was exactly the type of horse Jess needed. Just like Beauty, he was a quiet and generally easy horse to ride but with Jess in the saddle he was a top ten mover. She’d clean up in every show she went to. Would probably even make it to the medals if that was what she wanted.

  Esther set up some jumps and Hampton cleared them all.

  “Raise them up please,” Mr. Eastford said and Esther did.

  I knew her hands were tied just like mine were. Hampton cleared the jumps again and came to a halt looking pretty pleased with himself but Jess just looked bored. She swung her leg over his neck like you weren’t supposed to do and slid to the ground.

  “Well?” her father said.

  “He’s okay,” she shrugged.

  “Okay? Okay?” Mr. Eastford’s voice started to rise. “That horse is fantastic. Do you see what you can do when you have the right horse?”

  “I don’t like him,” she said.

  “Don’t like him?” Mr. Eastford was now shouting. “Don’t be ridiculous. How can you not like a horse who goes that well for you? How can you not like a horse that will win for you?”

  Jess just stood there holding the reins, kicking the dirt with her foot.

  “Answer me girl,” he yelled.

  I waited for Jess to cry or at least admit that her father was right. The more he yelled at her, the more I felt sorry for her which was all kinds of complicated considering she still hated me.

  “You said if I tried this horse then we’d get to look at the one I want,” she said firmly. “That was the deal.”

  Then she just walked off back to the barn with Hampton following her like a love sick puppy, nudging her arm in hopes of getting a treat for a job well done.

  “We’re buying that horse,” Mr. Eastford told Esther, his face red.

  I rode Bluebird after they left but my heart wasn’t in it. Everything was so confusing. Now I felt sorry for Jess and I was mad at Hampton. How could he betray Mickey like that? I guess Liesl was right. He’d get over being sold and move on with his life. I knew that I was going to have to do the same. There were no more rituals to do. Nothing left to say. Like Hampton, I just had to accept that this was life.

  I took Bluebird down to the front field where a few jumps were still set up in the grass. I gave him his head and we flew over them, the wind blowing all thoughts out of my mind. He did everything I asked of him and when I slowed to a walk and patted his neck, he gave a happy sigh. I wished Miguel would hurry up and make a decision. I had to get on that jumping team. It was the only thing I had left. I needed it more than anything. A purpose. Something to work for. Something to take my mind off everything else.

  So when Esther came to the entrance of the barn and called out that there was a phone call for me, I thought that it must be Miguel finally calling. Heart in my throat I cantered Bluebird up to the barn and threw my reins to Esther.

  “Hello?” I said breathlessly into the dusty telephone.

  “Emily?”

  “Mom?” I said.

  It wasn’t Miguel at all but if Mom was calling me at the barn then it had to be something really bad.

  “It’s Mickey,” she said.

  CHAPTER THIRTY THREE

  “Is she dead?” I screamed.


  Silence.

  “Is she dead?”

  “No,” Mom said. “She’s awake. I’m going to come and get you.”

  The drive to the hospital was unbearable. I didn’t even know if I’d be allowed to see her but I had to go there anyway. Esther had hugged me with tears in her eyes.

  “I knew she’d wake up,” she said.

  But now that she was awake there was a whole new set of worries to deal with. Would she know who we were? Would she still be the same Mickey?

  “Can’t you be happy for five seconds?” Mom asked when I told her how I was feeling.

  “I am happy,” I said, and I was. I’d just be happier when I knew that everything was back to normal.

  The hospital seemed just as confusing as before and it still took us ages to get to Mickey’s room. When we got there we couldn’t even get close. There was a sea of doctors, nurses and what appeared to be every single relative that Mickey had, all weeping and smiling. Mom and I ended up finding a couple of chairs in the waiting room. There was no way we were going to be able to see Mickey anytime soon.

  “We should have waited,” Mom said.

  “I couldn’t. She’d come for me.”

  “I know,” Mom squeezed my hand.

  Finally Mickey’s mom saw us. She waved and came over, tissues in her hand and tears in her eyes. She looked like she’d aged about ten years.

  “Isn’t it wonderful?” she said. “She just opened her eyes and asked for ice cream. Just like that, she was awake!”

  “She knows who you are?” I said. “She’s not speaking a foreign language or anything?”

  Mom gave me a hard nudge in the ribs.

  “She’s fine, just a little disorientated. Would you like to see her?”

  “Can I?” I stood up, feeling a little scared.

  “She’s been asking for you,” Mickey’s mom took my hand.

  CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR

  All the bleeping machines had gone except for one and there were no tubes and wires. Mickey sat up in the bed looking small and pale but she smiled when she saw me. I balked at the door but Mickey’s mom pushed me inside.

  “Hey,” I said.

  “Hey yourself,” she replied.

  “Are you feeling okay?”

  “Great, never better,” she said.

  I sat down on a chair next to the bed feeling awkward. This wasn’t how I’d expected things to be. At first I was going to yell at her for being so stupid to get hurt in the first place. Then I was going to tell her that she put us all through hell. After that I’d planned to give her a big hug. But now I didn’t know what to do. It was like seeing someone for the first time in a long time and not quite knowing if things were still the same between you as they used to be. We both couldn’t seem to find the words to say how we felt and how I felt didn’t really matter anymore anyway.

  “So I thought maybe you’d wake up and think you were a princess or something,” I said.

  “I am,” she replied. “Princess of Transylvania. With all the meds they’ve given me, I’m sure I’ll probably grow fangs or turn into a werewolf or something.”

  “Think of all the boys you can turn to the dark side,” I laughed.

  And just like that we were back. We talked about hospital food and the fact that my hair was a mess. She told me there was a cute male nurse who was the first person she saw when she woke up and I said that maybe he kissed her while she was sleeping. She seemed to like that. But then my time was up. There were other people waiting to see her and a nurse who kept frowning and tapping her watch because I guess Mickey was supposed to be resting.

  “Will you come back tomorrow?” she asked.

  “After school,” I said. “If my mom can bring me. We can’t all lay around in bed all day being waited on by cute male nurses.”

  I left her room feeling happy that I had my friend back and that her brain was all in one piece. But we hadn’t talked about horses and she hadn’t asked about Hampton and I wasn’t sure why.

  CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE

  I sat in the ring on Bluebird but my heart wasn’t in it. Esther had set up a course of verticals and I was supposed to pretend this was a jump off and go as fast as I could. We’d had every single fence down.

  “What is wrong with you?” Esther asked, straightening her bandana. Today it was orange and matched her socks.

  “Nothing,” I said.

  “Nothing? Don’t even bother lying to me,” she said. “I know you better than that. I thought you’d be happy now that Mickey is better. Isn’t she going home today?”

  “Yes,” I said. “But she hasn’t asked about Hampton or the barn or anything.”

  “So why didn’t you tell her how he’s been doing?” Esther asked.

  It was a good question and I wasn’t really sure what the answer was. I’d expected it to be the very first thing that Mickey asked about and when she didn’t, it caught me off guard. Then the longer she didn’t speak about horses, the more it became like the elephant in the room. Now it was a giant lump wedged in my throat and I didn’t think I could talk to her about it even if I wanted to. I slid to the ground.

  “What if she doesn’t want to ride anymore?” I said.

  “It happens,” Esther shrugged. “She had a bad fall. It probably scared her and it obviously scared her parents. Mickey isn’t doing this to make a career out of it like you are. She rides for fun and ending up in the hospital is not exactly fun.”

  “You really think that maybe she won’t want to ride again?”

  “I don’t know,” Esther said.

  “What should I do?”

  “Talk to her about it. Just because she thinks that maybe she doesn’t want to ride anymore, doesn’t mean that you can’t tell her how Hampton is doing and talk about Bluebird.”

  “I guess,” I said.

  Esther was right. Riding was my life. If I couldn’t talk about it with Mickey then what kind of friendship would we have? Besides, I knew all this was just temporary. Once she got home and felt better, she’d want to come out to the barn and as soon as she saw Hampton, I knew she’d be back in the saddle again.

  “Why don’t you take Bluebird down to the jump field and go over a couple of the fences out there?” Esther said. “We can’t end a lesson with you demolishing everything.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  I felt better after talking to Esther. She was right. It was silly not to talk about things and better to get everything out in the air. With the plan that I would go to Mickey’s house later and talk to her about the horses, Bluebird and I cleared the jumps in the field with no problem.

  I took him back to the barn and since he wasn’t really too sweaty, I just gave him a good rub down. Then I put him back in his field where he rolled and then settled down to graze. I wondered how Harlow was getting on with the mini and the goat. I couldn’t wait to tell Mickey how Tonka was an exact miniature replica of Harlow.

  I left the barn excited to see my best friend.

  CHAPTER THIRTY SIX

  Mickey’s mom let me in later that day. She looked tired but happy.

  “Mickey is up in her room,” she said. “You can go up.”

  Everything was on the tip of my tongue as I climbed the stairs. I couldn’t wait to tell Mickey all the things she had missed and all the great things we were going to be able to do once she came back out to the barn.

  Easter was coming up. Maybe we could plan an egg hunt on horseback for the little kids. A way for Mickey to get back into the swing of things and see how much fun riding could be. I knew it wasn’t all about winning and ribbons and even though I wanted to someday ride in the Olympics, I still wanted to have fun too.

  I pushed open the door to find Mickey standing on her bed, a sea of paper around her feet. There was a torn poster in her hands. I could see the head of a chestnut horse on one half and the rest of his body on the other. She looked at me and for a moment I thought I saw a flash of guilt but it was soon replaced by a steely glare.
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  “What are you doing?” I cried.

  “What does it look like?” she snapped.

  The sweet Mickey who lay in that hospital bed and smiled every time her parents made a joke that wasn’t even funny had gone. This was angry Mickey.

  “But why? Why are you ripping everything down?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” she said. “I don’t like horses anymore.”

  “But what about Hampton?”

  “What about him?” she tossed the ripped poster onto the floor and pulled another one off the wall.

  “He misses you, that’s what,” I said.

  “Well then he shouldn’t have dumped me in the middle of the road and left me for dead,” she said.

  “It wasn’t his fault,” I said. “You know what horses are like. He got scared.”

  “How do you know?” she snapped. “You weren’t even there.”

  Nothing was turning out like I expected. I thought that Mickey would be happy to hear about all the things she missed and glad that I’d stopped strangers from buying her horse while she was in a coma. Now it appeared everything had been for nothing. She didn’t want Hampton anymore anyway. She was going to forget about horses and move on with her life.

  “I was at the jumping clinic,” I said.

  “Yes, learning how to be a big star with your new BFF. I may have hit my head but I remember all about that.”

  “Mickey, don’t do this,” I said. “Your parents want to sell Hampton. I’ve been doing everything I can to stall the sale but I can’t do this on my own. You have to tell them that you still want him.”

  “Well I don’t,” she said. “They can sell him. I already told them that I don’t care.”

  “You will care,” I said softly. “Do you know who came to try him out the other day? Jess. She’ll ruin him. You know she will.”

  “I already told you I’m done with riding and I don’t care what happens to that horse.”