by Leigh Hutton
She glanced back over her shoulder, away from the mountains and down the slope to the field beyond. She could see the Devil’s Dyke, the jump that had claimed the young girl’s life and innumerable other riders. It was a ‘V’-shaped obstacle set into the ground, with a jump at the top, a ditch full of water with a rail over it at the bottom, and another jump at the top on the opposite side, two and a bit strides away. If the horse so much as hesitated at the spooky ditch, which most did, then it was near impossible to make the two long strides up and out. Many horses would refuse at the final fence, sending their rider hurtling through the solid, fixed timber rails. Others would attempt the impossible and flip over the jump, as the horse did when the girl was killed.
Marcus’s Devil’s Dyke was steeper than the one in the International ring at Spruce, and the ditch at the bottom deeper and wider. It had always been a mission getting Johnny over the obstacle in shows before, and she could only imagine what Monster would think of it …
Bring it, she thought, ducking under the rail and making her way over to Winnie, to collect Johnny and ride him down to the ring.
Johnny never went as well out in the wide, grass jumper fields as he did in the sand rings, which were surrounded closely by bleachers, pretty lights and his fans. He liked to have his public close.
The big horse was less than impressed by Marcus’s huge ring, despite the fact it was green and fabulous with close-cut grass as far as she could see and yellow dandelions growing under the black painted, wooden rails — cheekily located where they could escape the blades of the mower.
After checking out all of the colourful jumps, trotting, then cantering a few long laps of the ring, Johnny seemed to sink into the soft ground and wilt away from Ebony’s leg. He was ready to go back to the barn, and his audience and his lunch.
‘Spur him on!’ Marcus yelled from the rail, as Ebony rode him down to the first vertical. She was glad she’d brought her whip, and gave him a sharp whack behind her leg. This seemed to liven him up, and he picked up his feet. But when she rode him over to have a look at the Devil’s Dyke, Johnny’s nostril’s flared and he darted to the side, not allowing himself to get within a horse-length of the first fence.
Marcus loped across to the dyke, shaking his head. ‘Get off and lead him up,’ he said. But Johnny would have none of that. Ebony tried being nice — standing at his head and speaking to him soothingly; he just needed to see that there were no boogie men lurking behind the fences or alligators swimming in the ditch.
Johnny was getting frantic, hopping in the soft ground and tossing his head. Ebony gathered the reins for one final attempt, but Johnny reared up and threw his head with such force that it sent her flying backwards. She hit the ground butt first, searing pain shooting from her tailbone. Her eyes clouded with tears and the shock of the hard landing, but she could see black and white coming towards her. Fast. She managed to claw her way out of Johnny’s path just in time for him to go shooting past, tail up, galloping for the barn.
‘Guess he doesn’t like my Devil’s Dyke,’ Marcus said, appearing in front of her. Ebony accepted his hands to help her up, but as soon as she was on her feet, her legs buckled and the pain stinging from her tailbone made her cry out.
‘Whoa, there,’ Marcus said, wrapping a hand around her waist to hold her up. ‘Let’s give it a rest for today, eh?’
‘I’ll be okay, Marcus,’ she said, limping along beside him towards the gate. ‘Monster’s gonna love it out here.’
Marcus laughed and shook his head.
Winnie lunged Monster for an extra twenty minutes. He was so fit and strong, his muscles toned and the line of his belly tight and hollowed where it met the powerful curve of his hind end. Ready to rock.
Ebony helped get the corks secured in his shoes, a tricky task as Monster wouldn’t stand still, and mounted up. She couldn’t contain him to a walk down the road to the jumper field, so just let him trot. His stride was full and bouncy and his ears were forward, searching for his challenge.
She’d taken some Advil, but it wasn’t doing much to keep the pain from pulsing through her as she sat for each stride. She would take a few days off from riding, she decided, once she got the boys going well in the jumper field, to give her tail bone — which she could only guess was bruised — time to heal. It had happened to her once before, when she was a child, after the toboggan she was riding down a steep hill near her foster home in the city had hit a tuft of grass and tossed her off, straight onto a patch of ice, on her backside. She had to sit on a rolled up towel for a week after that.
The feeling of being out in the open, among the rolling hills green with summer grasses, the big blue sky and on the back of this magnificent horse was enough to help her ignore the pain. The wind was fresh and warm on her face and she felt utterly alive as she trotted Monster straight under the archway, and out into the ring.
The first obstacle he wanted to look at was the Devil’s Dyke and on instinct, she kept him from getting too close. She didn’t want him to psych himself out.
Marcus arrived in his golf cart and skidded to a stop at the rail. He waved her down the red vertical in front of him, and Monster took it at full gallop. Ebony couldn’t curtail his enthusiasm, he was having too much fun. The feeling of his massive jump beneath her was incredible. She wanted to do it again and again. The pain of her injury was forgotten, until landing off the jumps, when she gritted her teeth to keep from screaming out, but there was still a smile on her face. This was surely the most fun she’d ever had on a horse, and the best part: Monster was enjoying it even more.
Marcus called Ebony over. She brought Monster to a halt, forcing him to have a rest, and showered his neck with pats and leaned down to give him a kiss, running her hand down his face and over the faint scars left from Luther.
‘Away you go,’ Marcus said, pointing to the Devil’s Dyke at the far end of the field. ‘Just like we discussed when we walked it.’
Ebony grinned and gathered her reins. She never thought she would be so excited, so free from fear, as she galloped her fiery mount down to one of the toughest show jumping obstacles on earth. But she was. And so was Monster.
He held his head high, his feet light; the power of his legs pulling his hooves from the soft turf. A few strides out from the first fence, and one of his ears darted back with uncertainty. Ebony squeezed her legs gently into his sides and sat firm into her seat, letting him know it was alright. Monster hesitated, both ears flinging forward, checking it all out. Then he lunged at the fence.
Ebony froze with shock — she was in Marcus’s Devil’s Dyke, on Monster — and before she knew it they were hurtling down to the ditch.
She laughed at the incredible leap Monster took — he was that high, she was afraid they would never come back down. His eyes were glued to the ditch beneath them, but soon he’d focused on the final fence. Despite his small size, he ate up the two big strides. They landed from the third and final fence of the dyke, and as soon as Ebony sensed that Monster was charging on and ready for the next obstacle — not at all fazed by what they’d just overcome — she screamed with delight and punched the air.
‘What a star,’ she said, puffing as she pulled up at Marcus. She leaned down and wrapped her arms around Monster’s neck, patting his shoulder, ruffling his mane, stroking his face. So incredibly proud of her brave little horse. ‘You are going to give him to me, aren’t you?’ she asked.
Marcus grinned. ‘I’m a man of my word.’ He gave Monster a long pat down his face. ‘Most of the time.’
As if on cue, the black clouds returned the very next day, bringing forth a spectacular lightening show and drenching drops of heavy rain. It was forecast to continue right through the National. After all, the show had been dubbed the June Monsoon.
All of the gear was packed and the horses were rugged up and loaded in the rain, greeted in Marcus’s truck with fresh hay nets to nibble on to calm them down. Umbrellas being held by grooms blew in the wind, hardly keepin
g any water off them as they rushed back and forth from the barn to the truck, making sure all of the bits and pieces had been remembered.
Ebony and Winnie drove in her Mustang, following the horses. The banners and huge signs on the highway bearing the iconic jumping horse logo of Spruce Meadows, and the never-ending rows of horse trucks parked in the far paddock with plates from all over North America, let everyone know that many of the best in the world had rolled into Calgary to compete in the first outdoor show of the season.
The crew from Poplar Ridge Farms moved straight into the main barn. As Ebony led Monster down the hall, to find his stall, she was struck with an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia. She never thought she would ever find herself here. Even when she was winning with Gallant in the International ring, she couldn’t shake the sense that she didn’t belong. She was just a broke foster kid from the city, certainly not among the elite show jumpers in the World. She’d only ever dreamed of visiting this place, when she was a young girl, back before she’d been moved to the family she was with when she met Cecile. For as long as she could remember, she’d loved horses, and longed for the days when her carers were out so she could watch the show jumping on TV. The main barn of Spruce seemed like the Taj Mahal to her. She could still remember the first time she’d walked into the wide halls, with the solid, maroon stalls with gold accents; good enough for the horse of any king. And now here she was, leading a horse that was world class, one that she had saved, about to take on some of the fiercest competition on the planet, and call the main barn home for an entire show. Unbelievable.
It was even harder for Ebony to believe the position she found herself in that afternoon, when the heavens cleared just long enough for the riders to get their mounts outside for a quick, sloppy ride in the sand ring. The design of the rings at Spruce meant they could take a great deal of water, and the practice ring adjacent to the main barn was no exception.
Her and Monster might have been the shortest combo of any of the top riders and their horses that they were rubbing shoulders with, circling around the ring, but they didn’t lack presence. The other pairs — thankfully Luther, Mantina and Dougie hadn’t arrived yet — gave them respect, and kept off their line, giving them space. Maybe it was the way Monster carried himself: pumped and primed and spoiling for action, focused like a freight train with no brakes, like nothing could stop him from winning.
After their ride, Ebony couldn’t force the smile from her face — not that she wanted to — and was enjoying some quiet time with Monster, brushing him down in their grooming stall, when she heard a knock from behind the black, Poplar Ridge Farms banners that the grooms had hung up. She thought it was the rain, which she and Monster had been enjoying, falling calmly on the roof of the barn. But the knocking got louder, so she called out, ‘yep?’
‘Ebony?’ A buxom, brunette lady with a pretty face lined from experience stepped gingerly into the opening to the stall. ‘I’m Peta Thomas, from Jump Canada Magazine, and online. I was hoping to get a quick interview with you and Monster, if that would be okay?’
‘Um, sure,’ Ebony said, glancing at Monster. He didn’t seem bothered by the woman’s presence, with a hind leg rested and ears flopped to the sides, enjoying his TLC. But he did toss his head when Ebony stopped running the wide, soft brush over his glistening coat. ‘Sorry, bud.’ She and the woman laughed simultaneously.
‘Likes to be pampered, eh?’ Peta asked. ‘My Freddo, he’s the exact same!’ She leant against the side of the stall, her eyes glued to Monster. ‘Isn’t he a handsome boy.’
Ebony smiled, and kept grooming, to keep her boy happy. ‘Not a bad jumper, either.’
The woman laughed, and whipped a video camera out of her backpack — Ebony flinched with surprise, and so did Monster. His ears swept forward and his eyes flared.
‘Sorry!’ Peta held up her hands defensively.
‘That’s fine,’ Ebony said, soothing Monster with her hands and the brush. ‘Just a little camera shy.’ As was she. Ebony hated doing interviews, especially live or into a camera. She always seemed to say the wrong thing.
Peta smiled sympathetically and held up the camera, to frame her shot. ‘Please just say your name and where you’re from, so I can test the sound.’
Ebony obliged, her body shivering with a shot of nerves as she stared into the black lens. This interview seemed extra special, extra important, as it was about a horse she not only truly loved, but respected, and identified with, one she had poured so much time and energy into. Her Monster. And before what was essentially his big debut.
‘I’ve heard a lot of great things about this horse,’ Peta began. ‘Word is he’s going to be the one to beat this National?’
Ebony laughed uneasily. Damn Marcus! Suddenly, this whole set up smelled strongly of her ‘show pony’ trainer, always out to draw attention to himself and his barn. She much preferred to be the underdog, flying under the radar before she struck.
‘I’m very proud of Monster and I’m looking forward to showing here at Spruce, as always,’ Ebony said.
‘Very diplomatic, Ebony. Monster, or should we call him Go Star, has a very famous grand daddy and a real story himself, doesn’t he?’
Ebony stared at the camera, blinking with disbelief. Surely, Marcus didn’t tell this journalist about the state Monster was in when we found him? It seemed fishy, but she decided to play along. ‘He has a great story,’ Ebony said, smiling wryly. ‘A brilliant story, in fact.’
Monster was biting at her sleeve and swishing his tail in annoyance, so she turned to him and got back to pampering. ‘You should really ask Marcus. He’ll tell it better than me.’ Monster rested his nose in her hand, asking for a treat. She stared at his proud face and soft, but fierce eyes. His eyes were deep with past pain, but also bright with new hope. The fluorescent lights caught on his scars, shining white, and Ebony couldn’t help herself. She looked straight into the camera. ‘And maybe his former owner, Luther Hammerstein. He could offer some insight into Monster’s career before Marcus came to purchase him.’
‘You sure?’ Peta asked. ‘I’d love to hear it from his rider.’
‘Ask them, seriously. All I can say is that he’s going better than ever. We can’t wait to get out there and hopefully take home some wins and wrap up our qualification for the World’s.’
‘Mmm,’ Peta said. ‘Well said. I’ll make sure to catch up with Marcus, and with Luther. I know all of us at Jump Canada are excited to see what will come from this pair this Summer Series. Ebony Scott Harris, Monster, thank you for your time.’
‘Thank you.’
Ebony was happy when Peta left her and her horse in peace, and also stoked with herself for her brilliant interview finally, she’d managed to say something right, and at the right time. She went back to caring for Monster, a task which brought her immense pleasure, and reached for the hoof pick out of her grooming box, to make sure she’d gotten all of the stones and gravel from his feet.
‘Hey!’
Monster jumped at the sound of the cheery voice, his head spinning around, ears pinned. But when he saw it was Jazz, he whickered with relief, his nose heading straight for the pocket of her breeches.
‘Hello!’ Jazz said, pushing his strong muzzle away. She pulled a carrot out of her back pocket and broke it in half, feeding Monster the first bit off of a flat hand. ‘Cool that you got interviewed!’
Ebony took a step back, resting against the wall of the stall. ‘She seemed to know a lot about Monster.’
‘Of course she does,’ Jasmine said. ‘You two are the talk of the show!’
‘Oh?’ Ebony said. ‘I hate Marcus.’
‘Marcus hasn’t had to say much. You’re already the hero of, like, every girl I know and once everyone caught wind that Go Star was back and going strong as this little Monster right here — they can’t wait to see what happens with you!’
‘As if I’m anybody’s hero!’
‘Seriously? ’ Jazz asked, reaching for Ebon
y’s arm but she recoiled, made a yuck face, and wiped the bits of slobbery, leftover carrot that had just dropped onto her hand from Monster’s lips onto her breeches. She trained her big brown eyes on Ebony. ‘Get ready to give your autograph, a lot! Didn’t you notice how many people wanted to talk to you when you and Gallant won?’
Not so much … the ‘hoo-ha’ after the awards ceremonies had always been the lowest of Ebony’s priorities.
‘It’s because you’re normal,’ Jasmine said. ‘Sorry! I mean, you’re not stuck up and up yourself like some of the others. And you’re young, too. Normal girls, like me, can relate to you.’
‘You’re just biased!’ Ebony said. ‘They all think I’m a freak.’
‘The vast majority of the population are freaks, Ebony! Compared to the girls who think they’re perfect. I’m a total freak who spends all of her time at the barn and reading books. Besides, even the perfect girls at my high school know about you. I guess dating Dallas Cash doesn’t hurt, though.’ Jasmine grinned.
Ebony’s cheeks went hot.
‘Don’t worry,’ Jazz said. ‘It used to embarrass my sister, too.’
‘Yeah …’
‘Oh — sorry, Eb!’
‘She’s your sister, Jazz!’ Ebony said, giving her a playful punch on the arm. ‘And if she’s half as cool as you I’d love to meet her someday, too. Besides, everyone has a past.’
‘And by the look of Dallas anytime I’ve seen him around you,’ Jasmine smiled cheekily, ‘you are his future!’ She held out her hand, finally letting a begging Monster have the second half of carrot. ‘Enjoy your fame, Eb, that’s all. Rise to it. And make sure to keep a pen in your pocket for signing all those autographs. You, my freaky friend, are gonna be the rockstar of Spruce.’
Monster was a true warhorse in the slick, sloppy conditions, charging through the pouring rain to take the win in their first 1.45m class on day two of the show. His nerves seemed forgotten and left in the shadows of the indoor rings; Monster was free, happy and finally doing what he loved best, like a wild mustang on the run. Only, this wild mustang had found a home and someone to love him. He wanted to please Ebony and she was sure by the heart he showed out in the huge grass ring, he would rather die than let her down.
