Turf Wars (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 8)

by Claire Svendsen

  “What is wrong with you?” Esther said.

  “Nothing,” I replied. “What is wrong with you?”

  She raised her eyebrows. “See, this is exactly what I’m talking about. You’re not the temperamental teenager. That’s Mickey, not you. Here you have the perfect opportunity to impress someone who can really teach you something and you’re throwing it away. Why?”

  “I don’t know,” I said.

  “Yes you do. Now spill it because I won’t stand for this attitude.”

  Esther had never spoken to me like that before. Sure, she’d yelled at me in lessons and stuff when I’d done something wrong but she’d never criticized my character.

  “They’re spoiling everything.” I picked up a scrap of paper and folded it into little squares so that I wouldn’t have to look Esther in the eye.

  “Spoiling how?”

  “You know,” I said. “They have all these expensive horses and they act like they don’t even love them or anything. And they don’t even know how to ride properly. It’s ridiculous.”

  “I see,” Esther said.

  “No, you don’t. You don’t know what it’s like to want what they have more than anything and to know that you’ll never have it because your parents don’t have money.”

  As soon as the words had flown out of my mouth, I knew that they were a lie. Esther knew more than anyone what it was like. She was the one who had to sell her champion hunter and she was the one who had to lease out half the barn to keep things afloat.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I know that’s not true. But it’s so hard. I hate it.”

  Esther leant forward on her elbows. Her hands had callouses from mucking stalls day in and day out. There were lines on her face that I hadn’t noticed before and her skin was over tanned and leathery from too many hours spent in the sun.

  “Listen,” she said. “And listen good. I know what you want. When I was your age, I wanted it too and I’m going to be honest with you. Getting what you want is not going to be easy. There will be times when you have to do things you don’t want to do.”

  “Like riding someone else’s horse?” I said.

  She shook her head. “No, not like that at all. That’s the easy part. You ride the horse and you don’t care what other people think. I’m talking about things that are much worse than that.”

  “Like what?” I said.

  “It doesn’t matter. You’ll find out soon enough. You know, the horse world isn’t all ribbons and cups and the sooner you realize that, the better off you’ll be.”

  I looked at Esther, the woman I’d taken lessons from for over a year. Who’d taken me in and let me work for her because I didn’t have the money to pay. She’d helped me and protected me but I suddenly got the feeling that she wasn’t protecting me anymore.

  “Why are you doing this?” I said.

  She tucked her blonde hair behind her ears. “Because you’re good. You have more natural talent in your pinkie finger than any of those kids out there. I want you to get what you want too but you’re going to have to realize that getting want you want means doing things you don’t want to do, including greasing the wheels of people you don’t like.”

  “Greasing the wheels?” I said.

  “Sucking up to them. Kissing their butts. It’s your passion and your love but you need these people, now more than ever. I can’t get you to where you want to be and that means that I can’t always be your trainer.”

  My heart sank a little. “Yes, you can.”

  “No, I can’t,” she said.

  And I knew it was true because I’d felt it for a while. Esther had taught me so much but lately it felt like we’d reached a plateau. I wasn’t learning anything new and Esther wasn’t pushing us. We needed a challenge.

  “You didn’t lease out half your barn just so that Frank would come here and help me, did you?” I asked, feeling guilty.

  “Honey,” she said. “If I hadn’t leased out half the barn, I wouldn’t have a barn anymore.”

  And now that she’d spoken the words, I knew they were true and I wondered what would happen to us all when Frank and his students left.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  It was already thundering when Mackenzie came out of the ring. The storms were coming earlier and earlier which meant less riding time but at least they broke the heat. Mackenzie pulled off her helmet and ruffled her sweaty hair. She was cute, like one of those precocious kids in a TV show.

  “That was amazing.” Faith dashed over to the girl and pony, patting Cupcake on the neck. “She was so good and so were you.”

  “You’re good too Faith,” I told her. “And Princess isn’t half bad either.”

  “She’s okay.” Faith shrugged.

  She’d been over the moon to have Princess to herself for the whole summer but the lesson pony now didn’t quite stack up to the show pony who’d won ribbons at all the big shows. I’d seen Mackenzie showing Faith the pictures on her iPad.

  “Did you know that Faith rode Princess in a hunter pace last month?” I told Mackenzie.

  “What’s that?” she asked curiously.

  “It’s where you ride over fields and jump logs and Faith had to get Princess to go through this raging river.”

  Mackenzie’s eyes got really big. “Wow. We’re not even allowed to ride out of the ring.”

  “Why not?” Faith asked.

  Mackenzie shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  But I knew why. Out of the ring horses and ponies could get hurt. It was the same reason that they weren’t allowed out in the fields and I had a sneaking suspicion that it was one of those compromises that Esther was talking about. Having to deal with things you didn’t like or didn’t agree with. But I didn’t care what Esther said. I was always going to put my horses first.

  By the time Cupcake was back in her stall, big fat drops of rain were falling from the sky. I dashed about, helping Esther bring the horses in and not for the first time felt bad for the ones who didn’t have stalls anymore, like Bluebird. Lightning flashed across the horizon and he spooked sideways, then galloped off to the shelter that was in his field. It was kind of tumbledown but at least it was better than nothing and he was smart enough to go and stand in it, unlike some of the other horses who stood there with their butts to the rain. Only it wasn’t the rain I was worried about. It was the streaks of lightning that cracked down from the sky.

  Mackenzie’s ride came to pick her up. “Bye,” she called out to Faith.

  “See you tomorrow,” Faith said as her own mother arrived and she ran out as well.

  Everyone left but I was stuck there. I couldn’t exactly ride my bike home in a thunderstorm. So I sat in the tack room and cleaned Bluebird’s bridle, then moved on to my saddle.

  The rain came down in sheets, so thick and fast that you couldn’t see out the end of the barn. There was just a solid wall of white like a waterfall, it poured off the roof and made giant puddles at the end of the barn. After I finished with my tack, I stood there watching it with my arms wrapped around myself. The rain had brought the temperature down by at least ten degrees.

  Esther was in the office but after the talk we’d had, I wasn’t too keen on sitting in there with her so I just stood there watching the rain and thinking about how I should have just told Frank that I would ride Viper when something touched my arm.

  I screamed and jumped backwards.

  It was Chloe, standing there looking embarrassed. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “That’s okay,” I said. “I didn’t realize there was anyone else here.”

  “My ride didn’t show up.” She looked out at the storm that showed no sign of stopping any time soon. “Aren’t you scared?”

  “Not really.” I shrugged. “You get used to it after a while.”

  “I’ve never seen anything like it,” she said.

  We stood there awkwardly. Chloe was pretty but she was thin and wispy, like a strong wind could blow her over.
She wasn’t over-powering like Peyton was or mean like Jake. She was okay. At least, I hoped she was. I couldn’t take anyone else hating me.

  “Your pony is out there, isn’t he?” She pointed over to the field where I could just make out the shape of the shelter. “Aren’t you worried about him?”

  “Yes but there isn’t much I can do about it,” I said.

  “Oh I didn’t mean anything by it.” Her face flushed red. “Like, I didn’t mean that you were a bad owner or anything.”

  “It’s okay,” I told her. “I feel like a bad owner but I work for Esther to help pay for his keep and right now he doesn’t have a stall because you guys are here.”

  “That sucks,” she said.

  “Yeah.”

  “I feel bad now that my horses took your stalls.”

  “Don’t,” I said. “It’s not your fault.”

  The rain blew sideways and splattered us. We jumped back, both laughing. Chloe was easy to talk to. I was starting to like her, even though she was the competition.

  “You want to sit in the tack room?” I asked her.

  She nodded. “Okay.”

  We sat on a tack trunk, wrapped in horse coolers to stop from shivering. Bluebird’s had a spiders nest in it. Chloe screamed as I brushed them off and they scuttled away into the corners.

  “This isn’t exactly what you’re used to, is it?” I said.

  “Not really,” she said. “But I like it here. The horses seem happy, like they have a life.”

  “I don’t mean to pry,” I said. “And you can tell me to butt out and mind my own business if you like but why are you guys really here? And what is the deal with Jake?”

  She was quiet for a moment like she wasn’t sure if she should tell me or not.

  “I’m not supposed to say,” she finally said.

  “I figured as much.”

  “But,” she added, “I’ll tell you if you like. If you promise not to tell anyone else.”

  “I promise,” I told her.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  I listened with baited breath, expecting some giant scandal but it wasn’t anything half as interesting as that. Basically Frank was being paid a fortune to set these kids on the straight and narrow because they’d all gone off the rails a bit. Jake with his temper, Peyton with her entitled attitude, Mackenzie who cried all the time when her ponies didn’t do what she wanted and Chloe, whose only fault seemed to be that she would rather have ballet lessons than riding lessons.

  “I don’t understand,” I said. “Why are your parents making you ride when you don’t even want to?”

  “My mom always wanted to ride and her parents would never let her so she’s living out her childhood dream through me.”

  “That’s awful,” I said.

  “Yeah, but there’s not exactly much I can do about it. Just try harder, I guess.” She looked out miserably at the rain.

  “But why did Frank bring you down here for the summer? Couldn’t he just have punished you all back at his farm?”

  “There is a show,” she said. “A new rated show somewhere over by Tampa. Frank expects us to sweep all our divisions.”

  I imagined a show like Devon, all pretty horses and rich kids. Bluebird and I, with our scruffy tack and down to earth attitude, didn’t have any place at one of those sorts of shows but it didn’t stop my stomach from doing a funny little flop in the hopes that maybe Esther would let me go.

  “Plus he thinks we need to see how real people ride,” she added. “He won’t stop going on about how great you are. That’s why Jake hates you so much.”

  “I’m not that good.” I shook my head. “I do lots of stuff wrong all the time. Most of it is just luck.”

  “It’s not.” She smiled sadly. “You have the kind of gift that my mother wishes I had.”

  “Well maybe we could trade mothers then.” I laughed.” Mine would be over the moon if I said I wanted to give up riding and take up ballet.”

  “Deal,” she said.

  While we waited for the rain to stop, she gave me the low down on all their horses and ponies. The pretty roan, Winterbourne, was her favorite and her equitation horse. She also had the bay with the white snip on the end of his nose whose name was Freddy. Mackenzie had Cupcake and the large chestnut pony, Rolf. Peyton had two plain bays, Embassy and Bow Tie and then there was Jake who had Viper and his hunter, Rocket.

  “I just have Bluebird,” I told her.

  “I wish I only had one horse,” she said. “Two is a lot of work.”

  I nodded. “I know. I had another pony here last month that I was riding for Miguel Rodriguez and it seemed like five times the work.”

  “You ride with Miguel Rodriguez?” She looked impressed.

  “A couple of times,” I said. “I was trying to get on his junior jumper team but I think I blew it because I haven’t heard anything in ages.”

  “No, I don’t think so. I have a friend who was trying to get on that team and she hasn’t heard anything either. You probably have a really good chance.”

  “I guess, maybe,” I said. “But I think there is probably only room for people like you.”

  There was silence for a few minutes and I realized that I’d probably just put my foot in my mouth again.

  “I mean, people who can afford to pay,” I added. “Not that there is anything wrong with that. Trust me, I wish I was you. Not actually you but you with money. Oh heck.” My voice trailed off as I realized that I was just making everything worse but Chloe was laughing.

  “I like you,” she said. “You say what you think.”

  “And it gets me in trouble all the time,” I said, feeling relieved that I hadn’t made her mad.

  She sighed. “I wish I could say what I really thought, then maybe I wouldn’t be here.”

  I could think of things much worse than being stuck with great horses and a really good trainer but I didn’t say anything because even though it was my dream, I understood that it wasn’t Chloe’s.

  The rain slowed to a drizzle and as the sun came out, a rainbow appeared. I thought maybe it was a good omen. Like maybe good things would start to happen around here. I didn’t care if there was a pot of gold at the end or not, I just wanted everything to be all right.

  “See you tomorrow,” Chloe called out as her ride arrived and she ran off.

  “Bye,” I called back.

  I walked down the barn, looking at the horses and ponies that had Chloe told me about. I hadn’t wanted to see them as individuals with their own personalities. It was easier not to be jealous of them if I imagined they were all robots but Chloe had ruined that. She told me about how Winter didn’t like carrots and that Freddy was afraid of puddles. They may have looked like expensive robot show horses but they weren’t. They were well trained, insanely expensive horses who knew their job and did it well. You could count on them to do great at every show because that was their purpose in life, to win.

  I stood at the end of the barn and watched Bluebird come out of his shelter. He pawed at the wet ground a couple of times and then dropped and rolled, scrubbing the mud into his mane with a look of glee on his face. He made sure he had both sides equally disgusting before jumping up and galloping through the puddles, a mud pie pony. He knew his job and I knew I could count on him but he wasn’t a professional pony like the ones in the barn. He was messy and real and alive with every fiber of his being. He would please me because he loved me and we had a bond that I knew those kids didn’t have with their horses. If I took him to the rated show, I knew he would win because he would do it for me. I just didn’t know if I could talk Esther into taking us or exactly how much a show like that cost anyway.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  “It costs how much?” I spluttered when Esther told me.

  She had mentioned a figure that was so much more than what we usually spent on our local shows that it blew my mind. If this was what riding in the big leagues was like, how was I ever going to afford it?

  “
I told you,” she said. “This is why you need to be nice to people like Frank.”

  “I was nice to Frank,” I said. “Jake’s the one I don’t like.”

  I sat back in the chair feeling like I was never going to make it. Kids like Chloe had it all, even when they didn’t really want it and I knew that it wasn’t her fault but I was still awfully jealous.

  “So what should I do?” I asked.

  “Tell Frank you’ll ride the boy’s mare. Maybe he’ll let you ride her at the show.”

  My heart sank. “But I don’t want to ride her. I want to ride Bluebird.”

  “If you’re lucky enough to get the ride on the mare, and that’s a big if, then you take it and you smile and you act like it’s the best thing that ever happened to you because it will be. Chances like this don’t come along very often. Got it?”

  “But what about you?” I said.

  She frowned. “What about me?”

  “Well can’t you take me and Bluebird to the show? I know what you said yesterday but I don’t want to ride with Frank. I want to ride with you.”

  “That’s sweet,” she said. “And completely ridiculous. Now get out of here.”

  Esther shoved me out of the office. She wasn’t one to flaunt her emotions. Even if she had to close the barn down, I was pretty sure that she wouldn’t shed a tear in front of us. She always said there was no crying in horses, at least not in public anyway. If Mackenzie had been her student, all that crying would have dried up a long time ago. But I knew she was wrong. Horses tugged at your heartstrings in so many different ways that it was impossible not to get all emotional over them.

  Melanie was getting the horses tacked up and ready for a lesson. She was wearing jeans and a long sleeved shirt even though it was ninety eight degrees.

  “Aren’t you hot?” I asked her.

  “Boiling,” she said. “But I’m so sunburned, I look like a lobster. If I get any more sun I think my skin might actually slough off altogether.”

  “I know what you mean.” I looked down at my own peeling arms.