“But Oscar is the one with the problem,” she said.
I didn’t say anything but it was clear to me that he was only part of the problem and the other part was her and unless she got some help or training then the month or two that Oscar spent with us was going to solve nothing.
“At least it takes less time to get him out of his stall now,” she said.
“Treats.” I grinned, showing her that I had a pocket full of them. “And he doesn’t get any until he comes out.”
“Treats never worked for me,” she said, sounding defeated already.
“Well next time try these ones.” I showed her the small apple flavored nuggets. “He seems to really like them.”
“Those cheap old things?” She wrinkled up her nose. “I’ve been buying him the handmade, gluten free, sugar free, all natural ones.”
“I guess he’s not into all that health stuff then,” I said.
She nodded but didn’t look happy about the fact that her horse preferred the cheap treats to the expensive ones.
“Are you coming out or not?” Dad called from outside the barn.
“Yes,” I called back. “We’re coming.”
And I shoved my helmet onto my head, wondering if Cora would be offended that it wasn’t the most expensive helmet known to man.
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
Oscar was good. He went in the ring without much fuss or bother. He did stop at the gate but a little nudge with my heels and a cluck of encouragement and he walked in with a sigh.
“We would have been stuck at the gate for ten minutes,” Cora said.
“That is why you need to take some lessons,” I told her. “We can help you with him and you guys can work together.”
“I don’t see why you can’t just fix him and then give him back to me,” she said.
I looked over at Dad, who rolled his eyes. It was women like Cora who gave horse people a bad name. If she wanted us to do all the work that was fine but then let us get on with it. Why was she even here if she didn’t want to learn anything?
I warmed Oscar up on the flat while Dad moved some of the jumps around. I knew that he was going to want me to put on a show for Cora but I wasn’t exactly sure that it was the right thing to do. There was something about the woman that I didn’t like and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it but I knew it was there, lingering beneath the surface. She smiled as I trotted past but it was a fake smile.
“He’s never that round for me,” she said.
I just shrugged. I didn’t know what else to say. Cora seemed upset that I could ride her horse better than she could but if I couldn’t then what would be the point of him being here?
“Do the cross rail line,” Dad finally said.
“Are you sure jumping him is the best thing to do today?” I asked him as I walked the horse past. “Cora already seems mad that I can ride Oscar better than she does.”
“She’ll get over it,” he said, his voice low so that our client wouldn’t hear.
“If you say so,” I said.
But I didn’t think that Cora would get over it at all.
We cantered down the line and Oscar popped over the fences easily. Dad moved us on to a couple of verticals and an oxer and before I knew it we were soaring over jumps that were as high as they’d been the other day. Oscar was impressive. He may have been a noodle out on the trail and yes sometimes he didn’t want to come out of his stall or leave his friends behind but the horse could jump. There was no denying that.
“Good boy,” I said when Dad signaled for us to finally walk.
I patted Oscar’s neck and looked over at Cora. She had the stunned look on her face that I knew she would. It had to be pretty cool to find out that your horse was actually a secret jumping machine but instead of being excited, Cora just looked horrified.
“I can’t ride a horse that jumps like that,” she said, coming to stand in the ring next to my father and me.
“Of course you can,” I said. “It’s easy.”
“It may be easy for you young lady. You probably grew up on the back of a horse but for someone like me these jumps are intimidating.”
“You don’t have to jump him that high,” Dad said.
“You don’t have to jump him at all,” I added.
But I could see the look on Cora’s face. We’d just shown her that her horse was better than she was. That he was way above her level and that it would take her months, probably years to even come close to jumping him over the fences that I had just done.
“Well you’ve given me a lot to think about,” she said as she walked away without patting her horse goodbye.
“What does that mean?” I asked Dad.
“I don’t know,” he said.
But I did. I had a sneaking suspicion that Cora would rather turn around and sell Oscar for a bundle of cash than admit that she’d never even come close to being good enough for him.
CHAPTER THIRTY
“That woman is a flake,” Molly said the next day.
She’d talked me into going out on a trail ride with her. She was riding Bourbon and I was riding Bailey. She told me that they both needed the exercise and that since she couldn’t take both of them out herself that I owed it to her to go with her. I felt a little bullied into it but Bailey was a nice horse and I liked riding him so I didn’t bother and protest. Plus it was kind of nice to get off the farm.
It was the second day in a row that Cat hadn’t gone to school and apparently while one day seemed to be allowed to slide, two was not going to fly. There had been a massive argument going on in the kitchen when I snuck out. Something about boys and smoking and drinking and how far nice girls were supposed to go with a boy on the first date or a second date or any date. I jammed my headphones on and turned my music up so that I didn’t have to hear them and I was still blasting the music inside my head and cleaning stalls when Molly showed up. Now we were halfway across the field and she’d made me promise to show her the trail.
“Why don’t you like Cora?” I asked Molly.
I didn’t add that I wasn’t sure I liked her either because I wasn’t sure I really liked Molly. I wasn’t stupid enough to believe that either of the women were our friends. At the end of the day they were clients, plain and simple. At least that was what Dad kept telling me.
“She buys horses that she thinks will impress people and then when she can’t ride them, she gets rid of them and buys something else,” Molly said.
“Reminds me of someone else I know,” I said, thinking of Jess.
“She had a Friesian when they were all the rage,” Molly carried on. “Then a Gypsy Vanner, a great big thing with fluffy feathers and dinner plate hooves. She needed a ladder to mount it and when she was finally up there she looked like a tick in the saddle. She couldn’t make that one do anything either so she traded him for Oscar figuring that everyone was riding Warmbloods now so why shouldn’t she.”
“But what does she want to do with them?” I asked Molly. “What is her passion? Jumping? Dressage? Trail riding?”
“That is the thing.” Molly laughed. “She doesn’t have one. She just wants to do what everyone else is doing. She sees someone jumping, she wants to do that. Goes to a dressage show? That becomes her new dream. I think if she went to the circus and saw those girls vaulting on the back of those white ponies with purple feathers in their manes then she’d want to do that too.”
“Well she saw Oscar jump yesterday,” I said. “And she didn’t seem too keen on it.”
“He jumps?” Molly asked. “How good is he?”
“Really good.” I didn’t add that he was too good for Cora. I figured that Molly already knew.
“She’ll probably sell him anyway,” Molly said. “She can’t have a horse that makes her look bad and Oscar has already done that. It’s why he’s here, isn’t it? And don't be surprised if she blames you for having to sell him at the end of the day too.”
“Let’s canter now,” I said, feeling a b
it sick.
I let up on the reins and Bailey surged forward. I didn’t want to talk about Cora and Oscar anymore. I wanted to help the horse but if helping him meant that he’d just get sold on to some ruthless person who figured out pretty quick how good he could jump and then rode him into the ground, I wasn’t on board with that. Dad’s words flowed through my head like the rhythm of Bailey’s smooth canter, telling me that I couldn't hang on to every horse. That I had to let them go. Oddly mirroring the words the Missy had one told me, which made me miss her and be mad at her all at the same time since I’d had to let her and Owen go.
But I didn’t want to let people and horses go. I wanted to hold onto all of them forever just like I wanted our mismatched family to stay together. I didn’t want Cat to go all rebellious again and get kicked out. I couldn’t stand living there with just my parents for company. They would drive me insane. I needed Cat to straighten up and when we got back I was going to tell her.
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
I had a whole speech worked out in my head by the time we got back. How I was going to tell Cat that she wasn’t my sister by blood but that she was by family and that we needed to stick together. I was going to say that it didn’t matter if the kids at school didn’t like her because I did and we had each other and that she didn’t need to drink or act out to impress anyone because it would only get her kicked out of the house and I couldn’t stand that. Only by the time I’d helped Molly put her horses away and made it back up to the house, Cat had gone and Mom was sitting in the kitchen with a cup of black coffee, sulking.
“Where is Cat?” I said.
“Your father dragged her off to school,” Mom said.
“Dragged her?” I asked, imagining my father with a handful of Cat’s hair, pulling her out to the truck and shoving her in.
“Okay he didn’t physically drag her but he made her go,” Mom said.
She didn’t seem very happy that her stepdaughter was being forced to get an education and straighten up her wild ways. I wasn’t sure why.
“Well I guess that is good,” I said.
“Good for who?” Mom said. “Good for you? How do you think poor Cat feels having to go off to school every day while you get to stay here and play with your ponies?”
The blood rushed to my face as my mother's words washed over me. I was her daughter, her blood and yet she thought more of Cat now than she did of me. I knew what I’d done to disappoint her. I’d chosen to have horses in my life but that didn’t mean that I didn’t want her too. I did. I longed for the days before she found out about me secretly riding when we would snuggle up on the couch together and watch old movies. When we snuck in to see a movie that we both really wanted to see but didn’t have the money for. How we’d crashed a wedding when our cupboards were bare and we couldn’t afford to buy groceries just so we could eat.
At the time I thought it was fun. After all, I’d just been a little kid but looking back now I could see that those happy memories were flawed. They were times when my mother couldn’t really afford to take care of me. Times when she’d been a bad influence. Dad would never let me sneak into a movie without paying. And the rest of the time? She’d been stuck working late at the museum and I’d let myself into a cold, damp house where sometimes the lights didn’t work because the electric had been shut off. The rose colored glasses of childhood had finally lifted and I could see my mother for the person she really was once and for all.
“I don’t play Mom, I work,” I said, surprised that my voice didn’t waver at all. “I’m trying to build a better life for myself. A future.”
“A future with horses?” She let out a snorting laugh. “When are you going to learn? That is never going to happen.”
“Maybe not,” I said. “But at least I’ll know that I’ve tried.”
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
I held the tears back until I got up to my room and shut the door. Then I flung myself onto my bed and sobbed into my pillow. I may have been growing up but I still longed for my mother to love me. While she’d been gone I convinced myself that she missed me. That those unanswered phone calls and the silence that would stretch down the invisible line when we did eventually talk was all because of Derek. Now I was starting to wonder if it had been her all along. Maybe she saw too much of Summer in me.
Perhaps begging to be around horses had finally unhinged her, caused my mother to snap in a way that could never be fixed. I let myself cry for a while and then wiped the tears and snot away. I couldn’t control her any more than I could Cat or Cora or Oscar. When he planted his feet at the end of the drive and wouldn’t move, there was only so much I could do to persuade him. And everyone else in my life seemed the same, digging in their heels when I tried to steer them towards the places physically and emotionally that I wanted them to be in. Perhaps it was better just to leave them all alone.
Later I snuck back down the stairs, hoping to avoid my mother but she wasn’t there. She’d probably gone up to her room again. She spent a lot of time in there. I had no idea what she did but as long as I didn’t have to see her, that was fine by me.
Outside Bluebird was standing by the gate as if he knew that I needed him.
“How about it?” I said, slipping his halter on. “Just you and me for a change?”
He rubbed his face on my sleeve, which I took as his approval and I quickly tacked him up before my father or anyone else appeared and roped me into doing something else.
We trotted down the drive and away from the house that sat slumped and sullen now that my mother was inside. Second Chance Farm was supposed to be a place where we all got to start over but now it seemed to be turning into the place where we all became the worst parts of ourselves and I didn’t want that. I tried to forget about Cat and my mother and the boarders who couldn’t get along and focus on my pony, just like the old days.
We trotted past the open field where we usually turned and kept going down the road until we got to the dead end. There was a house nestled under some trees and a goat in the front yard. Bluebird didn’t seem to mind. To the left there was a fenced field but to the right was an area of trees, mostly pine, their needles soft and wet on the ground. I asked Bluebird to walk through, hoping that I wasn’t trespassing on someone’s private property.
It was quiet in the trees but the light shone through them unlike the trees on the scary trail where the woods were dark and damp. Here the sun trickled in and lit the way and we followed it. I let the reins fall loose on Bluebird’s neck as he picked his way through and on the other side was a trail, an open grassy trail that led away from us and beyond where I could see.
“Shall we?” I said, picking up the reins but Bluebird was already cantering.
CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
We cantered along the grassy path, my pony with his ears pricked. It had been a while since it had been just the two of us. I told myself that I didn’t miss Fox Run but it turned out that I did. Not being able to ride off into the woods whenever I felt like it had been a bigger loss than I thought it would be.
I liked the cross country jumps and the fallen logs that we could pop over. Here the logs were treacherous and slippery as Faith had found out when she attempted to jump them with Macaroni and fell off, breaking her arm. I wasn’t too keen to repeat her performance.
But out here on the grassy trail there were no slippery leaves or damp woods. Only the wide open path and the feeling that I was probably going to get in trouble for riding over someone’s private property.
Eventually the trail ended and we reached a road. I didn’t recognize it so I was turning back when I heard the clatter of hooves. Bluebird stiffened and then let out a whinny and a horse answered. When they came into view, I released that it was Rose on her gray mare.
“Hey,” I said, waving.
“I wondered why Noelle got all excited,” she exclaimed with a wave back. “See, I told you there was a way over here that wasn’t through the woods.”
“Am I by
your house?” I asked looking around. “I don’t even know where I am. I just sort of followed the grass path and hoped that no one would yell at me for riding on it.”
“Don’t worry,” Rose said as she fell in beside me and Bluebird. “It belongs to Mr. Cartwright. He’s a friend of my father’s so he won’t mind.”
“Cool,” I said, feeling a little relieved.
After the run in I’d had with Mr. Eastford and his gun in our own woods back at Fox Run, I wasn’t too keen to run into anyone else, whether they were hunting animals or just stray girls on horseback riding where they shouldn't.
We rode along the road for a while, our horse’s hooves ringing out in unison.
“So, your sister,” I said, trying to think of a nice way to broach the subject. “She didn’t seem to like Hashtag very much.”
“It’s not that she didn’t like him,” Rose said. “He’s a sweet horse and has a very nice jump but Petal doesn’t want to get rid of her old horse.”
“Can’t she keep both?” I said.
Rose’s family had a small farm and plenty of room for an extra horse who was retired. And they’d said that the mare was hard to keep sound. How were they going to sell a horse that was lame? I didn’t like to ask.
“Dad says she can’t.” Rose shook her head. “He says that if we keep all our old horses then we’ll end up with a stable full of lame, useless pasture pets.”
“Sounds like my dad,” I said. “But I don’t see what is wrong with it.”
“Neither do I,” she said. “But Dad won’t budge and until he does, I don’t think Petal is going to agree to ride a different horse.”
“I don’t blame her,” I said. “I’d die if I had to get rid of Bluebird just because he was too old to jump anymore.”
“I know,” Rose said, leaning over and hugging her mare’s neck. “I feel the same way about Noelle.”
Barn Sour (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 26) Page 7
