“Good job,” Susie said as I came out. I was glad when she didn’t gush, but instead turned her attention to Hailey.
“Don’t override the first line!” Susie called to Hailey as she entered the ring.
This time Hailey didn’t. She was a little deep coming into the second line, but Donald still jumped it well. Susie clapped and whooped for her, too.
When Hailey came out of the ring, we all went over the next course and then I went first again. This time you finished over an oxer on the long side of the ring. As I approached it, I saw that I needed to press Tyler forward a little bit to make the distance work out. For what must have been just a split second I wondered what would happen if I didn’t press him forward? Or if I didn’t press him forward enough? Maybe the distance would be a little long and he’d have to stretch over the jump. Or worse, he’d fit in an extra stride. A chip like that would keep us out of the ribbons completely.
But I put my leg on him and he jumped it perfectly.
Chapter 12
* * *
My rounds on Sammy were good, too. I had to hurry slightly down the first line in the first class because I forgot that Sammy didn’t have the huge stride that Tyler did, but other than that I didn’t have any real mistakes. Hailey and I watched the rest of the class together, including Jane on Coco. Coco went okay—she did her changes, but she was still fresh and she got quick through them, which would probably be enough to keep her out of the ribbons.
Hailey, Jane, and I watched the rest of the class from the spectator tent alongside the ring. When Dakota Pearce came into the ring, Hailey made a show of shielding her eyes. “I can’t even look at her. Please tell me she just chipped.”
Dakota was a pretty good rider, which made things worse. If she were horrible and never got any ribbons, she wouldn’t be so hate-able, but she won a lot. Her parents were both renowned cardiac surgeons and in addition to practicing at New York Presbyterian, they spent weeks in third world countries doing volunteer surgeries on children with heart problems. It was pretty ironic that their daughter had no heart. Since her parents were often in faraway lands saving lives, she spent a lot of time living with her trainers, which might have been okay if she didn’t ride with Lenny and Kitty Lowe. Lenny and Kitty were cutthroat and often borderline unethical husband-and-wife trainers who were hard on their horses and cruel to their riders. Hillside Acres (people joked and called it Hell’s Acres) was like a cult—once people started riding there, no matter how mentally abusive Lenny and Kitty were to them, they wouldn’t leave.
As Dakota rode, I prayed for her to mess up. Of course, she didn’t. Hailey heard Lenny and Kitty whooping like she’d just nailed the test at the Maclay Finals, not put in a decent round in a pony hunter class.
Hailey took her hand away from her face. “Was she that good?”
I shook my head. “She was good, but they were definitely over-clapping.”
There were eighteen ponies in the mediums, so the division took hours to complete. Toward the end of the classes, the grooms brought up the ponies again and they stood in clusters near the in gate, ready for the jog. Only the ponies that had really bad mistakes and had no hopes of getting a jog stayed back at the barn. Even Jane brought up Coco—just in case she got a jog. The weather still hadn’t warmed up completely and all the ponies wore wool dress sheets in their farm colors with each pony’s owner’s last name monogrammed on the middle of the blanket.
There was always this tension right before the jog was called. Everyone had an idea of who would get what ribbon, but nothing was certain until the numbers had been called out loud. Until then everyone had a hope that they might win. There was a breathless anticipation as everyone waited, wondering and wishing.
Jane, Hailey, and I crowded around the girl who worked the in gate, Elena. Hailey slid onto the table Elena sat at and she barked at her, “Hailey, get off, you’ll break it.”
“Hailey break it?” Jane said, giggling. “She weighs like forty pounds.”
“I weigh more than forty pounds,” Hailey said, sliding back off the table.
We stood close to Elena, hoping to hear the jog before it was officially announced over the P.A.
“Who’s winning today, girls?” Elena asked.
Hailey and Jane both said at practically the same time, “Regan on Tyler.”
Elena glanced at me. She had multiple piercings in her ears and lots of tattoos on her arms, which made her stick out a little in the preppy and conservative horse show world. “Looks like it’s unanimous.”
“They don’t know what they’re talking about,” I said.
“Come on,” Hailey said. “You were perfect.”
“Hailey was good, too,” I tried. “And there were other good trips. What about Olivia? She was really good.”
“She was kind of deep to the in-and-out,” Jane pointed out.
“Still, she could win. You just don’t know yet.”
“You sound like you don’t want to win,” Hailey said.
Before I could figure out how to answer that, the judge’s voice came over Elena’s walkie-talkie: “Ready for the jog order?”
“Go ahead,” Elena said and we all leaned closer.
I held my breath, my heart thumping away. Everyone else was hoping their number would be called first, but I was hoping mine wouldn’t be the one called. Maybe if I finished second or third, it wouldn’t seem automatic that Tyler and I should always win. The first class felt like it meant so much about what the next few months would hold for me. I glanced over at Mom and Dad. They were sipping coffees and chatting with the other pony parents, including Hailey’s mom. I knew my winning would mean so much to Mom, especially after how I’d pushed her away the night before, so why couldn’t I want it?
Elena poised her pen on her pad of paper. The judge called the first number and I let out a small sigh, not loud enough for anyone to hear.
Chapter 13
* * *
I was on top. Hailey and Jane both shot me looks that said, “See?” Olivia was second; Sammy was called third; Dakota fourth; and Donald sixth. In the second class Tyler was on top again. I had won both classes. Dakota was second; Sammy was fourth; and Donald was fifth. Coco hadn’t gotten a jog in either class.
“Congratulations,” Hailey said.
“Yeah, congrats,” Jane added.
Since Coco didn’t get a jog in either class, Jane jogged Sammy for me. It was an unspoken rule that I would jog the higher placing pony, but I would have been just as happy jogging Sammy and letting Jane jog Tyler.
I led Tyler through the in gate. I didn’t even have to cluck to get him to trot as I ran next to him—he knew exactly what the jog entailed and he probably had spent most of his life getting the top call. Dakota came in behind me, then Olivia, Sammy, and so on through tenth place.
Once the judge saw each pony trot and declared them sound and the class to be pinned as is, the announcer called out the results. “Winning our first medium pony hunter class today is Woodland’s Tried and True with Regan Sternlicht.” My name sounded too loud in my own ears. It felt like the whole horse show heard it even though there were two other rings with their own classes going on.
A woman in a ruffled skirt paired with cowboy boots presented me with a blue ribbon and I led Tyler out of the ring. I kept my head down, trying not to make a big deal of it. I glanced up once and saw Mom talking with Hugo. He always tried to chat up Mom, I’m sure hoping that someday I’d switch from Susie and go ride with him. But Mom would never want me to ride with a factory barn, even if Hugo won the Finals year after year. She liked the family feel of Susie’s program. She said it was like ProduX before she sold it. I loved Susie and I never wanted to ride with anyone else either, but if I did ride with a barn like Autumn Ridge at least I wouldn’t be the only rider to have so many ponies. Hugo specialized in kids whose parents were billionaires. At Autumn Ridge, I wouldn’t be the richest kid in the barn.
The second class was conformation, bu
t it didn’t matter. There was practically no pony on the planet that would be moved up over Tyler. So it was no use hoping I’d finish second or third—I was winning the class whether I liked it or not.
When I came out of the ring after getting my second blue, Mom and Dad met me at the in gate. I tried to manage a smile. I was TVMG again. TVMG would be so happy to win for her poor, dying mother. It would all be so tragic and TVMG would rise above it all.
Dad wore a pink button-down shirt and khakis. Not many guys could pull off wearing pink or purple, but Dad did. I didn’t notice his clothes or his age at home, but I noticed them when we were in public. Dad never seemed self-conscious about his age. I remembered one time he took me to Dylan’s Candy Bar for ice cream and the waitress said, “Special time out with Grandpa?”
“I guess I really should shave off this beard,” Dad joked with her while I was dying of mortification. “My wife keeps saying it makes me look too old.”
When the waitress left to make our sundaes, I asked Dad, “Mom wants you to shave your beard?”
Dad shook his head. “I didn’t want the waitress to feel badly for what she said.” He was busy thinking about her feelings.
Now, Dad said to me, “You rode great. Was it fun?”
“I guess so,” I said.
Dad furrowed his brow slightly, but before he could say anything else, Mom piped up, “I knew this was the right pony for you. Didn’t I tell you how amazing he was?”
I turned away from her. What she never understood was that, whether I won wasn’t just about what pony I had. No matter what, I still had to ride well. Even though Tyler was great and a lot of riders would win with him, there were plenty that wouldn’t. But when you had expensive ponies, everyone assumed you won because of the pony. They never talked about how well you rode. With Jane people were always saying how well she rode—and even Hailey, too. But with me it was always about what a great pony I had.
“You better get back on,” Mom said, looking over to where Martha was putting my saddle back on Tyler for the under saddle. Martha gave me a leg up and I walked into the ring with all the other girls on their ponies.
I gave Tyler a loose rein and pushed him forward to show off his movement. Even though he was such a good mover, I still had to make sure to have good passes in front of the judge’s booth before the announcer asked us to line up in the center of the ring. Hailey and Jane and I always tried to line up next to each other, although sometimes it was hard to do.
This time I managed to line up next to Hailey, but Jane was down at the end of the line.
“You guys were so awesome today,” Hailey said. “It’s like you’ve been riding him forever.”
“Maybe it was just luck,” I said. “You were great, too.”
“You wouldn’t even have to show tomorrow and you’d probably still be champion,” Hailey said.
I didn’t know what to say since it was true. I couldn’t explain to Hailey that I didn’t want to be champion. Hailey had ridden well, too, but she’d only gotten a fifth and a sixth. Sometimes at smaller shows Donald ended up sixth in the hack, but in this company he wasn’t even going to place. Also, Tyler was already qualified for Pony Finals, but Donald wasn’t. She needed to be champion or reserve—I didn’t.
“You’re still sleeping over tonight, right?” Hailey asked.
“Of course.” I couldn’t understand how Hailey could still want to be friends with me since I beat her week after week. But she never complained and she was always the first to congratulate me. Then I remembered—the cancer. Maybe she knew and that was why she was being so kind. But Hailey wasn’t good at saying nice things unless she meant them. So maybe it wasn’t all about the cancer. I sighed. Cancer messed with your head, even when it was your mother who had it. It made me suspicious of everyone’s motives and never sure whether people were acting normal around me.
The announcer called out: “And I have the results of the medium pony hunter under-saddle . . . winning our class today, the third win in a row today, for Woodland’s Tried and True. Regan Sternlicht in the irons. Congratulations, Regan.”
I moved Tyler forward and forced a smile as the same woman pinned the blue ribbon on Tyler’s bridle.
At the in gate I slid off Tyler. Mom came and hugged me, but I barely felt her arms around me.
“Great job,” Susie said.
“Thanks,” I managed.
“Let’s go get lunch,” Dad said. “I’m starving.”
“And we have to get the carrots out of your car,” Mom said to him. “I called Daddy and asked him to bring them,” she explained to me.
“I have to get my backpack,” I said. I couldn’t wait to leave. Most any other time I would have wanted to stay and watch the large ponies, but right then I wanted to be anywhere but at the ring.
I had left my backpack under Elena’s tent. Elena was still there, taking numbers for the large ponies.
“I guess they were right. Congrats, girl,” Elena said.
“Thanks,” I said.
It was when I leaned down to get my backpack that Dakota Pearce walked by with another girl from her barn and said, “Yeah, the only reason her mother bought her that pony is because she’s, like, dying.”
Chapter 14
* * *
Hailey’s mom is a really good cook. For dinner that night she was making Wienerschnitzel. It’s an Austrian recipe she learned to make in a cooking/dating class she took through community education called The Right Meal/The Right Match. She learned some good recipes, but none of the men she met were keepers.
Hailey’s parents got divorced when she was eight and her father remarried a woman Hailey and her mother called “the Carrot” because she used a spray-on tanner that made her skin orange and because she was constantly on a diet and snacking on mini carrots. Hailey’s father and the Carrot live in New Jersey and Hailey only went there one weekend a month.
“You had a good day today, huh?” Mrs. Mullins said to me as we were helping her with the Wienerschnitzel.
My three blue ribbons were hanging up on the banner with Susan Charles, Inc. on it. “Yeah, definitely.”
Wienerschnitzel was actually really fun to make. Mrs. Mullins bought this special plastic tray with three sections just for making it: one section for flour, one for egg, and one for breadcrumbs. Hailey and I manned the tray and coated the cutlets in the flour, then dipped them into the egg, and finally rolled them in the breadcrumbs. As we cooked, one of Hailey’s dogs, Milo, came over and sat at our feet, looking up hopefully. Whenever I’m at Hailey’s, I try to soak up the feeling of living with pets always underfoot, so when I went home to our way too clean and quiet apartment, I could remember how it felt. But being at Hailey’s made me long to have a dog. It was a yearning so big at times that it felt like a physical emptiness, like I needed a dog to complete me. My mom had offered to get a cat but I didn’t yearn for a cat. Cats seemed like only children themselves, independent and aloof. Maybe if we got a cat, I’d come to feel it was enough, but I worried, if we got a cat, I’d never have any hope of getting a dog.
My mom didn’t cook at all, except for omelets. When people asked her if she cooked, she said, “No, but I’m really good at take-out.” We also had a person who came in and cooked for us, which didn’t seem weird to me until I was over at Hailey’s and her mother was cooking. Then it seemed really weird.
Two parakeets squawked from their cage in the corner of the room. One hopped onto a perch and pecked at a birdseed bell.
Mrs. Mullins poured oil into a frying pan and turned on the burner. “Your mom certainly seems excited about Tyler.”
“No kidding,” I said, rolling my eyes a little.
The oil started to sizzle and Mrs. Mullins turned down the burner. “One of the keys to making perfect Wienerschnitzel is getting the temperature exactly right,” she explained. “They said it’s just like starting a relationship—you can’t come on too strong or it’ll burn out.” She made a face and changed the topic
back to riding. “Sometimes I think Jane’s got it the easiest. No pressure because the ponies she rides are so green.”
“Are you kidding?” Hailey said. “Have you seen how intense Tommy is? Plus when she catch-rides there’s so much pressure. Not that I wouldn’t love to get catch-rides like she does . . .”
“That’s true. I hadn’t thought of that.” Mrs. Mullins moved over to the tray to take the first cutlet to put in the pan. She was heavy-set, but pretty. It was always hard to believe tiny Hailey was her daughter, but Hailey’s dad was short and slender. Mrs. Mullins always seemed to be smiling and I liked her smile, even though her two front teeth overlapped a tiny bit.
“What’s the weather for tomorrow?” Hailey asked.
“Kind of like today,” her mom said. “Cool, but more sunshine.”
Hailey sighed and dusted another cutlet with flour.
“Honey, you don’t need the rain. You can win on a sunny day.”
Donald was a total mudder—he marched around any course in the thickest slop. So when it was really raining hard and other ponies were misbehaving, Donald won.
Mrs. Mullin put the first cutlet in the pan and it sizzled. When all the cutlets were prepared for the pan, Hailey and I set the table and poured drinks.
Hailey’s mom bellowed for Hailey’s younger sister, Anna, and her brother, Owen, to come for dinner. The sound of Owen’s thundering feet on the stairs followed, which made the dogs start yapping.
“Quiet!” Mrs. Mullins yelled at them. “And you too, Owen. You’re not an elephant.”
Owen insisted his snake be able to eat with us and the compromise was that it got to be in its travel case under the table. Owen kept sneaking down to see it and Anna called him a freak and Owen said he was going to feed her hamsters to his snake. Anna was wearing the third place ribbon she’d won today in the children’s ponies hooked on her pajama top. Hailey told her she was a dork and to take it off and she started crying. Then Mrs. Mullins made Hailey apologize to her.
Blue Ribbons Page 5
