“I don’t,” I said, thinking about how Mickey used to call Jess my arch nemesis until she was kicked out of Fox Run and disappeared off the face of the earth.
“You do,” Faith said. “You just don’t know who they are yet.”
Faith was in the saddle and warming her pony up before I even had a chance to quiz her further about Melanie and her pony.
“How did you do that?” Missy asked, pointing at Faith who was trotting around with a look of sheer iron will on her face.
“I didn’t do a thing.” I held up my hands. “It was all some girl called Melanie Kurzinsky. She and Faith had some kind of throw down and the next thing I know she’s saying that she is going to win everything and show Melanie who is the best.”
“That explains it,” Missy said, nodding.
“It does?” I said.
“Everyone needs a bitter rival you know,” Missy said with a smile.
“I don’t,” I replied over my shoulder as I walked back to the trailer.
I’d thought for a second that Dakota was my rival but it had turned out that she wasn’t at all. She was just a beginner with a lot of luck and a girl with a broken heart. Something I knew a lot about. But today I was going to help her forget all that.
“Need any help tacking up?” I asked her.
“Yes please,” she said, holding up Wizard’s running martingale. “I have no idea what I’m doing.”
“Yes you do,” I replied.
CHAPTER FIFTY ONE
We stood by the fence to cheer Faith and Macaroni on. When they called Mac n Cheese to the in gate I heard a snicker and looked behind me to see Melanie sitting on her Paint. He had his ears pinned and kept snapping his teeth when other horses walked past. I thought he was a mean spirited pony just like his rider and that they deserved each other. I just hoped that they wouldn’t win today.
Faith, thanks to her renewed sense of urgency, nailed her round. Macaroni flew over the small jumps like his butt was on fire and Faith pulled off some tight turns that even I might have been afraid to try. Her jump off round was just as good. There was a hairy moment when Macaroni tapped the top rail of a little oxer and it wobbled back and forth in the cups. I clutched Missy’s arm but the pole didn’t fall.
“That was a close one,” she said just as Macaroni galloped through the finish line.
“Beat that,” Faith cried as she came out of the ring to a round of applause.
“I will,” Melanie said, her nose up in the air as they trotted into the ring.
Here Be Dragons was actually an impressive little jumper for a mean pony being ridden by a mean girl. He had tight knees and lots of scope but while he was perfect, Melanie was not. Her elbows flapped and her hands were sloppy and a couple of times Dragon completely saved her. She put him all wrong at a yellow vertical and as they came to the red oxer that Macaroni had tapped, Dragon didn’t have as much luck. He knocked it and it fell with a thud.
“Better luck next time Mel,” Faith called out after the girl as she rode out of the ring without looking at us.
“That wasn’t very nice,” I said.
“But she’s the one who is always mean to me. Can’t I gloat this one time?”
“No you cannot,” Missy said. “Good sportsmanship is just as important as good horsemanship. Now go and apologize to that poor girl.”
“What?” Faith cried. “Apologize? No way.”
But Missy made her, standing there while Faith mumbled her apology. Then the girls shook hands but I saw the look of thunder on both their faces. That rivalry was not over. Not by a long shot.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” Dakota said.
“No you’re not,” I told her as Faith was called back to the ring to get her blue ribbon.
“But that little girl just won and I’m just going to make a fool of myself.”
“Faith has nerves of steel and you run barrels so I know you do too.”
“This is different,” she said.
“Trust me. Wizard will take care of you.” I gave her a leg up. “Now come on, let’s go over the course one more time.”
CHAPTER FIFTY TWO
I was happy to help out since my father had stayed behind to teach lessons and this was Missy’s first time going solo at a show since Owen had been born. I got Dakota over the warm up jump a few times while Missy was still giving Faith a talking to over by the trailer.
“Am I a trainer or a child wrangler?” she’d said with a sigh before she headed off to scold Faith.
“A bit of both I think,” I’d replied.
I could hear her going on about how Faith was supposed to be representing Fox Run in a good light and setting a good example for the riders who were younger than her. It was something that Esther had drilled into our heads back at Sand Hill. No matter how young and inexperienced you were, there was always someone younger who was standing by the rail looking up to you and wishing they were as good as you were.
“You all set?” Missy asked Dakota when she finally walked over.
“I don’t think so,” Dakota said.
“It’s normal to be nervous but just try to go in there and have fun,” Missy said.
“Fun is about the last thing on my mind right now,” Dakota said.
“Then you’re doing it wrong,” I told her.
Missy walked off with Dakota and Wizard, finding a quiet space where she could give her some last minute instructions and calm her nerves. I went to tack up Arion. It wasn’t too long until his class and I needed to get all his kicks and bucks out before we went into the ring. I put him on the lunge line and worked him under the trees in the shade. His head was high as he called out excitedly to the other horses and I heard Wizard reply from the ring. I didn’t need to watch to know that Dakota would do well. Maybe she wouldn’t win but she was clueless enough to have a good ride in spite of her nerves.
“We should be so lucky,” I told Arion as I switched the lunge line over and changed his direction. “If I was still naive I’d think we’d win. Now I know better.”
Arion took off at a gallop and threw in a couple of huge bucks for good measure. I kind of wished that maybe I was riding Wizard after all.
CHAPTER FIFTY THREE
By the time I got back to the trailer after riding Arion around for a while to settle him down, Dakota had a yellow ribbon and a huge smile on her face.
“Third!” I said. “Well done.”
“It was all Wizard,” she said. “He saved me a bunch of times.”
“He’s good at that,” a guy said.
I looked over my shoulder to see Jordan standing there, a cheeky smile on his face.
“What are you doing here?” I said.
“I wanted to watch you ride and to make sure that my horse didn’t get stolen again.”
“I’m sorry about that,” Dakota said sheepishly.
“It’s okay,” Jordan said. “Forget it. I can’t exactly criticize you after recently screwing up myself.”
“Thanks,” Dakota said, her face red.
“So, when is your class?” Jordan looked at me.
“Now,” Missy said. “It’s now.”
“Are you ready?” Jordan asked, giving me a leg up with his good arm.
“I’m always ready.” I grinned back.
CHAPTER FIFTY FOUR
Arion snorted at the jumps and the flowers and the crowd, even though there wasn’t really much of one. He forgot about going straight and keeping calm and trying to relax.
“You should try singing to him,” Jordan said as he shoved us towards the ring.
“What?” I said.
“You know, singing,” he said, drawing out the word like I was really dumb.
“What am I supposed to sing to him?” I said as we ricocheted off the gate and I almost hit my leg on the fence post.
“Anything, I don’t think it matters what.”
“Singing, right,” I mumbled under my breath.
I’d done it before to help nerv
ous horses relax but this time my mind was blank. All the songs I belted out in the shower or listened to over and over late at night with my headphones on had gone. All I could remember was a nursery rhyme that my mother used to sing to me when I was small. I sung the words as we cantered around the ring and as I pointed Arion at the first jump, a blue vertical with yellow flowers, I felt his body relax. His ears flicked back and forth as he listened to my voice, a string of out of tune words that only he could hear over the sound of his hoof beats. On to the red oxer. Over the purple roll top. I didn’t count strides or try to package him. I just let Arion canter over the fences in one fluid motion after another and he stopped looking at the people and flowers and just jumped the fences like he was supposed to.
We were heading for the last fence, a nondescript gray vertical when a little girl ran screaming down the fence line. She was trailing a yellow balloon. I don’t know where she’d got it from or who thought it was such a good idea to give a tiny kid a balloon at a horse show and neither did Arion. He snorted and spooked, almost ducking out of the fence at the last minute. It took every ounce of strength I had to get him over the fence and it wasn’t pretty. Not at all. We took it at an angle, all bent and twisted. His back hooves caught the top rail and I knew it was going to fall. I patted him as it thudded to the ground. It wasn’t his fault. He’d done his best.
“You look pretty happy for someone who just lost,” Jordan said as I came out of the ring.
“I can’t help it,” I said. “Did you see him?”
“I saw him knock a rail down,” Jordan said as I threw my arms around Arion’s neck.
“No,” I said. “The rest of it. He was brilliant.”
“If you say so,” Jordan said with a shrug and a smile. “It could have been a better day for you though, don’t you think? What is the point of coming if you don’t win?”
But I just smiled as we walked back to the trailer because I knew that Arion and I had done our best and I was more proud of him than I would have been if he’d won all the blue ribbons in the world.
THE END
COMING SOON
SHOW JUMPING DREAMS #19: CHASING RIBBONS
It’s the start of the summer show season and the beginning of the Talent Scout series. Emily and her jumper pony Bluebird feel like they are ready to take on the world. Her father’s suspension has been lifted, Missy is once again supporting her career and all her horses both old and new are training well. It feels like nothing could go wrong.
But old friends and rivals alike will be at the first big show. Her old friend Becka has a new horse and she is not the only one. Jess is back from Europe where she has been training with top riders and she has a new horse and new attitude to go with her fancy makeover and it’s not the attitude that Emily is expecting. Is it possible that Jess has turned over a new leaf once and for all?
And while everything is fine on the horse front, family life is not going so swimmingly. There is news from Wisconsin and it’s not good. Emily now knows that her own mother is trapped in an abusive relationship and she wants to help but how can a fourteen year old fight for her mother when she can’t even talk to her?
CHASING RIBBONS: CHAPTER ONE
“Over the white oxer, roll back to the red vertical and then gallop to the water.”
Dad was giving Bluebird and me a lesson out in the jump field. The first show of the season was only a few weeks away and this wasn’t just any show, it was the first leg in the Talent Scout Series. Each win would garner you and your horse points that would count towards a total at the end of the series. The winner would get a huge prize, possibly even sponsorship.
I had dreams of being sponsored by a big company, maybe even one that would pay to send me over to Europe to train. Everyone said that you came back a better rider than you left, something about the horses and the shows and the life over there. It was a pipe dream and I knew it but dreams were what my entire future was built on right now and besides, it didn’t cost any less to dream big.
“Come on boy,” I said, picking up my reins and nudging Bluebird into a trot.
He’d been on his game lately. I’d given him a month off from showing and he was fresh and ready to go. I knew that we’d be competing against a lot of really talented riders and horses but I also knew we were good too.
We cleared the oxer easily and as we were in the air I was already looking for the vertical so that we were turning as soon as his front hooves hit the ground. We rolled back neatly and Bluebird jumped the vertical like a cat and then I gave him his head and let him gallop on to the water. I felt him stretch across it. The water was a big flat expanse that was a challenge for a pony with shorter legs than his horse counterparts but Bluebird didn’t even drop a heel in it.
“Nice,” Dad said as we walked up to him. “Good job.”
“Thanks.” I grinned.
I dropped my stirrups and let my feet hang down. They stretched so much further than they used to. I was growing taller by the day. For a while I’d stopped growing and I thought that maybe I was done. I’d be one of those short riders who were able to show ponies forever and not look stupid. I’d be able to ride Bluebird forever. But the truth was that despite what my heart was telling me, I knew that wasn’t going to be the case. Eventually I’d look ridiculous on him. I already almost did. I kept my stirrups much shorter on him than I did when I rode the horses just so no one would notice. What would happen when the day came when I had to stop showing him altogether?
“Are you okay?” Dad said.
“Fine,” I said, grabbing a bottle of water from the fence post and gulping some down.
“Are you sure?” He pressed me.
“You don’t think I look stupid on Bluebird now, do you?” I said. “You know, now that I’m taller?”
“No stupider than you’ve always done,” he said with a grin.
“Hey,” I said. “I’m being serious.”
“He’s a pony Em,” Dad said. “You’ve always known that he’s not going to get any bigger but that you will.”
“But you don’t think maybe …” My words trailed off. It was too hard to even ask if it was time to stop riding my beloved pony.
“If it was don’t you think I’d have told you?” Dad said. “Now all I want you to focus on is the next show. Got it?”
“Got it.” I nodded.
I knew that Dad wasn’t as sentimental as I was and if he thought that I was really getting too big to ride Bluebird then he’d tell me. But it still lingered in the back of my mind, a thought that I just couldn’t shake. That someday I’d have to continue my dream without my pony. And that it would really suck.
“And don’t forget that the new horse is coming in at two and someone is coming to look at Four at three,” Dad called after me.
“Right,” I said, my heart sinking further.
The excitement of a new horse coming in was overshadowed by the fact that my father was pushing me to sell my new project horse already. I wasn’t ready to sell him yet and I wasn’t sure why my father wanted me to.
“Where is the new horse coming from again?” I asked.
“I told you,” Dad said with a wink. “It’s a surprise.”
But that didn’t exactly cheer me up either. Dad’s surprises often turned out to be horses that were rank or untrained or practically unbroken. I kept hoping that one day another Encore would fall into my lap, one that we wouldn’t have to sell but so far that hadn’t happened. Still, there was always next time. Maybe this would be the one that could take over for Bluebird one day. Maybe.
“Emily wait.” Dad walked up to me looking slightly concerned. “There is something I need to tell you.”
My heart started to thump in my chest. I didn’t like it when people said that. It was normally bad news. I thought of Mom and how I hadn’t been able to reach her at all lately. Had he heard something? Something bad?
“I was doing some work over at the farm yesterday and I saw two girls out there riding in
the fields next door.”
“Jess and Amber?” I said, knowing it could only be them.
“Looked like it,” Dad said. “I thought you ought to hear it from me. I didn’t want you running into them and being caught off guard.”
“It’s okay,” I said. “I’m over it. I’m a different person now. I’m not the same girl who let Jess walk all over her.”
“Good,” Dad said. “I’m glad.”
And I was pretty sure that whatever insults Jess threw my way, I’d be able to handle. At least I hoped that I would.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Claire Svendsen fell in love with horses at age two when she got her first pony. The only trouble was that it wasn’t a real horse, it was a rocking horse. From that day on she begged, pleaded and bribed for lessons, riding clothes and a horse of her own. She had to wait and work really hard to finally get her first real horse but when she did, it was a dream come true. Over the years she has trained horses, given lessons and even run her own stable.
No longer able to ride due to injury, Claire lives vicariously through the characters in her books. When she’s not busy writing, you’ll find her hanging out at the barn with her retired Thoroughbred Merlin who loves carrots, apples and bowing on command.
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Beginner's Luck (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 18) Page 11
