Other Books in the Brookmeade Young Riders Series
Crown Prince
First published in 2012 by
Trafalgar Square Books
North Pomfret, Vermont 05053
Printed in the United States of America
Copyright © 2012 Linda Snow McLoon
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, by any means, without written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer quoting brief excerpts for a review in a magazine, newspaper, or website.
Disclaimer of Liability
The author and publisher shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book. While the book is as accurate as the author can make it, there may be errors, omissions, and inaccuracies.
Trafalgar Square Books encourages the use of approved safety helmets in all equestrian sports.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McLoon, Linda Snow.
Crown prince challenged / Linda Snow McLoon.
p. cm. -- (Brookmeade young riders series)
Summary: Sarah Wagner dreams that she and her former racetrack rogue, Crown Prince, will someday reach the highest levels of equestrian competition and with help from trainer Jack O’Brien they are on their way, but first they must face hostility from other Brookmeade Farm riders.
ISBN 978-1-57076-545-2 (pbk.)
[1. Horsemanship--Fiction. 2. Race horses--Fiction. 3. Interpersonal relations--Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.M478725Cro 2012
[Fic]--dc23
2012024423
Book design by Lauryl Eddlemon
Front cover design by Jennifer Brandon
Cover artwork and points-of-the-horse illustration by Jennifer Brandon (www.jachestudio.com). Copyright and all reproductive rights to the artwork, inclusive of complete ownership of the physical artworks themselves, are the property of and reserved to the artist. Typeface: Palatino
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Dedication
To the generous and loyal horses I was privileged to have in my life—good friends all.
Contents
1 End of Summer
2 On the Loose
3 Injury
4 Warning!
5 The New Boy
6 Trouble Brewing
7 Enemies
8 Chance Encounter
9 Moving Up
10 The Meadow Trail
11 Young Riders
12 The Bullies
13 Autumn Days
14 Rock Walls
15 First Snow
16 An Announcement
17 The Quarrel
18 Spring at Last
19 Cross-Country School
20 Wild Ride
21 The Team
22 Ditched
23 Making Plans
24 Wexford Hall
25 The Test
26 On Course
27 Prince’s Challenge
28 Show Jumping
29 Tough Luck
30 To the Rescue
31 Bitter Consequences
Glossary
Points of the Horse
CHAPTER 1
End of Summer
SARAH WAGNER TAPPED HER FINGERS on the desk as she waited for her homeroom class to be excused. It was nearly the end of the first day of school at Yardley High, and her eyes were riveted on the classroom clock. When the bell sounded, she grabbed her tote bag and joined the swarm of students hurrying out of the building. She went straight to the Ridge Road bus, where Kayla Romano was saving her a seat. With her curly red hair, cut short, and pancake freckles, Kayla was easy to spot.
When Sarah plunked down beside her best friend, Kayla slid over to give Sarah more room. “How’d it go, kid?” Kayla asked. Kayla liked to remind Sarah she was two months her senior.
“I got Mr. Rawlins for Geometry. Everyone says he’s totally cool. I like my other teachers, too. How about you?”
“Okay, I guess,” Kayla replied. “I’m glad we’re in English together, but I wish I had a different teacher for World History. I’ve already got a ton of homework.” Both girls grabbed the seat in front of them as the bus lurched around the sharp corner coming out of the parking lot. “Enough about school. Are you going to ride this afternoon?”
Sarah’s thoughts turned to Crown Prince, the beautiful, dark bay horse she had gotten off the racetrack at the beginning of the summer. Today would be the first time she hadn’t been at the farm in the morning to feed the horses, which was part of her job that paid for Prince’s board. Lucas, the young worker who was back after having the summer off, would have made the rounds feeding grain and hay. She hoped he remembered to turn Prince out for a few hours, but of course the barn manager, Gus, would have reminded him. Gus might be a total grouch, but when it came to running an efficient barn operation where the horses got the best of care, Sarah had to admit he was on top of everything.
Sarah raised her voice over the laughing and commotion on the bus. “It’s going to be tight. I definitely want to ride, but I’ve got to have time to clean Prince’s stall before I do the night feed. You have your lesson today. Will it be a mad rush to get Fanny to the farm in time?”
“Mom will have the trailer hooked up and everything ready, so we should be okay,” Kayla said. She raised an eyebrow. “We’ve had plenty of practice.”
Kayla had been bringing her chestnut Quarter Horse, Fanfare, to Brookmeade Farm for weekly lessons ever since she’d gotten the mare a few years earlier. They’d done well in several horse shows over the summer, and she gave a lot of the credit for how well Fanny had performed to her lessons with the farm’s trainer and chief instructor, Jack O’Brien.
“I miss riding with you guys,” Sarah said, thinking of the talented group of young riders Jack taught on Wednesday afternoons. “It’s been great having private lessons with Jack, but I wonder when he’ll think Prince is ready to ride with a group. We’re still doing a lot of gymnastic jumping, tailor-made for Prince, so I guess it’ll be a while.”
“How’s he doing?” Kayla asked.
“Oh, Kayla, he’s awesome! He likes jumping, and his flatwork is coming along. Jack says that for a big horse, he’s very well balanced. The only time he got a little upset was when one of Mrs. DeWitt’s Jack Russells chased a chipmunk right in front of us. He half-reared and then spun around in the opposite direction.” Sarah adjusted the heavy bag, laden with books, on her lap. “Do you know what you guys will be doing today?”
“I’m not sure. But Jack told us to work on transitions this week, so we might do a lot of flatwork. Tim and Paige have two more events this fall, and they’d love to do better in the dressage phase. Rita always likes an opportunity to show off how superior Chancellor is on the flat,” Kayla said, putting a heavy accent on superior.
Sarah couldn’t resist a laugh. “Oh, come on—she’d not as bad as she used to be.”
When the bus stopped at her house, Sarah bounded off and hurried to the back door. Her younger sister, Abby, wouldn’t be home yet, and her mother might still be at work. Alison Wagner hadn’t recovered sufficiently from a serious car accident she’d survived the year before so she could go back to teaching fourth grade, but she’d found a part time bookkeeping job. It was always hard to predict what time Sarah’s father might get home from his teaching job at the local community college.
&
nbsp; Sarah took the back steps two at a time and immediately went to her room. She wasted no time changing into barn jeans and a T-shirt before picking up her brush and pulling her long dark hair back into a ponytail. As she fixed her hair, she considered her image in the mirror. A somewhat narrow face with long-lashed dark eyes, a high forehead, and an olive complexion gazed back at her. Nothing there a guy would ever be attracted to, she thought.
Back downstairs, she grabbed a few carrots from the fridge and stuck them into her jeans pocket before putting on her paddock boots in the mudroom. Minutes later she was heading to the barn on her bike. She had ridden this route every day since Crown Prince had come to Brookmeade Farm back in June, and she knew the bumps and curves by heart, including the half-mile entry road into the farm. This was the part she liked best, where she could see the three broodmares and their foals turned out in the green fields along the way. On this warm, early September afternoon, she was thankful for the stately elm trees that formed a leafy shaded canopy over the gravel road. She pedaled hard, crossing the bridge over the wide brook and flying by the bungalow where Jack and his wife, Kathleen, lived.
Finally she was coasting down the final hill to the parking area. Tim Dixon’s car was already there, which meant he had come to the barn directly from school, and he’d probably given his girlfriend, Paige Vargas, a ride. Sarah envisioned them getting their horses ready for the lesson right now. Sure enough, when she entered the barn, she saw Paige, a striking girl with gorgeous blonde hair and deep violet eyes, in the aisle. She was grooming her dappled-gray Thoroughbred, Quarry, who didn’t appear very happy. His ears were pinned back, and he tossed his head in annoyance as Paige rubbed his underside with a curry comb.
Hi, Paige,” Sarah said. “I guess Quarry isn’t crazy about being groomed.”
“Actually he only hates it when I curry his tummy. Last week he asked Gus to fire me.”
Sarah laughed, something everyone did when they were around Paige for very long. Sarah stopped to look more closely at Quarry. “But seriously, he’s looking better and better. He really filled out this summer.”
“Thanks,” Paige said as she flipped the curry comb back in her grooming caddy and pulled out a dandy brush. Quarry’s eyes softened as she ran it in quick strokes along his neck. “It’s taken him a while to lose that off-the-track, skinny look. I think that does help us a bit in the show ring. But handsome is as handsome does. I still have to work on keeping him from rushing his fences.”
“I’ve gotta check on Prince,” Sarah said,” as she ducked under one of Quarry’s cross-ties.
When she rounded the corner leading to the two new stalls in the back of the barn, Prince was looking out through the bars of his stall door. His head came up and his ears pricked forward when he saw Sarah. Hurrying to her horse, her heart warmed when she heard his low welcoming nicker. She slid the door open enough to slip through.
“You’re glad to see me, aren’t you, boy,” she murmured. He lowered his head so she could hug his face close to her chest. She stepped back to pull the carrot he had come to expect from her pocket, and he eagerly bit off a big section.
Sarah’s eyes ran over her horse. She never tired of looking at the beautiful dark bay with the white star in the center of his broad forehead. His finely chiseled head had large intelligent eyes and a delicate muzzle, and it blended into a long arched neck and well-angled shoulder. A lovely topline continued to powerful hindquarters on the tall Thoroughbred, and his sleek coat gleamed like China silk. Crown Prince was one handsome dude!
So much had happened over the summer, and so fast that memories raced through Sarah’s mind like a movie on fast-forward. That Saturday in June when Jack and her dad had taken her to the racetrack to pick out a horse of her own seemed like yesterday. Before Brookmeade’s owners, Chandler and Dorothy DeWitt, came up with their generous plan that enabled her to get Crown Prince, acquiring a horse had always seemed an impossible dream. Her mother’s car accident and a mountain of medical debt had long ago squelched any possibility her parents could buy her a horse, so Sarah had settled for lessons on school horses at Brookmeade Farm.
From the minute she saw the big dark bay, Sarah knew the horse was the one she’d been waiting for, despite his reputation as a racetrack rogue. The two of them had bonded immediately. After Crown Prince came to the farm, the road had been filled with challenges. Sarah had fought to keep him when his rich owner tried to rescind his offer and take him back. Then, in a thirty-day trial period, she had to convince her parents that Crown Prince was safe to ride, despite his earlier bad behavior at the racetrack. With Jack’s help, Sarah and her horse had triumphed over every obstacle in their path.
Now here she was getting ready to ride her very own wonderful horse. It seemed that whether she was on the ground or on his back, she and Prince shared a special connection. Under saddle, he responded to her lightest tweak of the reins and the slightest pressure of her legs against his sides. When she spoke softly to him, his ears flicked in her direction, and whenever she walked away, his gaze followed her until she was out of sight.
Leaving the stall, Sarah hurried to the boarders’ tack room to get her things. By putting on her helmet and half chaps and looping her bridle over her shoulder, she had one arm free for her saddle and one to pick up her grooming caddy. Making just one trip saved time. After she got back to his stall, she led Prince into the aisle and put him on cross-ties. She had just started to brush him when she heard the sound of quick boots clicking rhythmically on cement.
They had to belong to Jack, her riding instructor. A cleanshaven man with black hair tinged with gray, Jack’s square jaw, snapping dark eyes, and no-nonsense demeanor announced a man who took his job seriously. In his younger days, Jack had ridden for the Irish Olympic Team, and as he strode toward her, his slightly bowed legs spoke to the many hours he had spent in the saddle.
“I’m glad you’re here this afternoon, Sarah,” Jack said. “’Tis a surprise I have for you. Your horse is doing well enough in his flatwork that I think he’s ready to leave the stable area and go for a hack on the trails. ’Twill be good for him.”
Sarah hadn’t expected this so soon. Up until now, she’d been limited to riding Prince in the indoor arena or the enclosed outside ring, all the while looking forward to the day she could ride him on the miles of trails around the farm. For weeks she’d longed to see how he would react to a trail ride through the woods and fields. She smiled broadly. “Awesome!” was all she could say.
“But you shouldn’t go out alone,” Jack continued. “For the first hack he should be in company. When their class is over, Tim and Paige usually ride up to the old orchard on the ridge to cool out their horses. And perhaps Kayla and Rita will go along. I’d be thinking ’tis time you joined them.”
Sarah felt her excitement rising. “Should we stay at a walk?” she asked.
“The other riders will be cooling out their horses after working hard in the lesson, so walking will be the order of the day. Just use your aids as you would if you were riding him in the ring. When you’re climbing up the steep part of the ridge, be sure to let him stretch his head and neck down, so he can best use his hindquarters. Under saddle, the hill might be strange to him, so on the way down, keep him straight and support him in front with your hands. Let me know how it goes.” Jack turned abruptly and strode off toward the indoor, in a hurry to set up some jump combinations for his Young Riders class.
This threw a wrinkle into her game plan. Glancing at her watch, Sarah did some quick math. She decided she’d have time to clean the stall now, and Prince could go into one of the paddocks while she worked. With this delay before she rode, Sarah removed her half-chaps and helmet and set them down near the stall. She ran the chain from her lead shank over Prince’s nose, clipped it onto his halter, and led him toward the side door, his shoes ringing evenly on the cement.
Sarah waved to Tim, who was saddling Rhodes Scholar, his handsome blood-bay gelding. Rhodes had come from
Canada, where he’d been fox hunted before Tim got him. In addition to being athletic and exceptionally sound, Rhodes also had an amazing temperament. He never got rattled, regardless of what was going on around him. Rhodes’ good qualities had helped them do well when they’d competed in several events over the summer.
Once outside, Sarah looked over to the gravel parking lot where Rita Snyder’s van with the green Pyramid Farm lettering was parked. The Snyders’ hired groom, Judson, was helping Rita get her horse ready for the lesson, and Sarah could hear Rita’s commands to the balding, ruddy-faced man as they worked. Rita was being Rita, at least to Judson. So much for her pledge to change her ways after the tragic accident at the beginning of the summer. You’d almost think she’d forgotten she’d been responsible for the death of one of Mrs. DeWitt’s dogs. But in all fairness, she didn’t brag about her horse quite so much, and she’d even found a few good things to say about the other horses in her class.
Riding Chancellor, her black Dutch Warmblood, Rita had mopped up at a number of shows over the summer, winning four championships and two reserves. To celebrate, the Snyders had hosted an end-of-summer pool party for the Brookmeade riders at their estate, Pyramid Farm. The instructors and Brookmeade’s owners, the DeWitts, had also been invited. Sarah had been to the Snyders’ mega-mansion with pillars like a Southern plantation house before, but she still couldn’t believe a teenager lived there. Equally impressive was the large barn with a chandelier hanging in the foyer, many white-fenced paddocks, and a trout pond. The crowning touch was a spectacular view of the ocean beyond the sweeping lawns on the property. An indoor riding arena was being constructed on a level area behind the barn—Rita was truly going to have it all.
The pool party had been a hit. Rita’s father wasn’t away on a business trip, for a change, and with help from their housekeeper, he had cooked burgers and steaks on the grill. Sarah and her friends from the barn had a blast swimming in the large pool and making do-it-yourself ice cream sundaes. Rita had even arranged to have some classmates in a band liven up the party with a few sets.
Crown Prince Challenged Page 1
