Gift Horse (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 14)

by Claire Svendsen

  “Our class starts soon,” one of them said.

  “But we can stay if you want,” the other added.

  “It’s up to you,” Dad said. “Emily, Jess, take the country road. If you find her, call me and we’ll come back. We’re wasting time as it is.”

  “Shouldn’t we call the cops or something?” Jess said.

  “And do what?” Dad asked her, his voice hard. “Send them on a wild goose chase?”

  Jess looked at her muddy boots and started to cry again.

  “Come on,” I told her. “We don’t have time for tears. Let’s go.”

  CHAPTER FORTY ONE

  We ran down the road, the wind in our faces. The other women kept up with us for a while but they weren’t as fit as we were and eventually they faded back and then stopped running altogether. We lost sight of them in the end and I suspected that they’d gone back to the show. I didn’t really blame them. Sabrina was long gone, fueled by fear and the fact that she was in a completely strange environment but we kept going. We had to.

  The road had lots of bends and trees and we couldn’t see that far ahead. I scanned the fields as we ran, hoping to catch a glimpse of a chestnut mare who had perhaps grown tired of galloping and stopped to catch her breath and eat some grass but I didn’t see her anywhere. Eventually Jess stopped running, bending over and clutching at her side.

  “What is it?” I said. “What’s wrong?”

  “Stitch,” she gasped. “I’ll be okay, just give me a minute.”

  She collapsed in the grass by the side of the road and I sat next to her as she gulped in the cold air. My ankle was throbbing but I ignored it. I didn’t have much choice.

  “Why are you helping me?” Jess finally said.

  “I’m not helping you,” I replied. “I just don’t want to see another horse get hurt.”

  She was quiet for a moment but then added, “But that is still helping me.”

  “I don’t know Jess.” I sighed. “I guess I’m just a masochist. Let’s just say that I don’t want to screw up my own karma by not helping you and leave it at that.”

  “But don’t you want to know why I did it?” she said.

  I knew we weren’t talking about the loose horse anymore. We were talking about the video.

  “Not really,” I said. “And I guess it doesn’t matter now anyway. The damage has already been done. Come on, we have to keep going if we’re ever going to find your horse.”

  I stood up, brushing the dirt off my butt and holding out my hand to help her up. It felt weird, extending my hand to help my enemy but in a way it felt freeing. I was the adult now. I wasn’t being petty and stupid. Jess could hate me all she wanted but I knew that at least I’d be able to sleep at night.

  We’d just started to run again when a car flagged us down. The woman behind the wheel rolled down her window.

  “You girls looking for a horse?” she said. “Because I just passed one going that way like its tail was on fire.”

  “Thank you,” we both cried.

  As we ran on, I called my father’s cell.

  “She’s this way,” I said breathlessly. “Come quickly.”

  CHAPTER FORTY TWO

  By the time Dad and the guy in the golf cart found us, we were standing there by the side of the road with a horse that looked rather sorry for herself. When we found her, Sabrina had been trotting up and down a fence line, calling desperately to a herd of cows that were completely ignoring her. We approached her slowly, shaking the bucket of treats but we needn’t have worried that she was going to run off. Instead she ran towards us, obviously glad that her adventure was over. Thankfully she’d had boots on while Jess was lunging her and despite being covered in sweat she seemed none the worse for wear.

  “My father would have killed me if anything had happened to her,” Jess said.

  “Is he always that bad?” I asked her. “He seems like he yells at you a lot.”

  “He’s okay.” She shrugged.

  I knew what it was like to live in that kind of environment. How Derek had made me afraid to say or do anything for fear of reprisal and I seemed to get punished for no good reason at all, just because he was bigger and stronger than me and had a horrible temper. I knew that he never even had to hit me for it to be abuse because mental abuse was just as bad and I wished that I’d had the courage to stand up to him. To find my voice and tell someone what was going on and not to be so ashamed because it wasn’t my fault. None of it was.

  “You girls all right?” Dad asked.

  “Yes,” I said. “We’re fine.”

  Jess just nodded and looked at the ground.

  We all sat in the golf cart, exhausted and relieved. Sabrina walked alongside us, seemingly glad to be back in the charge of humans. No one spoke. I think we were all well aware of how it could have ended differently. I looked over at Jess and felt sorry for her. She had money but I don’t think she’d ever had love or kindness in her life. She got what she wanted by trampling all over people because that was what her father had taught her and was all she had probably ever known.

  Back at the show grounds the classes were well under way. We settled Sabrina in her stall and Jess went to go and scratch the mare from the jumper class. Of course she’d still get to ride. She had Hashtag. We were now both down one horse, not that it really mattered since neither of us felt like riding anyway.

  “You’d better be nice,” I told Socks as I got him ready.

  His ears were pricked and his eyes wide. I knew that he was not going to take it easy on me just because I asked nicely.

  CHAPTER FORTY THREE

  I sat at the in gate, far too tired to feel nervous. We’d just run a mile or more and my legs felt all wobbly, plus my ankle was now really hurting again. Socks had been good in the warm up ring and had settled down far quicker than I thought he would but he was a professional at heart and this wasn’t his first show. As they called our number and I gathered up my reins, I saw Jess on Hashtag take the warm up jump. He had the top rail down. She was far more frazzled than I was. It didn’t bode well for her to win a spot in the clinic but I didn’t really care. I’d done my part. The rest was up to her.

  The course was simple. There weren’t too many places where you really had to think about what you were doing, which was good because I went around on auto pilot. Socks was eager and responsive. I wasn’t distracted and I didn’t fall off. I did have a rail down though, the rainbow colored pole clattering to the ground as Socks just clipped it but that was okay. After all, you couldn’t win them all. No one could.

  I took Socks back to the barn, glad that we wouldn’t have to wait around for a jump off. I patted his neck and thanked him for trying his best. He nuzzled my arm and licked my hand as I gave him sugar. He was a sweet horse with a big heart and it was going to suck when Missy started riding again and wanted him back.

  I was still hanging out in his stall when Jess brought Hashtag back to the barn. She hadn’t made the jump off either. I didn’t say anything. I knew that if it had been her then she would have said something snarky but the new me was above such things, at least for the moment.

  Dad said the show was a bust. Not one of the Fox Run riders won their class although a few of the hunter girls came away with a handful of seconds and thirds. It wasn’t really our fault. The weather had conspired against us. It was just one of those days and I was glad to finally load the horses back into the trailer and take them home.

  “Did Jess even thank you for helping her?” Dad said on the drive back to the barn.

  “No,” I said. “Not really. But I’m over it. I don’t care.”

  “You may not care,” Dad said. “But I’m still telling her father everything.”

  “Maybe wait a day or two,” I said. “I think she’s going to get it in the neck from her father as it is.”

  Before Dad could reply, a song came on the radio that we both liked and we started to sing, our out of tune voices warbling through the air. I had my s
ocked feet up on the dashboard. He had a smile on his face. These were the moments I lived for where it didn’t matter about ribbons or winning or bullies. The moment when we could just be ourselves and be happy about it.

  CHAPTER FORTY FOUR

  Back at Fox Run, I found my pony out in his paddock looking all clean and shiny. I thought that the grooms had taken pity on me and given him a bath but it turned out that it was Missy. She’d brought Owen down to the barn in his stroller and while he was sleeping, she’d bathed my pony for me. It was one of the sweetest things anyone had ever done but she said she’d mostly done it for herself.

  “I’m going crazy, cooped up in the house all the time,” she said as we settled the horses back in their stalls. “Owen needs to start being a barn baby because I can’t stand not being down here any longer.”

  She breathed deeply and I knew she was savoring the smells of the barn. The shavings and the heady scent of horse mixed with the sweetness of molasses as one of the grooms wheeled a bin of grain by. To us it was the smell of heaven and I knew that if I was her, I would have gone mad ages ago being stuck in the house all the time.

  “Well thank you anyway,” I said. “After running miles I don’t think I have the energy to bathe Bluebird so if you hadn’t done it, he would have just had to stay dirty.”

  “You ran miles?” Missy said. “On your sprained ankle?”

  “I’ll tell you about it later,” Dad told her as Jess came down the aisle with Hashtag.

  She was subdued now. Probably embarrassed but I knew it wouldn’t last for long. As soon as she got around her friends she’d forget that I ever helped her and go back to making fun of me again. That was if she was still around.

  “Are you really going to stop teaching Jess?” I asked Dad that night as we all sat in the kitchen.

  “I told you,” he said. “I won’t stand for bullying here at this barn. And I won’t stand for it being done to my daughter. I watch the news.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I said.

  Dad and Missy looked at each other and then at me.

  “We just want you to be okay,” Missy said gently. “That’s all.”

  “I’m fine,” I said and for the first time in a long time, it wasn’t a lie.

  The sun was setting when I went out to say goodnight to Bluebird. He was standing by the gate just like he always was, waiting for me. Instead of feeding him his carrot, I slipped on his halter and scrambled up onto his back. We walked around the farm, my legs loose against his sides and the warmth of his back beneath me. Most of the horses were in their stalls but a few were out grazing in the last rays of light. The sun had almost gone from the sky but the last of it dappled through the trees. I thought about everything that had happened to me and wondered if it was normal to feel like a million different emotions were rolling around inside your brain. Was it normal to feel like the world was ending and beginning all at the same time? To be happy and sad? If Mickey was there, I knew she would say that of course it was. We were teenagers with raging hormones. We were meant to be messed up. But as I thought back to everything that had happened that day, I felt more mature than ever. Though I still couldn’t help worrying about what would happen when my father talked to Mr. Eastford.

  CHAPTER FORTY FIVE

  It happened on a Wednesday. Jess was there for the group lesson and Dad had already called Mr. Eastford and asked him to make sure he was there. Jess was tacking up Hashtag when my father pulled her to one side. Sabrina had disappeared as quietly as she had arrived, with far less fanfare. Loaded into the trailer like a disgraced dog with her tail between her legs but it wasn’t her fault and really she was lucky that she didn’t have to stick around and be Jess’s horse any longer. She deserved someone who would appreciate her and that would never be Jess.

  I already had Bluebird tacked and ready to go. I’d asked Mickey to come out and ride with me and as we mounted our horses and rode away, Mr. Eastford’s voice rose into the air.

  “Do you think your dad will have to call the cops?” Mickey said.

  “I doubt it,” I replied. “Have you seen Jess’s father? He has a fat belly and short legs. My father could take him on any day.”

  “Cool,” Mickey said. “Maybe we should have stuck around?”

  I shook my head. “There won’t be a fight. Dad doesn’t believe in violence.”

  “You know, I think it’s pretty awesome, your dad sticking up for you and everything,” Mickey said.

  “I know,” I said.

  I still couldn’t believe it myself. Not having to deal with the burden of being bullied alone was like this great weight had been lifted from my shoulders and suddenly the world looked a little brighter again.

  We crossed the dressage ring and rode into the woods where the sounds of nature and everything else were muffled. Mickey talked about school and the debate team and I told her how I’d be starting virtual school. It seemed like endless days stretched ahead of me. Days of riding and shows and the Young Riders clinic. I could hardly wait. And Arion was getting better every day. Plus Dad had said he was going to help me with him.

  We cantered across the clearing but didn’t push our horses. Neither of us felt the need to gallop today. It was fun just to catch up and talk.

  “My dressage show is next month,” Mickey said. “Do you want to come and be my groom?”

  “Do you think Miss. Fontain will let me?” I joked.

  “I don’t care what she says, I need you there.”

  “Of course I’ll be there.” I grinned. “I wouldn’t miss it.”

  “Cool.”

  “Who knows, maybe I’ll even learn something.”

  Mickey laughed. “No you won’t. If it doesn’t involve jumping, you couldn’t care less.”

  “True,” I said. “But they do say dressage is the foundation of all good riding.”

  “Who says that?” Mickey said.

  “I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Smart people.”

  We both fell into giggles and I made Mickey show me some of her dressage test when we got back to the farm. Hampton was good and so was she. I was really proud of my best friend and I couldn’t wait to help her at the dressage show in return for all the times she’d helped me.

  CHAPTER FORTY SIX

  When we finally took our horses back into the barn, Jess had gone. There was no Hashtag or Beauty or even Belle. Jess and Amber’s tack lockers were empty. There was no trace that the sisters had ever even been there at all. Dad was sitting in the office. I stuck my head in after taking care of Bluebird.

  “They cleared out then?” I said.

  He looked up and smiled. “Faster than you can say bully.”

  “So that’s it? That’s the end of it?”

  “Yes, that’s the end of it,” he said.

  “How did they take it?” I asked, knowing full well what the answer would be.

  “Mr. Eastford was pretty upset,” Dad said.

  “I told you that he wouldn’t believe Jess had done anything wrong.”

  “Well he couldn’t exactly refute it,” Dad said. “Because I showed him this.”

  He came over with his iPad and I watched the grainy black and white footage of Jess taking Bluebird out of his stall.

  “We have security cameras?” I said.

  “You don’t think people would just leave their horses worth hundreds of thousands of dollars here without them, do you?”

  I guess I hadn’t thought about it but it made sense.

  “You mean I could have been watching Jess all this time?” I said. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “You really want to spend your whole life watching Jess?” he said.

  “No.” I shook my head. “I guess not.”

  “Good. And now you don’t have to. She’s gone and they’ll find a new trainer and that will be that.”

  I didn’t like to tell my father that it would never be over but it was nice to at least pretend that it was.

  “So,”
he said. “Don’t you think it’s about time that you took that new horse of yours out for a ride?”

  “What, now?” I gulped.

  “You can’t put it off any longer. It’s now or never. Come on.”

  CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN

  We tacked Arion up together and my heart swelled with pride. He’d filled out and now his coat was a shiny dapple gray. His ribs no longer showed and the bite marks from the auction had long gone. He stood there as good as gold while we brushed and fussed over him and then looked curiously as we placed the saddle on his back.

  “You’ve seen one before,” I told him. “But you’re not racing today. That life is officially over. Now you are a jumper.”

  “No,” Dad said. “He’s a jumper in training.”

  “You’re a jumper,” I whispered in his ear as I slipped his new bridle on. I figured he needed all the positive reinforcement he could get.

  We took him out to the ring. It was just the three of us. Everyone had gone home. There was no one there to see if I failed or post a video of it online but I still felt nervous.

  “What do I do?” I said.

  “Just feel him out,” Dad said. “You’ll know what he is ready for.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to ride him first?” I asked, fiddling with the reins.

  “He’s your horse. Your project. It’s up to you what you do with him.”

  Dad gave me a leg up and I sat there for a moment, taking in the fact that I was actually riding my new horse. He felt different beneath me, just as tall as Socks but narrower, which I didn’t even think was possible. But he had no muscle. He was a blank slate. I’d be able to build him up however I wanted, with a little help from my dad.

  I closed my legs around his sides and he stepped forward.

  “Remember,” Dad called out. “Light hands. He’s used to grabbing the bit and leaning on it when he runs. We don’t want him to do that anymore.”