His chestnut ears were pricked. He didn't seem to mind the swirling water or the fact that we were possibly riding to our doom. He was happy doing what I asked of him, even though I was sure that he didn't understand it.
Cat and the horse were almost at the mast but we were getting closer. I could see the gray's mane tangled in her hands as she fought to stay on his back and not get swept away by the waves.
The water was up to Bluebird's chest. One minute the sand was beneath his feet and the next I felt it disappear and he started to swim. Tears rolled down my cheeks. I had to believe that I could turn him and swim back to shore but I didn't know if I would be able to. All I knew was that I had to get to Cat.
CHAPTER FORTY
Cat and the gray horse were at the mast now. I watched as Cat reached out to touch it as they passed, her fingers grazing the wood and then the horse swam past. In the moonlight I saw fear cross her face, watched as she tugged on the reins and the horse didn't turn. She tried again, this time harder and the horse's head sunk below the water and then bobbed up again. Cat began to scream.
"I'm coming," I called out to her. "Hold on."
She looked back over her shoulder, really seeing me for the first time.
"Help," she screamed.
Now she wanted my help? Why couldn't she have listened to me before when I told her it was a stupid idea to ride out there or even before that when I said that she didn't know how to ride and that she needed to leave the horses alone.
Bluebird was gaining on them. The gray horse was starting to get frantic as Cat tried her best to turn him. But no matter what she did, the horse still swam straight.
I looked back to the shoreline, desperate to see a boat or something but all I could make out were the lights at the water line, flickering in the dark like fireflies.
Bluebird was gaining ground. The gray was close now.
"Get off his back," I called out to her. "Grab the reins."
"I can't," she screamed. "He’ll kick me."
And I knew she was right. I didn’t know how I was going to get them both back to shore.
The gray saw us coming up alongside and let out a panicked whinny. Bluebird replied with a snort.
"Come on," I told Cat. "We'll turn them together."
I clung to the hope that I'd be able to turn Bluebird and that the gray would follow but I really had no idea if it would work or not and if it didn't? Well then that look I'd imagined on my mother’s face wouldn't just be for Cat, it would be for me as well. Two girls swept out to sea and never seen again. I thought of all the things I wanted to do with my life. The competitions I still longed to ride in and the Olympics. The goal I'd been working towards now nothing more than an elusive dream.
"No," I cried out. "I'm not going to die like this."
I brought Bluebird around the gray and gently pulled on the left rein. If we could circle around him then we'd force him to turn with us but although Bluebird was trying to turn, he was also starting to tip over sideways.
"No," I screamed at him. "You can do this. I know you can."
Cat was screaming, her voice filling the air with desperation and panic.
"Shut up," I yelled at her.
And trying to find a balance between turning and tipping, I coaxed my pony to circle back towards the beach.
CHAPTER FORTY ONE
For a moment I thought that it wasn't going to work. That I'd doomed my beloved pony and myself as well but then Bluebird started to turn and so did the gray horse. They were swimming back to shore and the lights that bobbed about on the sand.
"Stay with us," I told Cat, shouting over the crashing waves. "Stay with us."
She nodded, her face an ashen gray in the moon light. I watched the beach come into view between my pony’s chestnut ears and when I felt him tire, I encouraged him on with my voice, telling him what a magnificent boy he was and how he could have all the carrots in the world. When his hooves finally found the ground beneath the waves I felt him stumble and almost fall but he found his footing and walked wearily onto the sand, the gray horse doing the same.
I fell from his back as people rushed forward to help us.
"Make sure he's okay," was all I could whisper.
I lay there in the warm sand as the night breeze washed over me, the sound of the waves filling the air and the velvet sky full of stars. I had to pinch myself to make sure I had made it, that I wasn't actually dreaming or dead. The sky was so vivid and bright. I'd never seen it look that way before. Perhaps everything looked so much more shiny and new when you'd come so close to death and lived to tell about it.
"Can you stand?" It was Mickey, pulling me up.
"Is he okay?" I mumbled again.
"Bluebird is fine. We've got him. Come on."
I stumbled on legs that were jelly, supported by people who led Bluebird and the gray horse. Cat was there too, her arm around another girl as she was dragged back to the house alongside me. She looked over and caught my eye, mouthed the words, thank you, and then looked away. It was such a brief moment that I had to wonder if I'd imagined it. The Cat I knew would never thank me for anything. Not even saving her life.
We all piled into the kitchen where hot towels and steaming mugs of hot chocolate were passed around despite the warm summer air. People were talking about how it was a miracle. That no one had ever made it back from the shipwreck when the tide came in. Sasha's father was telling stories about all the people who had drowned but I couldn't listen. I couldn’t even keep my eyes open. I slumped in the chair with the blanket and the coco and my eyes closed. I drifted into a deep sleep and fell into a dream where the waves crashed all around me and this time they wouldn't let me go. This time they swallowed me and Bluebird whole and we were never seen again.
I woke to a quiet room full of people sleeping in chairs and one thought in my mind, Bluebird. I had to make sure he was okay.
CHAPTER FORTY TWO
I stumbled down to the barn on legs that felt thick and awkward. The horses were quiet, although some of them gently nickered when they saw me. I looked for Bluebird and didn't see him but as I peered into the stall there he was, sprawled out in the thick shavings. I slipped inside and he opened his eyes, sighed and then closed them again.
"I'm so sorry," I whispered. "Can you ever forgive me?"
I knew that I was the one who had put him in danger. If we hadn't come to the stupid party then he would never have had to gallop on the beach or swim out in the sea. Then again, if we hadn't come perhaps there would have been no one around to rescue Cat. In an alternate universe, she would be dead by now.
I sunk into the shavings and lay my head against his warm neck. He really was the best pony in the whole world and I knew that out there in those cresting waves, he had saved my life. I fell asleep and this time I didn't dream of anything at all.
I woke to the sound of grain being dumped into feed tubs and people talking loudly. Bluebird was standing by his bucket and looked at me expectantly as I wiped the sleep from my eyes and tried to move my aching body.
"What's going on?" I asked one of the girls who was dashing by with an armful of hay.
"There's a storm coming," she said.
"This early?"
I pulled my phone from my pocket and looked at the time. It was just before eight. The thunder storms usually came in the afternoon but sometimes they made an early appearance. I had two voicemails from Esther and a text message. I didn't know why. It wasn't like it mattered what time we got picked up now. The urgency of the night before had gone. Now I just wanted to go home and sleep for a week and Bluebird was definitely getting time off too. After all, we'd earned it.
Mickey bustled down the barn aisle with her bags, a worried look on her face.
"Not you as well?" I said, slipping out of the stall to get Bluebird his breakfast. "Why is everyone so panicked about a stupid thunderstorm?"
She stopped in front of me and pulled some shavings out of my hair, shaking her head at my d
isheveled appearance.
"Everyone's panicked because it's not a thunderstorm," she said. "It's a hurricane and it's headed right for us."
THE END
COMING SOON
SHOW JUMPING DREAMS BOOK 10: WHITE HORSES
A hurricane is coming. It’s heading straight for the Florida coastline and Sand Hill is right in its path. This isn’t one of those times when everyone scrambles to get ready and then the storm turns at the last minute. This is the real deal and evacuations are underway.
But all Emily can think about is how she risked Bluebird’s life on the beach and so of course she’ll evacuate with the Sand Hill horses and Esther. Only her family has other plans. They want her to go with them. She wants to stay with her pony.
So when everyone relocates to the track barn and racecourse set up for evacuees, tensions run high. No one is sure if they are far enough inland. Can they ride out the biggest storm of the century? And why is there a white horse loose in the storm that only Emily can see?
WHITE HORSES: CHAPTER ONE
Esther arrived to pick us up from the beach ride with a pale face. I thought it was because she was worried about the storm but she just brushed off my questions.
“Do you know how many hurricanes have come this way and then turned at the last minute?” she said.
“No, how many?”
“Too many to count. Now get your stuff.”
Esther didn’t say anything about the messages I’d sent her the night before and I thought it was best to forget it had ever happened. She didn’t need to know that I’d galloped Bluebird in a race on the beach and then swum him out into the ocean to rescue my stupid stepsister who had stolen a horse and tried to ride out to the shipwreck. No one rode out to the wreck and made it back in one piece. We almost didn’t make it back either. Cat thanked me but it was almost like it had been a dream. As if it had happened to someone else and not me at all.
I pulled Bluebird out of his stall, relieved that he didn’t seem sore or stiff or lame in anyway. After all, it wasn’t every day that he swam in the raging waves and then lived to tell about it. Not that we were going to be telling anyone anytime soon.
“It’ll just be our little secret, okay boy?” I whispered as I put on his boots.
He walked into Esther’s trailer with a sigh, glad to be going home. With the hurricane swirling out there, it didn’t look like there would be much time to ride anyway. There had been a couple of close calls the year before when I’d been riding with Esther and I helped her stockpile food and secure the barn area so that nothing would blow around but those storms turned, just like they all usually did, and instead we enjoyed clear skies and a nice breeze. I expected this one to be the same.
We loaded my stuff in the truck and were pulling out when I saw Cat standing there talking to Will. She looked over but didn’t wave. I didn’t wave either. I wasn’t sure how things were going to be between us now. After all, I had saved her life. Did that mean that she would be nicer to me?
While Cat didn’t acknowledge me, Will did. He looked over and waved. I looked away. I wasn’t sure how I felt about him now. His sister’s actions could have put me in the hospital. What kind of person went around cutting peoples reins so that they broke while you were riding? I made a mental note to stay well clear of her if I ever ran into her at a show. She was bad news. As for Will? I wasn’t sure if I could trust him either.
“You’re still mad at him then?” Mickey whispered so that Esther couldn’t hear.
“With good reason,” I said.
“He thought you would be. That’s why he wanted me to give you this.”
She gave me a handwritten note. Without a second thought, I tossed it out the window.
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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COLLECT THEM ALL
Other books in the Show Jumping Series by Claire Svendsen
#1 Secret Rider
#2 Pony Jumpers
#3 Winter Blues
#4 Star Pupil
#5 Sale Horse
#6 Last Chance
#7 Hunter Pace
#8 Turf Wars
#9 BEACH RIDE
(COMING SOON) #10 WHITE HORSES
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN
CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT
CHAPTER THIRTY NINE
CHAPTER FORTY
CHAPTER FORTY ONE
CHAPTER FORTY TWO
COMING SOON
WHITE HORSES: CHAPTER ONE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
STAY CONNECTED & WIN A FREE BOOK
COLLECT THEM ALL
Beach Ride (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 9) Page 11
