She was going directly after me and she knew what time she had to beat. Everything was set for her to do well, except her attitude.
“You know,” she said, spinning Stardust around. “You’d better appreciate that lousy trainer of yours while you still can.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I said.
But they were ushering me out of the ring and ringing the bell and Jess was out for blood. My blood. She took the course like her life depended on it and put in a clean round and a fast jump off. In fact she was two seconds faster than I was.
They all told me I had done great but having Jess beat my time didn’t feel very great. In fact I had a sneaking suspicion that if Bluebird hadn’t eaten so much ice cream then we would have been much faster.
“You were right,” Uncle Carl said. “That pony is amazing.”
“He is,” I said.
But I was worried. When Jess made a threat, she usually followed through and that meant that Esther could be in trouble. And Jess was right. Without her I would be in trouble too. Big trouble.
They finally posted the group of riders who’d made the cut on the bulletin board in the barn. I couldn’t look as I wasn’t going to let Bluebird out of my sight for one second so I sent Mickey. She came back grinning.
“You made it,” she said.
“Probably just by the skin of my teeth,” I said. “So I guess Jess made it too then?”
“Unfortunately,” Mickey said. “And I hate to say it but she rode quite well today. If she keeps that up, it’s going to be close.”
“This sucks,” I said.
“She might have ridden better today,” Esther said, dragging a tack trunk into the trailer. “But she’s not consistent. You are. Just remember that.”
But the only thing I could remember was Jess’s words and how easy it would be for her father to arrange for something bad to happen to Esther.
The next day was Sunday and Esther had forbidden us all from going to the barn. She said the horses needed a rest and so did she so I spent the day eating leftover turkey and avoiding Derek’s questions about the Snowball Cup prize money.
“Does he really think that the money has anything to do with him?” Uncle Carl said.
We’d both slipped out into the back yard for some fresh air. Derek filled the whole house with his endless questions and his busy presence. It was making me claustrophobic.
“Probably,” I said. “I expect he sees Bluebird as some sort of cash cow.”
“You’d better watch your back,” Uncle Carl said. “I’ve dealt with men like him before and it always ends badly.”
“That’s just great,” I sighed.
But by the next day, Derek stealing my money was the last thing on my mind. When we got to the barn we found Esther in floods of tears, suitcases packed and sitting in the barn aisle beside her.
“What’s going on?” I ran and grabbed her hand. “Where are you going?”
“Home,” she gulped. “To Sweden.”
“What?” Mickey said. “No. Why?”
“A problem with my visa,” she said. “I have to leave the country to get it resolved.”
“Right now?” I said. “But the shows. The Snowball Cup. You can’t leave us now. Who’s going to take care of the horses and the barn and us?”
“If I don’t leave, they will make me leave and if that happens then they may decide not to let me back in,” Esther said.
I looked around the barn at the horses, their heads hanging over their stalls, content and happy because they had a routine and that routine was Esther. She fed them and cleaned their stalls and turned them out at the same time every day. She took care of them and knew all the things to watch out for to make sure that they weren’t getting sick or lame. What was going to happen to them now?
“Is the barn closing down?” I asked, tears springing up in my own eyes.
This was what Jess had wanted all along, for Sand Hill to close so that her father could buy the land. I wasn’t sure what his job was but he was rich and important. I knew that he could easily pull enough strings to hurt Esther but I never believed in a million years that he would make her leave the country. This was the worst thing that could possibly happen.
“I won’t close,” Esther said. “This won’t be the end of us.”
“But what are we going to do while you’re gone?” Mickey said.
“You’re going to become experts at barn management,” she said.
“You mean we’re going to run this place?” Ethan asked. “I don’t think that’s a very good idea. We kind of suck at keeping order.”
“Well you’d better start unsucking,” Esther wiped her tears away. “Here are your schedules. I have a friend coming to take care of the morning shift but you will all be responsible for the afternoon care.” She handed us each a folder. “I have also scheduled riding time and what I want you to work on. I’d have another trainer come in and work with you but at such short notice, I couldn’t find anyone.”
“So we’ll still get to go to the Blizzard Challenge shows?” I said.
“You will go and you’d better win.”
“I will,” I grinned. “Don’t worry, I will.”
Only I didn’t feel so confident as the taxi came and whisked Esther away to the airport amid promises to call and email as much as possible.
“I’ll probably only be gone a few days,” she said. “A week at the most.”
But even if that was true, a week on our own seemed like a lifetime.
“I don’t like this,” Mickey groaned as we picked out the stalls. “The whole reason that I don’t keep Hampton in my back yard is so that I don’t have to worry about him.”
“It’ll be good for us,” I said. “Think of all the things we’re going to learn.”
“What like how to operate the manure spreader?” she leant on her pitchfork with a look of thunder on her face. “I’d rather not. Besides, if I’m doing all the work, then what are my parents paying board for?”
“If we don’t do this,” I said sternly. “Then Sand Hill will close for sure. Then you and Ethan will have to go and board at Fox Run with Jess and all her evil friends and I’ll have to sell Bluebird because there is no way that I could ever afford Fox Run rates.”
“I guess you’re right,” she said.
And I was right. Somehow I was going to have to pull off taking care of the farm and winning the Snowball Cup. I had the feeling that I was going to need a miracle.
CHAPTER TEN
I barely made it through school the next day. What if Esther’s friend hadn’t shown up and the horses were standing in dirty stalls still waiting for their breakfast? Or worse, what if Jess had snuck onto the property and set all the horses loose since she knew that no one was there to keep an eye on them.
“Can’t you drive any faster?” I begged Mickey’s mom.
“Not unless you want to end up in a body bag,” she said.
Mickey had told me that her mom had not been impressed that Esther had left us sort of in charge. In fact she was almost considering looking for another boarding stable.
“Why on earth did you tell her?” I’d asked over lunch. “You don’t think I told my mom, do you? No. I kept my mouth shut, just like you should have done.”
“I didn’t mean to,” she groaned, poking some sloppy looking pudding. “It just sort of came out. Then I tried to explain it all to her properly and I think I just made it sound worse than it actually is.”
Instead of dropping us off at the gate as usual, Mickey’s mom parked the car and turned off the engine.
“What are you doing Mom?” Mickey asked.
“You don’t think I’m just dropping you off after everything you told me last night, do you? I want to meet this so called friend of Esther’s and make sure I’m not leaving you in the hands of a serial killer.”
“But we don’t even know if she’s going to be here,” Mickey groaned. “The afternoon is our responsibility.”
>
“And we don’t even know if the friend is a she,” I mumbled under my breath.
For all we knew, Esther’s friend could be a big sweaty man and I had a feeling that wouldn’t fly with Mickey’s mom at all. But luckily, Esther’s friend turned out to be a pretty blonde girl called Helga who was also from Sweden. I didn’t know how long she’d been in America but her English was horrible. We were going to have to make sure Jess didn’t find out about her or she’d be the next one being deported.
“You leave girls with me, yes?” Helga smiled as Mickey’s mom stood there with her arms crossed. “I make sure they are saved,” she said.
“Safe,” Mickey’s mom shouted at her like she was deaf instead of just foreign. “Make sure they are kept safe.”
“Yes, saved,” Helga frowned. “Clean stalls, the waterfalls and time for gallop too.”
It took all of Mickey’s strength to practically push her mom out of the barn.
“You call me at the first sign of trouble,” she said. “Promise me.”
“Yes Mom,” Mickey said.
“That went well,” I laughed.
“Esther owes me big time for this,” she moaned.
“Poor Esther,” Helga shook her head, looking like she was about to cry.
“Poor Esther, lucky us,” Ethan said.
Because while we were all mourning the hopefully temporary loss of our fearless leader, Ethan was acting like he’d won the jackpot on account of the fact that our temporary barn manager looked like she was a swimsuit model.
“Boys,” I shook my head.
“Boys indeed,” Mickey nodded.
Except in an effort to impress the voluptuous Helga, Ethan worked twice as hard and fast as us and soon the stalls were clean, the waterers had been scrubbed and we were standing in the barn with three tacked up horses, ready to ride.
“I teach now, yes?” Helga said.
We all looked at each other kind of confused.
“Esther said we didn’t have a stand in trainer,” I said. “Do you know how to teach?”
I didn’t want to belittle Helga but I hardly doubted that she could help us improve our skills. Sure, she knew how to feed and clean stalls but she was wearing hot pants and cowboy boots. If anything, she looked like she was ready for a rodeo. The finer points of coaxing a thousand pound beast over a complex jumper course hardly seemed like something she would know how to do.
“Me help you,” she said and strode off to the arena leaving us standing there in the barn.
“This should be interesting,” Ethan said.
“I don’t think I have time for interesting,” I sighed. “Esther already gave me a lesson plan in her folder. Today I’m supposed to work on shoulder ins and striding.”
“I’m supposed to work without stirrups,” Mickey rolled her eyes. “I say let’s give Helga a chance.”
“Me too,” Ethan said.
“But she probably doesn’t even know how to ride,” I said as I trailed after them.
It started off badly. With Helga’s broken English and my disbelief that she could actually teach me something I didn’t already know, the warm up was a disaster.
“She said reverse direction,” Ethan grumbled as Bluebird and Wendell nearly collided head on.
“Why can’t we just do our own thing like Esther wanted us too?” I said.
“Because we’re being polite,” Mickey grinned as Hampton pranced by. She was just happy because Helga told her that Hampton was a marvelous beast.
“Now jumps, yes?” Helga said after the horses were sufficiently loose.
“Should we show you how?” I asked.
“No,” she snapped, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear just like Esther used to do. “I show you.”
Lucky for us, Esther had left a jump course set up in the ring. Unlucky for us, Helga set about adjusting it.
“We’ve jumped this course already,” I said. “The striding is fine.”
“You learn easy way,” she said. “Hard way better.”
“Hard way better?” Mickey frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I think it means she mucks up all the distances and then expects us to figure it out for ourselves,” I said.
“But why?”
“You think too much,” Helga said. “You feel the horse now.”
Ethan, obviously intent on impressing Helga, volunteered to go first. He started out okay but started to rush when he hit a particularly long distance and then had to rein Wendell in when the next distance was short. By the time he had finished half the jumps had been demolished.
“I don’t think I’d ever come across a course like that in a competition,” Ethan shook his head. “You’re right. She’s nuts.”
“You next,” she pointed at Mickey who shook her head.
“No, I’d rather not,” she said.
“You chicken?” Helga said.
Mickey’s mouth dropped open in surprise and I started to laugh. Things certainly weren’t going to be dull with Helga around.
“Fine then,” she said, snatching Hampton’s head around.
She should have done better than she did. After all, we’d already seen Ethan ride and I’d counted the strides in my head as he went around the course. Even though it wasn’t the same as walking the course, it was better than nothing. But either Mickey hadn’t been counting or she counted wrong because she had every fence down except the first and last.
“I ride in the hunter classes,” she whined as she came back to stand with us. “What’s that supposed to teach me?”
Helga just shook her head.
I gathered Bluebird’s reins and circled him, feeling Helga’s watchful eye on my back. I knew what she was doing. It was what Esther had been trying to drill into our heads for a long time now. That it didn’t matter how many strides were between the jumps. You should be able to ride your horse down the line and pick his take off spot without knowing. It was instinct. Intuition. And it involved riding with your gut and trusting your horse.
“I trust you Bluebird,” I whispered as we cantered towards the first jump. And it was true, I did.
Mickey rode by leaving Hampton to figure it out for himself, Ethan rode by the numbers but I had always ridden by the seat of my pants and this time, that didn’t fail me. I forgot about striding and pace and I picked the spots I saw and put Bluebird at them. He cleared the course in his usual, high headed fashion and we left every jump standing. Coming back to the group, I couldn’t stop smiling.
“Show off,” Mickey grumbled.
“Your horse a giraffe, no?” Helga said.
“Kind of,” I smiled.
“You ride with big heart,” she nodded, patting Bluebird. “You have the gift.”
“What gift?” Ethan said but I knew exactly what she meant.
I’d always known that horses were in my blood. That this was the one thing I was meant to do with my life above all others. The gift had been passed down to me from my father who once upon a time was a great rider, just like his father before him and one day I would be a great rider too.
“Good jobs,” Helga said. “Go barn, finish chores now.”
By the time the barn had been settled for the night we were all exhausted and sweaty. Helga had gone but told us she would see the ponies later. I assumed that meant she’d be dropping by for a night check. The place looked spotless, not a wisp of hay floating down the aisle or a halter out of place.
“You know, this is kind of rewarding,” Mickey said, kissing Hampton’s nose as he stuck it over his stall door. “Maybe I should think about having Hampton at home after all.”
“Where would you keep him?” I laughed. “In your pool? And what about all the times you oversleep? We have it easy. Helga is doing all the hard stuff.”
“I suppose,” she sighed. “Though I could always beg my parents to move to a place with more land.”
“You’d better not,” I poked her in the arm just as her mom pulled up.
> “Bye Ethan,” we waved.
“See you tomorrow,” he said.
“You’re all still alive then?” Mickey’s mom said as we got into the back seat.
“Yeah, one day down, a million to go,” Mickey sighed.
I hoped that it wasn’t a million. I missed Esther and though taking care of everything ourselves had been fun, we hadn’t really been alone. We’d had Helga, who had turned out to be a better trainer than I ever imagined.
“I can’t wait to ride again tomorrow,” I said.
“I can,” Mickey grumbled.
But the next show was in one week. I didn’t have much time to get ready and Jess was on a winning streak. I couldn’t let her beat me again.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
We went to the barn every afternoon and learned more about feeding and cleaning than I ever thought possible. It was hard, managing the feed and shavings so that we didn’t run out before more was delivered and trying to make sure all the horses kept their shoes on before the farrier was due.
“She’s lost one again,” Mickey sighed, shoving Saffron into her stall. The paint mare shook her beautiful white mane. “And she’s laughing about it,” Mickey said.
“Write it in the ledger,” I told her. “And see if Helga will keep an eye out for it when she dumps the manure next.”
When Esther ran the barn she knew everything but with the four of us, it was proving to be a little more complicated. The other day Mickey had cleaned the waterers and then ten minutes later Ethan had gone round and done it again.
“Couldn’t you tell they were clean?” she moaned.
“No,” he said defensively. “You couldn’t have done a very good job.”
“I did,” she said. “You just didn’t bother and look.”
That was when I found a big black ledger stuffed in the back of one of the filing cabinets and insisted that everyone write down everything. After all, cleaning the waterers twice wouldn’t do any harm but feeding the whole barn twice would. We couldn’t afford to make those kinds of mistakes while Esther was gone. She was counting on us.
Every afternoon Helga shuffled us off to the ring to jump another of her weird courses. Ethan and Mickey rolled their eyes every time they saw her coming with her clipboard of notes.
Winter Blues (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 3) Page 5
