“You’re actually going to do it?” I said.
“I think everyone is going to do it,” she replied.
She was right. All of the Fox Run students lined up to take a turn and Dad stood there with his stopwatch, timing them. It was hilarious. Most of the ponies charged through like they were on a battlefield, swiping the cobwebbed noodles out of the way with their heads. Most of the horses thought that they were being needlessly tortured and refused to do much of anything.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” I asked Dakota as she stood there with Four, ready to take her turn.
“Absolutely,” she said, jamming her helmet onto her head.
“Well just hold on,” I said.
I wasn’t too keen to see Dakota smashed to smithereens in the pumpkin patch while Four pranced his way across the dark field and my dad declared another horse mentally unstable and unfit for riding. But it turned out that I had nothing to worry about. Four, who was flakey with me, seemed to think that Dakota was now his new boss. She kicked him on and he charged over the skeleton tarp like it was his job, through the noodles and round the maze of body part cones. They even galloped to the finish line.
“Told you,” she said triumphantly.
“He’s like a different horse.” I shook my head.
“He just likes my western tack,” she said. “That’s all.”
And because I probably looked like my former horse had just horribly betrayed me she threw her arms around me when she jumped off and whispered, “Thanks for letting me ride him.”
“Aren’t you going through?” Mickey asked after she’d come back with Hampton. She had cobwebs stuck to her helmet and Hampton had them trailing in his tail. He’d flipped out in the noodles, probably thinking that they were attacking him and had spun round and round before Mickey finally had to admit defeat.
“No,” I said. “My horses have all done enough today. I’m just happy to watch.”
“Watch us make fools of ourselves,” Mickey said. “How charming.”
But everyone said that the Halloween show was the best time ever and to be honest, it had turned out pretty awesome. And Dakota and Four won the haunted pumpkin patch obstacle course and when Cat pinned the blue ribbon on his bridle, her grandparents cheered the loudest and Four looked all smug like he had tried to tell me all along that he just wanted to be a western horse and that I should have listened to him in the first place. He was probably right. And Dakota was delighted with the horse charm bracelet that she won and she didn’t even notice Mickey drooling all over it and mumbling under her breath that she’d win next year.
“It turned out to be a pretty good day, didn’t it?” I asked Dad later when I found him in the office.
Everyone was clearing up and putting their horses away for the night and that tired, happy feeling hung over the barn like a blanket. The day hadn’t quite turned out the way I’d expected, I never thought I’d race into the woods to save a family of bears or that my green jumper would actually win the big class but sometimes the best days were the ones where everything got turned on its head but worked out anyway.
“Yes,” Dad said as he hung up the phone.
I thought he looked pale. In fact now he was the one who looked like he was going to hurl.
“What is it?” I said. “A new horse coming in?”
My voice sounded hopeful but I knew that the phone call had nothing to do with a new horse coming in. It was something bad. I just knew it. The day had been too good. Too perfect. Life had to balance the good with the bad but couldn’t it have just waited one more day to do it?
“Just tell me quick like ripping off a Band-Aid,” I said, slumping down into the chair opposite him.
He looked at me and sort of shrugged.
“I’ve just been fired,” he said.
THE END
COMING SOON
SHOW JUMPING DREAMS #24: BOOT CAMP
Emily’s father has been fired. They are being forced to leave Fox Run and everything she loves behind. Her friends, her peers and her trainers. All she’ll take with her are her horses and her will to survive and win at all costs but it’s a blow to everything she’s worked so hard for and a setback she never saw coming.
Now Emily and her father will set up residence at his falling down farm where there is no ring and the barn is only half finished. She’ll have to train without all the luxuries she’s become so accustomed to. No grooms. No jumps. No one to care. And no Socks because despite Missy’s promises, he has to stay behind at Fox Run. Missy has betrayed them all, a woman scorned, out for revenge and now Emily is stuck in the middle.
But when life pulls the rug out from under you there is nothing to do but keep going. Emily knows she will never give up on her dream. She’ll just have to work a little harder to get there. She’s done it before and she’ll do it again. And she doesn’t need fancy facilities to put her horses into an intensive training program to figure out who will replace Socks as her ride on the Junior Olympic team because the first show is in December and she only has one month to get her horses back into the best shape of their life.
BOOT CAMP: CHAPTER ONE
Dad had a blank look on his face. I probably had the same one on mine. He just told me that he’d been fired but it couldn’t be true. It had to be some kind of cruel joke. But it wasn’t.
“How could they fire you?” I said. “Why?”
“I don’t know,” Dad said.
“Well what did they say? How did they say it? Where are we supposed to go?” I spluttered.
The reality had started to set in already. We lived at Fox Run. All our horses were boarded here. We couldn’t just pick up and leave. It would require a lot of effort and planning. And all my friends were here. Mickey and Faith and Ethan.
I blinked back the tears. “What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know.” Dad shook his head.
“Goodnight,” Dakota said, sticking her head in the office. “Thanks for a great show.”
I quickly wiped a tear away and went out to say goodbye.
“I’m glad you had a good time,” I told her. “Four really likes you, I can tell.”
“I like him too,” she said, giving me a quick hug. “Hey, are you okay?”
“Fine,” I said, forcing a smile. “Just tired, that’s all. It’s been a long day.”
“It sure has,” she said. “See you tomorrow.”
“Okay,” I replied.
Because I knew that I would still be here tomorrow but what about the day after that and the week after that? We were about to be homeless and I didn’t know what we were going to do.
Later, when everyone had gone home, I wandered through the barn. The horses and ponies were all quiet, munching their hay or standing there with a hind leg cocked and their heads down, sleeping. It was the best time of day, when the clients had gone home and the stalls were clean and everyone was tired and happy. It would have been the perfect end to the perfect day but now it turned out that it was the end of something more than that. It was the end of our time at Fox Run. I’d loved it here. From the very first moment I moved in, it was like a dream come true. Living on a working farm, going to shows, training with my father. It was the life I’d always wanted for myself. I just hadn’t thought that it would ever end.
I sat down in front of Bluebird’s stall and rested my head on my knees. I knew things had to change. That was life. What I didn’t understand was why my things always seemed to be changing when everyone else’s always seemed the same. Mickey had lived in her house since she was four. Her parents were still together. She’d had a stable life while mine had been anything but. And it wasn’t fair for life to keep kicking the same person over and over again. Wasn’t it someone else’s turn?
I sat there for ages, biting my lip and staring off into space. I knew it wouldn’t fix anything but I was numb. It was going to take time to process the fact that this wouldn’t be my home anymore but I didn’t know how much time we had.
Dad finally came out of the office and saw me sitting there moping. He came and sat down next to me.
“I must be asleep,” I said. “This is all just a bad dream, isn’t it?”
“I’m afraid not,” he said.
“But I don’t understand?” I said again. “Besides, I bet it will take them ages to find a replacement for you so we probably still have loads of time here, right?”
“You will understand,” he said sadly. “When I tell you who my replacement is.”
“Wait, they have one already?” I said. “Who?”
“It’s Missy.”
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 Dreams 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
#10 White Horses
#11 Trick Pony
#12 Off Course
#13 Winter Wonderland
#14 Gift Horse
#15 Half Halt
#16 Young Riders
#17 Show Time
#18 Beginner’s Luck
#19 Chasing Ribbons
#20 Double Standards
#21 Stable Vices
#22 Jump Off
# 23 Dark Horse
(COMING SOON) #24 Boot Camp
Dark Horse (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 23) Page 11
