Double Standards (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 20)

by Claire Svendsen

  “Mind if I tag along?” she said.

  I just shrugged. What was I supposed to say, no? It was what I wanted to say but I already felt in a crabby mood. Being mean to Jess would make me feel better for about five seconds and then I knew I’d just feel even worse. So I kept my mouth shut, which was pretty hard when really all I wanted to do was ask her about Sandy. Had she really trained Jess at her farm or was that just another lie like the pregnant Trakehner?

  We walked around the show rings, watching as the men weaved tractors around the jumps, pulling drags behind them. Almost everything was ready, everything except Bluebird and me. Jess didn’t talk and neither did I. There were probably things that she wanted to know as well. I was pretty sure that she had heard on the rumor mill that Hashtag was back at Fox Run. With people like Glory around who hung in the same circles as Jess’s sister Amber, there was no way that was going to be a secret I could keep forever. In fact I was surprised that she hadn’t asked me why he wasn’t here or gloated that she knew my father had bought a defective horse that wouldn’t jump anymore. But that would have been what the old Jess would have done. New Jess was much harder to predict.

  We’d cooled out our horses and were about to part ways when I couldn’t stand it any longer and the words just sort of blurted out of my mouth.

  “Do you know an evil, crazy trainer called Sandy Wilkinson?” I said, my words all running together.

  CHAPTER FORTY ONE

  Jess just looked at me for a moment. I thought she would say something cutting, some snide comment about how we’d stolen another of her trainers or how Sandy was a cast off that she didn’t want anyway but instead she just started to laugh.

  “What’s so funny?” I said.

  “I’m sorry.” She tried to stifle her giggles. “But Sandy Wilkinson is anything but a trainer and if she’s at your barn then you’ve got bigger problems than me.”

  “What do you mean?” I said.

  “She’s shady. Ask anyone. She lies and cheats and she’s stolen tack from a lot of barns in the area. I’m surprised you don’t already know.”

  “I guess we’ve been kind of busy,” I said.

  Jess was quiet for a moment. “Is your dad okay?” she finally said. “I saw his fall. That was nasty.”

  “He’s okay,” I replied.

  I didn’t know what else to say. Fine would mean that he was on the mend and I wasn’t sure that he was. Even okay was a bit of a stretch but I wasn’t about to tell Jess that all he did was sleep and watch mindless TV from his well-worn spot on the couch.

  “Well I’d better go and put this guy away,” she said. “See you around tomorrow and good luck.”

  “Same to you,” I replied.

  I watched them go, the girl who’d once made it her mission in life to destroy me and her beautiful black horse. She was like a different person. I hadn’t wanted to believe it but it was true. Had she had a personality transplant? Started some new medication? Seen a shrink? I thought that at some point the old Jess would claw her way back out of this facade but she hadn’t. I was starting to think that the new Jess was here to stay.

  Bluebird shied at a trash can just as we got back to the barn and slammed my leg into a post.

  “Ouch,” I cried, rubbing my shin. “What did you do that for?”

  He snorted like maybe the trash can was a horse eating monster, never mind that he’d seen a million trash cans just like it before.

  “If this is the way that you are going to behave, we are never going to win that class tomorrow.”

  Bluebird replied by turning around to nip at my butt as I dismounted. It was going to be one of those shows.

  CHAPTER FORTY TWO

  I wasn’t too happy to leave Bluebird behind but I was eager to get back to Fox Run that night to make sure that Sandy hadn’t made off with all our saddles or something. I was nervous after what Jess had told me but not really willing to take new Jess at her word so I’d asked a couple of other girls at the show grounds if they knew of Sandy as well. They all did and not in a good way.

  She’d apparently left a trail of destruction and mayhem behind at every barn she’d been at so why had Missy brought her to ours? They may have been friends once but it seemed like Missy was more fed up with Sandy now than anything. Hadn’t she even called the last barn that Missy had worked at to find out if she was a decent employee? Or was she just basing her assumptions on some ten year old friendship back when they both competed on the same circuit and hung out at shows. If so, Missy was a lot more naïve than I’d thought she was.

  Luckily, when we got back to Fox Run, the lights were blaring into the dark night sky and lessons were just wrapping up in the ring. I ran to my horses to make sure they were all okay. Arion greeted me with a soft nicker and Four looked up and snorted, still not sure if he really liked me or not. Hashtag was standing in the back with his eyes closed but he seemed none the worse for wear and little Bandit was being pampered by a group of small girls who had braided his mane and tied pink ribbons in it.

  “He’s a boy,” I cried.

  “That doesn’t matter,” they said and I guess they were right. It didn’t really matter.

  Sandy’s pregnant mare Jupiter was standing in her stall, shifting her weight from one foot to another. She looked uncomfortable, like she was going to pop at any second. Sandy said she wasn’t due for weeks. That was probably a lie. I’d looked it up online and it said that you could tell when a mare was going to foal because the baby dropped and they started to get waxy stuff on their teats. Jupiter had both. Sandy didn’t seem to care. She’d also wanted to toss the mare out in the paddock at night just like I’d said and when Missy had refused, saying that there were coyotes and wild dogs around that would be more than happy to attack a new born foal, Sandy just sort of shrugged. It was like she didn’t even care about the foal or the mare for that matter.

  I hung around making sure that everyone put their horses and tack away and stood there while Sandy went out to her truck. She didn’t have any saddles stuffed up her shirt so that was at least something but who knew what she’d get up to when we were all at the show. When we got back, I was going to have to have a serious conversation with Missy about getting rid of Sandy for good.

  When her truck rumbled down the drive, I picked up a brush and slipped into Jupiter’s stall. The mare sniffed my outstretched hand and then sighed. She had burs in her mane and tail and manure stains on her side. I got to work grooming her, picking the burs out with my fingers.

  “Just because you’re pregnant,” I told her, “Doesn’t mean you can’t look pretty.”

  I lay my palm flat against her stomach and felt the foal shift around inside. It had to be pretty cramped in there. Not really much room for movement. I felt bad for her but also a little nervous. I’d never seen a foal being born before or really been around one much. It would be super cool to have a foal in the barn and I was actually pretty excited about it, even though Missy wasn’t.

  “Please don’t have the foal while we’re at the show,” I whispered. “If you can hold it in for another day or two, I’d really appreciate it. I don’t think Sandy is ready to deal with you giving birth right now and it would be better for everyone if we were all here to help you.”

  The mare sniffed my fingers and then licked them. I’d brushed out her long forelock and it trailed down her dished face. She was one of the most beautiful horses I’d ever seen. Delicate and ethereal like she really did belong in the desert. Like she could float away on the breeze and never come back. And I really hoped she’d hold that baby in until we got back because otherwise I didn’t know what was going to happen to her. Horses had foals all the time. I knew it wasn’t a big deal but I also knew that sometimes things could go wrong and we didn’t need any more things going wrong at Fox Run.

  CHAPTER FORTY THREE

  “What happens if Jupiter foals tomorrow when we are at the show?” I asked Missy.

  We were in the kitchen making sandwich
es and snacks to take to the show. There was a rather large bag of carrots for the horses and some apples that we would no doubt share with them. Missy was putting cheese and ham in-between the bread and I was sliding the finished product into little plastic bags. The food at the last show had been expensive and this time everyone had decided that they wanted a giant picnic instead. Of course when we agreed that it was a good idea, we didn’t think that we’d be the ones buying the stuff and making the sandwiches at eleven o’clock at night. Other people had promised to bring drinks and other snacks like chips and cookies. I just hoped they did because without them our pile of sandwiches looked kind of sad.

  “It’s Sandy’s horse,” Missy said. “She’ll handle it. Don’t worry about it.”

  “But I am worried,” I said. “I don’t trust her.”

  “Your father is here,” Missy said.

  Dad had finally moved from the couch to the bed, telling us in his grumpy voice that we were making too much noise but I’d thought that he hobbled a little less than he had done before. Maybe he was starting to get better after all. The swelling on his ankle was going down and Missy had finally been able to finally drag him to the doctor to get a follow up x-ray. The pins were still in place and the bone was starting to mold around them. He was going to have a long road of recovery ahead of him but as long as he started his physical therapy to keep the joint supple, there was no reason why he wouldn’t be able to ride again. That seemed to cheer him up immensely and I even thought that he’d cut back on the pills. I just hoped it lasted.

  “Dad wouldn’t notice if a tornado swept through and took the barn away with it,” I said. “He’s getting better but not that much better and what would you expect him to do anyway? Hobble into the stall and help pull the foal out?”

  “Foals don’t need to be pulled out,” Missy said. “They come right out on their own when the mare pushes just like human babies.”

  “Sometimes they get stuck,” I mumbled. “I looked it up online. If that happens and no one is there to help both the mare and foal could die.”

  “You look too much stuff up online,” Missy said. “Just forget about it. The mare is Sandy’s problem, not ours. Just focus on your class tomorrow. I watched your schooling session. It didn’t look like it went very well.”

  “It was okay,” I mumbled.

  “Well Jess looked better than okay so you’d better get your act together if you don’t want her to whip your butt tomorrow.”

  “I know,” I said.

  “You’re usually so focused. I don’t know what is wrong with you,” she said as I yawned. “You’d better go to bed. We have to be up again in a few hours and at this rate you’ll be falling asleep in the saddle.”

  I left her finishing up the sandwiches and went to my room where it looked like a clothes bomb had gone off. I’d had trouble finding my favorite breeches and had tossed almost everything out of the closet looking for them. I finally found them neatly folded in a drawer that I hadn’t even looked in.

  I pushed all the stuff off my bed and onto the floor, throwing myself down on the comforter. It had horses galloping across it in gray and white. Above my bed were the ribbons that Bluebird and I had won, all pinned in a row, fluttering gently in the breeze that came out of the vent from the air conditioning. Missy was right. I wasn’t focused but how could I be? With everything else that had been going on, showing was the last thing on my mind but shouldn’t it have been the first? Wasn’t winning the Talent Scout series supposed to be the only thing I cared about? But somehow it wasn’t. My family was and the health and safety of the horses. Ribbons were great but helping to run the barn since my father had been injured meant that I now knew how much more everything else mattered too.

  I wiggled out of my jeans and pulled the blanket over my head where I dreamed that Jupiter gave birth to a black winged horse with red eyes that flew over to the show grounds and snorted fire out of its nostrils, setting fire to the jumps as I was trying to finish my round while Jess stood on the sidelines laughing.

  CHAPTER FORTY FOUR

  Since the heat wave of June had broken and we were back to regular hot temperatures instead of insanely hot temperatures, the organizers of the show had decided to keep these classes during the day instead of moving them all to the evening like last time. Of course that may have had something to do with my father’s accident and the fact that a lot of the horses had been spookier under the lights. I think they were afraid of a law suit or something and so we were all going to die of heat exhaustion instead only lucky for me they’d brought the Talent Scout class up earlier so that it was now before lunch.

  I was kind of glad. I just wanted to get it over and done with and get back to the barn but I knew that we had students riding all day and so I’d still be stuck there, wondering if Jupiter was okay. I wasn’t really sure why I was so attached to a horse I didn’t even know, especially one that belonged to a psycho like Sandy but the mare was special. I knew she was the moment I saw her step off that trailer and I had to believe that she’d come to Fox Run for a reason, even if it was only so that we could protect her from her crazy owner.

  Having redeemed himself at the last show, Mr. Rivers wasn’t making Ethan take Wendell to this show, much to Faith’s disappointment. And I hadn’t found her a ride either so her parents had said she couldn’t go at all. That didn’t stop her from dragging them out to the barn so that she could mope around and make sad faces at me while I was trying to get ready to leave.

  “Did I pack a spare set of rubber reins in the trailer yesterday in case it rains?” I asked Missy from the tack room.

  “I don’t know,” she shouted back from the office.

  “Who cares,” Faith said.

  She was standing in the doorway pouting, her face all scrunched up and mad looking.

  “It won’t work,” I told her, digging around in my spare tack trunk for the reins. “The trailer took the horses yesterday. There is no way to get a pony there for you now.”

  “But if I came with you guys, I might find one to catch ride,” she said. “Like last time.”

  “Last time was dumb luck,” I said. “You think another girl is going to just happen to fall off right in front of you?”

  “Maybe,” she said, swinging back and forth with the door. “It could happen.”

  “It won’t,” I said. “Trust me. Stay here and ride your own pony. Just because he can’t go to the show, doesn’t mean you can’t still ride him. Think of how much better you guys will be when the weather changes and the fall show season starts.”

  “If you couldn’t show Bluebird, you’d feel just the same as I do so don’t try and pretend like it’s not a big deal because it is.”

  “I know,” I said, standing up and looking at her seriously. “And I am sorry but I don’t know what you want me to do about it.”

  “Let me come with you guys,” she begged. “Please.”

  “Your parents have said no,” I told her. “I can’t just kidnap you away from them.”

  “You could if you wanted to,” she said sullenly.

  “Look,” I said, lowering my voice. “As long as you are going to be here, I have an important job for you. Something that would really help me out but it is a secret, okay? You can’t let anyone know.”

  “It’s not something dumb is it?” she said looking at me dubiously. “Like scrubbing buckets or sweeping cobwebs because I’m too old to fall for that.”

  “No, it’s not,” I said. “I want you to spy on Sandy for me.”

  “Why?” she said, looking curious.

  “Because I don’t like her and I don’t trust her and I think she’s up to something.”

  “Something bad?” Faith’s eyes got big.

  “Maybe,” I said. “Just keep an eye on her but don’t let her know that you are keeping an eye on her.”

  “Like a secret mission?”

  “Exactly. And I want you to watch Jupiter too. If she looks like she’s going to foal I
want you to call me right away.”

  “How will I know if she is going to foal?” she said.

  “You’ll know,” I replied. “She’ll start looking even more uncomfortable than she does now. She might lie down and get up a lot and start grunting. If she does anything like that I want you to call me. It’s important. Okay?”

  “Okay,” she said brightly. “And can I ride Arion?”

  “What?” I said. “No. Of course not.”

  “It was worth a try,” she said with a sly grin. “Maybe next time?”

  “Maybe next time in like five years,” I told her.

  “You’re no fun.” She shook her head.

  “I’m only trying to keep you safe,” I said.

  “That’s what my parents say,” she said. “Which basically means no you can’t have any fun in your life ever.”

  “You have fun,” I said.

  “If you say so.” She sighed.

  “But you’ll watch Jupiter for me won’t you? Please?”

  “I’ll watch her,” Faith said. “And Sandy. I don’t like her either. I saw what she did to Ballycat and it wasn’t cool.”

  “You saw?” I said.

  “Of course I did. She’s horrible. She beat him with a crop.”

  “Why didn’t you say anything?” I asked her.

  “I thought you did.” She shrugged.

  “I did,” I said. “But I’m not sure anyone believed me.”

  CHAPTER FORTY FIVE

  By the time we got to the show grounds, I had a plan. Not to get rid of Sandy but of how I was going to prepare my pony for his big class. I was going to forgo braiding him and instead find a quiet area and school the heck out of him. I’d woken with the dread that I knew he wasn’t prepared and neither was I. Show jumping was in my blood and it was in Bluebird’s too but that didn’t mean that you could just go in the ring totally unprepared and wing it. Well you could but then you were leaving it all up to fate or luck or whatever you believed in and my father always said that the only thing you could believe in was your own hard work.