Young Riders (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 16)

by Claire Svendsen

  “Yes, we’ll let you know,” Dad said, ferrying the vet out of the barn before he could recommend anything else that was going to cost an arm and a leg.

  I stood there watching Arion pick at his hay. He’d been doing so well but after the dressage show he just hadn’t been the same. Deep down I was worried that we’d pushed him too hard. It had been too soon. He wasn’t ready and now we’d stressed him out and he had ulcers? I felt like a horrible horse owner.

  “Do you really think he has ulcers?” I asked my father when he came back in the barn.

  “All horses have ulcers,” he said. “Well, most of them anyway. Don’t worry about it. I’ve got a probiotic supplement you can try him on. I’m sure it will fix him right up.”

  But somehow Dad’s words sounded hollow. He was just saying them to placate me. He was already distracted and distant, probably thinking about the upcoming hearing.

  “And now it’s settled,” he added. “You’ll be taking Encore to the clinic so you might as well get used to the idea. Take him out to the jump field and work him over the course out there. You haven’t been putting much time and effort into him lately but now your pony is grounded you need to get your act together.”

  “Yes Dad,” I said.

  I slunk away from him like a puppy with its tail between its legs. Having my father as my trainer was both wonderful and horrible all at the same time. It was like being parented by two entirely different people and sometimes I couldn’t tell which one was scolding me.

  I didn’t go straight to Encore. Instead I spend ages applying the ointment and wrapping Bluebird’s legs.

  “I’m so mad at you,” I told him. “You’ve messed everything up.”

  But really I was relieved that he hadn’t done any serious damage and would live to jump another day. Next time he might not be so lucky. I had to make sure there wasn’t one but I couldn’t exactly wrap him in bubble wrap to keep him safe, even though I wanted to.

  Encore was standing in his stall, staring off into the distance. No matter what I’d done, he only really seemed to tolerate me. It wasn’t that he actively hated me or anything. He just didn’t seem to have an opinion. In fact he didn’t seem to have an opinion about anything. Not treats or scratches on his withers or hugs. The only time he seemed to perk up was when I jumped him but as soon as that was over, he went back to being all aloof.

  “I guess it’s just going to be you and me now,” I told him as I slipped his halter on.

  He came out of his stall with a sigh and stood quietly in the cross ties as I groomed him and tacked him up.

  “You’d never do anything stupid like getting your legs stuck under a gate, would you?” I said. “You’re far too sensible for that.”

  I took him out to the jump field, glad that the afternoon was sunny and bright. Spring was in the air and a warm breeze blew over the grass. The temperature had settled into the low eighties and the worst of the winter was behind us. Things were trying to bloom and everything looked bright and green again.

  As we walked into the jump field I spotted a turtle in the long grass, its shell old and gnarled and its beady eyes staring up at me. It snapped its mouth a couple of times, reminding me that if you tried to touch it, it would probably bite your finger off.

  “Don’t freak out,” I told Encore but of course he didn’t.

  Bluebird would have. Arion would have jumped a foot in the air and then bolted away from the horse eating turtle like his butt was on fire. Encore just looked at it and walked past without even a little snort.

  “You know,” I told him. “You’d make a really good beginners horse. Literally nothing fazes you.”

  But the truth was than Encore was too good for that. He was far too talented to spend his days carting beginners around a course of cross rails. I just wished I could figure out a way to get to know him better.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  As much as I wanted to dislike Encore for taking the spotlight away from my pony, it was getting harder and harder not to like him. He had a springing trot, a quiet canter and when I jumped him it felt like we could soar over the moon. He didn’t rush or fuss or require endless amounts of adjustment. He just did his job, his ears pricked as he cleared fence after fence.

  In fact, the more I rode him, the more I liked him, which was a dangerous thing. He was a consignment horse. That meant he had a real owner out there somewhere who was expecting my father and his connections to sell him for a big bundle of cash. And then he would be gone. Taken away by his new owners and I wouldn’t get to ride him anymore, something that could happen even sooner if those owners found out about my father’s unfortunate predicament and yanked him out of Fox Run sooner rather than later. Because who knew what connections Dad would have left after the whole thing was over.

  “Well I guess that’s good enough for today.”

  I patted Encore on the neck and took him back to the barn where I offered him a treat that he refused to eat, staring off into space until I put him back in his stall.

  I checked on Bluebird then cleaned some tack and put stuff away, trying to make myself useful. The gate had been hung back and Bluebird’s paddock was empty. I was going to be afraid to ever put him back out there again after what had happened. Horses could be so self-destructive sometimes. The only thing left was to work Arion but I didn’t feel like it. I didn’t want to push him if he had ulcers or something else wrong with him. Something worse. But the horses had schedules and so did I. Today was not Arion’s day off and it wasn’t mine either. I fetched his tack and told him that we weren’t really going to work. That we’d just go for a trail ride.

  He didn’t seem to mind what we were going to do. I may have been able to tell that he wasn’t really acting himself in his stall but under saddle he was still his curious, inquisitive, childish self. He wiggled about in the cross ties as I brushed him, his thin Thoroughbred coat sensitive and ticklish even though I was using the softest brush.

  “Hold still you monster,” I said as I tightened the girth.

  But his over exuberance was infectious and after the disaster of the morning that had been Bluebird’s accident and the nonchalant coolness that was Encore, it was better to have a horse who was pumped up and ready to go.

  I took him outside and he danced about while I ran down my stirrups. I didn’t bother and try to make him stand still because it was a battle that so far I’d never won. Dad said that having a horse stand coolly and calmly while you mounted was not only a matter of good manners but also safety but I knew that it was better for my safety if I didn’t try and fight Arion on the matter. I hopped about trying to get my foot in the stirrup, which was harder than it sounded when that stirrup was attached to a horse that wouldn’t stand still. In the end I just made a wild leap and pulled myself up as he took off at a jagged trot. Once I was situated I made him halt and back up. He tossed his head in the air and nearly smacked me in the face.

  “I see how it is going to be,” I said.

  But I was happy to be on the back of a horse who needed my guidance. That wouldn’t just go around on auto pilot. He jigged and danced and pranced while I tried to contain and control him and in the end I gave up.

  “Want to gallop?” I whispered.

  I wasn’t supposed to be galloping him. Dad said it would be best if he forgot all about his fourth gear. Being an ex-racehorse he had a tendency to grab the bit and run off whenever he got too excited but I didn’t think Dad was right. All Arion had known from the moment he was born was that he was bred to run and trying to coop him up and contain him was only making matters worse. Sure, he couldn’t just run off and be silly all the time but what did it hurt to let him blow off a little steam?

  We were heading out for the trail so that Dad wouldn’t see me breaking his rules when I realized I was about to break another one. I hadn’t told him I was going on the trail or left a note or anything. I patted my pocket, feeling the solid square lump that was my cell phone. I could call if I got into troub
le. He didn’t need to know where I was every second of every day. I wasn’t a little kid anymore. And even though I knew the rules were there to save me from getting hurt and I’d witnessed more than one person get dumped off on the trail and had to go out there and rescue them, today I didn’t care. My pony had almost lost his jumping career, my new horse was possibly sick and my father was about to be suspended. It felt like a perfect time to go out there and gallop like the wind. To blow the horrible thoughts from my head like cobwebs. And even though all those things probably made a pretty good argument that today was quite possibly the worst day to go out riding on the trail without telling anyone, I didn’t let that stop me.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Arion snorted at the funny shaped branches that had snapped off the trees during our winter winds. He spooked at a lumpy bush and surged forward when he came to a muddy puddle, leaping across it. I patted his neck and talked soothing words to him, trying to keep my green horse calm. It wasn’t easy but at least it took my mind off everything else that had happened that day.

  And the clinic was looming ahead of me, a whole week away from Fox Run and my own two horses. Now I’d be going with a horse that wasn’t even my own. Still, at this point I was lucky to have a horse to take at all. Missy had started riding Socks again, easing back into her post pregnancy life. I still got to ride him too but I knew that my days were numbered. Soon he would go back to being her speed horse and I wouldn’t be able to show him anymore, which sucked. I didn’t want to give him up but just like everything else it seemed that I didn’t have a choice.

  Beyond the shaded clump of trees there was a flat patch of grass and I used it to work Arion, concentrating on the dressage moves that Miss. Fontain had taught us. She’d given up on our lessons now, passing us back to my father who didn’t really seem interested in giving me lessons on my silly new horse. But I would show them. I would train him in private and then amaze my father with how fabulous Arion had suddenly become.

  We circled back and forth and I made him work on his transitions, getting his hind end under him and his legs all going in the same direction. He would get it for a little while and then he’d lose it again. He was a work in progress but that was what I loved about him. I loved watching him learn new things and figure this whole business of riding out. I was proud of him, even if no one else was.

  After he had settled and done everything I asked, I got off and loosened the girth, laying out on the grass and letting him graze around me, his reins looped lazily through my arm. Dad wouldn’t approve but he wasn’t there to see it so I didn’t care and Arion was my horse anyway. I could break the rules with him if I wanted to.

  I closed my eyes and listened to the sound of his rhythmic munching, the dappled rays of sun warming my skin. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect and I wished that every day could be like this. Warm. Breezy. Not too humid. Soon it would be like a sauna and every day would be a sweaty, steaming mess. At least it wouldn’t be like that for the clinic. And deep down I really was looking forward to it. I was looking forward to it a lot. I was lucky to be going. One of the chosen few. There were only going to be five of us. A small group that wouldn’t include Jess. I’d checked. Nervous with sweaty palms as I hoped beyond hope that she hadn’t qualified. The last thing I needed was to have my good experience ruined by the girl who hated me but she wasn’t on the list. She hadn’t made it. I wasn’t surprised.

  Without my father’s guidance she’d probably gone off the rails. Her father thought he could just yell at her and make her do things but she needed a proper trainer and she probably had one by now. Someone important who would be her trainer and hers alone. One that she wouldn’t have to share with anyone else except maybe her sister. I bet she liked that and I was sure she was furious that she wasn’t going to the Young Riders clinic and I was. But we couldn’t have everything our own way. After all, I was planning to take Bluebird up until that morning and now I was taking Encore. Things could change in a heartbeat. One second you thought you were heading in one direction and the next you were heading in another.

  My phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out, expecting to see a text from my father asking where on earth I’d got to but it wasn’t him, it was Jordan. He’d kept in contact after the Valentine ball even though I hadn’t expected him to. Now he was putting aside a few things at the tack store that he thought I might want to take to the clinic. A pair of rubber pony reins and Bluebird sized bell boots. I had to text him back and tell him that I was taking Encore instead.

  He wanted to know why. I told him that I would tell him when I went into town the next day. I couldn’t go through the whole ordeal again. It was still too fresh and raw in my mind. Jordan replied that he was sorry and that he hoped I was okay. I told him I was. It was funny how his words gave me more comfort than I thought they would. More than they probably should. He wasn’t my boyfriend. We were stuck in a sort of limbo where neither of us knew what to do next, which was probably just as well. He was too old for me anyway. I knew my father would never approve.

  Eventually Arion got bored of grazing. He came over and nudged me with his soft gray nose.

  “Want to go back?” I asked him, sitting up.

  He shook his head and snorted, sending half chewed grass and snot all over me.

  “Gross.” I laughed. “Thanks a lot.”

  I tightened his girth and ran down my stirrups, wondering what it would be like to build a little cabin in the woods out of sticks and stones and live there forever like a hermit. But as I rode Arion back to the barn I knew that I would never be satisfied with a life of solitude. Despite all the hardships that the horse world brought with it, the trials and tribulations, I wanted to be a part of it more than anything and I still longed for the day when maybe, just maybe I would get to ride in the Olympics. I knew it was just the dream of a silly, teenage girl but I couldn’t help holding onto the hope that one day that dream would come true.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  I went to the tack store the next day with a heavy heart. I’d been excited about going to collect some new things for Bluebird but now that I was taking Encore, my heart wasn’t in it. I knew that I was being ungrateful and that I was lucky to be going at all but I’d wanted to take my pony and nothing would change the fact that now I couldn’t.

  I’d redone his wraps that morning and taken him out to graze. The wounds looked the same as they had the day before and were a little swollen. I was worried about who would take care of him while I was gone. Henry promised that he would change the dressings every day and reapply his standing wraps and I trusted him almost as much as if I was going to be doing it myself but it wasn’t the same.

  Despite no improvement, not that I really expected there to be much in one day, Bluebird didn’t seem any worse for wear. The breeze had turned into a warm wind before one last cool front that was supposed to blow through overnight and it blew out his chestnut tail and sent dead crunchy leaves swirling around our feet. He spooked as they whipped up around him like a tiny tornado and he almost pulled the lead rope out of my hands.

  “Oh no you don’t,” I said. “I’m not letting you get into any more trouble before I leave.”

  He tossed his head and snorted then stood there with his head up, whinnying for the horses back in the barn.

  “What has got into you?” I said. “Where has my sensible pony gone?”

  Maybe taking Encore, the dependable quiet horse, to the clinic wasn’t going to be so bad after all.

  I caught the bus into town because Dad and Missy were busy with lessons. I found the schedule online and it turned out that I only had a short walk down a couple of roads to catch it and then it would take me almost straight to the tack store. Of course it would take twice as long but I didn’t mind. It was good to get off the farm for a change.

  Now that Missy had started riding again she had turned back into a workaholic. Owen was left in his stroller by the side of the ring and she was talking about hiring a na
nny. Dad said we didn’t have the money. She countered that they’d have the money if he stopped funneling it all into his ‘stop the suspension’ fund. That caused a huge argument between them and things still seemed a little frosty when I’d left the house. I didn’t want to get in the middle of any of it so I was almost glad that I was going to be away during the whole ordeal. Maybe by the time I got back things would be settled and everything would be back to normal, whatever normal was anyway.

  The bus ride into town was pretty quiet. When I got to the tack store, Jordan was there waiting for me.

  “Look,” he said, pulling me inside. “I got you a bunch of horse sized stuff picked out instead.”

  There it all lay on the counter, gleaming white saddle pads, a new pair of gloves, a bottle of the expensive fly spray that actually worked and a set of horse sized rubber reins.

  “I don’t know that I can afford all that,” I said, my face turning red. “I just had a huge vet bill yesterday.”

  “You don’t have to pay for any of it, silly,” he said, his sly smile spreading across his face. “My mom did say she was still sponsoring you, didn’t she?”

  “Yes,” I said, still feeling guilty. “But what is she getting in return? I can’t exactly go to the clinic and tell everyone to come and shop at her store. Most of them won’t even live around here.”

  “She’s thought of that,” he said. “She wants you to have this.”

  He held up a thin navy rain jacket that had Taylors Tack Emporium monogrammed neatly on the left side.

  “And she’s online now. So if anyone asks you can tell them to go and check out the web site.”

  “And if they don’t ask?”

  “Then you don’t have to say anything, do you?”

  “I guess not.” I sighed.

  He shoved all the stuff into a bag before I could protest any further.