The Boy Who Loves Horses (Pegasus Equestrian Center Series)

by Diana Vincent

  When River saw that Diva was no longer being pushed forward, he stopped and bent over as he gasped for breath, supporting himself with his hands braced on his knees.

  “River, are you okay?” Sierra caught up to him.

  “Can’t…breathe,” he managed to pant out. “Go…take Diva.”

  “I will,” she assured him but waited a few moments until she heard his breath coming less labored.

  “…regulations are quite clear, and you will walk your horse off the field now,” Sierra heard the jump judge speaking firmly to Crystal, and holding onto Diva’s bridle. Crystal’s face was red with rage, and she looked like she wanted to slash the judge with her crop.

  Two other officials drove up on a four-wheeler, and with the authorities around her, Crystal had no choice but to dismount. She angrily tossed Diva’s reins to Sierra and stomped away.

  “I can take her back to her stall,” Sierra said to the officials, who watched Crystal’s tantrum, horrified.

  River came up then, his face ashen and rivulets of sweat running down from his hairline. “Is there a vet here?” he asked.

  “I’ll send him over to the stalls,” one of the officials answered.

  *****

  Crystal continued to rage about her disqualification; claiming that it was ‘unfair’, ‘they had no right’, and she was going to have her father intervene. It became embarrassing for the rest of them, and they all felt disgraced.

  The veterinarian arrived, examined Diva and said, “Most likely a torn ligament, maybe the suspensory; but you’ll need an ultrasound exam to really make the diagnosis.”

  When Crystal asked what that meant, he very kindly replied, “Chances are very good your mare can recover to full soundness, but this type of injury takes a good six months off work to heal.” He had been quite taken aback when Crystal’s response had not been relief but for her to cry out, “Stupid horse! That’s it; I’m done riding. Tess, put her up for sale.” With that, she stomped off, her blonde hair waving as she tossed her head.

  Gloria watched her best friend stride away out of sight, her jaw dropped in disbelief. “Bitch,” she shouted after Crystal’s retreating back. Then she spun around to the startled faces watching her. “I wanted to quit riding months ago; but no, Gloria, I need your support, Gloria, we do this together,” she said in a sarcastic voice mimicking Crystal. Then she burst into tears and ran off toward the restrooms. Gloria had not placed today on Four Score.

  “I’m sorry,” Tess apologized to the veterinarian and led him away.

  Katrina then stepped out of Calliope’s stall. “Her trailer wraps are on. Please be sure she gets an extra measure of oats tonight. I’m very proud of her. I’m going home.” Having said all that in a cold, flat tone, she left. Calliope had placed second today and Sierra thought Katrina would have been in a euphoric mood rather than this glum, bitter one. She wasn’t even waiting to ride the victory lap.

  As Sierra suspected, Cory’s run-out dropped them from first place into fourth, and Dean with Calculator moved up into first. She would have been happy even if they hadn’t placed, still feeling so proud of Cory. She had received compliments from other observers on a fine go, and good job getting her horse over a jump that obviously panicked him.

  The only regret she had over not placing first happened shortly after the victory round when she heard Crystal call, “Hey, Sierra.”

  Turning around, she looked into the face of Dean, smiling at her with that dimple at the corner of his mouth. Crystal’s arm was hooked in his, and her face twisted into a smile that looked more like a sneer.

  “Sierra,” Dean said in a mocking voice, “I’ve beat your horse twice now. See you at the championship…loser!” he added, dragging out the word. With that, he and Crystal pivoted away, laughing as he waved his blue ribbon triumphantly in the air, tugging on the reins of Calculator’s bridle and ignoring the look of fright in his horse’s eyes at the waving ribbon.

  *****

  The ride home seemed equally as glum and the silence as taut with worry as when they had headed out for the show in the morning. Whenever Sierra glanced at River, she found his face creased in a frown, but when he caught her looking his way, he at least attempted a weak smile.

  “No point in getting too bent out of shape until we see the ultrasound,” he said after catching her eye.

  Sierra nodded. “That vet sounded very hopeful.”

  Tess followed them in her own car to help unload the horses and wait for Dr. Patterson. Manuel came out of the stable having just finished with evening chores and the four of them settled the show horses into their stalls.

  “Let me know when Dr. Patterson arrives,” Tess said when they were finished. “I’ll be in the office.”

  Sierra thought Tess looked contrite. It was interesting how she stayed out of River’s way, avoiding giving him any chance to say ‘I told you so’.

  When the veterinarian finally arrived and unloaded his portable ultrasound equipment, River brought Diva from her stall and held her while Dr. Patterson examined the leg. After watching her walk and trot on the lead, and then studying the ultrasound results, he gave them his diagnosis.

  “She has sprained the suspensory ligament right here,” Dr. Patterson explained, pointing to the spot on the ultrasound image. “Right above the fetlock; see this shadowing, this darker area right here? That’s edema.” He stood up from where they were all hunched over his equipment. I classify this as a mild to moderate injury. She needs at least three months off work. Hand walk her starting with ten minutes a day, and work up to twenty minutes, adding two minutes every other day. Then you can walk her under saddle starting at twenty minutes and work up to thirty minutes a day. Apply cold soaks twice a day until there is no swelling or heat. I’ll leave some anti-inflammatory medicine. You can turn her out but only in a small space. We want to avoid her re-injuring or extending the injury with frolicking around. Then we’ll ultrasound her again in three months and see how she’s coming along. Realistically, it is probably going to take closer to six months to heal.”

  “But she will heal to be completely sound?” River asked; his expression candidly hopeful.

  “Most likely she will,” Dr. Patterson answered, smiling kindly at River, and very relieved to be able to give much more positive news than the last time he examined one of Crystal’s horses. “I’ve treated many, many horses with sprained and torn ligaments, and from what I see here, this level of injury should heal one hundred percent.”

  “That is very good news,” Tess said, and walked the vet to his van to pick up Diva’s medicine and receive the written instructions.

  “Might as well start soaking her leg now,” River said.

  “You hold her,” Sierra offered, “and I’ll use the hose.” Then she couldn’t help but exclaim, “Oh, River, it is such a relief.”

  He looked at her and smiled happily. “Yes,” he said.

  Tess returned to the wash stall with a bottle of pills which she handed to River. “Dr. Patterson said to put one tablet in with her grain morning and night for the next five days.”

  “Okay,” he said, taking the bottle and slipping it into his pocket for now.

  Tess remained standing there a few moments, watching Sierra keeping a stream of cold water on Diva’s leg. Then she cleared her throat and said, “Um, River, I owe you an apology.” Both Sierra’s and River’s heads jerked over to look at her. “You were right; we should have scratched her today.”

  River’s lips pressed together, but then he took a deep breath, his brow creased, and he responded, “This could have been avoided.”

  “Perhaps,” Tess said after another few moments of silence; and then she left and not long after, they heard her car drive away.

  If River has any flaw, it’s probably that he’s not very forgiving, Sierra thought without malice, for she didn’t feel much absolution for Tess either.

  “That should be good for now,” River said after they had soaked Diva’s leg for about
ten minutes. He led her back to her stall and started rubbing down her legs with liniment. Sierra followed behind with the standing wraps. They took care of all four of the show horses in companionable silence.

  They finished with Corazón last, and then stood shoulder to shoulder outside his stall door, watching him eat.

  “You and Cory are the only good things that happened today,” River said, watching the black munching on his hay with his eyes half-closed. “Good riding,” he complimented her once again, tilting his head to look down at her.

  “Thanks, I’m really proud of him. I could feel how afraid he was.”

  “I’d still like to know what happened to him to terrorize him so bad.”

  “Maybe it’s better not to know,” Sierra said. “I get images of someone like that man you bought him from, slamming a striped board on his head, or something like that.”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right.” They stood for a few more minutes in silence, not realizing that they both had similar images in their minds of how Cory looked when they had first seen him, and how well he had turned out.

  “That Dean,” Sierra said suddenly in a disgusted tone.

  Startled, River jerked his head to look at her, surprised at the jealousy triggered just by hearing her speak his name.

  Sierra met his eyes and then quickly looked down. “You didn’t hear what he said to me after the victory round…and he was with Crystal. They appear to be quite tight now.” She huffed a short, disgruntled laugh, and then looked up to find River still watching her. “How I wish I could have beaten him today. River, I’m so sorry I couldn’t keep Cory from running out…it’s just so aggravating that he’s such a poor sport…so spiteful…”

  “Sierra,” River interrupted her. He had turned to face her and was looking intensely into her eyes. “You and Cory did what counts. He trusted you enough to jump over something that scared him. Dean couldn’t ride Cory; Crystal would have been thrown; not even Tess could have gotten him to jump…only you.”

  Sierra met his eyes, her own widening in hope.

  “Only you,” River repeated.

  “And you,” she said in a whisper.

  “Yes…me too. Just me and you …” His face was moving closer to hers.

  “Just you and me…” she breathed out and suddenly his mouth was on hers and she melted into him, her arms reaching up around his shoulders as he brought his around to cradle her to him. He kissed her parted lips; his own soft, warm, and just a whisper of a touch. But as she leaned into him, he pressed his lips with firm gentleness and they melded together with a kiss.

  When he finally broke off the kiss, he brought his hands up to cradle her face as he looked into her eyes again, with a longing that left no doubt how he felt. Sierra hoped her own eyes told him the same.

  “River…”

  “Sierra…” Then he smiled and took her hand to lead her outside to her waiting bicycle. “It’s going to be dark soon.”

  “I know.” She took hold of the handlebars and straddled her bicycle, smiling up into his face. He stepped up to take her shoulders gently, and kissed her again. She stood with her eyes closed, smiling. “Good bye.”

  “See you tomorrow.”

  *****

  32 Combined Training Championship

  Horses are always quietly talking to you with their body, and horses don’t lie. It’s very subtle, but if you are very patient and watch closely, what they are saying will come to you like a whisper. –Quote From an Old Cowboy

  *****

  He kissed me! Sierra pedaled home in a dazed, euphoric state. River kissed me. HE KISSED ME! She pedaled on, thinking about every detail, and reached up with one hand to touch her lips where his had been. He kissed me!

  A day that had started out so glum and could have ended in tragedy if Diva’s injury had been worse, (and thank heaven Diva was going to be okay)…he kissed me...turned out to be the best day of her life.

  Cory…wonderful, wonderful Corazón…his horse…he kissed me…She thought back on the moments of riding him cross country, of each jump and what a joy to ride a horse that moved with such confidence and eagerness…his horse, River’s horse, River kissed me!

  “River kissed me,” she said out loud to a robin flying rapidly across the road on its way to roost. Do birds kiss? How badly she wanted to tell someone. She pulled out her cell phone to call Allison, but getting her voice mail, left a message, “Allison, River kissed me,” and then hung up, knowing her friend would call her the first chance she had.

  When Charlie came trotting up with his tail wagging as she bicycled into her own yard, she called out to him, “Hi, Charlie. Guess what? River kissed me!” She stowed her bike in the garage and then ruffled Charlie’s fur affectionately as they romped together into the house.

  “Mom!” Sierra called out as she stepped into the kitchen.

  “In here,” her mother answered from her bedroom. Sierra rushed into her mother’s room where she was putting away piles of folded laundry. “Hi, Kitten,” her mother greeted, and held out her arms for a hug. “How was the show?”

  Sierra skipped into her mother’s arms and said, “Mom, he kissed me!”

  Pam stiffened, her first thoughts, not that awful boy! “Who kissed you?” she demanded in a harsher tone than she had intended, taking Sierra’s shoulders to peer into her face. “Not that…”

  “No, Mom, not Dean.” Sierra closed her eyes with a look of bliss spreading over her face. “River!”

  “River?” And then Pam’s face broke into a smile of relief. “River kissed you?”

  “Yes,” Sierra answered happily and hugged her mother again; and suddenly she was crying.

  “Honey, Sweetie,” Pam began to comfort her. “Why are you crying?”

  “Because I’m so happy.”

  *****

  About an hour later, River called. “Hi,” he said.

  “Hi,” she answered.

  “I was thinking about you.”

  “Oh yeah?” Sierra answered, almost coyly. “I was thinking about you too.”

  “Good, that’s all I wanted to know.”

  “Okay…guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, good night. See you tomorrow.”

  *****

  The next six weeks before the Pacific Regional Championship, flew by in a whirl of riding, conditioning, training, rehabilitating Diva, and kissing River.

  Sierra felt very shy when she arrived at the stable the next morning to start chores. The kiss last night (two kisses, actually), seemed so unreal now, like how could it have possibly happened?

  She found the back door of the stable already unlocked, and as she started down the aisle, calling out greetings to the horses whinnying their ‘good mornings’ and ‘how about breakfast?’, she met River stepping out of Diva’s stall.

  “Hi,” she greeted him with a shy smile.

  “Hi.” He looked a little timid as well, but he walked up to her and when she lifted her face to his, with her eyes shining in happiness, it was the easiest thing in the world for River to kiss her again.

  Soon, it seemed the most natural thing to greet each other every morning with a kiss; for River to stop and kiss her at almost any time throughout the day; to kiss one last time when she went home in the evening; or if River came home with her, to kiss goodnight when he left.

  Crystal did not change her mind about giving up riding. With a new car to draw the envy of all her friends, most of whom had outgrown their interest in horses anyway, she never once came back to Pegasus. Diva was put up for sale. Gloria already had Four Score up for sale and they never saw her again at the stable either.

  River kept his promise to Amy, Diva’s previous owner, to let her know how the mare was doing. It had been a very difficult phone call to make when he told Amy about Diva’s injury. It was much easier to call her a week later and let her know that Diva already no longer favored her leg, all heat was gone, as well as most of the swelling. When he told Amy that Diva was for s
ale again, she immediately said goodbye so she could go talk to her parents. When her parents made an offer to buy Diva back at half the price since she was lame, Walt Douglas accepted the offer; happy enough to have the horse gone.

  “I will miss her,” River said to Sierra when they heard the news. “But knowing she will go back to Amy, and knowing how much Amy loves her…well, that helps a lot. And it’s almost worth it just to not have Crystal around.”

  Sierra agreed with him one hundred percent. Now if only Dean would go someplace else for his lessons. He still went out of his way to find her and make snide remarks about Cory, which she did her best to ignore.

  Katrina told Tess she no longer wanted to clean stalls, and went back to paying full board and intending to take her lessons only from Tess. Sierra never found out what had happened between River and Katrina to make her so unhappy, but she imagined River must have somehow rejected her. She felt very bad for Katrina and wished they could still be friends.

  River’s strength and stamina improved each week and by the first of September, a week before the championship, he was riding all his assigned horses.

  Moose missed one event that his owner and Tess had wanted to enter him in, but River just wasn’t ready at that time. No one had ridden Moose out on the trail during River’s convalescence, but Tess had kept him in vigorous arena work and twice a week schooled him over jumps, so he maintained a level of conditioning. River started riding him on the trails again the first week he was back at work, but only at a walk and on the shortest loop of the trail. But as River’s own endurance improved, he also did more with Moose. Now he thought they were both in condition to compete at the regional trial, and he told Tess she did not need to scratch his entry.

  “Sierra can ride Cory,” River said as he and Tess discussed the end of the show season.

  “Are you sure?” Tess asked with raised eyebrows.

  “They’re a good team,” he stated, “and they both qualified.”