Half Halt (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 15)

by Claire Svendsen

  He didn’t understand the first thing about best friends. Mickey would be really hurt if I didn’t help her out at her show just like she was going to be really hurt when she found out Ethan had asked me to the ball.

  “Alright,” Dad said, placing the final jump pole in its cup. “Let’s see how you get on with this then.”

  Dad had steadily been raising the height of the fences we jumped Bluebird at home. He said that we wouldn’t know how hard we could push him until we knew what he was really capable of. I knew deep down that even though he had a healthy amount of respect for my pony and approved of everything I had done with him, he was still trying to prove that I should switch to riding horses and leave my pony days behind me but I just couldn’t. Bluebird had been there from the start. He was my best friend and my talented partner. I couldn't imagine going to shows and leaving him behind all the time.

  His little chestnut ears pricked up as I circled him before the first jump. So far everything my father had thrown at him hadn’t phased my pony one bit and today was no different. It was like he had wings. He hated touching a jump and would hardly ever clip a rail if he could help it and when he did, it was always my fault. I’d usually either set him up wrong or interfered too much. Bluebird knew his job and he knew it well and the best thing was just to leave him alone and let him get on with it.

  As we cleared the last fence I saw my father shake his head. We’d beaten him again. I patted Bluebird and told him what a good boy he was, a big smile on my face.

  “If he keeps this up, I guess he’ll be the one you want to take to the clinic,” Dad said.

  “Of course,” I replied, feeling confused. “I was always going to take him, wasn’t I?”

  “Well I was rather hoping that my daughter would turn up with a rather fabulous horse not a little pony.”

  “He’s not little,” I said. “And he’s almost a horse and a lot better than one anyway.”

  “Yes, well when your pony is actually better than a lot of the horses that are going to be there, I don’t see how I can say no.”

  I didn’t like to tell him that even if he’d said no, I wouldn’t have listened. I was always going to take Bluebird to the Young Riders clinic and I don’t know why he thought otherwise. But as I walked Bluebird back to the barn and passed Tulip and Rachel towering above me on their massive horses, I sort of did know why. People would look down on a pony. They would judge him and me before they even saw him take a fence. Maybe even laugh at us but I didn’t care. Once they saw him jump, then they’d see what I already knew. My pony was the best.

  I’d put Bluebird in the cross ties and was carrying my saddle back into the tack room when I ran into Ethan.

  “So?” he said cheerfully. “Did you decide yet?”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  “What?” I cried, almost dropping my saddle.

  Ethan reached out to help me, which just made matters worse because now we were too close to each other. I grabbed the saddle and stepped back, feeling the blood rush to my face.

  “Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

  “That’s okay,” I replied. “I just didn’t see you there.”

  “I have a lesson,” he said. “With Miss. Fontain.”

  “Not you as well?”

  I side stepped him so that I could put my saddle in the tack locker.

  “Yes.” He sighed. “Mr. Rivers says we all have to and I guess I can kind of see his point. Eventing isn’t all galloping about and jumping giant logs. There is showjumping and dressage as well and we all know which part is the most boring. Plus Miss. Fontain knows we think that dressage is the most boring part of eventing too.”

  “She’s a task master,” I said. “But she’s also good. You should see Mickey and Hampton. They are doing so awesome now. They’re going to clean up at the show.”

  “That’s because she actually likes dressage,” he said. “And besides, I heard her mom say that they’d sunk a lot of money into her riding lately and that it had better pay off.”

  “Really? She never told me that.”

  “It’s just what I overheard.” He shrugged. “So, the ball? Are you coming or what?”

  “Oh that,” I said, rooting around in the tack locker, pretending that I was looking for something so that I wouldn’t have to face him. “I don’t know if my dad is going to let me go or not.”

  “Really? Why not?”

  “There is just a lot of stuff to do here,” I lied. “I have all these horses to ride and virtual school. Plus I have to help Mickey with her show and Missy with the baby.”

  He stepped closer, leaning against the tack locker next to mine. He smelt of boy. Sweat mixed with some type of cologne. If Mickey hadn’t liked him then maybe I would have gone to the ball with him, just as friends of course but still it might have been fun. As it was I could barely look him in the eye.

  “That doesn't sound very fun,” he said. “You have to have a life too.”

  “I do,” I said, pulling my head out of the locker and looking at him curiously. “I love this. I’m doing everything I ever dreamed of. I don’t need anything else.”

  “You think that now,” he said. “But you’ll change your mind eventually.”

  “I won’t.” I shook my head.

  “Well,” he said with a sly grin on his face. “If you change your mind, just let me know. I’ll still take you to the ball if you want to go. No strings attached.”

  He grabbed his stuff and left me standing there in the tack room with my mouth open. That had been my chance to tell him to take Mickey instead of me and I’d blown it. Why hadn’t I said anything? As I put Bluebird back in his stall, I felt like a horrible friend. Then I turned around and there was Mickey.

  “Hey,” I said, feeling startled. “What are you doing here?”

  “I have a lesson,” she said. “After Ethan.”

  “Yes,” I said. “I did see that he was here.”

  “So? Did you talk to him?”

  “No,” I said. “Why would I talk to him?”

  “Duh, you know to find out if he likes me?”

  “Oh, I forgot,” I said.

  “You’re hopeless.” She sighed. “How are you ever going to get a boy to like you if you won’t even talk to them?”

  “I don’t know.” I shrugged.

  “And I wore my best breeches and everything,” she carried on. “The ones that don’t make my butt look fat. Do you think he’ll notice?”

  “Your butt isn’t fat anyway,” I told her. “And I’m not entirely sure boys notice things like that.”

  “Why not?” she said.

  “I don’t know. I just don’t think they do. Maybe if you had a surfboard or a video game taped to your butt then they might.”

  “I suppose you're right.” She grabbed my hand. “Come on, let’s go and spy on his lesson.”

  We settled on the grass behind the bush where I’d been the day that I caught Jess riding Sabrina in the draw reins, abusing them so that the poor mare’s head was cranked down to her chest. Luckily the mare had been shipped back up north but I couldn't help wondering if Jess was treating her other horses the same way now that my father wasn’t around to show his disapproval. Poor Hashtag didn’t deserve to be ridden that way. No horse did. But I knew that wasn’t going to stop Jess. She had to win for her father. To prove to him something only I wasn’t sure what. Maybe she did it to try and win his love. The whole thing was really kind of sad.

  “Look,” Mickey said as Wendell cantered across the diagonal. “He’s good.”

  “He’s okay,” I said, looking at the grass instead of the chestnut horse and the boy riding him.

  “Oh I just think he’s so cute,” Mickey said dreamily. “Don’t you think so?”

  “I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Besides, don’t you think it will be kind of awkward if you hook up with him? What happens when you guys break up and you still have to see each other around the barn? It’s going to be kind of
difficult, don’t you think?”

  “Who says we’re going to break up?” Mickey looked at me with a frown.

  “Well it’s inevitable, isn’t it? You’re not planning on marrying him, are you?”

  “Who knows what might happen,” she said, her nose in the air.

  “Mickey,” I cried. “You’re fourteen. You couldn’t get married even if you wanted to.”

  “A girl can dream, can’t she?” She turned back to look at Ethan.

  “I guess there is no harm in that,” I said.

  But I didn’t get it. The only things I dreamed about were Olympic medals and blue ribbons. Barns full of horses that belonged to me and the money to travel all over the world with them winning competitions until I was old and gray. Going to balls and falling in love? That didn’t seem like a thing that was worth dreaming about to me.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  I was having a dressage lesson the next day on Arion when Dad came striding over. He stood there watching our pathetic attempt at working trot, which my horse seemed to think was an excuse to try and canter. I laughed as he forged ahead but Miss. Fontain actually called out and told me that I was doing a good job. Trouble was I suspected that she was only saying that because my father was standing there. Otherwise she would have told me that a giraffe could have performed a better trot than that.

  “Take a break and let him walk for a bit,” Miss. Fontain called out.

  She went over to my father and started talking. He was nodding his head and agreeing with her about something. I wanted to know what they were talking about but part of me clung to the hope that they weren’t talking about my horse at all. Maybe they were talking about something else. The upcoming show or me going as Mickey’s groom. I didn’t really care as long as it wasn’t the fact that they both thought my horse was a lost cause because despite all his shortcomings and his greenness, I loved every minute of riding him. It was like an adventure. Each ride brought something new to teach him or expose him to. We were learning together how to do things like working trot or even simple tasks like crossing big puddles, which he seemed to think were full of horse scalding acid. Even if he never turned into a great jumper, he was still a great horse and I knew that now. I wasn’t ready to have him taken away from me so soon but it was always there in the back of my mind, the worry that if he didn’t prove himself then Dad would make me get rid of him.

  “Don’t worry,” I whispered. “I won’t let them make me get rid of you.”

  I was walking Arion down the long side of the ring, trying to look disinterested and yet listen to what they were saying at the same time when Dad beckoned me over.

  “Looking good,” he said.

  “Hardly,” I laughed. “Trying to get Ari to concentrate on something like this is walking a fine line between boredom and blowing his mind.”

  “Then you are doing it admirably,” he said.

  “What do you want?” I replied, suddenly suspicious. Dad didn’t fling around praise like that, especially when there wasn’t really anything praiseworthy worth mentioning.

  “Nothing,” he said. “But Miss. Fontain and I were just talking.”

  “And?” I said, looking at both of them curiously.

  “We think you should take Arion to the dressage show,” Miss. Fontain said.

  I started to laugh. “Is this a joke?”

  “No.” Dad shook his head. “We think you should take him. It will be a good, confidence building experience. Quieter than a jumper show with less stimulation yet he’ll still have to perform. It will be his first time going out and being around a strange group of horses without racing. We need to see how he handles it.”

  “Seriously?” I said. “You can’t mean that. He’s not a dressage horse. You’ve seen him. He sucks at it.”

  “It’s not about ribbons,” Dad said. “It’s about gaining experience and judging his progress. Besides, you said you were going anyway so this way it won’t be a day wasted.”

  I suddenly thought of Mickey. This was her show. Her big debut into the world of dressage. I couldn’t ruin it and take the spotlight away from her. I’d promised to be there and support her. To hold her hand and be her groom and yes, even to hold her hair back while she puked before going into the ring. I couldn’t take that away from her, I just couldn’t.

  “I can’t,” I said. “That show is Mickey’s big day and I won’t ruin that.”

  “Showing is everyone’s big day,” Dad said. “Mickey won’t be the only one competing and she can’t expect you to just sit back and miss the experience.”

  “Yes, she can,” I said.

  “Emily,” Dad said, his voice hard. “I’m warning you. This isn’t your decision. You are going to the dressage show and that is final.”

  Then he just walked away and left me sitting there on my horse. Miss. Fontain looked like she didn’t know what to say, which was a first. She’d obviously been put in the middle of something that she didn’t want to be a part of.

  “Can’t you tell him that I’m not ready?” I asked her desperately.

  “You’re not ready,” she said. “And neither is your horse but like your father said, it’s about the experience. Any horse can go in there and do a training level test. You won’t place but your horse will have a good exposure to the show environment.”

  “Well if you can’t talk him out of it then can you at least make sure Mickey wins?” I said desperately.

  “I make sure all my students are prepared,” she said, looking huffy. “And there is no guarantee who will win. Now break time is over, back to work.”

  I finished the lesson but my heart wasn’t in it. First I’d taken away Mickey’s potential boyfriend and now I was taking away her potential blue ribbon all through no fault of my own. The universe was conspiring against me and it wasn’t fair. Mickey deserved nice things too and I was going to make sure she got them. I was going to turn down Ethan and tell him how Mickey really felt, then I’d ride so badly that Arion and I would never even get a ribbon at all, let alone win the class. But as Arion suddenly did a perfect trot to canter transition my heart fell because there was no way that I could just give up and ride badly. I didn’t know how and after all, this was Arion’s chance to prove that he was worthy. To show my father that he belonged at Fox Run after all. I couldn’t risk mucking that up for him.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  I took Arion back to the barn, hoping to get a little peace and quiet but there was a group of girls in there, standing around talking about the Valentine ball. Was that really all people could think about? The realization that virtual school meant I never had any time away from the barn and the people there hit me like a ton of bricks. I couldn’t get away from any of it. Not that I usually wanted to but some alone time would have been nice.

  In the end I decided to tack Bluebird up and take him out on the trail. It had been a while since it had just been the two of us and I needed time to clear my head and think.

  My pony was happy to see me, standing by the gate and nickering when he saw me coming. Now that I had other horses to ride it felt like he didn’t have my whole attention and that made me sad. I almost missed the days when it was just the two of us against the world. When he was the only one I rode and I didn’t care.

  “I miss you,” I said, burying my face in his sweet smelling mane.

  He shook me off, looking for the carrot he knew was in my pocket.

  “I see how you are,” I scolded him. “Pig.”

  He crunched through the carrot and looked for another one.

  “Oh no,” I said. “I see how fat you are getting.”

  But the truth was that he actually looked really good. He liked his life and he was happy and that was all that mattered to me. I tacked him up and then left him in the cross ties while I ran into the office. Dad wasn’t in there so I scribbled a note on the whiteboard, telling him that I’d gone out on the trail and leaving the time. He had all these rules like if you went out alone you were s
upposed to take a cell phone and let people know where you were. At first I thought it was annoying. Esther had never really cared about things like that. But the first time I saw a horse galloping back to the barn without its rider, trailing broken reins, I realized how dangerous it was to go out by yourself and how he had been right. I wondered if he was right about the show too. It would give Arion the experience he needed but at what price? Was it worth losing my best friend over? I didn’t think so.

  “I could always take you to the dressage show,” I told Bluebird as I took him out into the sunshine. “You’d probably do even worse than Ari. I felt you changing your lead late behind again the other day.”

  But I thought it was best to keep that thought to myself considering how if I told my father, he’d probably think it would be a good idea if I took all the horses and before I knew it I’d be riding not only Arion and Bluebird but Socks and Encore as well.

  I passed the bay gelding out in the field as we headed for the trail. Henry had turned him out with one of the other quiet geldings, a sort of babysitter type who helped to settle all the new horses into the routine but Encore didn’t seem to care or even need a babysitter. He was grazing the grass by the fence line and looked up when I rode past.

  “Hey boy,” I called out to him. “Want to go for a ride soon?”

  He turned and walked away from me.

  “Do you think that means no?” I asked Bluebird.

  Dad had said to give Encore a few days off to settle in now that we knew what he could do. He didn’t want to rush him. Personally I thought that we’d already rushed him by jumping him as soon as he came off the trailer but opposing my own father was not turning out to be as easy as I thought it would be, especially since he had a lot more horse experience than I did.

  “Hey! Wait up!”

  I heard a girl calling behind me and thought about ignoring her. I wanted to go out on the trail alone. To gallop Bluebird as fast as the wind and forget about everyone. To be by myself.