Catch Rider (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 28)

by Claire Svendsen

  “Much time left for what?” I said.

  Nancy looked at her feet. I knew she meant that if he didn’t get adopted soon then he’d be put to sleep to make room for a more desirable dog who would.

  I peered into the cage. The dark dog was lying in a half chewed basket. He didn’t even lift his head but he was looking at us. I could see his eyes in the dark, they were amber. Dad whistled and the dog ignored him.

  “Is he deaf?” Dad said.

  “Of course not,” Nancy said. “Come on Patrick. Come here.”

  “Patrick?” I said.

  “He came from a family who were moving out of the country and couldn’t take him with them. The kids named him after their favorite SpongeBob character. He’s been a bit depressed since they dropped him off but the family lived on a farm so he is used to being around other animals and horses. In fact, I think we have one of their horses here as well.” Nancy looked at her clipboard again.

  “Really?” I said. “What kind? Can I see it?”

  “Emily,” Dad warned, his voice stern. “Just the dog.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Patrick was a black dog of indeterminable breed. A mutt, as my dad called him. He had big floppy ears and a fluffy tail that wagged when Nancy finally coaxed him out of his basket.

  “He doesn’t look like a guard dog,” Dad said, sounding disappointed. “Don’t you have anything with more of a mean streak?”

  “I told you,” Nancy said, starting to sound annoyed. “We don’t adopt out those kinds of dogs.”

  “Come on Dad,” I said. “He’s cute.”

  I’d gone into the cage and was letting Patrick sniff me all over. His tail was wagging a million miles a minute and then he licked my face.

  “Cute won’t keep people off our farm,” Dad said but he stepped into the cage anyway.

  Patrick growled and bared his teeth.

  “Seems like a good guard dog to me,” I said with a smile.

  “But he’s supposed to be guarding me not attacking me.” Dad crossed his arms.

  “He can tell you don’t like him,” I said, putting my arm around the dog. “You have to give him a chance.”

  Nancy took Patrick out of the kennel and attached a leash to his collar. He didn’t jump around like the other dogs, just sat there quietly and waited for us to tell him what to do.

  “He’s well trained,” I said. “I think he just misses his family. Can we see the horse that came in with him? Please?”

  Dad scowled at me. I knew he was silently yelling that we didn’t need another horse but I had to at least see. If it was really old, lame or unbroken then at least I could walk away knowing that we hadn’t left a decent horse behind. And what if the horse was Patrick’s best friend and we were separating them forever? That would be so sad. I just really hoped that the family hadn’t named the horse SpongeBob.

  “The horses are back this way,” Nancy said.

  We followed her across dry grass that was covered in patches of yellow where dogs had peed, round the back to a small barn and a few sand paddocks. There was a pregnant mare, a scruffy yearling with rain rot and an old gray with a sway back.

  “See,” Dad said. “Nothing to see here.”

  Then I caught sight of the same flaxen tail I had before and a chestnut trotted around the corner and over to us. Patrick barked until the horse came to the fence and they sniffed noses, his tail wagging as he licked the horse’s nose.

  “Look, they are buddies,” I said. “They’ve missed each other. It’s so sad.”

  The look on Dad’s face told me that he didn’t think it was quite as sad as I did.

  The horse was a decent size, probably middle aged and not in any obvious need of medical attention. She had a zigzag blaze down her face like lightning and her flaxen mane and tail were certainly eye catching. I was surprised that the old owners hadn’t been able to easily sell her.

  “So what is her deal?” I asked Nancy as Dad stood back looking irritated. “Why didn’t the owners sell her?”

  “All I know is that they left in a hurry. I think they were in trouble with the government. Maybe illegals? I can’t say.” Nancy shrugged. “But apparently this mare was on the show circuit and her rider cleaned up in the ribbons.”

  “Doing what?” I said, crossing my fingers behind my back.

  “Jumping I think,” Nancy said.

  I looked at Dad who just shook his head. I think he already knew it was a lost cause.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  I stood there with the dog while Dad went back to get the trailer. He wasn’t impressed that we’d come to get a dog and were going to come away with a horse as well, one that had a questionable history at best. But he was bringing back my saddle, saying that he couldn’t possibly take on another horse unless we knew that her history was the truth and not some lie that the old owners made up just to make sure she got a good home. I guess he was right. It would have sucked if we got the horse home and found out that she wasn’t trained at all. That she was only green broke or crazy or had horrible vices.

  Patrick and I sat in the shade of a tree on the parched grass. He had his head on my lap and every now and then his tail would thump the ground. He was a sweet dog. He didn’t seem to like men though. Every time Dad went near him, he growled and bared his teeth. I thought that meant he was out of the question when it came to adopting him but Dad said that a dog that didn’t like men would make a good guard dog and that if Mr. Eastford ever came on the property then he hoped Patrick would bite his leg off. I knew it wasn’t that simple. If he did something like that then he’d end up back here at animal control where he’d definitely be put to sleep for being a dangerous dog. Plus Mr. Eastford would probably sue us. But a bit of growling and barking would hopefully keep away any unwanted guests. I wondered if it would work on Taylor.

  Nancy had left to go take care of the paperwork. She said she didn’t really know anything about horses but that she would pull the mare’s file. Apparently her name was Sunny but it didn’t suit her and she didn’t answer to it anyway. That meant we could probably change it to whatever we wanted. I thought she deserved a pretty name because she was beautiful, one of the most striking horses I’d seen in a while. Not that I didn’t think my other horses were spectacularly good looking because they were but this was the sort of horse that Jess would go for just because she would turn heads. She wouldn’t blend in at a show that was for sure.

  It took ages for Dad to come back and when he did, he looked just as mad as he’d done when he left.

  “What is the matter?” I said.

  “What do you think?” he replied with a scowl. Sometimes he was just so cranky. I guess that was where I got it from.

  “I have a good feeling about this horse,” I said.

  “You have a good feeling about every horse,” he replied.

  “Come on,” I said. “She can’t be that bad. Look at her.”

  “She’s a mare,” Dad said. “Mares are temperamental.”

  I had to admit that I did prefer geldings. All the mares that I’d ridden had seemed to have an opinion about everything but this one seemed sweet. I liked her. I couldn’t help it. She reminded me of Petal’s mare, the one that was lame. Maybe if Sunny turned out to be a hunter, she’d want to buy her instead of Hashtag. Of course it was a long shot that she’d be good at anything but I was just as excited to ride the slightly dirty abandoned horse at the pound than I was any horse at a fancy barn.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Sunny was rusty. She stuck her head up when I tried to put the bridle on and wouldn’t let me put the bit in her mouth.

  “She probably just needs her teeth done,” I told Dad.

  “Great, another bill we can’t afford,” he grumbled.

  “Look, can you just try and look on the bright side?” I said.

  “I would, if there was one,” he said.

  There was no getting through to him. I was surprised that he hadn’t just put his foot down and r
efused to go and get the trailer at all but he had and he’d brought back my saddle and helmet. So here we were and now I was going to try the horse because it seemed silly not to.

  “You can ride over there.” Nancy pointed to a patch of grass over by the parking area.

  “Do you have any jumps?” I said hopefully.

  “Jumps?” Nancy said.

  “Never mind,” I replied, springing quickly into the saddle before both Dad and Nancy changed their minds about letting me ride the horse.

  It wasn’t usually how this sort of thing was done. While the dogs, cats and any other small pets that found their way into animal control were adopted out, the horses were usually sold at an auction every couple of months to raise money for the shelter. But the horses they had now weren’t about to fetch a giant sum of money. An old horse, a young unbroken one and a pregnant mare? Who knew what kind of foal she was carrying. Not many people would take a chance on that. The only one that would fetch a decent price would be Sunny and not if we could snap her up first. Nancy said that the shelter director was away on vacation and she had been given permission to sell the horses if anyone showed interest. So far I hadn’t asked how much. After all, how much should you expect to pay for a horse that had been abandoned at animal control?

  Sunny didn’t flip out when I asked her to walk on. Her step was light like she was floating on air. I could imagine her floating over the jumps too but I knew I was getting ahead of myself. I let her walk around for a little while, making sure that she wasn’t a psycho in disguise. Then I asked her to trot. Her trot was like something out of a dressage test. Her canter, when I asked for it, was the same. By this time, I could tell that Dad was starting to get interested. He’d stopped looking the other way and was coming over to where I was working the horse.

  “What do you think?” I said, patting her on the neck as I asked her to halt.

  “I think if she can jump as well as she goes on the flat, she’ll be a nice addition to the barn,” he said.

  “And you thought we were wasting our time,” I replied. “And you know, she’s super easy to ride. I bet she’d make a good lesson horse.”

  “How does it feel to always be right?” he asked me, shaking his head.

  It feels fantastic,” I replied with a grin.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  We went home with a dog and a horse and Dad vowing that he’d never take me back there again.

  “You know that you got away easy, right?” I laughed. “I wanted one of those cute little fluffy dogs that would sleep on my bed all night.”

  “And get stepped on by a horse?” Dad said. “A puppy pancake? No one needs to see that.”

  “Then you are happy with Patrick?” I asked.

  He looked behind us at the dog on the back seat. Patrick had jumped up in the truck like he’d been doing it his whole life and Sunny had walked into the trailer with the lead rope thrown over her neck and a sigh as though she was glad to finally be rescued from a place that was beneath her. I didn’t like to tell the mare that our place wasn’t exactly a palace but it was better than where she’d been.

  I couldn’t help wondering what her old home had been like. Had she been boarded at a big fancy facility or had the owners had their own small barn in their backyard? Who had the girl taken lessons with? Who were her friends? What must it have been like to have your whole life stolen from you, everything you loved left behind as you were forced to flee the country? I wanted to find her and write to her, tell her that her horse was safe and loved but I didn’t know who she was. Nancy wouldn’t give us that information. She said it was confidential.

  “Don’t you think the girl would be happy to find out that her horse has a good home?” I had asked Nancy as we filled out the paperwork.

  “I think that girl has bigger things to worry about,” Nancy had replied.

  She was probably right.

  The other horses were all interested when we pulled in, coming to the fences to check out the new arrival.

  “Do you think we should keep her separated for a while, just in case?” I said.

  We didn’t have anything that was even remotely like a quarantine facility but the fact that the mare had come from animal control where they saw a large influx of horses go through their barn, meant that even though their vets had given her a clean bill of health, she could still be harboring any number of nasties and the last thing we needed were any more surprises. If Sunny got Bluebird sick before the next show, then the thrill of a new horse would soon turn sour.

  “Get Jordan to set up the panels,” Dad said. “She can live in them for a week or two just to be sure. But she’ll need work every day. It’s not fair to keep her cooped up like that.”

  “I know,” I said, trying to mentally figure out my riding schedule and failing.

  At Fox Run Dad had written down my riding times and which horses I was going to work on a big whiteboard in the office. Here it was more like notes that were scribbled on scraps of paper and lost before I could remember what they said. We really needed to start being more organized.

  “I was thinking,” I said as Dad parked the truck. “Maybe it would be a good idea to send Hashtag over to Fox Run. I bet Missy has some hunter students that would be interested in buying him. It’s not fair to keep trying to force him to be something he’s not and I don’t trust Jess. She really wants him. What if she sneaks over here and steals him?”

  “I don’t think there is much chance of that with Patrick around,” Dad said. “We’ll set up a nice bed for him in the barn and sleep easy knowing that he is protecting our herd.”

  “You mean he has to sleep outside?” I said, hugging the black dog. “What if he gets scared? What if he is attacked by a bear?”

  “His job is to protect the farm and the horses,” Dad said. “He can’t do that if he’s sleeping on your bed, can he?”

  I hugged Patrick a little tighter. He’d latched onto me like a newborn foal and already followed me wherever I went. How was he going to feel when I left him outside all alone? It wasn’t fair but I guess my father had a point. His job was to be a guard dog and he couldn’t exactly do that if he was up in the house sleeping on my bed.

  “You were supposed to be going to get a dog,” Jordan said when he saw us.

  He had on work gloves and jeans, his blue t-shirt damp with sweat.

  “We did get a dog,” I said as Patrick growled at him.

  “And a horse by the look of it,” he said.

  “A lesson horse,” I replied. “She’s really sweet. Can you put up the panels for her, over there in the shade where she can’t touch noses with the other horses.”

  “Sure,” Jordan said, eyeing Patrick warily as the dog growled at him.

  “He’s not very friendly, is he?” Jordan said.

  “That’s kind of the point,” I replied with a grin. “Besides, he likes me.”

  “At least someone does,” Dad called out from inside the trailer.

  “Hey,” I yelled back.

  But I guess he was right. Patrick seemed to like me more than my real friends did. He kept his nose right by my legs as I walked around helping to unload Sunny and it made me feel good. A dog was supposed to be man's best friend. Maybe he could be a girl’s best friend too.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Sunny settled into her paddock with little fuss. The other horses were more interested in her than she was in them, coming to the fence with pricked ears and calling out to her. She just stuck her head up and ignored them. I could already tell, Sunny was a princess.

  “You’re a horse hoarder, you know that, right?” Jordan said.

  He was standing next to me, leaning on a pitchfork. His arms were already tanned from the sun and his jeans were dirty. He looked like he’d always been a farm hand. There was a tattoo on the back of his neck, peeking out from the back of his t-shirt but I couldn’t see what it was. For some reason I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

  “I am not,” I said. “We n
eeded a lesson horse.”

  “Who is it exactly that is going to take lessons?” Jordan said, looking around. “There is no one here.”

  “I’m here,” Cat said, running up the driveway, her book bag banging against her legs. She tossed it on the ground as soon as she reached us. “I want to take lessons. Is that the lesson horse? She’s pretty.”

  I should have known that Cat would fall in love with Sunny. She liked pretty things almost as much as she liked makeup and boys. Sunny was the perfect pretty girl’s horse.

  “What’s her name?” Cat said.

  “Sunny,” I replied.

  “Sunny?” She wrinkled her nose. “Like sunny side up? She’s not a breakfast food. No. That is just wrong.”

  “Well she doesn’t seem to like her name any more than you do,” I said. “So we can change it.”

  “Can I pick out her name, please?” she said, reaching out to gently touch the mare’s nose.

  “I guess so,” I said.

  The truth was that I was a little disappointed. I’d wanted to pick out a name for the new mare, something magical or maybe that of an ancient princess or Egyptian queen. Cat would probably end up calling her Lipstick or something but Jordan was right. I did like to hoard all the horses and keep them to myself and it would be good for Cat to have something to ride. I didn’t like sharing Bluebird with her any more than she had liked riding him and now that he was my team horse again, I couldn’t really let her ride him at all.

  “I’ll come up with a perfect name, I promise,” Cat said as she picked up her bag and ran into the house.

  “You know she won’t, right?” Jordan said.

  “I know.” I sighed. “But she seemed so happy.”

  “Well look at you with the sharing and the sisterly love,” he said, making a soppy face.