“You got it?” Chloe said.
“I hope so,” I said. “Otherwise Walter won’t want me to ride another one of his horses.”
“You are riding for Walter?” Chloe said. “Which horse?”
“Lucky,” I said, pointing to where Martin was standing in the shade with the bay horse. “I mean, Finders Keepers I guess.”
“Nice,” Chloe said. “He beat me last week.”
“Who are you riding?” I asked.
I couldn’t remember the name of the horse that she used to have. Was it Winter something? I didn’t want to get it wrong and look stupid.
“I’ve been leasing a horse for the season,” she said. “She’s really nice. I like her a lot. Not that we’ve been super successful or anything but she’s been taking good care of me.”
“That’s great,” I said. “I’m glad.”
She looped her arm through mine like we’d been best friends forever.
“And you still ride with Frank Coppell?” I asked.
“That’s another long story,” she said. “I’ll tell you that one later too.”
“Alright,” I said.
The horse world was a complicated place. People changed horses and trainers all the time and not under the best of circumstances either. But Chloe and I now had our class to focus on. A class that suddenly didn’t seem so scary now that I’d found a friend.
“The warm up ring is over there,” Walter said when I went to fetch Lucky from Martin. He’d obviously just come back from walking his own course. “Come on.”
I followed behind his chestnut horse, scanning the crowd for my father. He probably got lost. I knew that driving to the showgrounds wasn’t as easy as riding and that was why a lot of the trainers rented farms that were next to the bridle path so that they could ride over every day. Dad was probably stuck at the gate still trying to get in or searching for a parking space. He could also be lost in the crowd. I was kind of glad. I didn’t want him watching as Walter schooled me over the warm up jumps and I wasn’t even sure that I wanted him watching me compete. I wanted to pretend like he wasn’t there. Like I hadn’t had to rely on my father to bring me to the show.
I knew it had to be tough on him. He was sort of my trainer too. If he disagreed with something that Walter told me to do, would he say something? Or would he just stand there and keep his mouth shut until later, telling me all the way home that Walter’s way was wrong and his was right.
There were only a couple of riders in the warm up ring, Chloe was one of them. Her mare was a bright chestnut with a tightly braided mane and a burgundy ear bonnet that matched her saddle pad. She looked over at me but didn’t wave this time because she saw I was with Walter. She’d obviously had a bad history with Frank. Something between them had gone wrong. I wondered if something had gone wrong between her and Walter too because in the end there were only so many trainers who did what we did and could teach us to be great and if we found things wrong with all of them then we’d be out of luck. I had to look past Walter’s arrogance and the way that he thought he was better than everyone else because what did I know. Maybe he was? All I knew was that he was giving me an opportunity that I hadn’t had before and I wasn’t going to blow it.
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
Lucky was simple and straightforward to ride. He cantered easily over the warm up jumps and unlike the difficult horse at the last show, this time I had no troubles. But Lucky was slow. I longed for Bluebird’s speed and his nimbleness. Lucky wouldn’t make tight turns and he wouldn’t gallop flat out. We’d probably end up like Jess and Harlow in the mini Grand Prix at the last show, going slow and steady and not even placing in the jump off. If we got to the jump off. I hoped that we would. After all, that was what I was here for.
“You’re good to go, right?” Walter said as I asked Lucky to walk. “I have to go ride in my own class.”
“Of course,” I said.
Without Chloe I would have felt panic rising up in my throat. I would have been terrified and intimidated. But a friendly face was a friendly face and Chloe and I stood with our horses by the ring, watching the other riders go.
“She’s cute,” I said as Chloe patted the mare’s muscled neck.
“Thanks,” she said. “I love her. I wish we could buy her but she’s not for sale and even if she was, we couldn't afford her.”
“You still have another horse though, right?” I said.
“No.” She shook her head.
I didn’t like to ask if her old horse had just been sold or if something had happened to it. Horses changed hands or they got hurt and had career ending injuries. It wasn’t something I wanted to think about right now.
“I don’t think that the course looks too bad,” I said.
“It will be okay,” Chloe said. “I rode one like it yesterday. That line there.” She pointed from a large square oxer to a tall purple vertical. “That will trip people up. The land slopes down towards the in gate and the horses get fast. You watch how many horses have that jump down.”
As we watched rider after rider go, Chloe was right. A lot of them did have the purple vertical down but there were just as many that didn’t. There were a lot of good riders at the show. They had probably been coming here every year for their whole lives, starting out in the lead line and the short stirrup classes, working their way up to the bigger classes and jumps. They hadn’t gone to backyard shows and schooling affairs like we had but then again that made us scrappy. These horses and riders didn’t look like they’d know what to do if something out of the ordinary happened.
“Good luck,” I told Chloe as her number was called to the ring.
“Thanks,” she said. “I need to do well because my parents are watching.”
She pointed over to where a crowd of people were sitting on fancy chairs around the side of the ring. Chloe waved and a man and a woman waved back. I’d yet to even find my father. I had a sneaking suspicion that he was hiding in the truck or had found a tent that sold liquor and was drowning his sorrows in it.
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
Chloe’s mare was a pro. Storytime took the course in stride, never faltering. Chloe had obviously been riding well all week. I think she’d been riding better than she’d told me. I watched her take the tricky line that she’d pointed out. She didn’t have a problem, her mare tucking her knees and popping over the vertical with room to spare. She came out of the ring to a round of applause, most of it from her parents.
“Well done,” I said as she passed me by.
“Thanks.” She grinned.
There were a couple of horses to go and then it was my turn. I really hoped that Lucky turned out to be as good as his name but the horse was push button. Anyone could have sat on his back and ridden him. It didn’t make me feel as good as I thought it would. I liked the difficult horses. The ones that posed a challenge. I liked to be the only one who could get them to go well. Anyone could have ridden Lucky today and done well. I knew that now. So why did Walter ask for me? I had no idea.
We walked into the ring and Lucky stood quietly while I tapped my crop to my helmet. I looked around, feeling a pang of guilt that I wasn’t on Bluebird because I knew he would have loved the ring with its shiny jumps and perfect footing and he would have wowed the crowd because they all would have thought that he would never make it and then they would have cheered when he did. But Lucky looked like a champion. Everyone expected him to do well. I was the one who was the outcast this time.
Lucky cantered around the course and I thought to myself, this must be what it feels like to ride a champion. He cleared every jump, made every line, and never took a step wrong. I almost wanted him to, willed him to throw in a buck or get too fast or slow but he didn’t need me. He didn’t need anybody and when I patted his neck as we crossed the finish line inside the time allowed, he shook his head as though to say he was just doing his job and didn’t know what all the fuss was about.
We walked out of the ring to even less applau
se than Chloe had and I was walking over to join her when I was flagged down by a mad looking woman with a red face.
“They have to check him,” Chloe said, pointing to a rubber mat set up in the shade of a tree.
Check him for what? I thought. I remembered the speck of blood on my fingers. Prayed that it was just a mosquito bite and nothing more because if they tested Finders Keepers and found out that he’d been drugged with something illegal then I could be fined or even suspended. My career might be over before it had even really begun and that would mean that Walter hadn’t brought me here to help me. He’d brought me here to ruin my life.
CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
My panic was short lived as it turned out that the red faced woman only wanted to check Lucky’s boots, his mouth and feel his sides.
“What was that about?” I asked Chloe when I got back to where she was standing in the shade with Storytime.
“Checking for pins or tacks in the boots,” she said with a shrug. “They always do that here. And they make sure his mouth isn’t bleeding from the bit and that you didn’t cut his sides with your spurs.”
I thought of Jess and how she would have been eliminated if she’d been riding here. There was often blood on her horses after she’d done with them and blood on her hands when she eventually tossed them aside. I had to get Harlow out of her barn and the sooner the better but I didn’t have time to think about that now. Chloe and I were both in the jump off. Her mare was actually speedier than I’d expected and she came out of the ring with only one rail down and a fast time.
“That was amazing,” I told her.
“I had a rail,” she said, sounding disappointed with herself. “It would have been amazing if we hadn’t.”
Soon it was my turn and I encouraged Lucky on with as much will as I had but the horse only had one galloping speed. Bluebird had many. It was like you asked him to gallop but then, like a racehorse, you could ask him for even more in the home stretch and he’d give it to you every time. Lucky didn’t have that fourth gear and he got a little ticked off when I asked him for it. He kicked out at my strong leg as we were galloping to the final fence and clipped the top rail. For a moment I thought we’d been lucky and that it would only rock back and forth in the cups but then I heard a thud and I knew it was all over.
I patted Lucky as we came out of the ring. It was a big class and a lot of the riders had made it to the jump off. Chloe and I stood there holding our horses, watching. She pointed out the riders that she knew and told me all their quirks and secrets, like the girl who only rode bay horses and the one who was secretly dating her groom just to spite her parents.
Chloe seemed to know them all and several of them waved at her as they came out of the ring despite the fact that she was telling me things about them they’d probably rather not share. I wondered what she’d tell the other girls about me when I finally went back to my real life where things weren’t shiny and pretty but at least they weren’t fake either.
In the end neither Chloe or I placed in the class. A girl on a stunning palomino won.
“You win some you lose some,” Chloe said with a shrug but I felt mortified.
Walter had brought me up to ride the horse. I was sure that he’d expected me to win. I was convinced that he’d never ask me to ride for him again.
“Well I guess I’d better go and find Walter,” I said as we watched the winning riders complete their victory lap, ribbons fluttering on their horse’s bridles. I didn’t want to be a sore loser but I wished just one of them could have been mine.
“You didn’t tell me what happened to Esther and Sand Hill,” Chloe said.
“You didn’t tell me why you aren’t riding with Frank anymore,” I told her.
“Another time,” she said. “I have to go.”
We exchanged numbers and promised to call one another. I wasn’t sure if we would or not. I liked Chloe. She was kind and honest but she moved in different circles than I did. Expensive circles that I was only dipping my toe in. She swum there.
“Maybe I’ll see you again soon,” Chloe said as she walked away with her horse.
“Maybe,” I said.
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR
Walter was finishing up his class in one of the big rings. His chestnut was thundering around a massive jump course and he was going for broke. I could tell that he wasn’t the kind of rider who would play it safe. Neither was I. That’s why I hated the fact that Lucky hadn’t at least placed.
The chestnut was hyped up on adrenaline, his neck dark with sweat and eyes wide as they galloped down the last line. Walter went for broke, took out a stride and aimed for the long distance. You could almost feel the crowd of spectators hold their breath as the horse took off, straining over the wide oxer. For a moment I thought he’d made it, just like I had but then the top pole fell, just like mine had done. The crowd groaned but Walter came out of the ring laughing and patting his horse. He was a better sport than I was but then again it seemed like a lot of the riders in his class went for it and had rails and in the end Walter and his horse ended up third.
I waited for him back behind the crowd, not sure how to tell him that I’d lost. He galloped around the ring and took his hat off to the crowd then tossed it in the air and caught it again. Walter was a showman or a show off. I just wasn’t sure which. But people loved him, even though he didn’t win today. Little girls crowded around him as he came out of the ring, reaching up to gently touch the big chestnut horse’s nose. I wanted to pull their hands away in case the horse bit their fingers off but Walter just smiled and signed their programs and their scraps of paper. One little girl wanted him to sign her blue ribbon that she’d won in the walk, trot class. She looked up at him with big blue eyes as he signed his name on the satin.
“One day I want to ride like you,” she said.
“And I’m sure you will,” he replied, patting the girl on the head as he gave her back her now priceless ribbon.
“Where is yours?” Walter said as the crowd finally thinned and he was able to leave them behind.
“We had the last rail down.” I hung my head.
“Well you can see that it happens to the best,” Walter replied with a grin.
Martin fussed around the big horse, loosening his girth and wiping him down with a wet rag. Walter just stood there with the reins looped through his arm, ignoring the horse now that there was no one around to see if he really cared about his partner or not.
“But you brought me here to win,” I said.
“No, I brought you here to ride the horse and you did. You made it to the jump off. That’s good enough for me and it will be good enough for the owners.”
Walter handed off the reins to Martin, who threw a fly sheet over the horse. He was still puffing after the exertion of his jump off and Martin started to walk him around.
“Bluebird would have won,” I said, still feeling a little grumpy about my class.
I knew that I should have been grateful just to have had the experience but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d let Walter down, even though he said that I hadn’t.
“You and that pony,” he said, shaking his head. “You really think he’d fit in here?”
“I don’t care if he’d fit in or not,” I said, looking around at all the fancy horses. “The only thing that matters is that we’d win.”
“Well maybe you should bring him up here then,” Walter said.
I wasn’t sure if it was an invitation or a dare.
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE
Walter said that he had to stay at the show and schmooze with his owners. I wasn’t sure what that meant but I had a pretty good idea that it involved a lot of alcohol and promises that he’d win next time. He pretended to be happy with his yellow ribbon but I knew that deep down he was as disappointed as I was and owners wanted reassurances that next time he’d win. That left Martin to take the chestnut horse back to the barn.
I rode Lucky and Martin walked next to me, leading Wa
lter’s horse. He looked tired. He’d probably been at it since the crack of dawn.
“Don’t you ride?” I asked Martin as we made our way through the show grounds to the bridle path.
“I do.” He nodded solemnly. “But Mr. Grey does not allow it.”
“Oh,” I said. “Right.”
I guess it made sense. I probably wouldn’t have let anyone ride Bluebird back to the barn either but Martin didn’t look like anyone. He looked like he’d been around his whole life.
“How long have you worked for Walter?” I asked him.
“Long time,” he said. “Since before all this.”
“And you like your job?” I said.
“I love the horses.” He patted the chestnut on the neck and the horse nudged him until Martin took a treat out of his pocket and gave it to him.
He didn’t say that he loved working for Walter. I wondered if somewhere along the way the novelty had worn off once he realized that the horses weren’t just there to be loved. That they were there to work for a living too, just like him.
“Does Walter ever give the horses anything before a class?” I asked, trying to sound casual about it. “There was blood on Lucky’s neck when I got to the barn.”
“That would be against the rules,” Martin said, glaring at me. “Probably a mosquito bit him.”
“Probably.” I nodded but I didn’t feel so sure.
Lucky had been lethargic. Tired. He felt like he’d been drugged but why? If he hadn’t been then maybe he would have found that extra spurt of speed and we would have won. What was the point of drugging a horse to make them lose? It gave me a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.
CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
When we got back to Walter’s farm I found my father sleeping in his truck, the window open and a country western song playing quietly on the radio. He hadn’t even gone to the show. He hadn’t seen me ride or bothered to come over and make sure I was okay. There I was worried that he’d got lost and he never even left the parking lot in the first place.
Catch Rider (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 28) Page 7