When we got to the field, Tara hopped about until my father gave her a leg up. I perched on the fence out of the way. I didn’t want Tara being able to use me as a distraction and an excuse. If she had been a nicer person then I wouldn’t have minded her coming to try out Encore or even buying him but I’d watched her for a whole week and I knew that just like Jess, she wasn’t about to change any time soon.
As she started to trot I wanted to close my eyes but I kept them open because I had to see for myself what was going to happen next.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Encore tried to be good. He really did. He was practically a saint but Tara seemed to have forgotten everything she knew about riding. She hung on his mouth and dug her spurs into his sides. He tried to ignore her and do his job anyway but it was kind of hard when the rider on your back was doing everything in their power to make sure that you didn’t make it over the fence. So when she asked him to jump a triple bar from an impossible distance, he slid to a stop.
Tara was halfway up his neck, clinging to it for dear life.
“Sit up,” Dad yelled at her but she didn’t listen.
Encore, spooked by his nose slamming into the jump poles and the fact that he now had a barnacle clinging to his neck, started to trot. Soon he was cantering. Tara still had her face buried in his mane.
“Sit up,” Dad screamed at her.
She finally did, just in time for Encore to splash through the water jump like it was a giant pond, cantering in and then launching out of it. Tara might have been sitting up but she wasn’t sitting back and she didn’t have her heels down or her legs on or really any sort of control what so ever. Encore went one way and she went the other, flying through the air and landing in the shallow water.
For a moment she didn’t move, then she sat up, throwing her crop down into the water with a sob. I stifled a laugh. It wasn’t really funny. She could have been hurt but it kind of served her right after the way she had treated me at the clinic and the way she had treated Encore. He tried his best but even he couldn’t put up with her erratic form of riding.
Violet flew over the field to her daughter while my father just stood there with his arms crossed, shaking his head. Encore had trotted a few steps away and was currently grazing on a nearby patch of grass, in danger of stepping on his reins. I walked out to get him while Violet stood there looking down at her daughter. Tara was sobbing into her wet gloves. I thought she was being ridiculous. So she fell off. So what? We’d all been there. Maybe not exactly where she was, tossed off into a patch of cold water but still, we’d all kind of been there.
“Hey boy,” I said when I got closer to Encore.
He picked his head up and nickered softly and I grabbed the reins before he looped a foot through them and really got himself in trouble.
“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?” I whispered.
He looked at me as if to say ‘you told me to’. And in a way I had. I stood there waiting for someone to tell me what to do. Tara was still sobbing but Violet was not being sympathetic at all.
“Get up,” she told her daughter. “Why are you still sitting there in that water like a baby?”
“I’m not a baby,” Tara wailed.
“Then get up. You are embarrassing me.”
Violet may have been wearing high heels and a dress with pale pink flowers on it but apparently that didn’t mean she was going to hold her daughter’s hand or fuss over her. It seemed that Violet was more interested in Tara winning than anything else and winners didn’t sit in water jumps crying their eyes out.
“I’m sure we have some dry breeches you can borrow if you want to try again?” Dad said, reaching out his hand.
Tara looked at it for a second like she wasn’t sure if she should take his offer of help or just sit there in the water all afternoon and wait for the ground to swallow her up. In the end she took his hand and he pulled her to her feet. She stood there dripping and downcast.
“I don’t want to ride that horse again,” she said, glaring at Encore who was standing next to me looking pretty proud of himself. “He doesn’t like me and I don’t like him. Come on Mom, let’s go.”
“His opinion is irrelevant,” Violet said. “And so is yours. I don’t care if you hate each other. That horse is a winner and if that little girl can ride him.” She pointed at me. “Then so can you.”
I bit my lip, wanting to say that I was almost exactly the same age as Tara but I didn’t say anything. Tara was doing a good enough job of making a fool of herself. I didn’t need to add any more fuel to the fire.
“I don’t want him,” Tara said, her voice rising. “I want a nice horse.”
“You have a nice horse,” Violet said. “But you told me she wasn’t good enough. You said you had to have the horse that Emily rode and so here we are and what are you doing? Making a scene just like always.”
“Mom,” Tara said, her face going bright red. “Now you are embarrassing me.”
“You are embarrassing yourself,” Violet said. “And I won’t stand for it.” She turned to face my father, who I could tell was trying not to laugh. “We’ll come back tomorrow and try the horse again, if that is okay with you?”
“If you wish,” Dad said. “But perhaps it would be better to schedule a lesson so that I can try and get your daughter and Encore to work together as a team? He really isn’t a difficult horse to ride.”
“No, I don’t want to,” Tara said.
But Violet just ignored her.
“Yes that will be fine. Thank you very much. I do apologize for all this.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Dad said. “People fall off all the time.”
“Yes but I bet they don’t usually make such a fuss when they do,” she said, looking straight at me. “You don’t do that when you fall off, do you?”
“No, not usually,” I replied.
“Emily has been riding for a while,” Dad said. “She’s used to it.”
“So is Tara.” Violet shook her head.
“You’d better hop up on him and take him over a few jumps,” Dad told me. “We can’t let him end on a bad note like that.”
“But what about my saddle,” Tara whined.
“Fine,” I said, unbuckling the girth. “Here is your saddle.”
“Want a leg up?” Dad asked, winking at me.
“Thanks,” I replied with a grin.
He tossed me up onto Encore’s broad back and I picked up the reins. He pricked his ears as I asked him to canter and then pointed him at the same triple bar that he’d refused earlier with Tara. He cantered easily towards it and soared over the high jump. I clung to his back, my legs strong and secure. Then I circled him around and galloped towards the water where he’d dumped off Tara. He cleared that too and then came sweetly back to a walk.
Tara and Violet were standing there with their mouths open.
“But she just jumped him without a saddle,” Violet spluttered.
“I told you,” Dad said, looking all proud. “She’s used to it.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Dad was so pleased with my performance that he agreed to give me a lesson on Bluebird the next day. He was convinced that my bareback performance had sealed the deal and that no matter how badly Tara rode Encore, Violet would still buy the horse because she could see that he was a winner, even if her daughter wasn’t. Missy didn’t seem too thrilled with the fact that my name was up on the lesson board that morning.
“I thought you were going to help me with Socks,” she said. “You were going to move the jumps for me.”
“I promised Emily,” Dad said. “You should have seen her yesterday. She practically sold that horse herself.”
“Yes. Great. Wonderful,” Missy mumbled under her breath.
“Well you wanted me to make some money, didn’t you? If that horse sells then I’ll get the commission money thanks to Emily,” Dad replied.
I was standing in the tack room, cleaning Bluebird’s bridle. They were
out in the aisle but I could hear everything they were saying. My father was proud of me. That didn’t happen very often. I smiled to myself as Missy moaned on and on for a few minutes about how she would very much appreciate my father’s help but she couldn’t change his mind. In the end she stormed off. I heard her angry footsteps stomping down the aisle. By the time I dared stick my head out, my father had disappeared too.
I had Bluebird groomed and tacked and was already warming him up by the time my father came out to the ring to teach me.
“Want to take him in the field today?” he asked.
“Yes please.” I grinned.
He walked alongside us as we made our way out to the jump field. I noticed the start of a bald spot on the top of his head that hadn’t been there before. I knew he’d been stressed out a lot lately. We all had. But on mornings like this where the air was fresh and the sun was bright, it made me happy to think that I was doing the one thing I loved more than anything in the whole world. Even if horses were sold or sick or injured, at the end of the day when it all came together, it was worth all the heartache. I wanted to tell my father that but I knew it would just sound corny and he wouldn’t understand.
This may have been my passion but it was also his business and businesses couldn’t run on thin air. You had to make a profit if you wanted to keep doing what you loved and I knew that in my own small way that was true for me as well. I needed a big win at the Easter show to pay for all my mounting vet bills.
“Dad,” I said. “Do you have the prize list for the show yet? I want to get my entries in as soon as possible.”
“Missy has them,” he replied.
“Oh. Well do you think you could get me a copy?”
It was kind of weird that Missy was keeping them all to herself. Usually copies of the prize list and entry forms were pinned to the bulletin board so that any boarders or lesson students who wanted to go could sign up and let my father know.
“I already entered you,” Dad said.
“You did? Why didn’t you tell me?”
Dad didn’t answer.
“Well in what classes?” I said.
“Bluebird in the pony jumpers and you’re riding Encore in the 1.15m class. It should be an easy win for him and might attract attention from other buyers in case the sale falls through. That Tara girl is far too flaky to count on as a sure thing.”
“But I don’t ride Bluebird in the pony jumpers anymore,” I said, getting a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. “He goes in the big classes now and he wins sometimes too. We can’t go backwards. Plus the prize money is bigger. And isn’t there supposed to be a mini Grand Prix? They are giving away the Tipperton cup. It’s the highlight of the show. It’s why everyone is going. That is the class I want to ride Bluebird in.”
“That is the class everyone wants to ride in,” Dad said.
It was a sponsored class. The winner would walk away with five thousand dollars. It wasn’t huge but for a show in our area it was decent money and would keep my horses in shoes and ulcer medication for a few more months. Plus the jumps weren’t that high anyway. A mini Grand Prix was usually just a flashy way of attracting entrants who wanted the chance to say that they’d won a Grand Prix, even if it was a mini one. And I knew Bluebird and I had a fighting chance at winning the thing. He’d had time off. He was coming back hot and strong. He was itching for a win just like I was.
“So why can’t I?” I said.
He opened the gate and I walked Bluebird into the field. Then he shut it with a sigh and looked up at me.
“Missy is hoping to win that class,” he said. “This will be her first show since she got pregnant. She’s taking Socks and she is eager to win.”
“She’s eager to win?” I spluttered. “What do you think I am?”
“But this is her career we’re talking about.”
He tried to explain it to me again but I could barely hear his words over the river of rage that was flowing through my mind. Missy was trying to keep me out of the big money classes so that she could win? Who did she think she was? I wasn’t going to let her hold me back. That was never going to happen.
“It’s my career too,” I said. “She already made it to the top. She rode in the Olympics. She has lived my dream and because of that I used to look up to her. I thought she could help me realize my dreams too but if all she wants to do is hold me back and shove me in the pony classes then she’s got another thing coming.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
My lesson was awkward and not just because Bluebird was too fresh and excited to pay much attention to anything I asked of him. But because once again my father was siding with Missy instead of me. Why did my parents keep doing that? Why was the love they had for their partner apparently so much stronger than the love they had for me, their child? I couldn’t understand it.
I deserved a chance to win that class just like Missy did and even if I entered, it was no guarantee that I would win. Missy was an experienced rider and Socks was awesome. I should know. I’d been riding him all winter and won my own blue ribbons on him. And he was fast. If anyone could beat Bluebird it would be Socks. So why not let us both have a go? Keeping me out of the class made no sense at all, especially considering it was going to be a really popular class with a shiny trophy and fancy neck ribbon and of course that big fat check. Everyone who had a horse that could jump anything over four foot would be entering. Even people who were kind of dodgy at that height would be entering too because let’s face it, what did they have to lose?
“Circle and take the combination again,” Dad called out as we flew down the line at warp speed. “And slow down. This isn’t a jump off. Let’s try and pretend we have a little bit of self-restraint.”
I circled Bluebird, who tossed his head and kicked up his heels. He was so happy to be jumping again that he practically bolted over the first fence I pointed him at. I had started to laugh but Dad didn’t think it was funny and so I was trying to concentrate and not let Bluebird get away with too much. After all, I’d managed to get Dad on my side about not sending Arion away so who was to say that I couldn’t talk him into letting me enter the mini Grand Prix. And at the end of the day, I was going to the show and if I had to sneak off and enter my pony myself behind their backs, I would do so. No one was going to hold me back. Not even Missy.
We took the line of jumps again, a red vertical with two strides to a blue oxer. They were set at the same height that I’d been jumping Encore the day before, which was pretty big for a pony but Bluebird wasn’t just any pony. He was my jumping pony. He’d fly over the moon if I asked him to. He cleared the jumps with at least a foot to spare and this time didn’t act like an idiot doing it. I asked him to walk and patted his neck. Out of the corner of my eye I could see my father standing there rubbing his chin. He knew we were a winning team. Holding us back wasn’t going to help.
“That’ll do for today,” Dad said. “Let’s not over jump him before the show. Go and get Encore ready for that lesson with Tara.”
“What am I, a groom now?” I said.
But I gave my father a wink and trotted Bluebird off in the direction of the barn. I needed to get on his good side and if that meant doing all the manual labor that he wanted then that was what I was going to do.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
I gave Encore an extra special groom. It wasn’t that I wanted Tara’s lesson to go well but I wanted my father to see that at least I’d put the effort in. By the time I was done, his coat shone like polished mahogany.
“You’re such a good boy,” I told him as I put his boots on. “And at least I get to ride you in one last show.”
I took one of the ginger snaps that he liked so much out of my pocket and gave it to him. It had taken a while to find something that he actually liked and I probably wouldn’t have even figured it out by now if it hadn’t been for Andy, the only boy at our clinic last month. He’d been nice to me and both he and Alice had already confirmed that they were going t
o the Easter show too. I bet they were going to ride in the mini Grand Prix. What would they think if they saw me riding back in pony land? And it wasn’t that I thought I was too good for the pony jumpers because I’d had the time of my life riding in them it was just that I was fourteen now and soon I would be fifteen. I needed to start winning serious classes if I was going to get anywhere.
Tara eventually showed up with her saddle, which she shoved in my direction. Today it looked like she wasn’t going to spend ages stalling as she got Encore ready. Today she expected me to do her dirty work.
“Hello dear,” Violet said. “How are you doing?”
“Fine thank you,” I replied.
She had on a pair of navy slacks and flat shoes, dressed much more the part for coming to a barn than she had been the day before. She reached out and stroked Encore’s neck and I noticed that her pink nails had little rhinestones glued to them.
“He’s so quiet,” she said as Encore stood there staring off into the distance.
“He’s shy,” I replied, tightening the girth.
I didn’t tell them about the ginger snaps. Maybe if they bought him I would but I wasn’t about to share all his secrets when I didn’t even know if they were definitely going to buy him or not. I wanted them to want him first and not just because he was a good jumper. He deserved a home where he was going to be loved as well and not just treated like a jumping machine. I thought I could see a glimpse of compassion and caring in Violet but as I handed Tara the reins and she snatched them away from me with a scowl I knew that whatever she felt for the horse, it was most certainly not love.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Dad worked Tara hard for an hour. She didn’t like it very much and she complained a lot. If there was one thing my father hated more than anything it was people who couldn’t suck it up. She needed a drink of water. Then she needed a towel to wipe the sweat out of her eyes. I’d hung around by the ring to watch but now it seemed like I’d become Tara’s personal servant, ferrying back and forth with things for her.
Show Time (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 17) Page 4