Summer Rider (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 31)

by Claire Svendsen

  Eventually Hanna fell asleep and Esther grew tired of her cowboys. She turned the radio off and motioned for me to crawl up into the front seat.

  “I think this is going to be so great for you girls,” she said. “Are you excited?”

  “Yes,” I said. “And kind of nervous. I’ve never really been on the road before.”

  “You’ll love it,” she said. “Or you’ll hate it with a passion but better to find out now, don’t you think?”

  Her blue eyes sparkled as she smiled at me, the same blue eyes that Hanna had. I felt like the outsider again.

  “I’m sure I’ll love it,” I said. “What’s not to love? Horses and horse shows every day? Sounds like paradise to me.”

  “Even paradise has a dark side,” Esther said.

  “I know.” I rolled my eyes. “My dad already warned me. No drinking, no drugs, no kissing or anything that goes beyond kissing. Basically no fun of any kind.”

  “You don’t think that stuff would be fun, do you?” Esther said, sounding serious. “Because more than one working student has been sent home with their tail between their legs after getting dismissed for something like that. Being a working student is like being at boarding school only you’re on the road and you don’t have any rules to keep you in line.”

  “So why do you get in trouble when you break one of them and how are you supposed to know what they are in the first place?”

  “Just keep your nose down, do your work and ride well,” Esther said. “You know how to behave. I trust you.”

  “And Hanna?” I said, looking back at the sleeping girl whose headphones had slipped to one side.

  “Hanna has an adventurous side,” Esther said, shaking her head. “I want you to be a good influence on her. Don’t let her do anything stupid. If she sees you toeing the line, then she will too.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  But I wasn’t too keen on being brought along just to be Hanna’s babysitter and I was pretty sure that there was no way she was going to listen to me anyway. And the last thing I needed was Hanna messing up and making us both look bad.

  “She’ll be okay,” I said. “Won’t she?”

  “Of course she will,” Esther said but she didn’t sound very convinced and now I had one more thing to worry about.

  CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

  When we pulled up at the show grounds it was already daylight and things were well underway. Esther had said it was the last day of the show before the group moved on but apparently that didn’t mean it was any less busy. Horses and riders were everywhere amidst grooms, parents and various hangers on.

  “I think you are in barn five,” Esther said, looking at a piece of paper.

  “Isn’t this exciting?” Hanna said, her eyes gleaming.

  I wasn’t so sure. I felt like a little kid who was being thrown into the deep end of a pool and being told to either learn to swim or drown. Hanna had at least finally changed into her breeches and boots while I sat in the front of the truck and tried not to look. She didn’t seem at all shy about stripping down to her underwear in front of an almost total stranger. I would have been mortified. Maybe it was because she was European or perhaps it was because she had nothing to be ashamed of. She was lean and fit. I on the other hand, had these fat rolls on my hips, despite the fact that I rode all day every day, did barn chores and ate very little. I liked to blame my genes. Mom always said that my Grandmother was obese and she herself ate like a bird to try to maintain her figure. I wasn’t blessed with one of those constitutions where you could eat whatever you wanted and never get fat.

  “Are you just going to dump us off?” I asked as Esther got out to unload the horses.

  “You want me to stay and hold your hand?” she asked, then pulled me into a hug. “You’ll be fine,” she added. “This is a great opportunity for you.”

  “I know,” I replied.

  People kept telling me that. Like this was the only chance I’d ever get to ride with someone great because I didn’t come from money and my father didn’t have any. It sort of made me feel like the poor cousin. At least Rae didn’t come from money either. Not anymore.

  We led our horses over to barn five, after getting lost because the barns didn’t seem to be numbered in order.

  “This is it,” Hanna said as we got to a bustling row of stalls where show day was definitely in full swing.

  “What do you want?” a short Spanish guy asked us.

  He was already sweating, which wasn’t surprising since it was eighty-five degrees at eight thirty in the morning and looked annoyed that we were there.

  “Um I’m Emily,” I said. “And this is Hanna. We’re Rae’s new students.”

  “Great,” he said. “Just what I need. More kids to babysit.”

  “We’re not kids and we don’t need a babysitter,” Hanna said. “I’m sixteen.”

  “And I’m almost sixteen,” I added.

  “Good for you,” he said, going back to the horse that was tied up in front of one of the stalls. “Can you braid?”

  “Yes,” I said while Hanna didn’t say anything.

  “Good. Our braider called in sick and there are five horses that need braiding. Find empty stalls. Put your horses in them and then get to work.”

  “What about our stuff?” Hanna said, looking back to where we’d left Esther and the trailer.

  “You can get it later,” he said. “If these horses aren’t braided before their classes you won’t be staying.”

  “Is this a test?” Hanna whispered to me.

  “I guess so,” I replied.

  I knew that life on the road was going to be a whirlwind but I hadn’t expected to hit the ground running quite so fast. I found an empty stall and put Bluebird in it. He sniffed around, disappointed that there wasn’t any hay.

  “I’ll get you some later,” I told him, checking that there was at least fresh water. “I’m sorry. I have to work now.”

  Bluebird gave me a dirty look. He wasn’t any happier than I was.

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

  I braided four of the five horses and by the time I was done, mine looked show ready and I was proud of my work, even though my fingers were actually bleeding. Hanna had braided one horse and I didn’t think the braids looked all that great. They weren’t tight or even and looked like they might pop out at any moment. In fact, they probably would when whoever was riding the horse started jumping. Granted, she’d had the most difficult horse, a bay who wouldn’t stand still and fussed and fretted the whole time he was getting done. Mine had all been saints so I couldn’t complain. I did, however, feel it was a little unfair that I had done four fifths of the work.

  “My fingers hurt,” Hanna said, rubbing them.

  I looked at her hands. They weren't even red.

  “Should we go and get our stuff before they tell us to do something else?” I said.

  “Yeah and before someone steals it,” she agreed.

  We walked over to where Esther had parked. I had hoped that maybe she would have brought our stuff over for us. Made sure we were okay. Said her final goodbyes but no. Instead she’d just dumped all our tack and feed in a big pile and Hanna was right, just sitting there we were lucky that no one had stolen anything and the only reason for that was probably because everyone was too busy.

  It took us three trips to get all the stuff back to the barn and we were finally lugging the last tack trunk between us when I found a rather angry girl holding Bluebird.

  “There is a pony in my stall who shouldn’t be there,” she announced loudly.

  “Sorry,” I said, dropping my end of the truck and grabbing Bluebird before the girl did something stupid like let him loose, which was what she looked like she was about to do.

  “And who are you?” she said.

  She was younger than I was, maybe twelve or thirteen and yet she was looking down her nose at me like I was the hired help, which I guess technically I was.

  “I’m Emily,” I said, stic
king out my hand.

  She looked at it like it might as well have been a dead fish and didn’t make any move to shake it.

  “Well you can’t put your pony in my stall,” she said.

  “He told me I could.” I pointed to the guy who’d told us what to do.

  “Julio?” she said. “Figures. Just keep your pony away from me. I don’t know, he might have germs or something.”

  Then she just walked away.

  “Nice,” Hanna said. “So glad that we’ve been welcomed with open arms.”

  “I get the feeling that we’re not going to be welcomed at all,” I said. “And now I have nowhere to put Bluebird.”

  “Just find another stall to put him in,” Hanna said.

  “And have some other entitled teenager yell at me?” I said.

  Hanna just shrugged but she was right. I couldn’t stand there holding Bluebird all day. Julio was already glaring at us because we weren’t doing any actual work and I was sure he was about to give us another impossible task any minute. Plus, I really had to pee.

  There was a stall on the end that looked like it may have been a spare tack stall. There was a saddle rack and a couple of coat bags hanging up. I took them out and put Bluebird in. By now he was giving me the evil pony eye.

  “I’m sorry,” I told him again but at least this time I was able to give him some hay.

  CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

  We escaped Julio’s watchful eye and ran to relieve ourselves in the dreaded portable toilets and then picked up some bottled water and snacks at a vending machine that was by the show office. There were girls riding in a hunter class, their horses trotting lazily around the ring with their heads down. In another ring an adult was jumping a massive course of fences. I wondered if it was Rae.

  “Look,” I said, grabbing Hanna’s arm.

  The rider had got her gray mare through a tricky double combination and they were heading down to the last fence, a big oxer. The gathering crowd gasped as the horse saw a long spot and took it, the rider giving the mare her head as she stretched across the big jump and finished clean.

  “Big deal,” Hanna said but I could tell she was impressed.

  The rider came out of the ring and jumped off her horse, patting the mare on the neck and giving the reins to Julio.

  “Do you think it is Rae?” I whispered as the rider took off her helmet.

  She had short mousey brown hair and freckles. She didn’t look glamorous or anything at all like I’d expected her to. The image that I’d created of her in my mind was that she was this super model beauty who just happened to be good at riding horses. I’d looked up everything I could about her but all the pictures where from when she was a teenager. Back then she’d had blonde hair but it had obviously been dyed because this woman was waving and beckoning us over.

  “She probably wants us to polish her boots or something,” Hanna groaned.

  We walked over with our handfuls of snacks and drinks. Rae smiled at us warmly and suddenly I didn’t feel like I’d just been dumped off in the middle of a war zone anymore.

  “You must be Hanna and Emily,” she said.

  I watched Julio whisk the horse away and wondered what he’d told Rae about us.

  “Are you having fun?”

  “Fun?” Hanna said in her best snarky voice.

  “Of course we are,” I said quickly. “It was an honor to pitch in and braid all the horses.”

  “Oh Julio didn’t make you do that did he?” she said.

  “Yes,” I added. “Because the braider was sick.”

  She put her arm around us as we walked back to barn five. “Girls, he tells all the new working students that.”

  “You mean the braider isn’t sick?” Hanna said, outrage on her face.

  I don’t know what she was so upset about. I was the one who’d braided four of the five horses.

  “Think of it as an initiation,” Rae said.

  “Are there any other initiations that we need to be looking out for?” I asked her.

  “If I told you, that would spoil the fun wouldn’t it?” she said.

  I now looked as horrified as Hanna.

  “I’m kidding.” Rae laughed. “You’ll be fine. You’re already doing a great job. Oh, mind if I steal this?”

  She snagged a candy bar out of my armful of vending machine goods. Obviously Rae didn’t worry about what she put into her body and she didn’t seem to have much respect for other people's stuff. Or maybe it was just a case of what was ours was hers since she was basically putting us up for four weeks free of charge.

  “I’m not sure about this whole thing,” Hanna said as Rae walked away.

  “Me either,” I said.

  CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

  I thought that the rest of the day would be a bust and I was contemplating calling Dad and having him come and pick me up. Hanna could do whatever she wanted but I wasn’t there to be anyone’s slave. But the fact that we were at a horse show. That there was excitement thick in the air that you couldn’t get anywhere else. Horses walking past all booted up and ready to jump. Hunters with their tightly packed braids and girls with their show coats open and stock ties loose, talking and laughing to one another, coming back from the ring with ribbons and championship sashes and sometimes without.

  I stood there and wondered whether I’d really trade all this in for standing back at home on our farm with Dad and Jordan and not much else.

  But it turned out that now Rae had met us, she took us under her wing like two little fledglings. She scolded Julio for making us braid and complimented us on a job well done. I noticed that while we’d been gone, Julio had redone the braids that Hanna had put in but I didn’t say anything. Rae introduced us to all of the crew and her girls. Including the one who’d been rude to me earlier. Her name was Faye and she pretended to smile and be nice, even though I could tell it pained her to do so.

  “I want you all to treat Emily and Hanna like one of the family, okay?” Rae said, her arms around us. “Help them out, show them where stuff is and how we do things around here and don’t forget, they are here to help but that doesn’t mean you have free rein to use and abuse them.”

  She looked at Faye and I wondered if this wasn’t the first time that the girl had treated the working students badly. She probably came from some big mansion like Jess did where they had cooks, cleaners and grounds men. A place where everyone did everything for her and all she had to do was show up and ride. I wondered which horse was hers and whether or not she was actually any good at riding it.

  We all ate lunch by the stalls. Julio pulled out a table with a real tablecloth and there was a fine array of sandwiches, fruit and a veggie tray. I grabbed a carrot and stuck it in my pocket so that I could give it to Bluebird later. I’d seen him looking out at me forlornly. I wondered if I’d ever get to ride him or if bringing him had been a mistake.

  As if Rae could read my mind she said, “You won’t get to ride at this show girls I’m afraid but I’ll try and get you in at the next one.”

  “They get to ride?” Faye asked. “How can they do all the work and ride?”

  “You’d be surprised,” Rae said. “And you can always pitch in and help if you like.”

  That shut Faye up. I could already tell she was the Jess of the group. The one who disliked us on principal alone and would try to sabotage our jobs and get rid of us. The others were curious. I could tell by the way they looked at us that they were also a little intimidated. Everyone knew that you had to be a halfway decent rider to get a working student position with Rae and I had a reputation on the show circuit as it was. In fact, I recognized some of the girls even though I didn’t know them by name.

  “I’m stuffed,” Hanna said, leaning back and stretching out her legs.

  She’d eaten three sandwiches while I’d just stuck to one. If we were going to be doing manual labor after lunch, I didn’t want to feel all sick and gross and I was right.

  “We clean stalls now,” Juli
o told us as the other girls wandered off to do whatever they wanted.

  “Right now?” Hanna said.

  “Right now,” Julio replied with a glare.

  I had to wonder why Esther hadn’t warned her niece that this would be hard work. We weren’t paying Rae the thousands of dollars that the other girls were. We were paying off our debt by working and I intended to work really hard so that hopefully Rae would be grateful and give me more of a chance in the show ring. I didn’t know what Hanna’s plan was but as she picked up a pitchfork and leaned on it lazily, I was pretty sure it wasn’t the same as mine.

  CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

  I was a quick and efficient stall cleaner. Hanna was a lazy one. By the time I’d done with my stalls, she was still on her second one. I was about to ask her if she wanted my help when Rae pulled me to one side.

  “Can you hack this horse over to ring five for me?” she asked.

  She was holding the reins of a bay gelding, his star a little crooked and his eyes bright.

  “Sure,” I said. “But where is ring five?”

  “Over that way.” She pointed in the direction of the rings, which didn’t really help any. “Julio will meet you over there with the rider.”

  “Alright,” I said. “Are you sure you don’t want me to just lead him.”

  “Nobody leads their horses over to the ring,” Rae said. “You ride.”

  “Alright just let me get my helmet.”

  “No time,” she said, starting to sound frustrated.

  And before I knew what was happening she’d given me a leg up and I was on the back of the horse.

  “Off you go,” she said. “Time is money and if that kid misses her class, they’ll be hell to pay.”

  I walked the horse over, feeling vaguely naked without my helmet. Dad would have had a heart attack and so would Esther. It was drilled into us over and over again that any time we got on the back of a horse we should have a helmet on, even if we were only walking. That horse could spook at anything and dump me off onto the concrete regardless. Still there was nothing I could do about it short of disobeying Rae and I didn’t want to make a bad impression on my first day. I thought of the warnings that both Esther and my father had given me and realized that I wasn’t just going to get pressured into doing things by the other girls. I was going to be forced to do things by Rae too and I didn’t want to look like a baby. Besides, if I’d told her no then Hanna would have jumped at the chance and I’d be stuck cleaning the rest of her stalls.