Summer Rider (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 31)

by Claire Svendsen

  “Come on,” I told her. “Whoever cleans the most stalls gets a breakfast doughnut.”

  “Really?” she said.

  “Sure,” I replied, though I wasn’t quite sure where I was going to get this magical doughnut from.

  Not that it would matter because I knew that I’d clean the most stalls anyway.

  CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

  I’d hoped to maybe ride Bluebird before we left but there just wasn’t time. There were horses to boot and wrap and nervous owners flittering about like flies. Some of them had left and were going to meet us at the next show. The ones who were hardened to the show life and earned enough money to pay someone else to worry about their horse. The others were the ones who didn’t pay enough to have everything done for them and some of them were even trailering their own horses and meeting us there.

  “Do you think his shipping boots are tight enough? They keep slipping down,” one woman asked me.

  She was a small lady, maybe in her late forties though I couldn’t be sure because I sucked at telling people’s ages. She had short blonde hair and wrinkles from a lifetime of riding in the sun. She seemed like she should have known what she was doing but she was what Julio called one of the hand holders. The owners that we had to reassure all the time.

  “They seem fine,” I said as I bent down and tightened up the Velcro a bit.

  “It’s Emily, isn’t it?” she asked me as I stood back up.

  “Yes,” I said. “And you’re Marty?”

  “That’s right,” she said, looking relieved that I at least knew who she was. “And this is Roxy.” She patted the bay mare on the neck. “We’ve been together a while so we know the ropes. It’s just this whole packing up and moving on thing is a bit disconcerting.”

  “Is it your first summer on the road?” I asked her.

  “Yes,” she said. “And I’m not sure I knew what I was signing up for when I agreed to tag along.”

  “Me either,” I said. “Maybe we could look out for each other.”

  “That would be great,” she replied, looking relieved.

  Marty was the nicest of Rae’s students that I’d met so far. The others had ignored me, handed me their horses without a word or sent condescending scowls in my direction. I don’t know what they had against me. They didn’t even know me but maybe it was the principal of the thing. I wasn’t paying good money like they were. I was there on a free handout and I was meant to work for everything I got. I guess that included being treated like the poop I was scooping.

  I waved as Marty walked her horse into the trailer and they left us behind. Julio said we were always the last to leave so that we could make sure all the horses got loaded and that no one forgot anything. He said that once Rae left her favorite saddle behind and he had to drive hours there and back to get it. They were lucky that it hadn’t been stolen. And so we stood around while the individuals who were on their own left, making sure that their stalls were empty and pushing the clean bedding up on the walls, ready for the next show.

  “Do you think we’ll ever get like a day off or something?” Hanna asked me.

  “We only just got here,” I said. “And you already want a day off?”

  “Don’t you?” she asked.

  But the truth was that I was glad of the work. It was rewarding, in an exhausting way, to clean stalls and take care of sweaty horses from dawn until dusk and then fall into bed, only to have to do it all over again the next day. It left no room in my mind for worries about money or our farm or the fact that my mother had abandoned me. It made me care a little less about the fact that our team never made it to the finals and that we weren’t competing in Paris. All there was room in my head for was braids and pinning show numbers on nervous students and helping people like Marty.

  And I was very grateful for the opportunity. I was also really hoping that Rae would stick to her word and let me ride in the next show. I wanted to prove to her how good I was. After all, maybe when the summer show season was over, there would be room for me on her farm. Perhaps she’d take me under her wing permanently. I loved our little farm and training with my father but I knew that was never going to get me to where I wanted to be. Not now. And maybe Rae would be able to. If she liked me enough.

  CHAPTER THIRTY THREE

  We were finally able to hit the road once everyone else had left. The horses were loaded up, along with Bluebird and Hemi. I worried about Bluebird, if he’d be okay and whether or not I should have brought him. I’d only had a few minutes of spare time to take him out of his stall and let him graze before it was time to go. I knew that he wasn’t used to this life but maybe this was what our future would hold, if we were any good at it.

  “This is going to be so boring,” Hanna said as she slumped down in the back of the truck.

  Julio was driving our rig and we had taken up residence on the back seat. Hanna was right. The drive was going to be long and boring but since I hadn’t really slept at all, I was hoping to catch up on the way to the next show. I pulled out my laptop and brought up where we were going. While this show had been a smaller affair, the next show would be bigger and I’d already heard that we would be staying there a couple of weeks. I also heard that Rae had rented a small barn and so the horses would have access to turnout. I was relieved. I didn’t like the fact that Bluebird would have to be hand grazed every day because I knew that he’d start going stir crazy.

  Hanna wasn’t as pleased as I was.

  “I thought we were supposed to be learning about show life,” she said as she looked at the photos I’d found of the place we’d be calling home for the next few weeks.

  “This is better though, don’t you think?” I said. “A real barn and proper stalls for the horses. And we won’t have to sleep in the trailer either.”

  That was the thing I was most excited about. I’d already resigned myself to endless nights of sleep deprivation and now I wouldn’t have to worry about that at all.

  “I guess it will be okay,” Hanna said.

  She went back to staring out the window and I eventually fell asleep. I woke to Hanna shaking me, telling me that Julio said we had to check on the horses and take them out of the trailer to stretch their legs. I looked around and saw that we’d pulled off the highway onto a grassy patch but I could still see and hear the cars whizzing by in the distance.

  “He wants us to take them out of the trailer here?” I said. “What if one of them gets loose and ends up on the highway? What if they get hit by a car?”

  “And what if they get sick from dehydration?” Julio said, his accent thick as he glared at us like we were stupid. “Don’t let go.”

  “Don’t let go, right,” I mumbled under my breath.

  There were six horses in the trailer and only three of us. That meant we had to handle two each. I got Bluebird and Rae’s gray mare, Infanta. I tied Bluebird to the trailer because I knew that he wouldn’t do anything stupid while I let the mare drink out of the buckets of water that Julio had set up. Infanta was thirsty but well behaved. Hanna wasn’t having as much luck as Hemi wouldn’t stay still even though Hanna had tied him up and the other horse she was holding wouldn’t behave either and certainly didn’t want anything to do with the water.

  “I can’t get him to drink anything,” Hanna said through gritted teeth.

  Julio eventually took the horse, mumbling something in Spanish under his breath. He patted the big gelding on the neck and eventually the horse settled enough to drink.

  “He has the magic touch,” I told Hanna with a shrug as she glared at Julio.

  We let the horses stretch their legs a bit before loading them back up but I was too afraid to let them graze since the grass was covered in trash, some of it half hidden. Things like beer cans and broken glass lurked in the weeds. Certainly not things that we wanted our show horses anywhere near. I was relieved when Julio told us that we could refill the hay nets and load them back up but not before he’d dished out some sloppy bran mash to everyo
ne.

  “Couldn’t we have just driven straight through,” Hanna moaned.

  But I knew it was important to keep the horses hydrated and ourselves too. Once we were back on the road Julio pulled into a fast food joint and we were allowed ten minutes to use the bathroom and get food. I could see Julio sitting there tapping his watch as we waited in line for greasy burgers and salty fries. We ran back to the truck just as he was about to pull away.

  “You don’t think he’d really leave us stranded by the side of the road, do you?” Hanna asked under her breath.

  “I'm not sure,” I replied.

  CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR

  By the time we pulled into the farm, I was stiff, tired and bored. I knew that the horses had to be too. I peered out the grimy window, eager to see our new home. The place was fancy but not as fancy as the farm that Walter Grey had rented next to the show grounds. This was more the sort of place that you could just about afford because it didn’t have any of the bells and whistles. That was fine by me. I was just glad that we were on solid ground and not moving anymore because I’d started to feel a little car sick towards the end. Or it could have just been listening to Hanna’s constant complaining. Eventually I pretended to be asleep just so that I wouldn’t have to listen to her anymore. I liked her and I’d thought that we’d get along great. I wasn’t really sure where everything had gone wrong. Maybe she hadn’t wanted to come and Esther had forced her. I just wasn’t sure but I jumped out of the truck as soon as we stopped.

  We were the first ones there but that didn’t mean that we got free range or to pick what stalls we wanted or anything like that. Julio already had a floor plan written out and he pinned it on the board that was hanging in the aisle. The barn was a single row of stalls with an overhang where there were cross ties. At one end was a tack room, a bathroom and an office. There was a tiny room next to that where there were bunk beds. I guessed that was where we’d be sleeping. I didn’t tell Hanna that when I dumped my bags in there, I saw a cockroach.

  While the stalls might not have been fancy, the paddocks were great. Fenced and safe with lots of green grass. I asked Julio if it was okay to turn Bluebird out and he said that we should turn all the horses out while we got the stalls ready. Bluebird dropped and rolled as soon as I took his halter off. Hemi stood there and glared at him. They were being forced to be roommates just like Hanna and I were and Hemi didn’t seem any happier about it than Hanna did. But Bluebird was too busy scrubbing dirt into his coat and then grass into his mouth to notice and I quickly got to work so that I wouldn’t have to see Hanna scowling.

  The horses were booted and put out, fresh bags of shavings were drug out of the trailer and fluffed into the stalls and Hanna and I checked the fences and stalls to be sure that there weren’t any wayward nails or pieces of wood that might skewer our horses and put them out of action for the rest of the show season.

  We hung buckets of water despite the waterers and put fresh hay out in the stalls. Julio got us to unpack the trailer and we hung up bridles and saddles and put the tack trunks against the walls. And just as we’d made everything look all nice and neat, the next trailer load arrived and so did some of the people who were bringing their own horses and we had to go through the whole thing all over again. At least the other trailers brought Rae’s grooms and some of the owners pitched in to help. Even so by the time it was dark, I thought that my arms were going to fall off and my legs felt like jelly.

  “At least we have a real shower here,” I said to Hanna, pointing into the bathroom where the shower was big and roomy and didn’t have any mold or green slime growing up the walls. “And look, bunk beds.”

  I was so relieved that I wouldn’t have to sleep in the trailer with Hanna again that I could have done a jig of happiness, if I hadn’t been so tired.

  “I fall out of bunk beds,” Hanna said.

  “You can have the bottom if you like,” I told her. “Then you won’t have so far to fall.”

  She mumbled something under her breath but I couldn’t hear what it was. I was too busy looking out the end of the barn, watching my pony grazing as the sun set and filled the sky with orange light and inside me was this voice that told me that this was the show where we would really make a name for ourselves.

  CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE

  We slept in the bunk beds, Hanna and me and the two other grooms, a girl with black hair called Shelby and an older woman whose name was Theresa. Hanna took the bottom bunk and I took the top one. They were lumpy and hard but still a million times better than sleeping on the bench in the trailer. I almost got a full five hours of sleep before there was a knock on the door, telling us that it was time to get up.

  “This is worse than boarding school,” Hanna said.

  The other two were yawning and brushing off the covers but Hanna just pulled them over her head. She may have not been too keen to get up but I was already pulling on my jeans and a t-shirt, eager to see Bluebird and make sure that he was okay. I bolted out of the little stuffy room where the small air conditioning unit that was stuffed in a window had barely kept the room cold and into the barn. The horses were up as well. Julio had turned the lights on and was starting to feed. Happy horse faces greeted us as I fell in step behind him, tossing hay into the stalls as he dumped the grain. He grunted as I did so but this time it wasn’t a disapproving grunt. It was one of approval and I couldn’t help smiling. After all, I was there to be the best and if that meant getting on the good side of Julio then I was going to do just that.

  Bluebird stuck his chestnut face out of the stall as I slipped inside and gave him a quick hug. He didn’t seem at all out of sorts that we weren’t back at home. In fact, he seemed to be thriving on the show road life. And if it was good enough for him, it was good enough for me.

  I was already cleaning stalls when Hanna finally appeared looking bleary eyed.

  “What is for breakfast?” she grumbled.

  “What do you think this is?” Theresa asked her. “A four-star hotel?”

  Her white hair was pulled back into a tight bun and she wasn’t wearing any makeup. I guessed that she was sort of supposed to be in charge of us just like Julio was but up until now I’d never even seen her and she didn’t seem interested in getting to know us at all. Apparently show life on the road was all about keeping your nose to the grindstone and keeping out of trouble just like I’d been warned.

  “We still have to eat though,” Shelby added.

  I wasn’t sure if she was one of Rae’s regular grooms or a working student like we were but she had obviously been around longer and already learned the ropes because she disappeared as Hanna and I finished cleaning the stalls and Theresa got busy grooming the horses, knocking off the dust from the shavings and scrubbing at any manure stains. And when we were done Shelby reappeared with cups of coffee for all of us and some breakfast pastries.

  “Where did you find those?” Hanna asked, practically drooling as Shelby handed them out.

  “Wouldn’t you like to know?” Shelby said.

  “Yes,” Hanna said earnestly. “I would.”

  But before there could be some big argument which started as a miscommunication and ended as something much worse, Rae arrived and so it was all hands on deck. Horses were turned out, others were tacked up for schooling and every now and then I’d check on my pony and wish that I had more than five seconds to spend with him but I just had to hope that Rae would keep her word and that at some point over the next few weeks, I’d be allowed to show him.

  CHAPTER THIRTY SIX

  Bluebird and I settled into our home away from home quicker than I thought we would. I wasn’t a big fan of change but I was starting to realize that the life of a top rider was nothing but change. Moving from show to show and country to country. Following the circuit as you went. The same group of people with the occasional different face thrown in the mix.

  I got to know my new roommates too. I was right in that Theresa had been with Rae since her hunter d
ays and she was her head groom when she was on the road. Julio had been hired when Rae was riding in Europe and never left, organizing everything for her and being a barn manager and yet so much more. Shelby was a working student like we were but this was her second year grooming for Rae and so she already knew everything. She didn’t flaunt it in our faces though and was generous in showing Hanna and me the ropes. Hanna hadn’t adjusted as well as I had. She seemed to resent the fact that she was even there and I had to wonder if she thought she’d be treated like one of Rae’s paying students instead of what we really were, free help.

  Most of Rae’s students were nice enough. They were polite but entitled. The ones who paid less and did more of their own work were nicer than the ones who basically just showed up to ride but that was usually how it worked. The more money you had, the less you saw the people who did all the work for you and to people like Faye we were practically invisible. Marty was nice though and she introduced us to some of the others who were more curious about us than anything.

  Rae worked from dawn until dusk just like we did. Our little farm had a small arena where there were jumps set up and Rae worked her horses and those of her students every day. If we were lucky, we got to ride ours in the evenings but only if the ring was empty and since it was so hot, everyone wanted to ride after dark. I’d only been on Bluebird a couple of times since we’d arrived but he didn’t feel any worse for wear. In fact, he felt fresh and ready to go. I couldn’t wait until the show started and Rae entered us in some classes and just before the weekend we finally got the chance to hack over and check out the show grounds.