We made it several times around the ring before Miguel asked us to reverse direction and everyone piled up in the resulting mess of horses that refused to turn.
“I bet Miguel’s not thinking this was such a great idea after all,” Becka whispered through gritted teeth as Rufus ground to a halt in the middle of his turn.
I held on to the hope that Miguel would give up this ridiculous idea of having us rehab his sale prospects and let us send for our own horses but our failures only seemed to fuel him on. He barked out instructions like a ringmaster, criticizing our lack of talent, work ethic and general bad form.
I struggled at every turn to stop Fury from bolting out from under me. I thought that eventually she would settle but her walk was barely slower than a trot and we kept passing all the other horses who had mostly settled down into a normal pace.
“Watch it,” Jess mumbled as we sped by her and Oasis.
“Sorry,” I said through gritted teeth.
I tried everything I could to calm Fury down, stroking her neck, talking to her, giving her so much slack in the reins that I might as well not be holding them at all. Nothing worked and the more she jigged, the more she worked herself up. Her neck was all lathered with sweat and her body tight with nerves beneath me. I dreaded the moment Miguel would ask us to trot. She would probably launch into orbit. But instead he eventually called us all into the center of the ring where of course Fury refused to stand still.
“Very disappointing,” he crossed his arms. “Did I pick the right riders to vie for a spot on my team? I think maybe I did not.”
Tears pricked in the back of my eyes. Fury was making a fool out of me. I knew I wasn’t the only one who’d had problems but everyone else seemed to have got over theirs. Fury was still as disobedient as she was the first moment I asked her to walk on.
“A good trainer will test your ability by putting you on many different horses,” he carried on. “And there is no pass or fail in this test. Only how far you can get with a horse that requires something different than what you usually give.”
I wanted to say that it wasn’t fair. Jess wasn’t being tested. She wasn’t being asked to do something different. If this was a test then Oasis shouldn’t have even been in the program. She was too well trained, too good compared to the rest of the horses and ponies. But I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to bring any more attention to the fact that although Miguel said there was no failing grade, I was doing about as bad as you could get.
I walked Fury in circles as Miguel explained how we would each trot around the ring individually to avoid a stampede. It didn’t make much difference. I knew that whether Fury was in the middle of the pack or off on the rail alone, as soon as I asked her to trot she would go into orbit and probably take me with her. I wondered how far we would get before she ran out of steam.
“You,” Miguel pointed to me. “You may go first.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
I wanted to ask if someone else could go first but Miguel was standing there expectantly with his arms crossed and everyone was looking at me. Besides, it didn’t really matter. It was going to be a disaster whether I went first or last.
“Walk to the end, circle and then trot back,” Miguel said.
I could see us galloping out of control back to the group and hoped that everyone had enough sense to get out of our way. It wasn’t really fair. He should have had us trot away and walk back. Of course all the horses were going to be keen to get back to their friends and that was fine for a horse that needed encouragement like Rufus but sucked for people like me who had been lumped with the hot heads.
“Just don’t do anything stupid,” I whispered to Fury.
She tossed her head as I asked her to walk and we made a little jig all the way to the end of the ring. I circled her, trying to relax my bossy mare and imagine a perfect, floating trot that would make Miguel’s mouth drop open because he couldn’t believe how I managed to coax such a movement out of her. But instead as soon as I asked her for the trot she did exactly as I knew she would, she bolted out from under me before I even had a chance to stop her.
We careened down the ring back to the group and just as predicted, people did move out of the way only Fury didn’t stop when she got back there. She didn’t want to be with her friends at all. She wanted to be as far away from all this horrible work as she could possibly be. So she flew by everyone and I caught a glimpse of Miguel’s face, his mouth open in horror as we slid up to the rail at the end of the arena. Only Fury didn’t stop. She tucked her legs up and soared over the railing.
I had enough presence to go with her. It would have been stupid to try and force her to stop and would only have resulted in me flying over her head and crashing into the railing myself. But her jump had power and scope and a grin stretched out across my face. My pony may have been the most difficult to ride but I also suspected that she was hiding the most talent.
Out of the ring she now seemed unsure of where to go next. Her gallop slowed to a gentle canter and I had control again. I made a wide circle in the grass and turned her back to the ring. And since we’d already made a spectacle of ourselves, I figured we may as well go all in so I pushed her on, back up to the ring and asked her to jump back over the rail. She did, her front legs tucked up like a cat.
I patted her neck, feeling pleased and proud as she came to a stop in front of the group. Everyone was staring at me like I was crazy but I didn’t even care. Fury could jump and she was awesome. But Miguel was furious.
“Get off,” he shouted at me.
I slid to the ground, heart in my throat. Miguel was glaring at me. I just looked at the ground. At the time it had seemed like a good idea. Now I realized I was in big trouble.
“What did you think you were doing?” he yelled.
“She was out of control,” I said. “I couldn’t help it.”
“I saw that,” he said. “But you could have done more to turn her away from the rail at the end of the ring and you most certainly did not need to show off and jump her back in.”
“I wasn’t showing off,” I said, my voice sounding small.
“Of course you were,” he said. “Why else would you do such a stupid thing? That rail is fixed. Solid. If you had hit it, it would not have fallen but both of you would have. Do you understand now? Do you see what a dangerous, stupid thing you did?”
I nodded, blinking back tears. I’d known that Fury would jump it because she had already done so and I had no doubt in my mind that she would do it again but Miguel was right. If for some reason she had clipped it, we both would have gone down.
“Get out of my sight,” he waved us off.
I led Fury back to the barn, not able to hold the tears back any longer. Everyone else was still in the ring being given instructions and help. Miguel hadn’t even offered me any at all. I was just trying to figure things out the best way I knew how.
Fury walked next to me, no longer jigging.
“You should be ashamed of yourself,” I gulped. “Thanks to you, I’m probably being kicked out of the clinic.”
The mare didn’t seem to care. In fact, she seemed rather pleased with herself.
I wanted to be mad at her but it wasn’t her fault. She was just confused. I was the one who was supposed to be helping her but instead I’d just made everything worse. I pulled her tack off and rinsed her sweaty coat with the hose. She was still in the wash rack when Dan came by and found me sobbing into the towel I was using to dry her off.
“That can’t be good,” he said, setting down his bucket and leaning against the wall. “What happened?”
“We made Miguel mad,” I said.
“What did you do? Fall off?”
“Hardly,” I said. “It was worse than that. I couldn’t get her to do anything and then she jumped out of the ring so I made her jump back in,” I sighed. “He didn’t like that very much.”
“I bet he didn’t,” Dan grinned.
“It’s not funny
,” I said. “It was dangerous and stupid and now Miguel hates me.”
“I don’t think he hates you,” Dan said. “Do you want to know why?”
I wiped my face and nodded.
“Because Miguel couldn’t make that mare jump anything. You got her to do something he’s been trying and failing at for days.”
“But jumping out of the arena doesn’t exactly count, does it?” I said.
“A jump is a jump,” he shrugged.
And I knew he was right but I still wasn’t sure if I was getting kicked out of the clinic or not.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
I went and sat in the lounge. The food for lunch was already out, a varied array of sandwiches and packets of chips. I was going to wait but I was hungry and besides, I didn’t know if I was going to get a chance to eat later. Miguel could very well come in from the ring and tell me to pack my bags.
So I ate a tuna sandwich and tried to imagine what I could have done differently. Turned Fury at the last minute? That would have run us into the other rail or right into the group, possibly injuring riders and horses. What did Miguel want from me? The other horses were all out of shape and unwilling to work but Fury was something else. She was a pony with a bad past. Things had happened to make her the way she was. Miguel had ridden her. He knew what she was like. If he didn’t want theatrics in his ring then he shouldn’t have put me on her in the first place.
I was finished with my food by the time the others came in, all hot and sweaty. After I left it looked like Miguel had worked their butts off.
“What happened?” Becka cried, dashing over to me. “Are you okay?”
“I guess,” I said. “Did Miguel say anything after I left?”
“He said that he doesn’t want anyone else jumping out of the ring,” she said.
“Well I didn’t do it on purpose,” I said.
“I know.”
“And now I’ll probably have to leave.”
“Did he say that?” Becka asked, looking worried.
“Not yet but he will. I couldn’t control my pony. I broke the rules. He’ll probably make an example out of me so that no one else follows in my bad footsteps.”
“You don’t know that,” she said. “Besides, you should have seen Fury, her knees were tucked up to her chin. I don’t think Miguel could really believe that she could jump like that.”
“It did feel pretty awesome,” I said. “After I got over being scared.”
“You’re tough,” Becka said. “You can take it. Now come on before all the sandwiches go. I’m starving.”
I didn’t tell Becka that I’d already eaten. Instead I just grabbed another sandwich. Fear made me hungry. It put some people off their food but I just wanted to eat everything in sight. Besides, Fury had given me a workout.
Jess was standing by the food table looking a little put out.
“Don’t you have anything that is gluten free?” she asked the groom who was refilling the plates.
“What’s that then?” he looked at her like she was asking for something alien.
“Gluten free,” she said again, this time slowly like the guy was stupid or something. “You know, without gluten?”
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” he shrugged.
“I don’t think you’re going to find any specialty food here,” I reached past her to grab another tuna sandwich.
“Gluten free food isn’t specialty food,” she said. “It’s regular food, without gluten.”
“Well I think you’re out of luck Princess,” Becka pushed past Jess to grab the last packet of potato chips. “This isn’t a five star resort and spa, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
“Oh I noticed all right,” she glared at Becka. “In fact I noticed while your friend was galloping past out of control and practically wiping out the entire fence line.”
“We can’t all be stuck with the perfect horse Jess,” I told her. “Some of us are actually having to work our butts off.”
“Whatever,” she said, lifting the corner of a sandwich and scrunching up her nose in disgust.
“Come on,” Becka pulled me away.
“I’ll be with you in a second,” I said.
“Why?” she mouthed but I stayed with Jess.
“Why are you here?” I asked her.
“Why do you care?” she shrugged.
“I don’t know,” I said.
And I didn’t. But part of me didn’t want to be enemies with Jess. She was a puzzle just like Fury was. Someone who had been damaged along the way. Being mean to people was her defense mechanism just like it was Fury’s. And besides, maybe if I could be nice to her then it would rub off on Hampton.
“Well shouldn’t you be at home, getting to know my best friend’s horse now that he is yours for the next few months?”
“He’ll still be there when I get back,” she said. “I want this just like you do, now leave me alone.”
She walked off and left me standing there. But I couldn’t tell if she wanted this because I did or if it was really something she wanted for herself. Either way I knew I couldn’t trust her, just like I couldn’t trust Fury. The mare had jumped the fence when I’d asked her to but she’d also jumped it when I’d been trying to stop her. She was quite easily capable of not doing anything I wanted the next time I rode her. If I had another chance to ride her at all.
“Miguel wants to see you,” Dan walked over, his face set in a frown.
“This is it then, is it?” I asked.
“I guess,” he said. “I’m sorry honey.”
“Thanks,” I blinked back the tears that were springing up again. “For everything.”
Then I slipped out of the lounge before Becka had a chance to see what I was doing or where I was going. I needed to face Miguel alone and figure out a way to get out of the scrape I was in.
CHAPTER TWENTY
As I walked to Miguel’s office, I thought about what I would say to my mom when I called her and asked her to come and pick me up early. Or what I would say to Esther. She would be so disappointed in me and I knew she would side with Miguel, saying that it was both dangerous and stupid to jump the arena railing. And what about Taylor? She’d probably want to pull my sponsorship and take back all the clothes I was currently wearing and the saddle I needed in order to ride Bluebird. One way or another, I was going to have to talk Miguel into letting me stay. I just wasn’t sure how I was going to do that.
I knocked on the door, feeling a little like I was being called to the principal’s office, only I cared about a million times more what Miguel thought of me than any principal had.
“Come in,” he said.
He was sitting behind a large desk but unlike Esther’s, this desk was not piled high with old bills and new bills and all the in-between bills that got lost in the shuffle. This desk had an expensive computer and one of those leather things that you wrote on so that the ink didn’t bleed into the wood, even though no one wrote with real ink anymore.
“You wanted to see me?” I said, my voice not sounding as scared as I thought it would.
“Yes. Sit.” He motioned to the chair.
“I just want to say that I’m really sorry,” I blurted out. I figured that maybe it was best just to apologize first and get it out of the way. “It was a stupid thing to do and it will never happen again. I promise.”
He crossed his arms. “If it was such a stupid thing to do, then why did you do it?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
“Yes you do. Explain it to me.”
I thought about how scared I was when Fury ran away with me and the fear that turned to joy as she soared over the railing. I’d wanted to redeem myself. For Miguel to see that I could ride after Fury had embarrassed me like that. But there was also something else.
“I didn’t want her to think that she could get away with it,” I said. “Fury jumped out on her terms but I wanted her to jump back in on mine. I didn’t want her thinking that she could jus
t run away any time she felt like she didn’t want to do something. I was acting on instinct. I’m just sorry that it was wrong.”
He sat there staring at me but I couldn’t look him in the eye for fear of bursting into tears so instead I looked up on the wall behind him. It was filled with photos of all his winners. Horses standing with blue sashes around their necks and victory coolers on their backs. I wanted that to be me one day and I wanted to learn from the best. I had to make him see that.
“What should I have done differently?” I asked. “What would you have done?”
He leant forward on the desk and his face broke into a smile, which was kind of weird. After all, it wasn’t nice to be happy that you were going to be sending someone home with their tail between their legs.
“You know?” he said. “Under the circumstances, I probably would have done the same thing. Only that pony would have tossed me into the rail and run off around the property laughing. She hates me.”
“She does?” I said, trying to act surprised.
“With a furious passion,” he said. “Her name is rather appropriate, don’t you think?”
“Yes,” I said, wondering when the bad part was going to come. The part about making an example out of me.
“But,” he carried on. “I can’t just have my students displaying such a blatant disregard for both the safety of themselves and their horse.” He sat back, the smile now gone. “I know that you are young and you think that nothing can ever happen to you. I felt invincible at your age too but bad things can happen anytime and even more so when you bend or break the rules.”
“I don’t think I’m invincible,” I said, feeling kind of mad. He could make all the assumptions about me that he wanted but that wasn’t one of them. “When I was here last time, my best friend had a riding accident back home. She fell off her horse who is usually a saint and ended up in a coma. In fact, she only just woke up a few weeks ago and now she has decided that she doesn’t want to ride anymore.”
Last Chance (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 6) Page 6