“It’s like they are prisoners,” I told Mickey as we watched Melanie take one of them out to the ring to be lunged.
“But they don’t seem to mind,” Mickey said. “Melanie is right. They are expensive and they could get hurt. Remember how it was when Hampton got that cut on his leg? If he couldn’t have been ridden again, my father would have been furious.”
“He was insured though, wasn’t he?” I said. “Just like all these horses are. It’s ponies like Bluebird that should be protected. I don’t have insurance on him.”
I looked out to where Bluebird was scratching himself on the fence. Vet bills were one thing but having a horse with a career ending injury was something else altogether. Something that made me feel sick just thinking about it.
“Uh oh.” I looked over to see Esther coming towards us and she didn’t look happy. “I think we’re in trouble.”
“What are you girls doing?” she said.
She’d been laying low since the new horses arrived, spending a lot of time in her office out of the way. I didn’t like it. Sand Hill was her barn. Just because she was sharing it now, didn’t mean she had to put herself in a corner.
“Nothing,” I said. “Watching the robots get lunged.”
Melanie now had the horse in the ring. It had bell boots and wraps and a bored look on its face. It just trotted around with its head hanging low like it wasn’t even sure it was supposed to be doing that.
“Why don’t you saddle up and go for a ride?” Esther asked. “Instead of snooping around.”
“We’re not snooping,” I said. “We’re in plain sight.”
“Besides,” Mickey added. “It’s too hot to ride.”
She was right. School was out for the summer and that meant we had two months free to ride. Only it was about a hundred degrees in the shade with ninety percent humidity. Too hot to ride even if we wanted too.
“We should get up early,” I told Mickey. “How about you meet me out here at six tomorrow morning? Then we can ride before it gets too hot.”
“Six o’clock in the morning? Are you out of your mind?” Mickey looked horrified.
“No,” I said. “I bet Missy Ellison got up at six in the morning when she was training with Frank.”
“But we’re not training with Frank,” Mickey grumbled. “And why should I care what Missy Ellison did anyway?”
“Just meet me at six so we can ride together, please?” I begged. “It will be just like the old days.”
Despite all her grumbling, Mickey agreed to meet me at six the following morning. It was the only thing that got me through an evening of Cat and Derek interrogating me, which seemed to be their new favorite pastime.
“How many horses did you ride today?” Cat smirked at me from across the dinner table.
“None.” I glared back. “It was too hot.”
“Shame,” she said. “You don’t get to the Olympics by not riding every day.” Then she snickered into her broccoli.
Last month, when they went away, I fantasized that they wouldn’t come back. That maybe they changed their minds about living here in Florida with us or even that they got into some kind of accident on the way back. I knew it was wrong to think things like that but I couldn’t help it. They made my life a living hell with the mental abuse they dished out all day long. If I didn’t have the barn to go to over the summer, I would probably have gone mad already.
And the fact that Cat knew I dreamt of riding in the Olympics? That was because she snuck into my room and stole my journal. Then she read it. Out loud. In front of everyone. I’d snatched it out of her hands and ran to the bathroom where I ripped the pages out one by one and flushed them down the toilet, all while sobbing and vowing that I would never write down my innermost secrets again. I felt violated in a way I never had before. If there was ever a shred of hope that Cat and I could become anything resembling sisters, in that one moment it was obliterated for good.
“When does summer school start?” I threw back the same fake smile that she had given me.
“I don’t care. I’m not going,” she said.
“Oh yes you are,” Derek snapped.
Cat wasn’t exactly the best student, skipping school to hang out at the mall with her friends and I’d even seen her smoking. I think once upon a time, Mom thought that a big sister like Cat would be a role model for me but now she knew better. Besides, I had a sister once and she died. No one could ever replace her and even if Cat was the nicest person in the world, I’d still probably not want to be her friend.
“I’m not going and you can’t make me.” Cat stood up and knocked her chair over.
This was usually the part where they started throwing things at each other. I looked over at my mother but her face was blank, like she’d already checked out of the situation. It wasn’t worth getting in the middle of their fights anyway. Best just to let them sort it out themselves or kill each other in the process.
I wrapped my slice of apple pie in a napkin and slipped away up to my room. They’d be at it for hours but at least it got Derek off my back. I’d heard him tell my mother that I shouldn’t spend my whole summer riding. Fat chance. I’d like to see him try and stop me.
CHAPTER FIVE
Mickey stuck to her word, although she grumbled about it the whole way out to the barn. When it came to riding, she was in it for the fun while I was in it because I couldn’t imagine doing anything else with my life. Horses were like air or food. Without them I knew I would shrivel up and die but Mickey would just move on to something else like surfing at the beach or volleyball. In fact I was pretty impressed that she hadn’t abandoned me altogether what with Hampton living with the enemy but I think she had the idea that unless she showed her father she was really serious about riding, she wouldn’t get him back after all. I had a feeling she was probably right.
“What are you girls doing here at this time in the morning?” Esther greeted us with a sigh.
“Riding,” I said. “What else?”
The sun was just starting to come up on the horizon and a soft mist had settled over the farm. Bluebird was standing at the gate, still licking his long empty bucket. He nickered when he saw me, his walking treat dispenser here to deposit more carrots.
“It is okay, isn’t it?” I said. “That’s what you told us. More riding, less snooping.”
I had forgotten all about the shared ring time and the schedule but so far it had just been Melanie, endlessly lunging the new horses so it didn’t seem like there was much competition and her truck wasn’t even here yet.
“I suppose so,” she said.
“Can I ride Daisy?” Mickey asked.
Daisy was a new horse that Esther brought in to replace some of the older school horses. She was a Percheron, Arab mix with feet like dinner plates and a dished face. Half the time she couldn’t decide whether to spook or fall asleep. So far she was a big hit with the students but she was out of shape and so Mickey had been helping to condition her.
“Yes, that’s fine,” Esther told Mickey. “In fact, can you take her over some cross rails? She ground to a halt yesterday in front of half of them.”
“Sure.” Mickey grinned.
I knew she felt safe on Daisy and the big gray mare was helping to boost the confidence that had been shattered when she fell off Hampton and ended up in the hospital.
We groomed our horses, happy to have the barn to ourselves for a change. Melanie was like smoke, she was everywhere all the time. Every time you turned around, there was her smiling face and that annoying, bouncing ponytail. Half the time it felt like when we were at the barn, we were in the way. Like they weren’t renting the stalls from us but we were renting them instead. I could only imagine how much worse it would be when Frank and his students actually showed up.
Bluebird was fresh. He pranced out to the ring and kicked up his heels when I was trying to adjust my stirrups.
“Settle down,” I told him through gritted teeth. “If you’re good then you�
��ll get to jump. If you’re bad then you can just forget about it and I’ll spend the whole morning making you do dressage.”
“No you won’t.” Mickey laughed. “You love to jump just as much as he does.”
“I know.” I grinned. “But don’t tell him that my threats are empty or you’ll ruin it.”
“I think he already knows,” she said.
Where Bluebird pranced, Daisy plodded. She only had a couple of speeds and they were all slow. Bluebird danced circles around her as we warmed up in the ring.
“See how much nicer it is when you get up early?” I called out to her as a breeze blew between us.
“Alright, you were right,” she said. “But don’t expect me to get up this early every morning. I am on vacation you know.”
But while Mickey was busy declaring that she wouldn’t ride early every day, I was already making plans to do exactly that. The jumps in the ring were set as cross rails from the lesson the day before and we cantered over them, Daisy thundering behind like a herd of elephants. I stole a glance back every now and then and saw that Mickey had a look of determination on her face. There was no way she was going to let Daisy get away with doing anything naughty. The mare had a slight look of surprise on her face like she couldn’t believe she was actually jumping.
“Okay to raise them up?” I asked Mickey.
“Not too high,” she said.
“Spoil sport,” I said.
I gave her Bluebird’s reins and ran around, setting all the jumps at about two feet, which was a perfectly reasonable height for a massive horse like Daisy. In fact, she was so big that she could have practically stepped right over them.
“You first,” I told her.
I watched my friend use all her skills to force the mare over the jumps. It was a good job that she was wearing her spurs. Daisy never stopped, even though I could tell that she wanted to.
“Not quite a hunter, is she?” Mickey wiped the sweat from her face.
“Not really.” I laughed. “You know Esther only bought her so that the boyfriends and husbands have something to ride.”
“Well that’s not going to get her back to Devon, is it?” Mickey said.
“No and I think she really misses it.”
“I think so too,” Mickey said.
For the longest time I thought that Esther didn’t really care about riding anymore. That she was content to teach and tend to the barn. I thought she was crazy, missing out on the best part and not making time for riding. But now I had the sneaking suspicion that she’d wanted to ride all along but there just weren’t enough hours in the day. And I felt guilty that I hadn’t done more to help her.
“Your turn,” Mickey said. “And you’d better hurry up. Looks like our ring time is nearly over.”
She pointed over my shoulder and I heard Melanie’s old truck rattling down the drive.
CHAPTER SIX
Bluebird flew over the jumps like his butt was on fire and a grin stretched across my face. There was nothing that he wouldn’t jump if I asked him to.
“Can you raise them up?” I asked Mickey breathlessly.
She scurried about, dragging Daisy behind her, raising up the jumps. The higher they were, the more careful he was and he never seemed to lose any speed. The small jumps were like galloping over nothing but when the height went up, he was really able to show case his talent and prove that he wasn’t just an out of control pony. That he had the same scope and skill as the horses did and he wasn’t afraid to use it.
When we cantered past the gate, I thought I saw Melanie standing there by her truck watching us. But by the time I circled back, she was gone and Mickey was cheering our clear round.
“Does he ever knock anything down?” she asked.
“Not if he can help it,” I said.
I was eager to get back in the show ring. It felt like ages since we’d had a chance to compete. The trouble was that the pony jumpers just weren’t that popular. People thought it was just a bunch of kids galloping around like idiots and to be honest, in some of the classes it was. I’d spent hours watching pony jumper classes in England on YouTube. Those kids could really ride and ride well. Their fences were higher and their ponies knew their stuff. They weren’t out of control. I tried to emulate them every time I rode and it was paying off. Bluebird was getting better and better. If only there was some place that I could really show him off.
“That’s a nice pony you’ve got there,” Melanie said when we took the horses back to the barn.
“Thanks,” I mumbled.
Melanie made me uncomfortable and I wasn’t sure why. Part of it was her eternal perkiness. No one could be that happy for that long. But the other part? I still wasn’t sure but I was waiting to find out before I decided whether I liked her or not. Mickey didn’t have such scruples.
“Yes,” she said. “Emily rescued him from a kill auction.”
“Really?” Melanie raised an eyebrow.
“It was nothing,” I said. “He was always a good pony. He just fell on hard times.”
“But you saw something in him.” Melanie walked around Bluebird, looking him over.
“Yeah, I saw that he was the only thing there that I could afford,” I said.
Mickey nudged me in the side and gave me a dirty look but I couldn’t help it. I didn’t want Melanie finding out everything about me and my rescue pony and then telling it all to Frank’s rich students who would laugh about me behind my back or even to my face.
“Why don’t you like her?” Mickey asked as we walked Bluebird out to his field.
“I don’t know.” I shrugged.
I gave Bluebird his last carrot and he slobbered on my arm before running off. I loved him more than anything in the whole world and part of me felt like I had to protect him from people like Melanie. People who might offer a ridiculous sum of money for him like Esther was offered for Fairy Magic. An amount so great that if Derek found out, he would never let me refuse.
“I’m never going to sell him,” I told Mickey. “Not in a million years. Not even if I was homeless and living on the street.”
“What on earth are you talking about?” She put her arm around me. “You don’t have to get defensive every time someone says they like him.”
“Yes I do,” I said.
And Mickey should have known better than anyone that it was true because she was the one who lost her horse and I was going to make sure that never happened to me. I’d rather die than live a day without Bluebird.
“Look.” Mickey nudged me. “She’s actually going to ride one.”
Melanie had leather chaps over her jeans and was leading one of the robot horses out to the ring, a bay gelding with a white snip on the end of his nose.
“I was starting to think that she wasn’t allowed to ride them,” I said.
“Me too,” she replied. “Think she’s any good?”
“She must be, otherwise Frank wouldn’t have hired her,” I said.
“Want to watch?”
“Absolutely.”
We sat in the grass by the ring and watched as Melanie fussed about with the girth, the stirrups and the bridle.
“Think all this show is for us?” Mickey asked. “She sure is making a big deal out of it.”
“I know,” I said. “Just get on and ride already.”
The horse stood there without moving a muscle until Melanie finally swung up into the saddle and asked him to walk. She worked back and forth, trotting and cantering. He was a nice mover and had probably cost a bundle but he was so perfect that he almost looked boring. I waited for him to do something, anything to prove that he wasn’t the robot I had pegged him to be. Kick out or toss his head or get his changes late but none of that happened.
“I guess that’s why they cost the big bucks,” Mickey said as Melanie brought the horse to a walk and got off.
“She’s not even going to jump him?” I said.
“Maybe she’s not allowed.”
“Mayb
e.” I said.
I couldn’t help thinking that a job as Frank Coppell’s assistant probably wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
CHAPTER SEVEN
It was a few days later when the rest of the horses arrived on the same commercial shipping van that the last ones had. They unloaded quietly, looking around with a sigh before walking to their stalls. And the next day their riders arrived. Not all at once but one by one in cars driven by drivers that dropped them off and then disappeared. Mickey and I kept out of the way, more content to spy than introduce ourselves. Esther had all but vanished into thin air. She was obviously as reluctant to mingle as we were.
The girls were just as I had predicted they would be, rich, entitled and completely devoid of affection for their horses. If I was them, I would have rushed into the stall and hugged my horse but they didn’t even bother and offer a pat. And it seemed there were actually only three girls, each with more than one horse or pony.
“That one doesn’t seem so bad.” Mickey pointed to the youngest of the girls.
She looked to be about the same age as Faith and was standing in front of the stall of one of the new arrivals, a dun pony with a bottle brush mane.
“Faith is going to have some competition,” I said.
“I think we all are.” Mickey sighed before grabbing my arm and squeezing tight. “Look,” she cried. “A boy!”
He had a messy mop of blond hair and a slightly crooked smile. One of the girls waved and he grinned back, giving her a hug before going into the stall of the biggest horse, a slightly mean looking black mare.
“And he cares about his horse,” she said. “See?”
The boy was checking over the mare’s legs but I knew that Mickey didn’t care one hoot about his horsemanship skills. She cared more about the fact that he looked like he’d just stepped out of a movie with vampires, all sparkles and mysterious brooding hiding beneath that smile.
“I think I’m in love,” she swooned, putting her hand on her heart.
Turf Wars (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 8) Page 2