Chasing Ribbons (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 19)

by Claire Svendsen

  “You are really lucky that you didn’t end up with some short, skinny horse,” I said. “They’d buckle under the weight of that saddle.”

  “Told you western horses were bred to be tough,” she said with a grin.

  She was back in her blue jeans with a red plaid shirt and a bandana tied around her head. Her belt buckle was big and shiny and immediately caught Faith’s eye.

  “Did you win that?” she said.

  “Sure did.” Dakota grinned. “Last year at the Bluegrass Championship. Beat out all the other barrel racers.”

  For a moment her face fell but then Lucy nudged her with her white nose as if to say, are we going to get this show on the road or not and Dakota was all smiles, her lost horses once again pushed to the back of her mind like my mother was in mine.

  “Are you really going to run around a bunch of barrels?” Faith asked her.

  “Not today,” Dakota said. “But soon. When we get them set up.”

  “But what is the point?” Faith frowned. “I don’t get it.”

  Dakota leaned down and whispered in her ear, “The point is to have fun, just like everything in life.” Then she winked at me.

  Maybe she could take over my role as happy barn mascot from now on instead.

  CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

  We all crowded around the fence, eager to see how Lucy went. She looked great in Dakota’s saddle and the western bridle she had come with. It had fancy silver pieces on it and Faith was already jealous.

  “Why can’t English bridles be that pretty?” She sighed.

  “Well maybe you should try your hand at barrel racing,” Dakota said as she sprung up into the saddle.

  “Maybe,” Faith said with a shrug.

  Dakota looked more at ease on Lucy than she had on any of our horses. She held the long reins in one hand with no contact. Lucy loped around the field quietly and turned when Dakota moved the reins against her neck. It was pretty cool to watch her go. You could tell that just as we’d all been raised in English saddles, that Dakota had grown up in a western one and I had to give her credit for even trying to ride and jump like she did. Turns out she was more well-rounded than all of us and having a little diversity in our mix wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

  “It does look pretty fun.” Faith sighed as Dakota asked Lucy to spin on her haunches and then reverse direction.

  “Maybe she’ll let you have a go,” I said.

  And before we knew it we were all taking turns on the big Pinto mare. The stirrups didn’t go short enough for Faith so she just bumped around in the saddle but Lucy didn’t seem to mind and neither did Faith.

  “I think we should all ride with the reins in one hand,” she said when her turn was over. “I’m going to teach Macaroni to neck rein.”

  “Good luck with that,” I said. “I don’t think you’ll be able to execute many tight turns in a jump off round if you are only holding the reins with one hand.”

  “But it might be good practice,” she said. “What if I break my arm one day and need to ride one handed?”

  “She has a point,” Dakota said, holding the reins out to me.

  “I’m fine,” I said. “I don’t need a turn. I have so many other horses to ride and not enough time as it is.”

  “Oh go on,” Faith said. “You won’t know how fun it is until you try it.”

  “I think Lucy must be tired by now,” I said.

  But they all protested until I agreed to take the mare once around the field. The saddle felt thick and bulky beneath me. I couldn’t feel Lucy’s sides against my legs at all.

  “How are you supposed to communicate with your horse when you can’t even feel it?” I mumbled under my breath. “All I want to do is walk.”

  At the word walk, Lucy ambled forward.

  “Pretty cool.” I nodded. “Trot?” And she trotted and it turned out that it was actually pretty comfortable to sit the trot in the western saddle and when I said, “Canter,” she did and it felt like I was riding a rocking horse.

  I held the reins in one hand, sitting back like I was in a big old arm chair. I figured that when I was old and gray and my joints were full of arthritis, maybe I’d be happy to give western another go.

  “Whoa,” I said as we came back to the group and Lucy stopped.

  “She knows voice commands,” I cried as I jumped down, feeling pretty cool, that was until my belt caught on the horn of the saddle.

  For a moment I hung suspended in midair, wiggling my legs and wondering why I wasn’t going anywhere. Then I felt fabric ripping. The belt loops pulling away from my breeches. I flailed about, trying to undo the belt buckle, which I finally did but not before my breeches were well and truly ruined. I fell on my butt in the sand. Everyone looked at me, not sure if they should laugh or not but I couldn’t hold back the giggles. I burst out laughing and so did everyone else.

  “That is why we wear jeans,” Dakota said.

  “Thanks for the warning,” I said as she held out her hand to help me up.

  “Like how you warned me about stirrup leathers pinching great big holes in my legs when I rode English wearing jeans and no chaps?” she said with a sly smile.

  “I guess we’re even then.” I grinned. “And I think your new horse is amazing.”

  She straightened Lucy’s forelock. “I think she is too.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

  The next day Dad did something unprecedented. He cancelled all the lessons.

  “But what about the show prep?” I said.

  “It won’t kill the horses to have one day off,” Dad said. “And besides, they aren’t exactly having the day off. I’ve organized a picnic at the pond.”

  “You’ve what?” I said.

  I’d mentioned the pond to my father on a couple of occasions but he hadn’t seemed interested in having students ride out there. He said that it was too dangerous and that people might get the idea that they could ride out there whenever they wanted, which wouldn’t be a good idea. However it seemed like this hot weather was exactly the prod he needed to change his mind.

  “I don’t think I should take Macaroni,” Faith said later as we all tacked up.

  “Are you kidding?” I said. “You’ve been bugging me about this for weeks. Besides, sponge him off before we go and then he’ll be able to dunk himself in the pond when he gets there. He’ll love it. It will be good for him.”

  “Are you really sure?” she said.

  “Yes. Absolutely. Now go and get tacked up or you’ll be late and we’ll have to leave without you.”

  “Okay,” she said but she still didn’t sound convinced.

  Poor Faith. I felt bad for her. I knew what it was like to want to try and protect your horse or pony. I hadn’t really wanted to ride Arion when he was on his ulcer medication and I had been worried about bringing Bluebird back into work after he cut his legs up in the gate but the fact of the matter was that our horses weren’t just our companions. They were our partners too. Macaroni would feel really left out if he saw all his horse buddies going off without him and I knew that Faith would too. This would be good for them. And I’d make sure that Macaroni wouldn’t overheat. After all, we were only going to be walking there anyway.

  “I can’t believe you guys are coming too,” I said as I walked up to Missy and my father.

  He was tacking up his chestnut gelding Canterbury, while Missy had Socks. I’d hardly seen my father ride but now that his suspension had been cleared, I’d caught him riding the big horse out in the fields after dark. I think he was trying to get back in shape without being seen.

  “Think we are too old for a little fun?” Dad said.

  “Yes.” I laughed. “Most definitely. And who is watching the baby?”

  “I got a sitter,” Missy said. “We all need this.”

  “You’re right,” I said as Faith walked past with her saddle on her arm and her face scrunched into a frown. “We do.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

  Dad
put out the word that anyone who was capable of riding to the pond was welcome to, which meant that we had a great assortment of riders, both young and old. Dakota had tacked Lucy up western again and was getting a lot of stares from some of the more seasoned Fox Run clients but she didn’t seem to care one bit. She was completely happy to have a horse of her own to spoil again, especially one that would do whatever she wanted because in the few days that Lucy had been here, she had fallen in love with Dakota.

  The mare followed that girl around like a puppy dog. No halter or bridle needed. In fact my father had already yelled at her that letting the horse loose like that was asking for trouble but Lucy wouldn’t leave Dakota’s side. It was the cutest thing I’d ever seen and also the worst because it was exactly what Dakota had predicted would happen. She’d fall in love with the horse or the horse would fall in love with her and when the lease was up they would be ripped apart. I held onto the fact that maybe at the end of the lease Dakota’s grandparents would buy Lucy for her but even though I didn’t know how much she would cost, I knew it had to be more than they had.

  We rode to the pond in a big group, Dad leading the way and Missy bringing up the rear. I rode alongside him, showing him the way since he’d never actually been. A lot of the horses in the group hadn’t really been out on the trail that much either. Some of them had never been. We tried to pair them up next to the more experienced horses who would hopefully give them confidence or tell them to knock it off it they got too silly but every now and then we still heard horses snorting or spooking and the call of their riders telling them to behave or else. Faith stuck to my side like glue. She made me promise that I would monitor Macaroni for any signs of stress and if he showed the least bit that I would go back to the barn with her. I really hoped that he wouldn’t. I was hot and sweaty already and I really wanted to go swimming in the ice blue pond.

  I had my bathing suit under my breeches and a towel strapped to the back of my saddle.

  Dakota had lucked out the most though. It turned out that western saddles had a lot more hooks to strap stuff to so instead of having to carry a backpack like some of the riders were, she was able to hang about a million things on her saddle.

  “What have you got in all those saddle bags?” I asked her.

  “Food,” she said with a sly smile.

  We made it to the pond in one piece and only one rider fell off, which I felt was actually pretty good considering we had quite a few of the less experienced riders with us. And her horse hadn’t really done anything wrong anyway, just spooked at a butterfly when she wasn’t paying attention and she just sort of slid around his neck and fell off. He didn’t even run away, just stood there quietly waiting for her to get back on.

  People were just starting to complain that we were never going to get there when we broke through the spiky brush into the clearing. A cheer went up and I patted Bluebird’s neck. I’d decided to bring him instead of Arion because I could count on him to be sensible, I also thought it would be a fun pre-show outing for him and he knew how to swim. For all I knew Arion would sink to the bottom of the pond like a rock because he’d forget which way he was supposed to move his legs. Sometimes he got so over excited that he forgot the simple things but Bluebird was a pro. He stood quietly as everyone got situated, stripping off their clothes.

  “This is nice,” Missy said as she finally made it to the pond. “Too bad it’s not a bit closer to the barn.” She wiped the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand.

  “Then it wouldn’t be special,” I said. “Everyone would come here all the time and it would get ruined.”

  “That is true,” Dad said.

  “I think Macaroni is overheating,” Faith cried as she rushed her pony over to me.

  I felt his neck. He had a little sweat, which was really good and he wasn’t huffing and puffing at all.

  “I think he’s okay,” I said. “But go ahead, take him in the pond.”

  “Do you think I should?” she said.

  “That’s what we came for, isn’t it?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

  Watching the horses play in the pond was the most fun I’d had in ages. Some of them were used to the water like Bluebird and just waded straight in. Others weren’t so sure. They would reach out their nose to sniff it and then jump backwards. Dad told those riders to get out of the saddle and walk into the water first to show their horses that it was safe. They took tiny steps with shaking hooves and once they figured out what it was, they started to paw and splash. The air was filled with the sounds of screaming girls as their horses soaked them with ice cold water.

  I took Bluebird’s saddle off and rode him into the pond bareback. We didn’t know how safe it was, if there were roots or underwater plants that could snag his legs so I let him go in slowly, which was hard considering he wanted to charge right in. Soon the water was up to his belly and I felt the soft sand on the bottom of the pond give way and his legs start to churn as he began to swim.

  “This is amazing,” Faith cried.

  Macaroni was swimming too, his little head sticking out of the water.

  “Don’t take him too deep,” I said.

  “I won’t,” she said.

  Her hair was wet because she’d already come off her pony once when he started to swim. It wasn’t as easy as it looked to stay on their back when they started moving all their legs at once.

  Dad and Missy stood on the sandy bank with their horses, knee deep in water, watching us. I’d mentioned the alligator to Dad and he said that it would be best if I didn’t tell anyone or else they wouldn’t want to come. He said he would keep an eye out for it, if there even was one. I think he thought I was over exaggerating and to be honest, I hadn’t actually seen one with my own eyes. Only heard the splash of water and that could have been anything. Maybe it was just a really big fish.

  Still I kept looking through the water below to see if there were any dark shapes swimming about because the last thing I needed was Bluebird getting chomped by an alligator before his big show. It was hard though. The water was clear but the horses churned the sand up with their hooves and made it cloudy but I wasn’t too worried. I was pretty sure that alligators didn’t swim that deep anyway and if they did, they’d be more scared of us than we were of it. Or was that just what they told you so that you wouldn’t be scared to go in the water?

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  After the horses had grown tired of the water we tied them to trees in the shade. We sat by them with our makeshift picnic, most of which had been carried in Dakota’s saddle bags. There were sandwiches and chips and a variety of fruit to go with bottles of chilled iced tea and some cookies. It may not have sounded like much but to our parched throats and hungry stomachs it was amazing. We even brought treats for the horses, who seemed to be enjoying their adventure as much as we were.

  I thought of Jordan and the picnic that we had shared. How I’d raided the fridge and pulled out whatever we had left and we sat there and ate it, talking about horses and shows. That had been fun. I wished I’d never gone to the fair because if I hadn’t then maybe he’d still have wanted to hang out with me. He’d have come on the pond ride and ridden Wizard into the water and we could have lay next to each other on the warm sand and maybe even held hands. Instead I got to lie next to Faith, who was droning on and on about Macaroni and his sweat or lack thereof.

  “Should I wet him down again?” she asked, sitting up and staring at Macaroni, who was standing under a tree with his eyes closed taking a nap.

  “He looks perfectly fine,” I told her. “You worry too much.”

  “As if you can talk,” she said.

  And she was right. I worried just as much only I tended to go quiet instead of blurting out a million questions like she did.

  “I think I’ll go and sponge him off just in case,” she said.

  “Okay.”

  I lay back relieved that I’d at least have a few moments of peace before she came back. Only Dako
ta came and took her place. She sat there with her arms wrapped around her knees. Her hair tied in a messy wet knot on the top of her head.

  “It’s so nice here,” she said.

  “Uh huh,” I replied, hoping that she’d take a hint and let me nap.

  “Thank you,” she said. “For being my friend.”

  I sat up, unable to ignore her any longer.

  “Why wouldn’t I be your friend?” I said.

  “I tend to make people mad,” she said. “They lose patience with me because I say whatever pops into my head and I do whatever pops into it too.”

  “I’ve noticed,” I said with a laugh. “But don’t worry, we have enough patience for everyone, horses and people included.”

  And it was funny that someone as outgoing and full of personality like Dakota would want to be friends with someone like me, who was quiet and serious and only really cared about horses. But I was starting to figure out that it was good to have people friends too and not just the four legged kind.

  Later the clouds rolled in and the breeze picked up. Dad set up some fallen logs on the sand, propping them up on some rocks.

  “Who wants a jumping lesson?” he cried. He was totally getting into this whole free riding thing.

  Several girls jumped up and raised their hands while a couple of the older ladies who rode dressage shook their heads and lay back down to work on their tans.

  “No saddles though,” Dad said.

  “What?” Dakota cried.

  “Come on, you’re tough. You can take it,” I said. “Look, if Faith can do it then there is no reason why you can’t.”

  Despite Faith’s reservations about her pony’s ability to cope with the heat, she was the first one to wiggle up onto her pony’s bare back and point him at the tiny log.