Beginner's Luck (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 18)

by Claire Svendsen

  “Is he okay?” I said.

  “He’s fine, no thanks to that stupid girl,” Dad stood up. “A few scratches on his legs but nothing that a little ointment won’t fix. But if he had been injured, she’d be in serious trouble.”

  “Her name isn’t that girl,” I said. “It’s Dakota and she is sitting there in the office crying, waiting for her grandmother to come and pick her up. She’s terrified that you’ll never let her come back here.”

  “Good,” Dad said. “I won’t let her come back.”

  “Isn’t she supposed to be Missy’s star pupil?” I said.

  “Missy will find another girl to fawn over. In fact, she should be spending more time teaching you.”

  I felt a little warm and fuzzy at the thought that my father had noticed Missy’s apparent lack of interest in my riding career but that still didn’t mean that I wanted Dakota banished.

  “Please think about it?” I said.

  “All right, enough now,” he said, waving me away. “Go back to the house and take a hot shower before you catch a cold.”

  I wanted to stick around and find out what was going to happen to Dakota. Would my father really tell her grandmother what she’d done and forbid her from ever coming back? I wasn’t sure but Dad was right. I needed that hot shower. I stood under the steaming water and felt all my tight muscles start to uncoil. After I’d dressed in old baggy sweatpants and dried my hair, I looked out to the barn but no one was there.

  Even though I was exhausted, I opened my laptop anyway and did some school work so that I wouldn’t get behind. Eventually Dad came back to the house. I heard Missy asking him what had happened and him telling her all about Dakota’s wild ride. Missy couldn’t believe it. Dad almost seemed happy to tell her that her protégé was a screw up. Eventually I finished my work and fell asleep. I didn’t mean to. I was just completely exhausted. When I woke up it was almost dark but I’d promised Bluebird that I would come back and say goodnight. I crept through the house so that no one would hear me and ran down to the barn as the setting sun splashed orange and pink across the sky.

  CHAPTER FORTY TWO

  Bluebird was sleeping, not lying flat out like I knew he would be later but standing with his head down and eyes half closed. He lifted his head at the sound of me opening his stall door and gave a sigh as though he kind of wished that I wasn’t disturbing him.

  “I’m just checking on you,” I whispered.

  I ran my hands over his legs, feeling for heat or swelling but there wasn’t any. I was glad. It had been a long time since we’d ridden so far along the trail and ages since we’d been to the beach. The wet sand gave the horses legs a workout and the salty water was as good as any liniment but I’d still been worried.

  “I’ll leave you alone now,” I said, hugging his neck.

  I crept down the barn aisle to check on Wizard. I knew that Dad was right. If he’d been injured then Taylor would have blamed us and she had enough on her plate as it was. Unlike Bluebird, Wizard wasn’t sleeping. He was standing there with his ears pricked and head up.

  “What’s the matter boy?” I said.

  He looked like he’d heard something, a noise off in the distance. Perhaps a stray dog or a wild coyote.

  “You’re safe here,” I told him. “Well, you are now anyway.”

  I opened his stall door and went inside to check on his legs. He stood still as a statue as I ran my fingers over him just as I’d done to Bluebird. He seemed fine too for which I was relieved. I couldn’t be mad at Jordan if I had the guilt of his horse being injured as well. This way was easier.

  “And Jordan doesn’t ever have to know about today, okay?” I said, patting the big bay horse on the neck. “It will just be our little secret.”

  “What will be your little secret?”

  The voice came whispering out of the shadows and I let out a scream.

  “Don’t freak out. It’s just me.”

  And Jordan came stepping out into the dim light.

  CHAPTER FORTY THREE

  “What are you doing here?” I cried. “Are you okay?” I looked at him and the cocky smile he had on his face, the crooked one that made his dimples show. “Of course you are okay. Look at you. Do you know how worried everyone has been about you?”

  I lurched forward and thumped him in the chest.

  “Ouch,” he cried, doubling over.

  It was then that I noticed his arm was in a cast.

  “Wait, you’re not okay, are you?”

  “Never better,” he said, standing back up with a grimace. “Just a few broken ribs and a smashed up arm.”

  “What happened to you?”

  “It’s a long story,” he said.

  We sat in the barn office. I made coffee that was far too strong and we could only find some kind of fruity fake creamer in the small refrigerator nestled amongst the vaccinations and medications. It was gross but it was better than going back up to the house and having people question me and I didn’t want anyone else to know that Jordan was back, at least not yet anyway.

  “Tell me everything,” I said.

  We sat on the leather couch next to each other. I couldn’t stop looking at him. His face was a pasty white, the kind you get when you are in pain and trying not to show it and a purple bruise spread across his cheekbone.

  “Please don’t tell me you got in a fight,” I said. “I’ll be so mad if Mickey was right all along.”

  “I didn’t get in a fight,” he said with a chuckle. “Well I guess you could sort of say that I got in a fight with the tarmac.”

  “You crashed your bike.” I shook my head.

  “Yup,” he said. “Totaled it. Slid right into a tree. The tree won.”

  “But why didn’t you call? Does your mom even know you’re okay?”

  “She does now,” he said. “I was out of it for a while with a concussion and the bike went up in a fire ball so they didn’t know who I was. When I woke up I decided that I’d better figure out how to make it so that Mom wasn’t mad at me only it sort of back fired.”

  “Yeah I’d say so,” I said. “Your face has been plastered all over the TV. We thought you’d been abducted or murdered or something.”

  “You mean you were worried about me?” he said slyly.

  “Well I was,” I said. “But now I’m just mad at you for putting us through hell. I don’t know how you could do that.”

  “I needed time to think.”

  “And now?” I said. “Are you done thinking?”

  “Pretty much,” he said. “And I’m grounded.”

  “But you’re here,” I said.

  “Mom knows that grounding me is pretty much a fruitless exercise but she said I was allowed to come here to see Wizard and you.”

  “How kind of you to think of us,” I said.

  I stood up, feeling a little irritated. I was glad that Jordan was okay but mad that he’d acted like such a baby, making us all worry about him like that.

  “So what happened to my horse that you are keeping a secret?” he said.

  “It’s a long story,” I said.

  “Well I told you mine.”

  “Yours wasn’t that long or that interesting.”

  “Ouch.” He clutched his heart. “That hurt more than my broken ribs.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” I said with a smile. “You know you won’t get any sympathy here. We’re all horse people, remember? We ride with sprains and broken bones and only go to the hospital when someone drags us there.”

  “I know,” he said. “You’re a badass.”

  “Damn right I am,” I said.

  “So Wizard? He’s okay though, right?”

  “He’s fine. He missed you.”

  “At least someone did,” Jordan said. “So I heard something about you taking him to a show next week?”

  “Actually,” I said, sitting back down. “I want to talk to you about that.”

  CHAPTER FORTY FOUR

  I wasn’t sure when I’d come
up with the idea. It just seemed to sort of pop into my head but I wanted Dakota to ride Wizard at the schooling show. I knew it would mean a lot to her, so much more than to me. I already had enough on my plate getting Arion ready and besides, I’d seen the way she rode Wizard and he liked her. They clicked. He wasn’t a complicated horse and it would be easy for her to pick up a couple of ribbons and maybe just to forget for a while that her own horses now belonged to someone else. When I told Jordan he sat there for a while not saying anything.

  “Well?” I finally said. “Is it okay?”

  “You want me to let the girl who practically stole my horse ride him in a show?” he said.

  I’d sort of glossed over the whole joy ride thing but I still figured that I owed it to Jordan to tell him. Besides, if I didn’t I knew that my father would. He wasn’t good at keeping secrets and this wasn’t exactly something that could be easily forgiven, sort of like how Jordan had messed up by not letting his mother know that he was okay.

  “You know what it is like to mess up,” I told him. “And so do I. We’ve all done it and we’ll all do it again. That’s what growing up is all about.”

  “You sound like an internet meme,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Or an inspirational poster or something. How did you get to be so smart all of a sudden?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I guess I’m just starting to figure things out but just wait, I’m sure I’ll screw up again eventually.”

  “That’s a relief,” he said. “I can’t hang out with someone who is perfect all the time.”

  My heart did a little flop in my chest at the thought that he still wanted to hang out with me.

  “I’m going to have my hands full at the show. It makes more sense that Dakota takes him since you can’t ride him anyway.”

  “Or he could just come back to my mom’s and be turned out for a couple of months until my arm heals.”

  “Or you could just ride one handed if that’s the way you want to be,” I said but I was smiling because I knew that he wasn’t serious.

  “Fine,” he said. “If it means that much to you the crazy girl can ride my horse but you’d better keep your eyes on her because if she runs off with him again I’m going to be seriously mad.”

  “Deal,” I said. “Now I just have to convince my father that it is a good idea too.”

  CHAPTER FORTY FIVE

  Dad was harder to convince than Jordan was. With Jordan I had the advantage of knowing that he liked me and that he wanted to make up for putting me through all the stress of thinking he was dead. I didn’t have that kind of leverage with my father. All I had was his empathy but considering all that Dakota had put us through, that was at an all-time low.

  “You think it’s a good idea, don’t you Missy?” I said.

  We were eating breakfast the next day and I’d already brought up my bright idea. Dad didn’t seem to think it was so bright. In fact he looked like thunder clouds were about to open and dump buckets of rain all over his head.

  “I don’t know,” Missy said, looking at my father. “Dakota is a great little rider but she’s obviously a little misguided and I don’t have time for students who don’t follow the rules.”

  “Follow the rules?” Dad spluttered. “She didn’t just break the rules, she broke the law.”

  “But everything worked out fine,” I said gently. “Doesn’t she deserve a second chance?”

  “If it means that much to you, I’ll think about it,” Dad said. “But what is the matter with you? If you’re not adopting stray horses or cats or other random animals,” he said, standing up and brushing Meatball off his lap. “You’re taking wayward people under your wing.”

  “Blame Mickey,” I said. “She brought Dakota here.”

  “I will,” he said huffily.

  He pulled on his boots and went outside, slamming the door behind him.

  “What is the matter with him this morning?” I asked Missy.

  “He didn’t hear back from the Equestrian Federation,” she said. “They are supposed to be dropping the charges and lifting the suspension but he hasn’t had an official notification yet. He’s worried that maybe they’ve changed their minds.”

  “They can’t do that, can they?” I said. “Not now that they have proof?”

  “They can do whatever they want.” Missy sighed.

  “I’m sure it will all work out okay,” I said, realizing that I did feel particularly chipper lately.

  Everything was falling into place. Bluebird was prepared for his summer show circuit, Arion was going to go out there and rock the baby jumpers and Jordan was back. Life was good.

  “You know,” Missy said as I was about to go out the door. “I have a little free time later. I’ll give you a lesson if you like?”

  “Really?” I said. It was the first time that Missy had actually volunteered to help me when she hadn’t been prodded by my father to do so. “Thanks.”

  “Well someone has to carry the Olympic torch forward,” she said, bouncing Owen up and down on her knee. “And somehow I don’t think that is going to be me.”

  “Are you really giving it up?” I said.

  “I don’t know,” she replied. “Maybe, for now.”

  And as I ran down to the barn to tack up Bluebird, I wondered if maybe Missy would let me start riding Socks again too?

  CHAPTER FORTY SIX

  Arion and I had a successful lesson with Missy. For a change he was focused and didn’t do anything especially stupid, which meant that Missy didn’t have to get mad at us. She set up a small course in the ring like the one he would be jumping at the schooling show and we went around a few times while she shouted out instructions, mostly things like I was letting him get too fast or too sloppy or too excited. It wasn’t easy to keep a young horse calm, especially one that seemed to like jumping as much as Arion, although he was one of those rare horses who seemed to like everything. There wasn’t anything we didn’t do that didn’t excite him whether it was riding on the trail or jumping or even working on the flat. Life excited him and that made me excited too.

  “Well if there was a prize for eagerness, he’d win it,” Missy said as Arion came to a stop looking pretty proud of himself.

  He’d just cleared the last baby oxer with about three feet to spare making it a five foot jump instead of a two foot one.

  “He does get excited,” I said, patting his neck as he tossed his head and snorted.

  “It’s better than hating it,” Missy said, laughing. “You can’t make them love something and to really have a good career, they need to want it just as much as you do.”

  “He wants it all right,” I said. “He wants it all now.”

  “Well just try and get him to tone it down a bit and I think you’ll do fine at the show.”

  “I think he’s going to lose his mind with excitement at the show,” I said, shaking my head.

  “You’re probably right,” Missy agreed.

  I was getting ready to take Bluebird out on the trail later when Mickey appeared. She looked a little sheepish, hanging around nervously while Henry asked me a question. I knew that meant she’d heard about Dakota’s little outing.

  “Hey,” I said brightly when Henry had gone. “Want to come for a trail ride with me and Faith?”

  “I can’t,” she said. “I have a lesson.”

  “Well maybe next time then.” I shrugged.

  “You seem very happy today,” she said, going to her tack locker and fiddling about with Hampton’s bridle.

  “I had a fantastic lesson this morning on Arion. I can’t wait to take him to the schooling show this weekend. It’s going to be awesome.”

  “I’m glad,” she said, her voice small. “So you’re not mad then?”

  “No,” I said, sitting down on the floor to pull on my boots. “Why would I be mad?”

  “You know why,” she said. “About Dakota, you were right and I was wrong. She turned out to be crazy, didn’t she?”

  “No
t crazy,” I said. “Sad and confused just like you said.”

  “But she stole a horse and rode off with it,” Mickey said, looking like she was about to cry. “And it’s all my fault.”

  “Why on earth is it your fault?” I said.

  “Because I told her that she was a really good rider. That she could ride any horse just as well as you and probably better. I told her that you had enough horses to ride and that you should let her ride Wizard.”

  “And you were right,” I said, jumping to my feet. “I do have enough horses to ride. I have Bluebird and Arion and Four and I’m really hoping that Missy will let me start riding Socks again soon. Plus Dad is picking up a new horse next week, a real jumper not one that I have to train from scratch. So Dakota should ride Wizard, in fact that is what I told Dad and Jordan.”

  “Wait, Jordan?” she cried. “He’s back?”

  “So not all gossip flies around the barn at the speed of light then?” I laughed. “Just the ones about crazy girls and stolen horses.”

  “You have to tell me everything,” Mickey said.

  “Come on our trail ride and I will,” I said. “We’ll wait for you if you like.”

  “Really?” she said.

  “Really.”

  It was good to not be fighting with Mickey again. We were best friends and even though we didn’t see eye to eye on everything that didn’t mean that we had to stay mad at each other forever. Besides, as much as I loved Faith, it was getting a bit exhausting having a ten year old as my new best friend. But I’d promised to help her get ready for the show and I was going to keep my promise, even if she drove me mad.

  “Why can’t we raise the jumps?” she cried.

  I’d taken her out to the jump field while we waited for Mickey to finish her lesson. I could see her now, going round in a ten meter circle at the trot, Hampton’s head down and in a nice frame. It wouldn’t be long before they were moving up the levels. They were too good not to.