The A Circuit 04- Rein It In

by Georgina Bloomberg

  Kate smiled, grateful as always for the assistant trainer’s positive outlook. “Okay,” she said. “I guess I’ll—”

  “Excuse me.” Joy’s face suddenly went pale. She dumped the saddle onto the floor, leaning it up against the wall. “I’ll be back for this later. I just remembered something else I have to do. Have a good lesson.”

  “Thanks,” Kate said, though Joy was already halfway down the aisle at a brisk jog.

  “What was that all about?” a voice said behind Kate.

  Turning, Kate saw Dani walking toward her, leading her tacked-up jumper. Tommi was right behind her with her eq horse.

  “Hi,” Kate greeted them. “Wow, I’m even farther behind than I thought.”

  “Is Joy sick or something?” Dani asked.

  “I don’t think so.” Kate quickly latched Flame’s stall shut and gave the horse one last pat. “Why?”

  Dani shrugged. “She’s been acting kind of weird lately. Like, distracted and rushing off randomly and stuff. Everyone’s noticed.”

  Tommi stopped her horse beside Dani’s. “She’s probably just stressed out getting ready for Indoors like the rest of us. I bet she’ll be thrilled to see the trailers pull out of here tomorrow so she can relax.”

  “Yeah.” Dani laughed. “If you can call running the whole place almost single-handedly while we’re gone relaxing.”

  Kate glanced off in the direction the assistant trainer had gone, hoping that Joy was okay. In any case, she didn’t have time to worry about it just then.

  “Listen, tell Jamie I’m on my way, okay?” she called to Tommi and Dani as she took off toward Fable’s stall.

  Ten minutes later, Kate was breathless and had a smudge of green horse slobber across her shirt as she led Fable to the mounting block right outside the gate of the indoor ring. Fitz spotted her immediately and rode over.

  “You made it,” he called out as she swung into the saddle. “Jamie’s not here yet.”

  “Really?” Kate picked up her reins as Fable took a few quick steps away from the block. Once she got the big gray settled, she glanced around. Tommi was trotting in circles at one end of the ring. Zara was trying to convince her mare to trot instead of jigging sideways toward Summer’s horse, which was stopped in the center of the ring while Summer fiddled with her stirrups. Marissa and Dani were chatting as they walked their horses around side by side on the buckle.

  Most of the riders glanced over as Kate rode into the ring. “Oh, it’s you,” Summer said. “I thought it was Jamie.”

  “Where is he, anyway?” Marissa glanced at her watch. “He’s usually Mr. Prompt.”

  “No kidding,” Zara agreed. “He yelled at me for, like, half an hour last week because I was thirty seconds late.”

  Kate suspected she was exaggerating, but probably not by much. “Maybe he forgot about our lesson,” she suggested. “He’s really busy today.”

  “In that case, we might as well start without him.” Fitz halted his horse in the center of the ring and raised one hand in a fist. “You must all obey me, the almighty self-appointed trainer!”

  Tommi rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right.”

  But Dani giggled. “Okay, almighty one,” she said. “What do you want us to do?”

  “We need to warm up these lazy beasts.” Fitz tapped his own horse lightly on the neck with his crop. “Working trot on the rail, everyone. No dawdling—make them move!”

  Kate traded a look with Tommi. Tommi shrugged. “Sounds like what Jamie would say. Guess we might as well humor him for now.”

  For the next few minutes, Fitz directed the class through their warm-up. Just as Kate was wondering if Jamie really had forgotten about them, the trainer finally appeared in the doorway.

  “It’s about time, young man!” Fitz chided. “Where were—oh, sorry. Um, just kidding.”

  Kate looked over again and saw the reason Fitz had backed off. Two people were coming into the indoor behind the trainer—a man and woman in their thirties or early forties. Both of them were casually dressed in jeans and loafers, but they had a certain look Kate had learned to recognize since coming to Pelham Lane—the look of money. Probably lots of it.

  “Sorry I’m late, everyone.” Jamie shot a warning look at Fitz, then glanced around at the others. “Come on over here, people. I’d like you to meet Cari and Mike Langley. Fable’s owners.”

  For a second Kate thought she’d heard him wrong. True, she knew Fable had owners somewhere out there, but she’d never even seen them.

  “Whoa,” Marissa whispered just loudly enough for Kate to hear. “I thought they moved to Sweden or somewhere.”

  “I think it was Switzerland,” Tommi murmured.

  Kate didn’t say anything. Suddenly she was all too aware of that smudge on her shirt, the wisps of blond hair escaping from under her helmet, the pale green manure stain she hadn’t had time to rub completely out of Fable’s gray coat.

  “Hi, everyone!” Mrs. Langley lifted a hand and smiled. “Sorry to interrupt your lesson. We were back in New York for a few days and decided to pop in and see how Fabelhaften is doing. I miss the big lug!”

  Meanwhile her husband was peering at Fable. “He’s looking terrific, Jamie. Your program obviously agrees with him.”

  “I hope so.” Jamie waved Kate over. “I want you to meet the talented young rider I was telling you about. She’s been doing a fantastic job with him. Come here and say hello, Kate.”

  “Hi,” Kate halted by the rail near the couple. “Um, thanks for letting me ride Fable and show him and everything.”

  “No, thank you, Kate,” Mr. Langley said. “We hear you’re turning the horse into a superstar of the Big Eq ring.”

  “That’s right,” Jamie put in. “As I mentioned to you on the phone last week, they unfortunately didn’t have quite enough time to qualify for finals this year. But I’m expecting big things from them next season.”

  “Wonderful.” Mrs. Langley stroked Fable’s nose as the gelding stretched his head toward her. “We appreciate all your hard work, Kate. But wait—didn’t Jamie say you’re all leaving for the Capital Challenge tomorrow? If Fable’s not going, shouldn’t you be riding one of your other horses to get ready?”

  “Good point.” Mr. Langley chuckled and clapped Fable on the neck. “We’re not in that much of a hurry to get this fella sold.”

  Kate opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Behind her, she heard a soft snort and guessed that Summer was rolling her eyes at the ridiculous thought that anyone could mistake Kate for one of them—one of the privileged juniors with at least one nice horse of her own, if not several.

  “Kate and I thought Fable would benefit from the exercises we’ll be doing in today’s lesson,” Jamie put in smoothly. “Which reminds me, we’d better get started. You’re welcome to watch from the viewing lounge.”

  As the couple hurried off, Kate immediately put Fable back to work, trotting him in a big, loopy circle without meeting any of her fellow juniors’ eyes. She already knew what she would find there. The amusement and disdain in Summer’s wouldn’t bother her much.

  But she wasn’t sure she could handle the sympathy, concern, or pity she was sure to see in the others.

  Chapter Three

  A shiver ran through Tommi’s entire body as she heard the show announcer say her number. She felt as if she hadn’t stopped moving since arriving at the Capital Challenge showgrounds a couple of days ago, but all of a sudden it was as if everything had gone still. As if the entire place was holding its breath, waiting for her to begin her first equitation round.

  “Let’s do this, buddy,” she whispered.

  Orion’s left ear flicked back toward her. The other was still pricked toward the ring in front of them. The experienced eq horse had been to all the finals before with his previous owner, and to this particular show with Tommi the year before. Still, he felt tense under her as he took in the spooky indoor arena. Tommi was tense, too. The North American Junior Equitation Championship
s wasn’t the most prestigious of the fall finals, but it was a pretty big deal.

  Tommi clucked and sent Orion into the ring at a trot, then picked up a canter. As soon as he was moving, the horse relaxed, as Tommi had known he would. She glanced toward the first jump on the course, a substantial but inviting brick wall with white rails.

  Orion sailed over it easily, pricking his ears in search of the next one. His canter felt a little sluggish, so Tommi gave him a nudge with her calves and then steered around the turn. Short approach to a good-sized oxer. Once again the horse cleared it out of stride.

  The next two jumps went just as well, though Tommi still found herself having to use more leg than usual. She wasn’t too worried about it, though. Horses reacted in different ways to a big class like this one. Most got amped and wanted to go faster than usual, but today Orion seemed to be slowing down, maybe trying to get a better look at the heavily decorated fences. As long as he responded promptly to her leg, Tommi wasn’t concerned.

  They landed smoothly out of a tricky combination and headed for the fifth fence, another oxer. It came off a rather tight turn, which didn’t worry Tommi much. For a large horse, Orion was surprisingly agile.

  This time, though, he stumbled badly as they rounded the turn, flinging Tommi forward in the saddle. She recovered quickly, sitting up and back and pushing the horse forward. But Orion’s metronome-like gait faltered for several strides, and despite Tommi’s best attempts to adjust, they ended up long to the oxer. Orion flung himself over anyway, his hind legs clanking the back rail hard. The rail stayed up, but Tommi was sure that jump hadn’t looked pretty.

  She nudged the horse forward, urging him back into a steady canter. With a few tiny adjustments, they reached the next fence perfectly, but Tommi knew it didn’t matter. A bobble like that meant they were almost certainly out of contention for any kind of ribbon. Yes, equitation was judged on the rider’s form and ability, not on the horse’s scope or accuracy. Still, the judge could only judge what was in front of him or her, and Tommi’s ride wasn’t going to impress against riders who made it through the course smoothly. That was the way the cookie crumbled. Or the horse stumbled.

  They finished the round without any other significant mistakes. Tommi heard whoops and applause from the Pelham Lane crew watching from the stands, and gritted her teeth as she forced a smile. At least the other eq finals were still to come, including the prestigious Medal at Harrisburg and the Maclay in Kentucky. She and Orion would have a chance to redeem themselves. For now, all she could do was accept what had happened and learn from it. Maybe if he’d been more forward; maybe if she’d supported him more with the reins through that tight turn …

  Trying not to obsess over it, she patted Orion as they rode out of the ring. Jamie was waiting for her, along with one of Pelham Lane’s grooms, Elliot.

  “What happened?” Jamie asked.

  Tommi shrugged and swung down from the saddle as Elliot reached for Orion’s bridle. “Not sure,” Tommi said. “He took a funny step or something. Just one of those things, I guess.”

  Jamie nodded, squinting toward the scoreboard. “Happens,” he said. “We’ll talk more later. I need to figure out where Fitz is—he’s up soon.”

  Tommi ran up Orion’s left stirrup as Elliot did the other one. The groom was tall enough to glance at her over the horse’s back.

  “Sorry,” he said. “The rest of the course looked good.”

  “Thanks.” This time Tommi’s smile came a little more easily. She unhooked her helmet strap. “We’ll get ’em next time.”

  “That’s the spirit.” Elliot smiled back, then took the horse’s reins. “I’ll cool him out for you. Like Jamie said, Fitz is coming up soon—go cheer him on.”

  “Thanks.” Fitz had been doing well in the eq all season, and Tommi didn’t want to miss seeing him go.

  She gave her horse one last pat, then headed in the general direction those cheers had come from. As she scanned the stands looking for her barnmates, she spotted another familiar face a few rows up from the rail. It belonged to an old friend from the circuit who had aged out of juniors the previous year.

  “Taryn?” Tommi took the steps two at a time. “Is that you? What are you doing here?”

  “Hi, Tommi.” Taryn stood and came to meet her with a hug. She was tall and slim, with close-cropped dark hair and the kind of face that always looked happy even when she wasn’t smiling. “I go to school right down the road from here, remember? So I decided to come by and spectate. You looked good out there, by the way. Too bad your horse tripped.”

  “Yeah, bad luck. Usually he’s Mr. Sure-Footed.” Tommi pulled off her riding gloves and set them on her knee as she took the seat beside Taryn’s. “It’s so good to see you! How’s college?”

  “Amazing.” Taryn’s brown eyes sparkled as she reached over and squeezed Tommi’s arm. “You won’t believe how much better it is than high school. In, like, every way.”

  “Hmm.” Tommi glanced out at the ring, where a rider from one of the best barns in New England had just cleared the first combination. “You must miss showing, though.”

  Taryn smiled. “Oh, I’m still showing.”

  “You are?” Tommi was surprised. She didn’t remember seeing Taryn’s name in the results for the Adult Amateur or Amateur Owner divisions at any show this year. “Where?”

  “I’m riding for my college team.” Taryn reached down and grabbed her purse from under her seat. She dug out her wallet and flipped it open to show Tommi a photo of herself on a horse, grinning at the camera. “See? That’s me!” She laughed. “It’s not exactly the A circuit, but it’s a ton of fun.”

  “Your college team?” Tommi was vaguely aware that there was such a thing as a college riding team. But she’d never known anyone who was involved with one. Most of the older juniors she’d known from Pelham Lane—including her own older sister—had given up showing entirely when they went off to college.

  “Yeah.” Taryn tucked her wallet away again. “It’s a blast. Seriously. You should give it a try—which schools are you applying to?”

  “Um.” Tommi felt a flash of irritation, though she did her best to hide it. It was bad enough to have her father breathing down her neck about college applications. Were her friends going to start now, too? “I haven’t narrowed it down yet,” she told Taryn.

  Taryn started babbling about the best Web sites to check to find out which colleges had equestrian teams, but Tommi wasn’t really listening. She’d just spotted Zara climbing up toward them.

  “Hey,” Zara said breathlessly when she reached their row. “Looked like Orion forgot where his feet went for a sec there. Sorry.”

  “Thanks. Zara, this is Taryn. She used to ride with the Johnsons out on Long Island, but she aged out last year.” Tommi glanced at Taryn. “And this is Zara. She rides with Jamie.”

  “Hi.” Taryn stared at Zara with open curiosity. “You’re Zac Trask’s daughter, right?”

  “Yeah.” Zara’s face tensed up. “That’s me.”

  Tommi shot her a sympathetic look. It seemed as if everyone on the circuit had seen that blog post about Zac, and Tommi was sure a lot of people were giving Zara crap about it. Luckily, at that moment Taryn’s eyes wandered past Zara, and she let out a gasp.

  “Oh my gosh, there’s Candace!” She stood and waved frantically at someone in another part of the arena. “Sorry, I’ve been looking for her all day—catch up later, Tommi?”

  “Sure.” Tommi lifted one hand in a little wave as Taryn grabbed her bag, climbed over Tommi’s legs, and hurried off.

  Zara slumped into the seat the other girl had vacated. “It’s always nice to meet another fan,” she said sarcastically.

  “Taryn’s okay.” Tommi shrugged. “It’s not like she’s the only one who’s a little curious about that blog thing.”

  “Whatever.” Zara picked at a hangnail. “I’m just sick of hearing about it, is all. Here and at home.”

  Tommi raised an eyebrow
. “So your dad heard about it, huh?”

  She was a little surprised. Sure, HorseShowSecrets was a pretty big deal among the juniors on the A circuit. But as far as Tommi knew, even Jamie and Joy and most of the other adults at the barn had no idea it existed.

  “Yeah. That post got picked up by some second-rate Hollywood gossip site,” Zara said. “Then the other outlets started sniffing around, and, well …” She grimaced. “Let’s just say I was glad to escape to the show.”

  “Wow.” Tommi shook her head. “I hope it doesn’t cause your dad too much trouble.”

  “Oh, Zac will get over it.” Zara rolled her eyes. “This is why he pays all those managers and publicists and stuff, right? Anyway, all those middle-aged housewives who worship him probably think it’s totally hot that he’s allegedly hooking up with some underage twit.” She pretended to gag.

  Even though Zara sounded like her usual sarcastic self, Tommi sensed an undercurrent of real annoyance. “Wait,” she said. “Your dad doesn’t think you had anything to do with that rumor, does he?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe. Probably not.” Zara fiddled with the zipper on her jacket. “I think the loft is just feeling a little crowded these days. For all of us.”

  Tommi nodded, recalling that both of Zara’s parents had spent much of the summer and early fall in different countries—Zac on tour with his band in Europe, and Gina on a movie set in Vancouver. Tommi liked to think of herself as pretty independent, but even so, it was weird to imagine spending that much time on her own. Sure, her father and stepmother traveled some, but rarely for more than a couple of weeks at a time, and even then Tommi usually either flew to Florida to visit her mother or stayed with friends.

  Just then a gasp went up from the crowd. Focusing on the ring again, Tommi saw that the current rider’s horse, a big, wide-eyed gray, had just stopped at the second-to-last jump on course. It was backing up, shaking its head violently as the rider tried to regroup.