Winny smacked me on the neck and breathed, “Good girl.”
The clapping in the crowd had avalanched from Mike, Kristi and Sidney, who were practically our own personal cheer squad, over to the rest of the stand. Chuck stood apart from the crowd and leaned against the bleachers, wholeheartedly applauding us.
We passed Isis and Gretchen on the way out. “Good luck,” Winny smiled honestly.
Gretchen smirked proudly, “I don’t need luck.”
“We're giving you a run for your money,” I teased Isis.
She tossed her neck playfully, “We'll see about that.”
Winny slid down my side, crunching lightly on the sand where we stood and watched Isis and Gretchen perform an incredibly elegant dressage test. I'd felt confident after our turn, though dressage is difficult to quantify and the first day of our fate lay in the hands of Madame Rose. Maybe we did have a chance to pull ahead. As assured as we felt about our polished flat work, it was only the beginning.
Chapter Eighteen
Winny had rinsed me in frigid water at the wash stall after our test. I initially tucked my hind end in protest but the hot sweat dripping off felt nothing short of divine and eventually, I settled. She led me around the grounds for a few hours afterward, letting me stretch my legs and graze. Near dinnertime, we headed back to camp.
“How did your test go?” Dodger asked politely as possible through dribbles of grain.
I thought for a moment. As a human, I wouldn't have labeled myself as particularly graceful. As a horse, I'd done something that could be considered art. Being modest, I answered, “I think fairly well.”
Isis cackled in her stall. “It was amazing. She really is going to be nipping at my heels in this competition.”
“That well, huh?”
I snorted, “I don't know if it was that good but I made it through without stumbling over my own feet. Definitely an improvement.” I replayed my triumphant dressage test in my mind. “I‘m just glad Winny and I were schooling at third-level dressage movements before. Flying lead changes are much more difficult than what’s in the prelim test. They're just so elegant to watch, more so to be able to do.”
“I prefer the cross-country myself.” Isis pawed at her hay, spreading it around her stall. “It's so exciting. Really gets your blood pumping.”
“We'll see. I'm not exactly looking forward to it.”
“You'll be fine,” Dodger encouraged. The fact that he was a good deal older than me in horse years helped calm my nerves. He radiated wisdom and goodwill. If he told me I could leap over the moon, I'd have believed him.
With nothing more to say, we ate in silence. By the time my belly was full, the sun had long disappeared behind the curve of the earth and my eyes were droopy from fatigue. One by one, my stablemates fell into a deep slumber. I drifted in and out of consciousness as I observed the heavens swirling above.
Two shadowy figures caught my attention. After Winny's late escapade the night before, I wasn't terribly concerned about two mischievous teenagers sneaking around after hours. They were concealed by a sudden rash of thick fog and I couldn't distinguish their distorted forms and shadows.
Neither one spoke, walking hand and hand over the cool grass shoots that had arrived with the warmer weather. Their bare feet made no noise while they strode closer to me. They came out of the haze and I could see a young man and woman. But where were their faces? Who were they?
Their features cleared and I recognized them. Dirty brown eyes, solid brunette hair, a button nose sprinkled with tiny freckles, long, slender legs. It was me. Or rather, Winny clutching Mike. They turned to each other, locked in an infatuated stare.
A tremor ripped through my heart and though I despaired enough to sob, no tears fell. How could Winny do this to me? It was an insulting slap in the face of our friendship. Her camaraderie was a ruse and though she'd tried to convince me otherwise, my paranoid suspicions were confirmed—she was in love with Mike.
Out in the open, under the spotlight of the moon, Mike grabbed Winny's waist and dipped her back. Her hair brushed against the ground, her face turned up to his. Tenderly, Mike pressed his soft lips on hers. Statuesque, they embraced for an eternity. I was sure my heart ruptured and my soul broke into a thousand pieces, causing wounds I was sure would never heal.
I knew I should turn from the appalling exhibition but I was captivated by the haunting beauty of it. Winny pulled her face away from Mike's and she turned to look directly at me. Her stare was eerie and piercing, a look of sinister hatred.
Liquid ice surged through my veins, feeling the reality of bitter betrayal from one whom I should have been able place my complete confidence. A minute smile tugged at Winny's lips until it was stretching triumphantly across her face.
The frigid cold in my body flamed into indignant anger. I breathed heavily through my nostrils and wished for revenge. As I reared and stomped my hooves, preparing to break through the stall, Winny's face began morphing. Pieces of her cheek dripped onto the ground, followed by her nose and brow.
What's happening? I panicked. Is this a nightmare?
Winny stood up and pushed Mike to the side. With a full body shake, she shed the rest of her skin and ripped her brown hair from her scalp. Stepping closer to me, I recognized through the unnatural piercing black eyes it wasn’t Winny, but Gretchen.
She rent her dress and revealed a form fitting black frock. Pulling the hem up, she yanked out a dagger she'd concealed at her thigh, the metal glinting in the blue light of the moon.
“There's too much competition and not enough room for the both of us.” Stunned, I stood helpless. Wanting to cry for Isis, my throat was paralyzed.
“This isn't happening, it's not real!” I begged myself to believe. Gretchen slid open my door and raised her arm…
* * *
“Lazy. Hey, lazy!”
I rolled up to my side, disoriented. Shaking the wood shavings from my head, I looked around. The sun had returned, banishing the nightmare. Standing up, I examined my body.
No dagger wounds, I laughed to myself, thinking there might as well have been. Even knowing the vision was entirely a figment of imagination and representation of my insecurities, my heart still felt like it had broken beyond repair. Still a horse too, I lamented.
“Glad to see you're up,” Winny teased with a good-natured smile. “I thought humans had to sleep a lot.”
The sun flowed in around her, making her look like a haloed angel. There was no way Winny would betray me. She'd been a patient observer since meeting and knew better than most how infatuated I was with Mike.
“We've got to get you ready. We're due at the roads in less than forty minutes.”
Winny had already done her chores, letting me sleep in before giving me a wakeup call. Mr. Johnson hummed as he groomed Dodger and Isis was already gone.
With my tack on, Winny wrapped my legs with galloping boots and pulled out a bottle of glitter gel. Coating my mane and tail, she exclaimed, “Now they'll really see us coming!” I groaned. The last time I sported glitter I was five. Winny wriggled into her breeches in my stall and strapped herself into her helmet and body protector. “At least I've figured out how to dress myself, huh?” she tried to joke but nerves kept her from smirking.
Danika was waiting for us at the roads. Dozens of other horses and riders circled like vultures, waiting for their number to be called.
“The first phase is meant for more of a warm up, you remember me telling you?” Danika asked while she double checked all of my boots. She cinched the girth tighter and wiped the saliva from my mouth. Winny only nodded.
“One-ten! Wells! Come to the start!” a man barked impatiently. He looked like an out-of-place Army drill sergeant, complete with a buzz cut and massive, rippling muscles.
We reached his side and he explained the course. A trot or slowly canter would finish it in less than five minutes. The vet had to check my heart rate, then on to the steeplechase.
“Go!”
I trotted lightly with my nose in the air. Winny let me scope out the surroundings along the dirt track curving under pairs of towering maples. My grogginess dissipated in the fresh morning air and I felt invigorated.
“This isn't so bad,” Winny breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed too. As we pulled up to the finish, a mousy looking lady with petite hands pressed a stethoscope under my side. “I'm Dr. Hart,” she squeaked.
Intently, she listened and timed me on her wristwatch. I tried to stand still though the stable flies were out early, nipping annoyingly at my fetlocks, right above the boots.
“She sounds good. Quite a beautiful mare you have there.”
“Thanks,” said Winny proudly. She'd been improving not only on grooming herself but on me as well. The red in the bay coat shone through when it was brushed with gusto.
Danika had been joined by Ms. Diederich, who had hitched a ride with one of the golf carts racing around to take trainers to meet their students.
They lead me to the start of the steeplechase and I watched a flashy palomino with a rich, gold body and creamy white mane and tail gallop around the track, sailing easily through the bushy obstacles.
Danika pointed out, “She doesn't have to go over them. The steeplechase is about speed and you'll lose less time if she spends half of it airborne rather than brushing through them.”
I tried to listen as carefully to Danika as did Winny. Though I'd been practicing diligently since Clear Pond, there were still so many things I questioned.
Go through bushes, go through the bushes, not over them, I chanted to myself.
Lined up at the start, Ms. Diederich surveyed us. “You will do well,” she ordered us and stepped back for our running start.
Antsy, I danced back and forth behind the line until the timer rattled a bell. With the ring, I bolted into a full gallop. Winny was knocked back onto the thick leather seat of the saddle but quickly regained her position, hovering weightlessly over my center of balance.
Charging at the first row of bushes, it seemed to grow taller with each step. It was not the highest thing I'd ever jumped with Winny but it was the highest thing I had jumped.
“Trust me,” she shouted into my ear, “through, not over the branches.”
Pushing from my hindquarters, we propelled like a shooting rocket. I closed my eyes, too nervous to see if I'd guessed the distance correctly.
The scratchy leaves of the evergreen bushes tickled my belly as we sliced through them. I opened my eyes as we broke through to the other side.
“That-a-girl!” Winny hollered. Burning through the track with lightning speed, the end came too quickly. Winny and I were both enjoying ourselves enormously.
I spotted Chuck with a foot up against the wooden rail circling the track. His eyes, half hidden under his hat brim were trained on us, watching our every move. Thankfully, Winny was concentrating too hard on the last triplet of jumps to notice any spectators.
Flying over the last brush, Winny gave an encouraging tap on my haunches with her crop. We sped into high gear and flew to the finish.
“Whew, you guys were smoking there, weren't you?” A woman with her pixie cut hair styled like she'd given herself a swirly in the toilet wrote down our time from her stopwatch. Her hair, frozen in a twist, was highlighted with blues and purples. She, like so many of the other stewards and timers here looked completely out of place, mingling with prissy horse enthusiasts.
“Just enjoying the ride,” Winny commented, a little out of breath herself.
“I'll say,” she chuckled, adjusting a fat hemp necklace. “A vet will be over to check your horse's pulse in a minute. Good luck with the rest of the day.”
“Thank you very much.”
Winny refrained from speaking with me openly but leaned forward and scratched the tip of my head. “Having fun, are we?”
I teased, flicking her boot with my silky black tail.
“Only one road phase left and we're on to the cross-country. You ready?”
Even if she could understand, I hid my doubts from her and heaved a deep, relaxing breath through my nostrils. The odds were stacked against us but we'd made it this far. With a little prudence and a lot of guts, I knew we could conquer cross-country.
Chapter Nineteen
It felt superb to be out stretching my legs at an even trot. Winny posted lightly on my back, soaking up her surroundings. With the first roads already finished and breezing through the steeplechase with plenty of time to spare, my mind had settled considerably. Now, we were back on the roads, pacing ourselves so we had enough energy reserved for the grueling cross-country phase.
With the finish line in sight, I felt a wave of relief wash over me. I tried to pick up the pace.
“Whoa there, girl,” Winny reined me in. “Don't get too excited.”
I snorted and slowed back down. It was hard to adjust to having a seemingly unlimited amount of strength and endurance. I felt like I could trot all day without rest. As a horse, exercise was as natural as breathing.
Without warning, an angry monster, puffed and growling, chased after us. I didn't bother figuring out what pursued us, knowing it would waste precious escape time. Springing aside, the only thought in my head was, RUN!
Winny nearly tumbled over my side but saved herself with a high-pitched scream and a fistful of mane.
“Nadia!” she cried, “plastic bag!”
Squaring myself to it, I snorted but could smell nothing. Upon closer examination, I saw she was right. I felt foolish, realizing it was an inanimate object blown about by the whimsy of the air. I could have staked it all that it was a rabid animal coming to devour me.
We crossed the finish line where Danika grabbed the reins and handed Winny a bottle of water. “Are you alright? What did she spook at?”
“A plastic bag.”
“Oh,” she huffed, “they can be so irrational sometimes.”
“Plastic bags are rather frightening,” Winny defended me, comforting me with a rub along my withers. Danika gave her a peculiar glance but held her peace.
Much to my surprise, Mike ran over with a crooked grin on his handsome face. There was a hint of a dimple in his left cheek that made me giddy inside. I couldn't help myself. I nuzzled at his cheek, tickling him with the stubby whiskers on my muzzle. It was the closest thing to a kiss I could give him.
“Hey, Winny,” he laughed. “In a good mood, huh girl?” He stroked my forehead with his hand.
Dr. Calvert briskly walked to our side, looking a little frazzled. He apologized for getting to us late, muttering something about being held up with another horse. Fumbling with his stethoscope, he placed it by my heart, counting the number of beats against his watch.
Mike looked up at Winny with an admiring sort of gaze. “I just wanted to tell you that I'm going to be a jump judge at number seventeen for a while. I'll keep an eye out for you.”
He reached up and took Winny's hand in his and gave it a squeeze for good luck.
I could feel my heartbeat spinning uncontrollably fast, thinking of Winny and Mike flirting so nonchalantly. All of the out-of-control emotions from my nightmare flared and I grew agitated.
“Wow, her heart rate spiked. Has she been stressed by something?” Dr. Calvert questioned.
Winny caught me staring at her and Mike's interlocked fingers. She quickly dropped them and wiped the grin off her face.
“Well, she did get spooked by a plastic bag just a bit ago. Maybe she's still nervous from that. Um, could I walk her in a circle and have you listen again?”
Dr. Calvert hesitated. “You have two minutes. If her heart rate's not down by the time you get back, you'll have to be disqualified.”
My already pounding heart doubled. Disqualified? We were already halfway done and were doing better than I’d expected. It wasn’t my inability to perform as a horse—we were about to be eliminated because of petty jealousy.
“See you soon,” Mike called as we marched off to loop around s
ome distant cedars.
Winny didn't speak until we were out of earshot of everyone. “Nadia, you've really got to calm down. I know what you're thinking. You're not hard to read when it comes to Mike, even as a horse.”
I flung my head angrily at her, insulted by her insensitivity. “What do you know?” I asked, knowing I wouldn't get an answer.
“Let me reassure you again,” Winny pressed, “I do not like Mike. I just think he's fun and I'm trying to do you a favor. I mean, come on! He's been trying to ask you out on a date for almost a year but you two are just too shy to get things moving. I'm kicking it up a notch.”
My breathing was heavy and my heart continued to race but I wanted so badly to believe her. I had no reason not to, other than the irrational possessiveness that stung every time they touched.
“And,” Winny continued, “I know you don't want to be disqualified any more than me. Look at us. You haven't tripped over your feet and I haven't fallen in two days. We're practically pros!”
She was right and I knew it. I took a deep breath and sucked in the sweet aroma of freshly cut grass tinged with the sweat of dozens of horses scattered around the cross-country course.
We were gone a minute before we met Dr. Calvert again. He reached his hand back under me and pressed his stethoscope to my chest.
“Yes, that's much better. Must have been that plastic bag, huh, girl?”
Winny twiddled with the ends of the two braids Kristi had weaved in her hair while Dr. Calvert finished his inspection. It was so odd having a continual out-of-body experience, looking at myself and seeing how Winny's cheerful, innocent soul brightened the whole countenance of my body. There was a small but distinguishable light in my brown eyes that was all Winny staring back at me.
“Well, then. You're passed off for the last road phase. You can head over to the cross-country course when you're ready.”
Headed for the Win (Nadia and Winny Book 1) Page 11