“What the heck was that about?” Mickey said.
“See, I told you I didn’t like her,” I said.
“Great, you were right,” Ethan said. “But now we’re down a member of the team. Without four riders, we can’t compete in the hunter pace.”
“I know,” I said. “But we’ll find someone else. Trust me, we’re better off without Sarah.”
Esther wasn’t so sure. When we got back to the barn she was furious but she’d only heard Sarah’s side of the story. When we told her how rotten she’d been to Greystone, she finally relented and agreed that it was for the best that Sarah didn’t ride with us.
“I didn’t realize she was that bad,” Esther shook her head.
“It was horrible,” Mickey said. “The horse had welts on his side and his mouth was bleeding where she kept yanking on the reins.”
“Can’t we do something?” I said.
“Well if she ever comes back here for lessons, I’ll set her straight,” Esther said. “Other than that, what do you want me to do? Go to her house and yell at her?”
“Yes,” I said.
But it seemed like there wasn’t really much we could do about Sarah and poor, sad Greystone. The only thing we could do was find another person to ride with us. And we only had one week.
We put our horses away and I racked my brain, trying to think of someone who could ride with us. If we didn’t find another rider then we wouldn’t be able to compete at all. I put Bluebird out in his field and wandered over to the ring where Faith was having a lesson. She was taking Princess over a course of jumps and I had to admit that the kid had improved an awful lot. She’d come a long way from the brat who fell off at her first show and blamed the pony instead of herself. She clung to the saddle as Princess flew over the fences, braids flying and a big grin on her face. I knew that feeling. I still had it every time I took Bluebird over the jumps. And I suddenly felt bad that I dismissed her so easily. When she had finished the course she saw me and waved.
“Did you see me?” she said. “Isn’t Princess the best?”
“You weren’t half bad either,” I said. “It’s been a while since I saw you ride. You’ve improved.”
“I told you I had,” she said.
She’d grown too. Her legs were starting to get too long for Princess. Soon she’d have to graduate to a bigger pony and I knew that she was no different than I was. Younger and not as experienced but we all had to start somewhere and all she wanted was for people to give her a chance, just like I had wanted.
“Faith?” I said. “How would you like to ride in the hunter pace with us?”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Faith was speechless, which was a first. Her eyes grew big and her mouth fell open. I thought for a moment that she was going to fall off her pony. Then she exploded.
“Thank you, thank you, oh thank you Emily. I won’t let you down, I promise.”
She was bouncing up and down in the saddle and I couldn’t help but smile. I’d dismissed her so often lately that I realized I’d treated her the way I had once been treated. When no one thought I was good enough and people wouldn’t give me a chance.
“I have to clear it with Esther first though,” I said. “So make sure you are extra nice to her and do your chores around the barn like you are supposed to, okay? Don’t give her a reason to say no.”
“Oh I won’t. I’ll clean my tack and make sure Princess is groomed really well and I’ll even clean the bathroom in the office.”
The bathroom in the office was a black hole that attracted not only everything that clung to the horses but everything that clung to us as well. It also seemed to teeter on the verge of being some kind of science experiment where colored molds grew faster than you could scrape them off.
“Don’t get carried away,” I said, knowing that she would never really clean the bathroom. “Just show Esther that you have matured enough to ride with us.”
“I have, oh I really have,” she cried.
She slithered off Princess and hugged me tight. It felt good to do something nice for someone who really wanted it. I was so used to trying to help Mickey and getting my efforts thrown back in my face that I’d almost forgotten what it felt like.
“Just don’t let me down,” I told Faith seriously as I pried her off me.
Now I was going to have to convince Esther. She was setting up jumps for a group lesson the next day. I went and helped her without saying a word. We lugged the heavy poles over to the jump standards and when we were done she looked at me, her face sweaty and red.
“I know what you are going to say,” she said.
We sat on the fence as the sun started to go down. I’d changed out of my breeches and into denim shorts and my legs were tanned. I felt healthy and more fit than I had in a long time. The galloping rides had conditioned not only Bluebird but me as well and the hard labor helping Esther around the farm didn’t hurt either. She really needed more help than I could give her but she just didn’t have the money to pay for it.
“Faith has come a long way,” I said. “I watched her lesson. She’s getting good.”
“She’s getting a big head is what she’s getting,” Esther said.
“So let her come with us. Let her see how much there is that she still doesn’t know. We’ll take care of her. I won’t let anything bad happen to her.”
We watched the lesson horses out in the fields as they grazed on the sparse grass. The summer rains hadn’t quite started yet and the grass was lush in some places and brown in others. Faith led Princess out to the mare’s field and let the pony go. She buckled and rolled by the gate before shaking the sand off herself and walking over to Willow. The bay mare greeted the black pony with a nicker and they exchanged neck scratches before settling down to graze.
“Willow is as good as you said she would be,” Esther said, changing the subject.
“See, I am right about most things,” I grinned.
“But I still don’t know what that old lady was doing with such a nice horse.”
“You don’t think she was stolen, do you?” I asked, my heart sinking.
I’d been through that once with Bluebird. I didn’t want to go through the heartbreak again with another horse, especially one that Mickey was getting along so well with.
“No,” Esther shook her head. “That’s not it.”
But she didn’t elaborate on the matter and I didn’t try and push it. I didn’t like to think too much about where Willow had really come from and how long she would be able to stay here.
“Well anyway,” I said. “She’s been great for Mickey. She’s really got her confidence back.”
“She’s a ticking time bomb,” Esther shook her head. “Just waiting to explode.”
“No she’s not,” I said, tapping my boot on the fence stubbornly.
“You know she is,” Esther said sadly. “She hasn’t dealt with the fallout of her accident or the fact that Hampton has really gone. She’s bottling it all up inside.”
“Maybe she’s just over it,” I said.
I tried to sound hopeful but I knew that Mickey wasn’t even remotely over it. She was impetuous, a hot head. She wore her emotions on her sleeve and she hadn’t had to face Hampton because he’d been gone by the time she came back. But she’d have to face him on the day of the hunter pace which sucked for us and everyone on our team because she could lose it big time.
“What should I do?” I asked Esther. “How do I hold everything together?”
“Sometimes you can’t,” she sighed. “Sometimes you just have to let everything fall apart and then pick up the pieces.”
That didn’t sound like very much fun. I watched Fury walk over to graze with Willow and Princess and then saw Bluebird roll in the next field over. Everything seemed so perfect and yet somehow it felt false. Like our happiness was sitting at the top of a very tall mountain and at any moment someone or something was going to push us right off.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
It was touch and go for a few days but Esther finally agreed to let Faith ride with us. She’d been a model pupil. Too good. I knew it couldn’t last and I was waiting for the drama that would follow if she slipped up and Esther said no. Maybe that was what she thought too. Easier just to let Faith go than fight a battle she couldn’t really win. Faith was over the moon. Ethan wasn’t.
“How are we supposed to gallop and have fun with my little sister trailing behind us,” he moaned.
“She’s actually quite good,” I said. “If you were her, wouldn’t you want to come with us?”
“No,” he said.
But Faith was coming and that was that. On Wednesday when we were let out of school early, I took her down to the creek so we could make sure that Princess wouldn’t give us any trouble, and if she did we could give her the time she needed to get over it. Unlike Sarah and Greystone who we hadn’t heard from since she flipped out on him.
“It’s just like a big puddle,” Faith told Princess as we got to the shallow water.
“Grab a handful of mane and follow behind Bluebird,” I told her. “Princess might try and jump it.”
Only Princess thought that it might be more fun to try and roll in the murky water. She stopped and started to splash and it took both Faith drumming her heels on the pony’s sides and me leaning over and tugging on the reins to get her out.
“That was a close one,” Faith said. “She wasn’t scared at all.”
“No she wasn’t,” I said, giving the pony my evil eye.
But Princess couldn’t have cared less what I thought of her. We cantered back and forth through the creek until Princess abandoned the idea of trying to stop and roll. Then I took Faith to the wood patch where we had marked out a couple of fallen logs. There was a high option, a low option and the option to go around altogether. Esther had said that Faith was perfectly capable of jumping the low options as long as Princess behaved. I let her try them out while I watched.
“Don’t jump too far ahead,” I told her as Princess took an extra big leap over the tiny log. “Stay centered or she might unseat you. If that pony runs back to the barn without you, Esther will never let you out of her sight or off the property again.”
“That would be bad,” Faith said, looking pale.
The next time she was better. At least she could take corrections and apply them. Unlike Mickey who was getting sloppy on the back of Willow. She’d almost fallen off the last time we’d been out and her careless attitude was cause for concern. But having taken Faith under my wing, Mickey was going to have to take care of herself, which she was perfectly capable of doing if she put her mind to it.
Only back at the barn, things weren’t looking so good. Mickey was in the middle of a lesson on Willow when her mother pulled up in their minivan, jumped out and started yelling. I’d never heard Mickey’s mom yell before. It wasn’t like her at all. I hustled Faith and Princess into the barn and made sure she was taking care of the pony properly before sneaking back out again. I wanted to find out what was going on.
“I thought this whole horse thing was over,” Mickey’s mom was yelling at her.
“And I told you that it wasn’t,” Mickey said.
She was still sitting on Willow and Esther was standing off to the side, looking like she wasn’t sure what to do.
“We all agreed that it’s better for everyone if you don’t ride anymore. That’s why we got rid of Hampton.”
“And I told you I wanted him back,” Mickey screamed at her.
“It was too late,” her mom said.
“I know. You spent the money. You got rid of my horse. Are you happy now?”
“You told us you didn’t want him anymore.”
“I didn’t. I don’t. I don’t know what I want,” she said, starting to cry.
Esther said something under her breath to Mickey and she slid out of the saddle. Then Esther took the reins and walked Willow back to the barn, the mare’s ears flicking back and forth at their raised voices.
“Can you take care of her?” Esther asked.
“Of course,” I said.
“I have to go and sort this mess out.”
“Tell them to go and sort it out at home,” I said. “I had to practically shove Faith into the barn so that she didn’t see what was going on.”
“It’s uncalled for and unprofessional,” Esther shook her head. “I won’t stand for it.”
She walked back over to where mother and daughter were still screaming at each other. In all the time I’d know Mickey, I’d never seen her fight with her mother like that. I mean, I always knew that it was her father who had bought Hampton and encouraged Mickey to ride but now it seemed their family was divided. That one fall had changed everything. But Mickey’s attitude hadn’t exactly helped either.
“Come on girl,” I told Willow. “Let’s get you untacked.”
By the time I’d put Willow away, both Mickey and her mother had gone.
“What was all that about?” I asked Esther.
“Family drama,” she shook her head. “It will all work out in the end.”
But I wasn’t so sure. If Mickey’s family was anything like mine then arguments over riding and horses usually didn’t end well and if her mother wanted her to stop riding altogether, then Mickey would be in the same boat that I’d been in last year when my mom didn’t want me anywhere near horses at all. And if Mickey couldn’t ride then that meant we’d just lost our chance to ride in the hunter pace again.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“Are you okay?”
I called Mickey that night. It had been so long since we’d talked on the phone that it felt all awkward. I was used to chatting about my day to day stuff with Becka now. But I felt bad. I knew what it was like to have your family not want you to ride and even though Mickey had been stupid and dumb and it had cost her Hampton, I still didn’t want her to suffer.
“I’m fine,” she said.
“You’re lying,” I replied.
“I know.”
“Why doesn’t your mom want you to ride anymore?” I asked. “Because of the accident?”
“And other things,” she sighed.
“What other things?”
“Duh, money,” she said, sounding angry. “Why else?”
“That’s why they wanted to get rid of Hampton? Money?”
“My hospital bills had to be paid somehow,” she said. “We have insurance but it didn’t cover everything and there were co-pays and stuff. They used the roof money but then the leaks got so bad that my mom couldn’t stand living with all the buckets and the mold.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. I knew what it was like to have to put up with less than ideal living situations. “But maybe in six months things will be better and you can get Hampton back and everything can go back to normal. If you still want him,” I added quietly.
“Of course I do,” she said. “I mean I didn’t at first because I was mad at him. I felt like he betrayed me. Then I realized that was just dumb and you were right. He’s a horse and he got scared. He didn’t do it on purpose.”
“Of course he didn’t,” I said.
“So when I didn’t want him at all, my parents thought that was great. Mom was all super encouraging and being nice to me and everything. Then I got the box of stuff back when you went to the clinic and I saw the ribbons you won on Hampton and it was like there was this big hole that opened up in my heart. I knew I really wanted him. I told mom I’d get a job to help pay for his board or help out at the stables like you do but she wouldn’t listen.”
“And by then it was too late,” I said.
“Yes, Jess had him already.”
There was silence for a moment. I remembered the day when Jess came to try Hampton out. How he really liked her and how well they got on together. I wasn’t sure if it would make Mickey feel better or worse but she was going to find out when she saw them at the hunter pace anyway.
“Is your mom going to let you ride on Saturday
?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she said.
I hung up the phone, still unsure if we would have a team by the weekend or not. And then the rains came. It rained all day Thursday and all day Friday. If it rained on Saturday, I was afraid that we would have to cancel and I stayed glued to the weather forecast which seemed to change by the hour, one minute promising sun and the next predicting that the deluge would continue.
“Why do you care so much about the weather anyway?” Mom asked.
“It’s just this barn thing we have got going on,” I said.
“Oh,” she shrugged and thankfully didn’t ask any more questions.
I knew she wouldn’t be too keen on me galloping through the woods for two hours and the less she knew the better. Especially since we’d been getting along so well. Derek and Cat were still away and sometimes I forgot that they had ever been there at all. Then I would see Cat’s coat hanging in the hall or Derek’s reading glasses on the table and I would remember that when they came back, my home would fall apart again.
“Did you ride it?” I asked Esther on the phone Friday night.
“Yes,” she said. “In the rain so I’m not sure it’s exactly the optimum time.”
“Did you take Saffron?” I asked.
“Yes and she practically tore my arms out of their sockets.”
“I’m sure your time is fine,” I said. “The rain would have slowed down the going but we won’t be galloping the whole way. Besides, you can always adjust it if you were way off. It’s only supposed to be for fun.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Esther said. “I got a call today from the local news crew.”
“The news?” I said. “Why?”
“They think our hunter pace might make a good human interest story, so long as they don’t have any murders or car accidents to cover instead.”
“So they are going to come to the barn and film us?” I said.
“They might,” Esther sighed. “I’ve spent all day cleaning up just in case. It would really help get the word out there about our barn and lesson program. Wouldn’t it be fun to have more people to ride with?”
Hunter Pace (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 7) Page 5