Hunter Pace (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 7)

by Claire Svendsen

  Esther and I grinned at each other. Despite how horrible everything had been, it felt like we were champions returning home, in one way or another. Everyone crowded around Willow, asking how she was and saying how amazing it had been that we’d manage to catch her.

  “It was all Emily,” Esther said.

  And I felt my heart swell with pride that I’d done something good. Or maybe it was just my ego. But either way it felt pretty amazing. Until I saw Mickey standing at the end of the barn with tears streaming down her face.

  CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR

  There were tired horses to take care of and Willow was checked over by Esther to make sure she really hadn’t hurt herself. Mickey hung around in the background, hovering about with her tear streaked face and a look of fear. She opened her mouth a couple of times like she wanted to say something but then she closed it again. An apology would have been nice but that wouldn’t change the fact that she had been so dumb.

  Bluebird was exhausted. I poured a generous amount of liniment into a bucket of water and sponged it all over him. He side stepped away because it was all cool and tingly but if my muscles were anything to go by then he had to be feeling pretty sore. And since there was still a slight chill in the air, I threw his cooler over him and put him back in his stall with a big pile of hay. After all, he’d earned it.

  Fury was still pumped up thanks to all the noise outside. I spent a few minutes with her, glad that I hadn’t changed my mind and taken her out on the hunter pace instead. She never would have stood quietly while Mickey and Jess raced each other and she definitely wouldn’t have crossed that creek or helped me catch Willow.

  But I hadn’t really given her much riding time since she’d arrived. Taking care of two ponies was a lot more work than I had thought it would be. And she was always going to be a fussy pony. Highly strung. She was never going to be a safe, quiet packer. I almost wished that Miguel would ask for her back but then I felt bad since I was about the only person that she actually liked.

  “Is Willow really okay?” I asked Esther as she used liniment on the mare as well.

  “I really hope so,” Esther shook her head. “A free lease could very quickly turn into an expensive one if this mare needs the vet or ends up lame.”

  “She’ll be fine,” I said, trying to tap into the power of positive thinking. “But I’m starving. I think my stomach is starting to digest itself. Is it okay if I go and get some food?”

  “Scram,” Esther said. “Go get food and save some for me.”

  Outside the sun had come out and little kids who hadn’t been allowed on the ride were running around and screaming, playing a game of tag. Faith was standing off to the side with Ethan and some older kids, her wet ribbons gone and a mature look on her face. If I was her, I’d have that look too. She’d sure shown Mickey up.

  “You did good today,” I told her as I passed by.

  “Thanks,” she grinned.

  I loaded up on food like I hadn’t eaten in a week. A big juicy burger in a bun filled with lettuce and tomato and slathered with mayonnaise for good measure. I’d just found a nice grassy spot in the sun and was about to dig in when Jess came over and sat next to me.

  “You caught her then?” she said.

  “Yeah,” I mumbled with a mouth full of food. “Is Hampton okay?”

  “Fine. Not even a scratch.”

  “I guess you won’t be giving him back to Mickey any time soon,” I said.

  “No,” she shrugged. “Even if I wanted to, my father wouldn’t allow it.”

  I looked at her sitting there next to me with her expensive clothes and her shiny hair and perfect life. She had everything I’d dreamt off since I was a little kid. A father who would buy me as many horses and ponies as I wanted. Who would encourage me to win and support me all the way to the top. But it hadn’t helped Jess. In fact it had turned her into a horrible, twisted person and yet here she was being all nice to me and I didn’t know why.

  “You’re not going to slip poison into my burger or something when I’m not looking, are you?” I said.

  “No,” she shrugged like it wasn’t really that outrageous of an idea. “I’m just not sure that you are the enemy anymore.”

  “I’m not sure I ever was in the first place,” I said.

  “True,” she stood up, brushing the dirt off her breeches. “Well, see you around.”

  “See you,” I said.

  As she walked away, I thought I saw Mickey glaring at me before disappearing into the barn. And I couldn’t help wondering if Jess’s friendship would come at a price.

  CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE

  The envelope was opened and the cup awarded to the four girls on the matching chestnuts. From what I had seen, they were pro’s at hunter paces. It was probably all they did, go around collecting big cups. But we all clapped anyway because at least none of their team had fallen off or held a secret race.

  Ethan and Faith brought more food and came to sit with me on the grass. We ate our picnic and laughed about the things that had happened out on the hunter pace. Ethan said that it was the best fun he’d ever had and that he couldn’t wait to do it again. I told him that he was insane if he thought Esther would ever let us hold another one. I forgot all about Mickey until later but by then she had gone home, which was just as well since the news crew showed up to film the after party.

  Candy, the news anchor, tottered about on her high heels interviewing people who had taken part in the hunter pace. Everyone now and then one of her heels would get stuck in the wet ground and she’d lurch forward. It would have been awesome if she’d actually fallen flat on her face but of course that didn’t happen.

  I followed behind, listening to what she was asking people. I could tell that she was digging, trying to get some dirt on Esther and Sand Hill that would go nicely with her footage of the secret race. But everyone loved Esther and besides us, all the riders had a blast and like Ethan, were eager to compete in another hunter pace as soon as they could.

  Then Candy caught sight of Jess and practically ran over to her, the camera man following behind.

  “Weren’t you one of the girls in that race?” she asked.

  Jess looked at her like she smelled bad or something. “No,” she said.

  “Yes you were,” Candy said. “I recognize that stripe on your breeches. Tell me, what made you decide to race that other girl? What was going through your head as she fell off and you won?”

  “I told you,” Jess said. “That wasn’t me.”

  “But…” Candy stuttered.

  “Go away,” Jess said. “I don’t talk to reporters, at least not ones from the local channels. Not unless you want to pay me.”

  “I don’t pay for interviews,” Candy huffed. “That would be unethical.”

  “That’s not what I hear,” Jess said before walking away.

  Candy was left standing there, outsmarted by a rich kid in breeches and by the look of it not too happy about it either. But all I could think was that without an interview from Jess or Mickey, then the race footage was pretty meaningless. In fact, out of context, it probably just looked like two girls galloping across a field. Just a normal part of the hunter pace. And Mickey falling off? Well that was not exactly unheard of either. The other girl from Fox Run had fallen off in the creek. Too bad they didn’t get footage of that.

  Esther came over with a worried look on her face as the news crew drove away.

  “Don’t worry,” I told her. “Mickey went home and Jess refused to talk to her. It was awesome.”

  “It’s not that,” Esther said.

  “What is it then?” I felt the happy feeling start to evaporate. “Is it Willow? Is she sick?”

  “No,” Esther shook her head. “It’s Granny Mae. She’s coming home.”

  “Well that’s good then, isn’t it?” I said.

  “No,” Esther said sadly. “She’s coming home to die.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY SIX

  Channel Seventeen ran the
story but I was right. Without the interviews and collaborating witnesses, it just looked like two girls having a fun time. They did include footage of Mickey falling off and used it as a backdrop to question if horseback riding was really a safe activity for young girls. Idiots. They should have seen the state of the girls in our school’s softball team. Almost every week one of them was carted off to the emergency room and two of them had broken arms right now. All sports were dangerous and riding was no different but it didn’t mean that we shouldn’t do it and the fact that they were saying that only girls shouldn’t ride, spurred some kind of outrage in the local community.

  All the moms with daughters were pretty mad that they were saying girls weren’t tough enough to ride but boys were. It was the feminist movement all over again and since we’d only just finished learning about it in history class it was pretty hilarious. I expected the moms to make sashes and march in protest but it all died down when the news station issued a retraction and an apology. Then it was back to life as normal and I was just lucky that my mom had been working overtime at the museum and hadn’t seen any of it.

  Only it didn’t really feel very normal. Not knowing what to say to each other, Mickey and I were now acting as though nothing had ever happened. Like the hunter pace had been some bad dream that wasn’t real. I wanted things to go back to normal but I didn’t know if they ever would and I didn’t know how to fix them.

  But none of it seemed important anyway. Granny Mae was back in her old, crumbling home but she wouldn’t be there long. She had fought with her daughter who wanted her to stay in the hospital but Sally said that Granny Mae wanted to die in her home, in her own bed with her own belongings. I didn’t blame her. It’s what I would want too. But it was a strange concept. I’d never known anyone who died of old age before. I’d only known people whose lives had been cut short by accidents. This was something foreign and I didn’t know how to feel about it, even though it was the way things were supposed to be.

  “We should do something,” I told Esther. “For Granny Mae.”

  She was picking out stalls, the sweat dripping from her forehead. The cool snap we had over the hunter pace had vanished in two days and we were now back to baking in heat that would last until fall.

  “Like what?” she asked, leaning on her pitchfork.

  “I don’t know,” I sighed. “Something special. Like a sort of horsey send off. Something that will make her heart sing.”

  “I don’t know about making her heart sing,” said Esther. “She’s on her death bed, remember?”

  “But it doesn’t have to be so horrible, does it?” I said.

  I wandered outside where the horses were fussing at the gates, asking to be brought in so that they could stand under the fans in their stalls. I slipped on halters and led them into the barn. It was still looking empty. Business hadn’t really picked up after the hunter pace like I had hoped it would and now that school was almost out, kids were planning beach trips and mall trips and going on vacations with their families.

  Even Willow would be going soon. She was being sold to a girl at the elite boarding school where Sally went. It was probably just as well. She was too nice to be a lesson horse and deserved a home with someone who would spoil her and love her. Mickey hadn’t been too upset or maybe she was just hiding it really well. I couldn’t tell anymore. It was like she had put up this wall and all her emotions were hidden behind it. Esther said that I should cut her some slack. That her parents had gone ballistic when they saw the race on the news and I was really trying not to give her a hard time. Not that she’d been out at the barn very much anyway.

  At least Ethan hadn’t mentioned moving barns again. In fact he’d found this summer series of shows that they held at night under the lights and was pestering Esther to let us go. I actually wanted to go too. The show circuit was winding down for the long hot summer and it seemed that I’d missed most of it trying to get on Miguel’s junior jumper team. In fact I still hadn’t heard anything and had pretty much accepted that I wasn’t getting picked for it.

  I wandered through the barn feeling sorry for myself and found Faith in the wash rack with a bucket of flowers. Princess was standing there with a long suffering look on her face.

  “What are you doing?” I asked her, now feeling more sorry for Princess than I had for myself.

  “Nothing,” she said, looking guilty.

  But she had started to braid the flowers into the black pony’s mane, the yellows and reds a stark contrast as they ran through her hair. Princess looked like she belonged in a fairy tale and while it should have looked stupid, instead it looked kind of magical. Like something you would see in a dream.

  “Faith,” I said. “I have an idea. An important idea. Do you want to help me?”

  “Sure,” she said.

  CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

  I planned the whole thing. A sort of tribute to Granny Mae. A horsey send off to the great beyond. It was going to be sad and yet I hoped it would lift the old lady’s spirit. I hadn’t really known her but somehow I felt like she was a kindred soul. A stubborn old woman hanging on to her animals and her crumbling home as age and agility slipped away from her. I didn’t like to think about the future. About what might happen one day when I was too old to ride but I suspected that I would end up exactly like Granny Mae, surrounded by horses that I couldn’t ride but loved all the same.

  “Normal kids don’t usually like to think about death,” Esther said.

  It was the night before and we were all at the barn, bathing our horses and ponies. Even Mickey had come out. I’d asked her to ride Willow tomorrow and she’d agreed. It would be her last time with the mare before the new owners came to pick her up but she had been the one who had ridden Willow and she was the one who deserved to ride her tomorrow.

  “I don’t like to think about death,” I said. “It’s just there.”

  “I still think you should be crushing on some boy band or something instead of planning a wake for an old lady,” Esther said.

  “It’s not a wake,” I said, feeling hurt. “It’s a sendoff.”

  “I know,” she sighed. “You’re a good kid. It’s just sometimes I don’t understand you at all.”

  “Neither does my mother,” I said.

  Derek and Cat had finally returned and a dark cloud had descended over my house again. Mom had gone back to being Derek’s waitress and Cat’s maid and I’d gone back to being invisible. But at least I had the summer stretching out before me. There was only one week left of school and then I could spend every day at the barn. I’d have time to ride both Bluebird and Fury. We could go to the midnight shows that Ethan had talked about. It was going to be awesome.

  Faith was in the wash rack, covering Princess in bubbles. They floated up into the air before popping.

  “Thank you for letting me ride with you tomorrow,” she grinned.

  “Of course,” I said. “It was thanks to you that I thought of it.”

  “I think it’s a good idea,” she said.

  “Me too,” I nodded.

  I looked around at my friends and their horses. Laughing and talking and doing what we loved. It was like a perfect moment in time and I wanted to freeze it but time wasn’t like that. I just had to enjoy the moment and that’s what I did.

  CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

  It was late on a Saturday afternoon when we slipped into white dresses that we found at the thrift store. Ethan had on jeans and a puffy white shirt. Our feet were bare and there were flowers in our hair. We had covered our horses and ponies with the same flowers and tied ribbons on their bridles. Ethan had taken a lot of convincing but I told him that it was for a good cause. And that he looked like a rugged pirate. After that he was totally on board. Even Esther had joined in. She was one of the least sentimental people I knew but she said that it was a nice thing to do so she didn’t mind coming along. And to make sure that we didn’t get into any trouble, which I suspected, was the real reason why she had decided t
o tag along.

  “Are you ready?” I asked Faith.

  “Yes,” she said, looking at the horses. “Aren’t they beautiful?”

  “They are,” I said.

  “It was a good idea,” Mickey smiled.

  She was trying to be nice. This wasn’t the day for hysterics over stupid things. This was a day to honor and remember.

  We rode our horses bareback, up the trail and down the hill. The warm wind blew out our horse’s manes and their ribbons danced in the breeze. When we got to the old farmhouse, there were people standing outside. Sally and her mother had come to stay for Granny Mae’s last days and there was a nurse and a man I didn’t know but assumed to be Sally’s father. We’d told them we were coming and they carried Granny Mae down and set her in a chair. Even though it was warm, she had blankets wrapped around her. Just a tiny head with gray wispy hair visible.

  Bluebird started to prance as they waved and we waved back. Only Granny Mae didn’t wave.

  “She doesn’t see us,” Faith said.

  But as we brought the horses into the courtyard, the sound of their clattering hooves seemed to rouse Granny Mae. The blankets moved and she sat up, looking around like she was awake for the first time in a long time. She looked at the horses, their flowers and ribbons a tribute to her. A goodbye. Her eyes grew wide and she cracked a smile.

  We circled around her and she started to laugh. A sound so faint you could hardly hear it escape her body. Then we lined up in front of her. She reached out a frail hand and Mickey walked Willow forward so that the old lady could see her one last time. She reached out to stroke the mare and Willow put her head down in the old lady’s lap.