Young Riders (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 16)

by Claire Svendsen

  His face fell. “I don’t know how it is possible for a kid of mine to not like anchovies.”

  “Because they’re gross, Dad,” I said.

  “I agree,” Missy added.

  “Ham and pineapple,” I called out as I went to the dryer with a spring in my step.

  Missy and Dad thought I’d be okay so why wouldn’t I be. After all, I’d been riding every day since I came to Fox Run. I was so much better than I used to be. Everything was going to work out just fine.

  But as I pulled my favorite shirt out of the dryer, my heart sank. Somehow it had shrunk. It was only big enough to fit a small child now. It was my favorite shirt. My lucky shirt. And now it had been ruined. So much for feeling better about leaving.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  I thought I wouldn’t sleep at all but it turned out that I did. In fact I slept so soundly that I slept straight through my alarm and woke to Dad shaking me violently.

  “Get up,” he said. “It’s time to go. Henry already has Encore on the trailer.”

  “What?” I cried, jumping out of bed. “But I have to do Bluebird’s wraps and check on Arion and make sure I didn’t forget anything.”

  “There is no time for that.” Dad shook his head. “I’ll take care of your horses. You need to get out to the truck, now.”

  I threw on my clothes and ran a brush through the mess that was my hair. This wasn’t how I wanted to start out my clinic adventure, late, rushed and panicked. I ran down to the barn, refusing to leave without at least saying goodbye to my horses. I gave Arion a kiss on his sweet gray nose and then ran to my pony’s stall. I hugged Bluebird tight, feeling like I was going to cry.

  “Please be good while I’m gone,” I said. “Don’t do anything silly and try and rest your legs so that you are all better when I get back. Promise me, okay?”

  He snuffled in my pocket for a treat and I gave it to him, blinking back the tears. It should have been the two of us going to the clinic. I knew that in the end I would have persuaded my father to let me take him but fate had dealt us a cruel blow and now I was taking Encore, the horse I knew the least. I would have been more comfortable taking Socks. At least I knew him better. I’d competed on him. Even won blue ribbons on him. But somehow it had never been an option. I didn’t know if that was because of Missy or my father but they hadn’t wanted me to take the speedy bay horse with the white socks and pretty blaze. Instead they’d pushed Encore on me. The sale horse. The one who did his job but didn’t seem to care about anything else. And it wasn’t that I was ungrateful because I was very grateful to have such an opportunity. It just felt like I was being thrown to the wolves with a horse I barely knew.

  “Time to go,” Dad said.

  I was standing there next to Bluebird and I felt like I couldn’t move. My feet were stuck in the shavings. I was frozen.

  “Maybe I shouldn’t go,” I said slowly.

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Dad said. “I don’t know what is wrong with you. Any other girl would be head over heels excited to go. Do you know what a big opportunity this is? Do you?”

  “Yes,” I said. “But…”

  “No buts. We don’t have time for this nonsense. Now get out there and get going.”

  I hugged Bluebird’s neck again but even he shook me off, more interested in his pile of hay now that I was starting to smother him.

  “Good girl,” Dad said as I shut the stall door. “I don’t have to remind you that this is a tough business. Opportunities like this don’t come along very often and you have to snatch them up when they do. I’ve told you before, this business is half talent and half luck. Being in the right place at the right time and having the right horses show up when you need them.”

  “I know,” I said.

  Maybe it was just nerves. I’d never been this worried about leaving before. Then again I usually had my trusty pony by my side. I’d only left him once before and that was because at Miguel’s last clinic we were expected to ride his horses. Here all the other riders would have their own partners. Their favorite horses. While mine would be stuck in his stall stuffing his face while I faced some of the toughest competition of my career.

  “Promise you’ll take care of them,” I said as Dad shoved me towards the truck. “Both of them. Bluebird and Arion. Make sure they are okay. Promise.”

  “Of course I promise,” he said, opening the truck door and pushing me inside. “Now get out of here before you are really late.”

  “Bye,” I said. “Good luck at the, well, you know.”

  I glanced nervously at Henry who was already in the driver’s seat. The grooms didn’t know about the suspension hearing but I knew that Dad wouldn’t be able to keep it quiet forever, especially if the worst happened and he was actually suspended.

  “Everything will be fine,” he said with a smile.

  But it was a fake smile. I knew because it was the same one I used to use on my mother when I told her that everything was fine when everything was definitely not fine. When her new husband was threatening me with verbal and physical abuse and making my life a living hell.

  Dad stood there waving as the truck and trailer pulled out and I leaned out the window and waved back. In the pre-dawn light he looked tired. His shoulders rounded as though the weight of the world was pressing down on him. It had to be awful, having your good name and good horsemanship questioned. I wondered what would happen if things didn’t go his way. Would he give up? Leave this life of horses behind and if that happened then what was going to happen to me?

  “Ready for your big clinic?” Henry said as I sat back and rolled up the window once Fox Run disappeared from sight.

  “I guess,” I said.

  “You’ll be the star we all know you are,” he said, patting me on the knee.

  And it was sweet to think that old Henry thought of me at all, let alone thought I was a star and it kindled a small flame of hope deep in my chest that maybe I wasn’t going to be as out of my depth as I thought I was.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  The farm was called Gray Gables, which sounded all morose and dark like something out of a gothic novel and suited my somber mood. The further we got away from Fox Run, the more I felt like I was abandoning my ponies and the worse I felt.

  I knew it was ridiculous. If I was going to make a real career out of riding then some of my horses were always going to be left behind. I couldn’t take all of them to every single show. And worse still some of them would probably be sold to make room for others because it was completely impractical to think that I could ever keep them all. Except for Bluebird. I would never sell him in a million years. And Arion. He needed me. And obviously every horse I ever owned because I was just kidding myself if I ever thought I would sell any of them to make way for a supposedly better horse. That was just never going to happen.

  I stared out the window at the fields of green with pretty white fences and started to realize that maybe I wasn’t cut out for this life after all. I got far too attached to my horses to ever let any of them go. Top riders rode lots of horses. That was the name of the game. But how were you supposed to form a partnership with a horse if you didn’t keep it? I didn’t know but it was something that I vowed to find out at the clinic.

  The top trainers had to have some kind of secret. Some way of making it work so that your heart didn’t break all the time. Or maybe they just didn’t worry about things like that and accepted it as part of the business and if I was going to be in it then I was going to have to accept it too and stop being a baby. I knew that was what my father would say. No wonder he didn’t want me to bring Bluebird. He was probably worried that the other trainers would find me in his stall, hugging him and kissing his nose and making a fool of myself. At least I couldn’t do that with Encore because he didn’t like hugs.

  The barn was small and quaint. This wasn’t a big facility like Miguel’s that was a huge barn on hundreds of sprawling acres. It wasn’t even as big as Fox Run. It was just a small private
facility that one of the trainers rented during the winter, a few miles away from one of the top show grounds. I breathed out a sigh of relief, not even realizing that I’d been holding my breath. I hadn’t been looking forward to going to a giant facility where there was so much hustle and bustle that you almost got lost in the shuffle. This was going to be more my speed. Quiet. Relaxed. And space only for us so that we could concentrate on what we were being taught and not get distracted.

  Henry pulled up to the barn and got out to unload Encore. I grabbed my suitcase and took one last look in the mirror. I looked like a disaster. Despite the brush I’d dragged through my hair I still looked like I’d just rolled out of bed, which I pretty much had. At least Encore looked every bit the part. I’d bathed him last night but Henry had obviously given him a good groom before he loaded him up. He backed out of the trailer, his coat gleaming in the morning sun with the light reflecting little dapples that I hadn’t noticed before.

  “I’ll take him Henry, thank you,” I said.

  “Are you sure?” he asked.

  “Yes.” I nodded.

  I wasn’t one of those riders who thought they were too high and mighty to do any of the real work and I already felt guilty that Henry had groomed him because I overslept. I wanted to at least try to start off on the right foot.

  I walked Encore into the barn. It was light and airy with big roomy stalls and half doors so that the horses could stick their heads out into the aisle. A thin guy with a pitch fork hurried over to meet me. I smiled but then noticed he had a jagged scar down his left cheek and looked away, not wanting him to think I was staring at him.

  “I’m Emily Dickenson,” I said. “And this is Encore.”

  “Dickenson. Encore. Right.”

  He grabbed a clipboard that was hanging on the wall and flipped up the sheets of paper.

  “Yes, you are in stall two.”

  He pointed to an empty stall between a chestnut and a gray.

  “Anything I should know?” He looked at Encore who was standing there like he couldn’t care less where he was. “Cribber? Weaver? Kicker?”

  “No,” I said, feeling slightly offended. “That was all on the forms we mailed in. We would have told you if there was anything like that.”

  “People don’t always like to admit their horse’s faults.” He winked but it wasn’t reassuring in the least.

  “Well he’s not my horse anyway,” I said. “He’s on loan.”

  “Fine,” he said. “Stall two. Put your stuff in the tack room. If you need anything come and find me, I’m Gus.”

  “Okay, thanks,” I said.

  I wasn’t sure what to make of Gus. He seemed nervous and flighty and I couldn’t tell if he was friendly or not. I walked Encore into the deeply bedded stall, took off his halter and checked his water buckets were full. I was pulling off his shipping boots when Henry came over and dumped the remains of his hay net into the stall.

  “I put your stuff in the tack room,” Henry said. “Everything okay?”

  “Yes,” I replied. “Thank you.”

  “So I’ll be off then,” he said.

  I walked out to the truck with our head groom, almost wanting to ask him to stay with me. It was silly really but I suddenly felt more alone than I ever had.

  “You’ll keep an eye on Bluebird and Arion for me, won’t you?” I asked him again.

  “I’ll keep an extra special eye on them,” he said. “And I’ll be here on Sunday to pick you up.”

  He got into the truck and started the engine, the truck rumbling to life with a belch of smoke.

  “You have fun now,” he called out as he drove away.

  “I will,” I said as I waved but I couldn’t help feeling like a small child who had just been dumped off at boot camp.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  I was standing there in the barn aisle with my suitcase, wondering where I was supposed to go now that my horse was situated when someone jumped on my back. I let out a shriek and spun around to see a girl with flowing curls and hot pink lips.

  “Becka?” I said.

  “Of course it’s me silly, don’t you recognize me?”

  She twirled around and I noticed her expensive breeches and manicured nails.

  “No, not really,” I mumbled.

  I’d been hoping that the new Becka I’d encountered at the Winter Wonderland show had been some sort of mistake. An apparition or an evil twin. But it turned out that it wasn’t the case at all. The new and improved makeup loving, hair extension wearing Becka was going strong and not only going strong but here at my clinic.

  “What are you doing here?” I said.

  I’d looked through the list of riders when I was making sure that Jess hadn’t qualified and I never saw Becka’s name.

  “Riding of course, just like you,” she said, looping her arm through mine like we were the best of friends even though I hadn’t talked to her in ages. “I was the reserve. One of the other girls broke her leg and so here I am.”

  “Lucky for you,” I said, thinking it wasn’t so lucky for the poor girl who broke her leg.

  “I know!” she cried. “But where is your pony?” She looked up and down the barn aisle. “He’s just so adorable. I love his teeny tiny hooves and his cute little face.”

  “He’s not here,” I said, suddenly glad that fate had forced me to bring a real horse to the clinic. “He had a little accident. This is the horse I’m riding, Encore.”

  Becka’s face fell like she was expecting to be able to tease me some more because I rode a pony, despite the fact that until a few months ago, she’d ridden one too. She looked into Encore’s stall, giving him the once over with a critical eye.

  “Can he jump?” she said.

  “Do you think he’d be here if he couldn’t?” I replied, smiling but all the while feeling like Becka was out to get me.

  And to think, I’d been relieved that Jess hadn’t been here but now it seemed like I had an entirely new set of problems to deal with.

  “So where is your new one, what’s his name? Bastille?” I asked her.

  “Oh he had to go,” she said. “He was far too slow. You saw what he was like at the Christmas show. It was like riding a hundred year old plow horse.”

  “He seemed to jump clean though,” I said.

  “Couldn’t win a jump off to save his life.” She shrugged. “Don’t worry, I didn’t send him off to the glue factory or anything like that. He has a lovely new home up north in the mountains where he takes his new rider on day long treks through the snow or something.”

  “Well then I’m sure he’s very happy,” I said.

  Becka’s words were double edged swords, each one ready to stab me with poison if I let it. She was a different foe than Jess who just hurled insults whenever she felt like it. Becka’s insults were hidden inside sugary sweet compliments and fake smiles. I couldn’t tell if she was still really my friend or not but it didn’t feel like it.

  “This one is mine,” she said, pointing to the chestnut mare in the first stall. “Twizzle. Compared to Bastille, she feels like riding a rocket.”

  “I bet she does,” I said, looking into the stall.

  The mare had a thin blaze running down her face and a wild eye. She looked kind of crazy. I bet she’d be fast in a jump off. In fact she looked like she was fast at everything and it made me wish that I’d been allowed to bring Socks. He would have beaten the pants off Becka’s new mare with time to spare.

  “She’s only on lease though,” Becka said. “After Bastille, my parents thought it best that I make sure we were a good fit before they plunked down the cash. It doesn’t grow on trees you know, or so they are always telling me.”

  She sighed dramatically like talking about money was so middle class and beneath her. I didn’t know when she had become such a snob. She was like one of those girls in cheesy movies who starts out as the nerd and gets adopted as a sort of project by the popular mean girls and by the end of the movie she’s become o
ne of them.

  “Well I guess I should put my stuff away,” I said after we’d stood there awkwardly in silence for a few minutes. “Do you know where we are sleeping?”

  “In the house.” She pointed out the end of the barn. “Its tight quarters but I suppose we’re not here to just lounge around anyway.”

  “Great,” I said.

  I picked up my suitcase and headed in the direction of the house. Becka didn’t follow. In the old days she would have come with me. Insisted that we shared a room and spent every waking minute together. But the new Becka wasn’t like that. She’d stopped returning my calls and texts long ago and now I knew why. We used to be the same. Two girls who loved ponies and jumping and being tomboys together but the new Becka was different. She was someone I couldn’t relate to at all and not because of the makeup or her fancy new hair. That was all just superficial stuff. But something inside her had changed as well and I didn’t know what it was. I still felt like I was the same person and yet she seemed like she was completely different.

  Still, the clinic wasn’t about making friends or being buddies and we weren’t there to lounge around and chat. We were there to work and I was going to work at being the best because all the other stuff that Becka cared about wasn’t important to me. What was important was riding and learning everything I could from the trainers who had taken time out of their busy schedules to teach us.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  The house was small but fancy with tile floors and marble counter tops. There was a big screen TV up on the wall. I wondered if they would record us and then show it back to the group, pointing out everything we had done wrong.

  A boy was sitting on the leather couch, his feet up on a glass table and some sort of orange drink in his hand. I did a double take because when I’d looked at the list, I thought that there was only going to be girls at the clinic. I’d never imagined that a boy would be joining our ranks. With a bunch of catty girls around, it was going to make life very complicated for him.