“The rain will stop,” she said, sounding over cheerful.
Mickey and I just looked at each other and rolled our eyes. We already knew we couldn’t make the rain go away just by wishing it and by the time we got to the barn, it was raining heavier than ever.
Esther had all the lights blaring in the pre-dawn dark. She’d been up just as early as we had, feeding the horses and mucking stalls. We dashed through the rain puddles, glad that we’d decided not to put our show clothes on until the last minute. Mickey’s Mom waved goodbye as she pulled away. She was going home to make sandwiches for later and then she’d meet us at the show. She promised to bring extra carrots. We were going to need them.
“What a day,” Esther said. She had hay in her hair and it looked like a horse had already wiped its nose on her shirt.
“Do you think they’ll cancel?” Mickey said, still sounding hopeful.
“Not a chance,” Esther shook her head. “Besides, they have a covered arena. I’m sure everything will be fine.”
I checked on Harlow, straightening his sheet and putting on the shipping boots that Esther had left outside his stall. Thankfully he hadn’t made too much of a mess of himself, nothing that a brush and some elbow grease wouldn’t fix. But Mickey let out a wail from Hampton’s stall.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
I dashed out of Harlow’s stall to see Mickey standing there fighting back tears. Hampton had spent the night rubbing out his braids and now his mane stood up in fuzzy clumps. He had a cheeky look on his bay face that said he knew exactly what he’d done and he was proud of it.
“What am I going to do?” she sobbed.
Harlow still needed to be brushed. He had shavings in his tail and dust on his face but I couldn’t leave Mickey to deal with Hampton alone.
“You hold him and I’ll braid,” I said.
I was quicker than she was at braiding and with her distracting him with a bag of old peppermints that we found in the tack room, I got the job done with minimal fuss.
“Thanks Emily. You’re a lifesaver,” she said, popping one of the mints into her mouth.
“Haha,” I laughed. “Just remember, you owe me.”
“I know,” she smiled.
The sky was just starting to turn a milky color when Esther said it was time to load the horses.
“I’m glad I packed the trailer last night,” she said.
She’d changed her clothes and was wearing clean breeches, boots and a white shirt. I suddenly felt proud that she was my trainer.
Mickey and I stepped out into the rain with the horses. Hampton stomped up the ramp, glad to get out of the rain that was now pelting sideways but Harlow pranced on his feet, steel shoes ringing out against the concrete. He wasn’t interested in going into the trailer. He just wanted to go back to his stall.
“It’s okay,” I told him, patting his wet neck. “Hampton is in there and it’s dry and warm. It’s just a little show, nothing to be scared of.”
But he held his head high and let out a trumpeting whinny. One of the other horses in the barn answered. He tried to drag me back inside, his neck stretched up like a giraffe.
“He hates the rain,” Esther said, taking the lead rope from me and trying to calm him down.
“But he’ll be okay at the show, right?” I asked.
“As long as he doesn’t get wet,” she grimaced as he almost stepped on her toe.
As Esther coaxed Harlow into the trailer, I went and sat in the truck with Mickey. My shirt was soaked and there were puddles inside my boots.
“What’s wrong with him?” Mickey asked.
“Apparently he doesn’t like the rain,” I said.
“Oh no.”
Oh no was right. I was suddenly really glad that Mom had decided not to come to the show after all.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
It was still raining when we pulled into the Fox Run Farm parking lot. There were trailers everywhere and people unloading horses wearing rain sheets. I could see natural looking jumps set up in the covered arena, a brush vertical with some poles that looked like branches and a roll top with fake grass on it. But it looked nothing like a jumper course. Esther had said that they would probably consolidate the two courses together so that we could all ride under cover but that didn’t look like the case. Then I saw them. A flash of yellow and red paint, some pink flowers and blue poles covered in little yellow plastic ducks. I clutched Mickey’s arm.
“What is it?” she said.
“Look,” I pointed.
“No way,” she said. “There is no way they would make you guys ride in the rain. That’s crazy. Look at it out there.”
The rain was now coming sideways. There were puddles everywhere and as dawn broke, it didn’t look like the deluge was going to stop any time soon.
“I should pull out,” I said. “This is insane.”
“But it’s your first show,” Mickey said, looking as sad as I felt.
“I know. But if I get hurt today, my mom will never let me ride again for sure.”
Esther had gone to secure us a couple of stalls for the horses. We had planned to save money by tying them up to the trailer, which was fine in nice weather but obviously wasn’t going to work today. Everyone else seemed to be doing the same thing because she was gone for ages. When she finally came back, she looked about as grim as I felt.
“Did you get the stalls?” Mickey asked.
Without them we might as well just go home now. There was no way we could do this otherwise.
“The last two,” she said breathlessly. “And it’s a bloodbath in there already. People are fighting over bags of shavings like they’re full of flakes of gold.”
“Why don’t they just cancel?” I said, sitting back grumpily. This so wasn’t how I saw my first show going.
Esther raised an eyebrow. “Do you think they cancel the Olympics if it rains?” she said.
I thought of the day last summer when Mickey and I sat glued to her television set, watching dressage riders try and complete their tests while the rain fell all around them. She was right. They didn’t. But this wasn’t the Olympics and I was still just trying to figure this whole jumping thing out. It felt as though I was being tossed in the deep end of the pool and being told to figure out how to swim without ever having had a lesson.
“But they’re not really going to make us ride outside, are they?” I said.
“I don’t know,” she shook her head. “For now they are pushing the jumper classes back to the end of the day and hoping the rain breaks. We’ll just have to cross our fingers that it does.”
“Great,” Mickey moaned. “So I have to go first now?”
“Yes, you’re up in two hours. Now let’s get these horses unloaded,” she said as the dull thud of one of them kicking the trailer made it over the sound of the rain.
Hampton stomped into the barn, walked into his stall and let out a sigh. Harlow on the other hand, skittered down the aisle way, scattering kids and parents alike. When I finally coaxed him into the stall next to Hampton he stood there snorting and then pawed at the shavings a few times.
“You’re not really going to ride that thing, are you?”
It was Jess, standing there in her show clothes looking perfect and pretty and nothing like we did in our rain drenched jeans and t-shirts. Amber stood behind her looking just as pretty but also nervous. She was twirling a strand of blonde hair between her fingers.
“Maybe,” I said. “Why do you care?”
“I don’t,” she spat. “Just don’t get in my way,” she added and then stormed off, Amber trailing behind her.
“What was that about?” Mickey said.
“I have no idea,” I shrugged.
It took ages to get the rain out of Harlow’s coat. Not that it mattered much. The rumor going around the barn was that the jumper classes were going to be held outside whether it was raining or not. Apparently Andre, the Fox Run trainer, had spent hours perfecting what he considered
to be a challenging course and he wasn’t going to let a little rain get in the way of perfection.
“Any sign of the Brits?” I asked Mickey as she came back from the bathroom looking pale.
“No but I’ll keep an eye out for them. I’m off to walk the course.” She leaned in closer. “There are gilded doorknobs in the bathroom and white towels with rose petals sprinkled everywhere. I was afraid to touch anything in case I made it dirty.”
“This place sure is something,” I said.
The show stalls were on the far left side of the barn but they were still just as nice as the others we’d seen the day we came to snoop around. The waterers in the corner looked nicer than the sink in my bathroom at home and the stall doors slid easily on well-oiled runners. There weren’t any cobwebs anywhere, which was pretty impressive considering that no matter how many times you knocked them down in a barn, by morning there were just as many again. The spiders working overtime to restore barn order. I wondered how they kept them out. Probably some kind of industrial pesticide that killed any bug that dared look at the can.
I’d already forbidden Harlow from kicking the oak walls or biting the gleaming black bars but luckily he seemed to have settled down since he got some hay. Still, every now and then he looked up to make sure Hampton was still there. I hoped that he didn’t freak out too much when it was time for Mickey to ride.
Mickey went with Esther to walk the course, looking like she might throw up at any minute. I stayed behind, sitting on an upturned bucket and polishing our tack one last time. The show was packed. It seemed that despite the rain, everyone wanted the chance to get one last ribbon before the summer. There were kids with fat ponies all braided and gleaming, and older teenagers with massive Warmbloods.
“Nice horse,” a guy called out to me as he walked down the barn.
He had soft, brown hair and a freckled nose. He was wearing a Fox Run shirt. I fumbled with the bit I was cleaning and dropped it into the bucket of water sitting on my lap. It sloshed all over me. I felt my face turning red. I wanted to thank him or make some witty comment about the weather but my tongue was fat and swollen and I’d lost the ability to form words.
“Good one,” Jess laughed at me as she ran down the barn after the cute guy.
“Ethan,” she called out, grabbing his arm and sliding hers through. “Don’t encourage the trailer trash. When are you riding?”
“Later,” he said, giving me one final look before turning away. “If this rain ever stops.”
“You’ll win even in the rain,” Jess said. “Andre says you’re the best show jumper he’s ever seen.”
“Maybe,” Ethan said, sounding modest. “He said maybe.”
“Oh you are,” Jess beamed. “I should know because I’m the second best.”
I was still sitting there holding the wet bit in some kind of stupor when Esther and Mickey came back. Mickey looked even worse than she did before she left but when she saw my red cheeks, she grabbed my wet hand.
“What happened to you?” she said.
“Nothing. Forget it. How was the course?”
“Hideous.”
“Really?”
She sat down beside me and grabbed a granola bar out of her bag.
“Actually,” she said. “It’s not too bad. I’ve seen worse. There are no tricky lines or funny strides. The jumps don’t look too bad at all.”
“That’s great,” I said.
I knew Mickey had to feel pretty confident because otherwise she wouldn’t be eating. She’d be back in the spotless bathroom, trying not to get vomit on the rose petals. I reached into my own bag.
“Here, this is for you. For luck.”
I gave her the tiny package with the silver horseshoe necklace. When she opened it up, I thought she was going to cry.
“Oh my God,” she sobbed. “I love it so much. Thank you.”
“See,” I said. “You’ll win for sure now.”
“Well I don’t know about that, besides, you may need this more than me.”
“Why? Because of the rain?”
“No. Because I heard one of the girls saying that the hunter course was so easy because the jumper course was so hard. Turns out Andre makes all his best kids ride in the jumpers.”
My stomach flopped over sickly. Obvioulsy Esther wasn’t the only one who thought kids should just cut to the chase and skip the hunters altogether.
“It will be fine,” I said, swallowing the lump in my throat.
But deep down, I was worried that it wouldn’t be. I was already scared that Harlow was going to freak out because of the rain and now I was going up against Fox Run’s best riders? It wasn’t fair.
“What happened to the crazy jumper kids you told me wipe out at all the shows?” I asked.
Mickey just shrugged. “I guess they didn’t bother and come today.”
I was starting to wish I hadn’t come either.
“You know, there is another reason they are all riding in the jumpers today.” Mickey finished her granola bar and tossed the wrapper back in her bag.
“Well, what is it?” I said, starting to get impatient.
“Because,” she said. “They want the prize money.”
“What prize money?”
Mickey looked at me like I was stupid. “Duh,” she said, smacking my arm. “Jumpers always get prize money. It’s not fair really. I think the hunters should get prize money too. Why should we be happy to get a ribbon when you guys get ribbons and checks?”
I grabbed her arm. “How much prize money?”
“A thousand dollars.”
“What?”
I almost fell off my bucket. A thousand dollars? Not enough to buy Harlow but enough to go towards his price tag, whatever that was. To be honest, I didn’t even know if Esther would ever be willing to sell him but I had already decided that every cent from Christmas and birthday money was going into my ‘buy a horse’ fund. A thousand dollars would go a long way towards making all my dreams come true.
“Why didn’t Esther tell me?” I said.
“Perhaps she didn’t want the money to go to your head?”
“Maybe,” I said.
“Or maybe, since Harlow is her horse, she gets to keep the money if you win?”
Mickey was right. Harlow was Esther’s horse. That meant she was entitled to at least half that money, probably more.
“You should talk to her about it,” Mickey said.
“Why? I don’t even know if I’m going to win.”
“Oh, you’ll win,” Mickey said.
But I wasn’t so sure. The confidence I had the night before was slowly being eaten away. First by the rain and then by the Fox Run show jumpers who were bound to be far better than I could ever hope to be. People like Ethan and Jess on their hundred thousand dollar horses. Esther was supposed to have put me in the jumpers to get away from all that but it hadn’t worked out that way at all. And with the prize money dangling out there like a carrot on a stick, winning suddenly seemed more important than ever.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The arena may have been covered but the warm up area was not. Mickey sat on Hampton with her rain gear covering her show clothes while Esther fought to get her a turn at the one warm up jump that sat in the middle of the soggy footing. Andre’s kids were like an army. They came at the jump like ants to a cookie, flowing over gracefully before scuttling back under cover again. He may have been putting his best kids in the jumpers but the ones that were warming up for the hunter classes looked pretty good too. Finally Mickey took the jump and she didn’t knock it down.
“See?” I said, as she came over and dismounted, pulling off her rain coat. “The horseshoe works.”
“But for how long?” Mickey said miserably.
I straightened her number and wiped the muck off her boots.
“You can do this,” I said. “Good luck.”
Esther called her over to the in gate with last minute instructions and I went to stand by the rail. Jess a
nd Amber had staked out one of the driest areas with monogramed chairs. I ended up tucked against the rail with rain dripping down the back of my shirt. The Brits were there, Rena and Carla. I’d caught sight of them on Fox Run horses in the warm up ring. I didn’t tell Mickey. She was nervous enough as it was. When she came in the ring, I saw that she had a death grip on Hampton’s face.
“Relax,” I mouthed, as she circled in front of me.
Hampton took the first jump and then slowed down the line and added a stride. Mickey kicked him on and at the next jump he took off from a long spot. It wasn’t pretty but she made it round clean. Except in the hunters, pretty was what won ribbons.
“That poor horse is wasted on that girl,” Jess said. “I wonder how he’d look with a real rider.”
“I thought she did okay,” Amber said.
“Don’t be stupid,” Jess snapped. “That was one of the worst rounds I’ve ever seen. She was hanging onto that horse’s face for dear life. I told you Rena was right. See, aren’t you glad we made them go spy on that dump of a stable? I knew we didn’t have anything to worry about but having Rena and Carla confirm that Sand Hill is going downhill so fast that they’ll be closing their doors in no time was totally worth it. When that clueless woman that runs it finally has to sell, Daddy will snatch it up and we’ll finally have our own training barn.”
My blood ran cold. I wanted to go over there and demand to know what they were talking about. Rena and Carla had only been there to spy on us? Sand Hill was in trouble? I already knew that but I didn’t think it was that bad. Esther had been scraping by for as long as I could remember. She couldn’t sell Sand Hill and she certainly couldn’t sell it to those horrible girls.
“Great job,” I told Mickey as she came out of the ring.
Secret Rider (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 1) Page 9