The Boy Who Loves Horses (Pegasus Equestrian Center Series)

by Diana Vincent

  “She said that to Crystal?” He clipped the lead to Penny’s halter and led him outside to dry with Sierra walking at his side.

  “She did. And you know Katrina cares about Calliope. She’s always out here riding and she never asks you to groom for her the way Crystal and Gloria do.”

  “Okay, I give her credit for that.”

  Sierra kept silent, knowing River was mulling things over in his mind.

  “I really don’t have time to give her lessons,” he stated after about five minutes.

  “River, it’s totally up to you, but you got to admit that the one who will truly benefit is Calliope. What if you just watch her ride on the flat one time and give her a few pointers?” Sierra suggested.

  Again, he thought for awhile. Then with a deep sigh as if he had been given a formidable, unpleasant task, he relented. “Okay, just once.”

  Sierra smiled to herself. She suspected that if River started helping Katrina and if Calliope improved, he would probably continue to coach her once in awhile.

  *****

  River kept his word and the next day when Katrina came to ride, he said he would watch her in the arena. Katrina listened intently and tried to follow all his instructions with the result that Calliope began to trot with more buoyancy and less stiffness as Katrina lightened her hands and focused on her core muscles.

  “Thank you, thank you so much,” Katrina gushed as she led Calliope over to where River and Sierra stood at the rail. “This is the best ride I’ve ever had on the flat…um…”

  Sierra knew what she was going to ask.

  Before Katrina could continue, River interrupted. “Look, Tess has me riding six to seven horses a day now, and with cleaning stalls and working with Cory, and taking care of lesson horses…I just don’t have time to give you lessons.”

  Katrina’s face fell and Sierra felt bad for her. “River, I would really like to have more rides during the summer. What if I ask Tess if I could take over some of your conditioning rides, on the horses that I can handle? And I really need help with Minstrel in dressage, but I don’t want to give up the time with you on Fiel. What if you coached Katrina and me at the same time?”

  “I’ll clean stalls for you,” Katrina chimed in eagerly.

  Sierra’s heart sank at Katrina’s offer. Yes, it was only fair that Katrina should do something for River in exchange for lessons, but Sierra loved cleaning stalls with him. She didn’t want to lose that time they had together. She glanced at River who had his eyebrows knit in a frown, so maybe he felt the same way?

  “Okay, I guess we can work something out,” River reluctantly agreed. Perhaps it was when Calliope nudged him with her nose that convinced him. “What are you going to do about your lessons with Tess?”

  Katrina’s eyes shifted nervously, as if she expected Tess to suddenly appear and overhear. “I don’t know. I was thinking I would just keep taking them. The jumping lessons at least are good.”

  “You can’t switch back and forth between lightening up on Calliope’s mouth and then taking hold with Tess. It will confuse her and she’ll resent you taking hold again once she gets used to a lighter hand,” River warned.

  “Maybe I can kind of not do what Tess tells me and think about your instructions. I don’t want her mad at me.”

  *****

  Two weekends after school let out, the Pegasus team competed in their next event. Sierra, with River’s approval, agreed to move up to training level on Minstrel. River would also ride on Moose, and Tess hoped this would be his final qualifying ride to move up to preliminary.

  “It’s going to be interesting to see if our dressage scores improve,” Katrina said, as she and Sierra led Calliope and Minstrel to the warm-up ring. “I can’t believe how much better Calliope is doing with River coaching us…at least at home.”

  “Yeah, we’ll see, but I bet we both do better.”

  “Tess has already noticed a difference. She told me in my last lesson that I’m finally getting effective half-halts. What she doesn’t realize is that I’m half-halting more with my weight and stomach muscles, and sometimes I don’t even apply the reins. That exercise where River has us increase and decrease the tempo without touching the reins has been very effective. It still amazes me that it works.”

  “I know,” Sierra agreed. “My friend João once told me that horses talk to us all the time and we just need to learn how to listen to them. They tell us when we are riding correctly by giving the correct response.”

  Katrina nodded; her expression pensive. “He was an amazing rider, wasn’t he?”

  “Yeah, and an amazing man.”

  They followed behind River leading Silver and Moose, and Tess leading Diva. Crystal and Gloria waited for their horses to be brought to them, standing near the warm-up ring’s mounting block. Crystal nervously tapped her boot with her dressage whip, her expression tight.

  Tess frowned a warning as she led Diva, who eyed the whip warily, parallel to the mounting block, and held the mare’s head while Crystal mounted.

  “Why doesn’t Tess ever say anything to her?” Sierra complained.

  “Boss’s daughter, what do you expect?” Katrina answered in a sour tone.

  “I thought her father was Tess’s partner.”

  “Yes, but you know he’s the one who controls the finances. The only reason he bought into Pegasus was for Crystal’s sake.”

  “Hmm,” Sierra mumbled.

  Tess held Silver’s head next while Gloria mounted, and then Katrina took her turn to mount up on Calliope.

  Crystal walked Diva past where River waited with Moose. She sneered down at him and hissed vindictively, “You’re going to lose.”

  River shook his head along with a short laugh.

  “Why is that funny?” Sierra asked having watched Crystal’s spiteful behavior.

  “She is just so stupid; as if I even care. Go ahead and mount up.” River indicated the vacant mounting block as Katrina walked off on Calliope.

  He really doesn’t care about winning. Sierra thought about that as she mounted up on Minstrel. How much do I care about winning? She walked Minstrel into the warm-up ring and began her relaxing regime of deep breathing and rolling her shoulders to loosen tight muscles. Minstrel held his head high and jigged as horses passed him, but she did not react to his tenseness. She sat deep and kept her legs softly against his sides, to reassure him she was there, but without pressure. With a series of gently squeezing the reins and a slight increase in leg pressure, she coaxed Minstrel to drop his head and then moved him into a working trot. As he stretched his neck into the bit, she reached forward to pat his neck to let him know, ‘good’.

  No, I don’t care if I win a ribbon, Sierra realized, as a deep sense of satisfaction filled her when Minstrel responded to her communication. Winning is when I effectively communicate with my horse, and then if we manage to place because we are working together as one…well that’s just a bonus. She recalled that João had said something like that to her some time ago.

  One by one, as their numbers were called, they each rode their dressage test. Then after the horses were settled in their stalls, they followed Tess as a group around the cross country course; checking out the footing and distances, and listening to her advice on how to negotiate each obstacle.

  “Are the dressage scores posted yet?” Crystal asked passersby as they returned to the stall area. Her obvious irritation when the answer was still no, resulted in the bearer of the news retreating from her prickly expression. Sierra was torn between wanting River’s score to be higher and dread of being around Crystal if it was.

  “Crystal, you are not going to know your score until after cross country,” Tess snapped at her. “Now go get dressed for your ride.” Crystal stomped away.

  *****

  The cross country course was almost the easiest she had ever ridden, Sierra believed, even compared with the last novice level course. The heights were higher and the spreads were a little wider, but there were no
tricky combinations or tight approaches. The one brick wall on the downhill was almost identical to a jump in the field at Pegasus, and she had practiced over it many times. She worried most about the water jump. So far, she had only faced water where they galloped through, but today she would have to ask Minstrel to jump off a low bank into water; something she had never done before. But Minstrel had never hesitated at water and she felt fairly confident she could urge him through. The footing was good; not too soft or hard. Scattered clouds and a slight breeze kept the temperature from becoming too hot.

  Energized by the excitement around him, Sierra could feel Minstrel’s muscles bunching, but he responded promptly to Sierra’s aids during their warm-up. When she heard her number called, she brought him to a walk and headed up to the starting box. She loved the adrenalin rush as she walked Minstrel in a tight circle and then turned him to face the exit as the starter began the countdown. As the flag dropped, Minstrel jumped forward as Sierra gave with the reins. They were on course.

  Minstrel took the first few jumps easily in stride; only once shaking his head as Sierra asked him to slow down after the downhill jump. When he responded obediently, Sierra felt confident to let him out to a full gallop on a long section of trail between obstacles. She slowed him again as they approached a chicken coop, jumped well in stride, and then it was on to the water. Sierra knew she had tensed up when she felt Minstrel’s shoulder muscles stiffen and he brought his head up. “Easy,” she spoke out loud to him and mentally to herself. She touched his neck with her fingertips and softened her fingers, pleased when he dropped his head back into the bit.

  When Minstrel spied the shallow body of water coming up, he raised his head warily, and Sierra felt hesitation in his rhythm. “You can do it,” she urged him out loud and increased the pressure on his sides with her legs. He flicked his ears back but then surged forward as she squeezed again more firmly. He took the drop into the water and then galloped on. Sierra whooped in glee. Two fences to go!

  They galloped up the hill from the water and then an easy bend on course to approach a large log, typical of many they had taken and Sierra did not anticipate any problem. But this log was a bleached white color, and a sudden beam of sunlight through the clouds gleamed off the pearly smooth, bark-free surface of the log. Minstrel snorted and skid to a jolting halt, a few feet from the jump. Sierra was thrown forward onto his neck but quickly righted herself, circled Minstrel and brought him back to face the jump. This time she kept her legs firmly on his sides and with a tap of her jumping bat, pushed him onward. Minstrel responded by jumping high and wide, as if afraid of the log. “Good boy,” she praised him and they galloped on to the last obstacle, a solid board fence. Sierra urged him probably faster than she needed to, reacting to his refusal. She sensed no hesitation as Minstrel took the fence in stride and they galloped through the finish flags.

  At the end of cross country, River, Crystal, and Katrina all had clean rounds. Sierra had one refusal and Gloria had two refusals plus time penalties.

  “I’ve never had a refusal before.” Sierra felt devastated as she walked with River and Katrina back to the stalls.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “I just didn’t expect it. He spooked at it for some reason.”

  “But he took it the second time.”

  “Yeah, but you know, I think I lost focus; not really paying attention to the log and thinking we were almost done. I was so worried about the water and after we got through that I just thought the last two jumps were no-brainers.”

  “Yeah, I can see how that can happen,” he replied.

  “And lesson learned…there are no free jumps.”

  River and Katrina laughed at her almost-pun.

  Back at the stalls, Sierra and Katrina quickly untacked and sponged off their horses and then helped River with Diva, Silver, and Moose. The three of them led the horses to a grassy patch to graze and dry off, and to have a refreshing break before stadium jumping.

  They had just returned the horses to their stalls when Tess, Crystal, and Gloria joined them with the dressage test sheets. Tess handed them out.

  “Thirty-eight penalty points,” Crystal announced and watched River’s face smugly as he looked over his own score sheet.

  He looked up at her and calmly said, “Good for Diva.”

  “River has thirty-nine penalty points,” Crystal announced to the others. “I’m in first place.”

  “Can I see your test?” River asked, very politely.

  “What for?” Crystal responded suspiciously.

  “I want to read the comments.”

  “Only if I can see yours.”

  They traded their test score sheets and Crystal watched River as he read over her test results. He smiled to himself when he finished, and handed it back.

  “What’s so funny?” Crystal asked.

  “Not a thing,” River answered and turned away from her.

  Crystal scowled and turned her attention to River’s test. Sierra noted her expression darken as she read all the positive comments that Sierra was sure had been written.

  Katrina was elated with her improved dressage score, and with her clean cross country round, was in fourth place.

  Sierra also had a much improved dressage score, but with the one refusal, she dropped to eighth place. Gloria was in fourteenth place.

  *****

  Stadium jumping went well for everyone except Gloria. Silver took two rails down. The others all jumped clean. Crystal remained in first place, River in second, and Katrina in fourth. The two riders ahead of Sierra had rails down and she moved up into sixth place. Gloria dropped down to twentieth place out of the twenty-three entries in junior training level.

  At the end of the show and the final scores had been tallied for all the levels, Tess announced, “Those of you who placed, saddle up and get over to the stadium arena for the victory lap.”

  The loudspeaker squealed to life and several show officials walked into the arena carrying ribbons. “Junior beginner novice, first place…” The announcer began, calling out the name and number of each horse and rider pair that had placed in the ribbons. As those who placed heard their names, they rode their horses into the arena and up to the show officials, who clipped a ribbon onto the bridle if the horse would tolerate, or handed it to the rider if the horse shied from the ribbon.

  After all six places had been announced from beginner novice through preliminary level; triumphal music blared from the loudspeaker and the riders moved their horses out of the line-up to canter around the perimeter of the arena.

  Sierra completed one lap and then brought Minstrel down to a trot and left through the exit gate. Other riders followed close behind; traditionally the lowest placed riders leaving first until only the first place winners of each division were left.

  She dismounted and waited for the others, prepared to take Diva’s reins from Crystal to lead her back to the stall along with Minstrel. Gloria stood nearby watching, clapping her hands in obligatory applause for her friend, a rigid smile on her face that did not extend past the tight corners of her mouth. Sierra thought she looked like she was about to cry.

  River exited and dismounted next to Sierra, followed by Katrina, beaming proudly with the fourth place white ribbon on Calliope’s bridle. They waited for Crystal, who still cantered around on Diva, waving at her friends along the rail who were clapping and cheering for her. She was the last to leave the arena, stretching out her triumphant moment as long as possible.

  Finally Crystal exited and rode up to the group. Her friends left the rail to come up and congratulate her. Sierra recognized most of them from school, including her new boyfriend, Stuart.

  “You won!” Stuart called out as he walked up to Diva’s side, his face beaming proudly for his girlfriend. “Awesome!”

  “Thank you,” Crystal answered, smiling sweetly at him, and then announced, “and I beat River. So who’s the better rider, huh?” She turned to River who was loosening Moose�
�s girth. He ignored her.

  “He can’t even face me; he’s supposed to be so great and unbeatable. Well, I guess I showed him.”

  Sierra bit her lip to hold back her retort, her irritation rising to an uncontrollable level. “Get off, Crystal,” she said, “so I can take Diva back to the stalls.”

  Crystal smiled down at Sierra. “I beat you too,” she announced.

  “Crystal, you did not win; Diva did. You were just a passenger, and you have River to thank for Diva’s ability to carry you around,” Sierra stated, loud enough to be sure all Crystal’s friends heard.

  The triumphant look on Crystal’s face twisted suddenly into a violent contortion of hatred; her lips tight and her eyes narrowed beneath her glowering brows as she stared piercingly into Sierra’s eyes. Then she looked away and smoothed out her face. Shrugging her shoulders, she stated smugly, “What a poor loser.”

  “What’s she talking about?” Stuart asked.

  “She’s a little liar. She’s making stuff up because she is just so envious,” Crystal replied. She then dismounted and tossed the reins to Sierra without looking at her. River had already started leading Moose back to the stalls and Sierra turned to follow.

  Stuart had his arm possessively over Crystal’s shoulder as they started walking away in another direction.

  “Just a minute,” Crystal said, stepping out from under Stuart’s arm. She retreated back to Diva. “I want my ribbon,” Crystal demanded. Sierra obligingly unhooked it from Diva’s bridle and handed it over. “You are going to pay for what you said,” Crystal hissed in a low, menacing voice that only Sierra could hear. Then she spun on the heel of her boot and went back to Stuart.

  “What did she say to you?” Katrina asked, coming alongside leading Calliope.

  “Nothing worth repeating,” Sierra answered, not wanting to acknowledge the tremor of fear that had traveled down her spine to needle into her stomach at Crystal’s threat.

  “I saw the way she walked away. Watch out for her,” Katrina warned.