The Boy Who Loves Horses (Pegasus Equestrian Center Series)

by Diana Vincent

  He pulled out a bowl of spaghetti and stuck it in the microwave, grabbed a slice of bread from a loaf on the counter, and then collapsed onto one of the sofas to eat.

  Feeling exhausted, River knew he could easily set his dish on the floor, lean his head back, close his eyes, and he’d be asleep in seconds. But at least his side didn’t ache and neither did any of his muscles. It felt more like the normal tired after a long day of work. Maybe he was making progress and finally regaining conditioning.

  He forced himself up from the sofa to put the dish in the sink and run water in it, and then called to Storm. He only half way kept the rules now that he lived at the stable, and always let Storm come with him when he made his final check on the horses before going to bed.

  With a flashlight, River walked down the aisles, checking on each horse, either still nosing around for the last wisps of hay or standing with one hip relaxed, asleep. Muffin and one other horse were already lying down. Good, no signs of colic or other distress in any of them. Satisfied, he headed out the back door, locking it behind him.

  As he walked back toward the lounge, a car pulled into the stable yard and parked, its motor cut. River stopped, wondering who would be coming at almost nine p.m.

  Katrina got out of the driver’s side, stood for a moment taking deep breaths, and then headed toward the lounge.

  “Katrina?” he called to her.

  “Oh!” She turned, startled to find him outside. “Oh, River, you scared me!”

  “What are you doing here?” He came up to her.

  “I…” She hesitated, looking up at him, licked her lips, and to his stunned amazement, stepped up close to put her arms around his neck. She pressed his head toward her, and kissed him on his mouth, holding her lips there; waiting…waiting for him to kiss her back.

  River stood with his arms out to the side, with no idea what he should do. Katrina, don’t do this! He did not kiss her back, but he did not pull away, sensing that would be too unkind. He waited, and at last she took her mouth away, and then collapsed against his chest, sobbing.

  “River, please, can’t you care for me? Couldn’t you just try?” she pleaded against his chest. “I love you, I can’t help it.”

  His heart aching for her, he put his arms around her and let her cry. “Katrina, please,” he whispered. “I like you a lot, just not that way. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  Lifting her face from his chest, she looked up into his. “It’s Sierra, isn’t it?”

  “Katrina, please,” he said again.

  “River, I will do anything for you. I want to…” She pushed a little away and brought her hands down from around his neck to stroke down his chest, down to the waist of his jeans, and hooked her fingers there. “I want to stay the night with you. I can; I told my parents I’m staying over at a friend’s.”

  As gently as he could, he unhooked her fingers and took one hand in his. “You need to go home,” he said. He led her with an arm around her shoulders to her car, as she sniffed and struggled to hold back more sobbing, and helped her into the driver’s seat.

  Without looking at him, Katrina started the ignition, backed up, and drove away.

  He had tried to like her in the way she wanted; especially when Sierra had been involved with Dean. He was certainly physically attracted to her; Katrina was a very beautiful girl. But he always felt a little bored with her and he wondered why. Maybe it was her constant chatter about things that held absolutely no interest for him and her noise could get quite annoying. He thought about times with Sierra and even with Laila; the time he listened to Sierra and Allison talking while he was still living with the Marshalls. Maybe that’s it, I like smart girls; I like being around smart girls. That might be part of why he couldn’t care for Katrina the way she wanted him to. Even if he didn’t care about Sierra, he doubted that would change his feelings toward Katrina. She was a very nice girl but she wasn’t very smart.

  *****

  “Tess, there’s heat in that leg. You cannot let her compete today,” River said.

  “Look at her, she’s just fine. You can’t tell me you saw her favor that leg.” Tess stood with folded arms, holding onto her car keys, annoyed that River had called her this morning saying she needed to scratch the mare from the competition.

  “No, I didn’t, but if Crystal jumps her today, she will.” They stood in the stable yard with the horses loaded except for Diva. River had argued and insisted until Tess agreed to come and look at the leg herself. She had asked Manuel to trot the mare so they could watch her move before loading her into the trailer. True, he did not see any favoring in her gait right now, but the left hind fetlock had definitely felt warmer when he had removed her wraps this morning. That didn’t happen unless there was some strain or inflammation going on.

  “Let’s just get to the show. We can decide there,” Tess said, walking away to her car with finality. “Load her in the trailer,” she called to Manuel.

  Manuel raised his eyes at River, who shook his head in frustration. “I’ll take her in,” he said, and took the lead rope from Manuel to guide Diva up the ramp. “If anything happens to you today…” he whispered to her, as he hooked the trailer tie to her halter. He patted her neck, his heart filled with worry, and again with the utterly helpless feeling of being unable to protect her.

  ‘Let’s go,” he said to Sierra who had been watching, her eyes wide in concern.

  “Uh, where’s Katrina?” she asked timidly, knowing how upset he was, but also wondering why Katrina hadn’t arrived yet to help load the horses and ride with them to the show, as she had yesterday. Sierra had called her but only got her voice mail, and Katrina had not responded to the message Sierra had left.

  “I don’t know but we’re already late so we better go,” River answered, getting into the truck and starting the ignition. Sierra climbed in next to him, watching from the corner of her eye River’s glum profile as he carefully drove away to return to the show grounds. The two sat in worried silence.

  Not until they pulled into the parking area did River break the silence to say, “Maybe she’ll be okay.” He cut the engine, thumping his fist against the steering wheel before getting out.

  Sierra climbed out of the truck, her own heart in her throat; worried about Diva and even more worried about River if anything should happen to the mare.

  Tess strode up, followed by a tight-lipped Crystal with Gloria at her side.

  “You sure took your time,” Tess snapped at River as he unlatched the back of the trailer and lowered the ramp.

  River ignored her and stepped up into the trailer to unload Diva. Sierra stepped in next to unload Four Score and handed the lead to Tess who practically grabbed it from her hand. “Where is Katrina?” she demanded.

  Getting no response from River who was leading Diva to the stalls, or Sierra who had turned back into the trailer to unload Calliope, Tess thrust the lead to Gloria, ordering, “Take your horse,” and followed Sierra into the trailer to take Calliope so Sierra could unload Corazón.

  This day is not starting out very well at all, Sierra thought to herself, her high spirits that she had awakened with being replaced by a pervasive feeling of doom and gloom.

  Katrina waited at the stalls, her expression reflecting the overall bleak mood of the day.

  “Lead the horses into the stalls,” Tess barked out orders. “River, you stay here and get the shipping wraps off. The rest of you, we have just enough time to walk the course so let’s get going.”

  “River?” Sierra asked as she shut Corazón’s stall door and lingered a few moments; wanting some kind of sign from him that he was okay or what she should do.

  He was removing Diva’s shipping wraps and stood up when she called his name. “Go walk your course,” he said in a soft but serious tone. “You want to be ready for what Cory will face today.”

  She nodded and hurried after the others.

  “What happened to you this morning?” Sierra asked as she caught up with Kat
rina.

  “Nothing…not one thing,” Katrina answered in a bitter tone, and actually stepped ahead to end any further conversation.

  What did I do? Baffled, Sierra did not pursue Katrina.

  Tess led them around, discussing strategies for both the preliminary and training level obstacles.

  A good course, Sierra thought, as she followed along, paying close attention. Her mood began to lighten up as she anticipated the fun of taking Cory, always so eager, over an attractive log jump at the start, then flower boxes followed by the first combination of split rail fences at an angle to each other – that one is going to require a quick turn, she decided, just as Tess said the same thing out loud.

  They walked up a long slope with a ramp jump at the top, then downhill to the water.

  “You’ve got a good stretch of level ground before the water, so if you have to come down to a trot on the downhill, you can pick up the pace here; no need to approach the water at a trot. But you do want to have your horse well in hand and balanced to go into the water and then jump out,” Tess explained as they continued on the course.

  The next training level jumps were very similar to practice jumps at home, and Sierra’s confidence was climbing, as well as her mood until they followed the course around a bend, up another small hill, down to a roll top, and then after that…oh no!...a railroad crossing jump.

  Sierra’s rising spirits plummeted again; a rock settling into the pit of her stomach. They had no railroad crossing to practice over at Pegasus, and had not anticipated there would be such a jump in two shows of the season.

  “Sierra,” Tess called to her as they approached the diagonal red-and-white striped obstacle. “You better carry a whip today if you want to get Cory over this one,” she warned.

  They finished walking the course, the remaining training level obstacles ones that Cory could easily handle. River got him over it, but River’s a much better rider; he trusts River more than he’ll ever trust me. Sierra’s mind roiled in trepidation, anxious to get River’s advice.

  “Hi, Dean!” Crystal called out, from where she walked behind Sierra.

  Sierra looked up, startled at hearing his name, and could not help looking over to where Dean walked toward their group, having just finished his own course walk.

  “Hello, nice course, isn’t it?” he said as he reached them and stepped into place to walk beside Crystal, right behind Sierra. “I really like that railroad crossing jump. There was one a few shows back, remember? Old Cal cleared it like a dream, as if there was a train actually coming,” he went on in a loud voice to be sure Sierra heard.

  “Yeah, we take it in preliminary too,” Crystal said and the two chattered on; old friends.

  “Training goes first,” Tess announced. “Gloria and Sierra, get ready to warm up; I’m going to go pick up the number vests now.”

  *****

  River walked next to Cory’s shoulder after Sierra’s number had been called and she headed up to the starting box.

  “Don’t worry about it,” River said to her again, repeating what he had been telling her on the way to warm up Cory. “If you feel him tensing up, take a circle; take two if you have to. You don’t know he’s going to react like he did last time. Maybe since he jumped it at the other show and didn’t get hurt, he will be just fine.”

  Sierra looked down at him and nodded. She did feel a little more confident after her warm-up, for Cory exhibited his usual high level of energy and eagerness to go. He pranced every few strides, as they approached the starting box, and Sierra needed to sit deep and touch the reins to ask him to come back to walk.

  The starter at the box signaled she could go in.

  “Enjoy the ride,” River said, “that’s what counts. I’m going to be watching at the railroad jump.” He patted Cory on the rump and Sierra entered the box.

  “Ready?” the starter asked her, looking at his stopwatch.

  “Yes,” she answered and walked Cory in a circle as the starter began the countdown, and then turned to face the exit at ten, nine,…three, two, one…and they were on course.

  As Corazón galloped toward the logs, adjusted his stride and soared over, eagerly galloping on to the flower boxes, taking it as well; Sierra tuned into his muscular movements and focused on the ‘now’ moment, thinking only of the jump to come. They came up to the combination and as Cory sailed over the first element, she squeezed her fingers on the left hand rein, and as they landed, pushed her weight harder in the left hand stirrup, turning her shoulders toward the next element set at an angle. Cory responded instantly on the left lead, took the correct two strides, and over the second element. Galloping on, Corazón continued to negotiate each obstacle, responding to Sierra’s directions of which one he was to take.

  Then they were galloping downhill to the roll top. As he cleared it and landed and Sierra pointed him toward the railroad crossing, his muscles stiffened, he let out a loud snort of fear and she could feel him gather himself to turn away and flee.

  “You can do it, come on, Cory,” she encouraged, pressing her legs to his sides, and squeezing her fingers on the reins to keep him in a straight line. She felt him respond, an easing of his muscles to turn away and he took a few strides forward…closer. He’s going to take it! Sierra relaxed a bit of her aids, preparing to move into a more forward two-point. One stride to go, she pushed her weight in her heels, and then suddenly, felt herself thrown forward and to the side as Cory whipped to the right in front of the jump, racing away.

  Sierra sat up straight, clamped her legs to his side, turned him quickly back to face the jump, and pushed and pushed him on with her legs. She reached forward once to touch his neck, to tell him, ‘you can do it’, and then kept a firm hold of the reins. His muscles stiffened, he snorted again a loud, short snort of worry. Then a half stride too soon, he gathered himself and leaped from too far back but jumping big…oh so big… and cleared the railroad crossing with Sierra high on his neck and clutching his mane to keep her seat as he landed.

  “Good boy!” she cried to him in exuberant praise and patted his neck as he galloped on. They finished the course, and Sierra understood now how River had felt. Even though his run-out would most likely drop them from first place, and maybe even out of the ribbons, Sierra felt tremendous pride and accomplishment; proud that she had been able to get Cory to take the jump, and so very proud of him for taking it!

  After passing the finish flags, Sierra brought Cory down to trot and then quickly to walk. She reached down frequently to pet his neck, and kept up a continual stream of praise. He arched his neck, still wanting to prance and show off. When she saw River walking quickly toward them, she dismounted, and when he came up to her and gave her a big hug, she felt she had doubly won.

  “You did it,” River said as he let go of her, and looked deep into her eyes, his own filled with pride.

  *****

  “What is wrong with Katrina?” Sierra asked, walking with River to a spot where they could watch some of the preliminary jumps.

  After taking care of Corazón, Sierra had tried to help Katrina get Calliope ready, while River worked on Diva. Although Katrina had spoken in a quiet voice, she had asked Sierra to please leave Calliope alone. She had not looked over at River once today, nor had she said much of anything; the girl who usually chattered non-stop.

  “I don’t know,” he answered. But Sierra noticed the tightening of his jaw and she thought maybe he did know.

  They reached a good viewing spot, just as the first preliminary rider crested a hill, then disappeared around a bend, and reappeared to take a Trakehner jump and then onto a flat sandlot and drop jump.

  Two riders later, they caught sight of Calliope; then lost her again until she and Katrina came around the bend.

  “Come on Calliope,” Sierra called out in encouragement as they cleared the Trakehner. Katrina slowed the mare onto the sandlot, jumped down the bank, and they galloped on.

  Another rider followed shortly after, and then t
hey waited expectantly, knowing Diva should come next.

  “There she is,” Sierra announced as she caught sight of Crystal’s red helmet cover, and Diva’s bay head. She felt River tensing next to her.

  Diva galloped toward them and they watched her disappear around the bend, their eyes moving to the spot where she would come into view again. She came galloping on, and over the Trakehner.

  “She looks okay,” River said, as the mare galloped to the sandlot and jumped down the bank; but in the same breath he gasped, “no!”

  Diva stumbled as she landed after the drop and Crystal was thrown forward onto her neck. They heard Crystal scream once. But Diva slowed to a walk, which allowed Crystal to regain her balance in the saddle, and then she picked up a trot. It was as he watched her trot that River cried out and stood up.

  Diva took a few more trotting steps, favoring the left hind. Crystal, who always wore spurs, dug them into her sides and whacked her with her jumping bat at the same time. Diva obediently transitioned up into canter still favoring her leg, but moving on to the next obstacle.

  “She needs to stop!” River cried out, and started running toward the galloping pair. At the same time, the jump judge had stood up and was waving a hand at Crystal, signaling her to stop.

  Crystal ignored the judge and pushed Diva on and over the jump. The judge spoke into her two-way radio, her expression irate.

  Sierra took off after River, who was already panting hard for breath. As they neared the next obstacle, they saw that jump judge, having received communication, step into the path of the jump, forcing Crystal to bring Diva to a halt.

  “You have no right to stop us!” Crystal yelled at the judge.