Sapphire: New Horizons

by Heather Brooks

  She guessed, turned right, and found him in the last stall. He was snoozing at the back of the stall, his head dangling, his right back foot cocked in rest. He was wearing a cotton sheet with holes in it to absorb his sweat while he cooled down. The sweat sheet was a faded royal blue with light blue trim and white piping and a little too small for him, but he still looked majestic with his broad shoulders and muscled neck. “Sapphire!”

  He jerked his head up and swung it around to peer at her, and his chocolate brown eyes were shiny even in the dim light of the barn.

  “It’s me. Emily!”

  His ears went forward, then he let out a soft nicker of greeting that made her grin, and she knew everything would be all right.

  4

  Sapphire ambled to the front of his stall as she unlocked the door. By the time she got inside, he was already snuffling her jeans for any leftover ice cream. “Sapphire.” She sighed as she wrapped her arms around him and pressed her face to his neck. His coat was so soft, and he smelled like pine shavings and a hint of salty sweat. She rubbed her face against his mane, and the hairs prickled her cheek. She sighed in complete ecstasy. “You were so worth coming across the country for.”

  He nickered again and started to nibble on the edge of her shirt, so she pulled back and patted his neck. She scratched behind his ears as she lifted the front of the sheet to check his chest, giggling when he wiggled his lip in her hair. Someone had cleaned out the scratches and put cream on them. “You’re all good, huh?”

  He lowered his beautiful head and snorted against her jeans as she dropped the sheet back down. “Sorry, you already ate all the chocolate.” She scratched his neck again, frowning when dried sweat flaked off under her nails. “You need some brushing, don’t you, sweetie? Hang on one sec and I’ll be back.”

  She locked him in and scavenged the aisle until she found a well-stocked grooming bucket nearby. She filched a round rubber currycomb and a dandy brush, then slipped back inside, grinning when he shoved his face against her belly. “Hi, beautiful. Didja miss me?”

  She unhooked his sweat sheet, tossed it over the door, and began to curry him, being careful around his scratches. She worked the dried sweat out of his shiny coat. He turned his head to watch her, his ears pricked forward as she chattered to him. “So, anyway, I’m here because my granddad died. Did you know him? My dad says he was cool, but I never met him. He was a vet, like my uncle.”

  Sapphire swished his tail as she started working on his rump, his muscles rippling under his coat. Emily chuckled as she caught his tail. “No lashing my face with the coarse tail hairs, my friend.” She started picking shavings out of his tail, grinning as he kept trying to yank his tail free. He finally started walking in circles, forcing her to walk along with him.

  Sapphire kept looking back at her, eyes twinkling and ears perked, as if he were laughing at her.

  “Just so you know, Rhapsody always stands perfectly still when I work on him,” she told him. “But I have to admit, this is far more fun.”

  He immediately swished his tail so hard it flew out of her hands and nearly jerked her over. She laughed and set her hands on her hips. “You’re a troublemaker, aren’t you?”

  He ducked his head as if he were going to lick her jeans, then pressed his forehead against her hip and gave her a hard shove, knocking her right onto her butt. She grinned up at him as he snuffled her lap for treats, his giant hooves carefully placed next to her feet so he didn’t accidentally step on her.

  She grinned and scratched behind his ears. “I’ll bring you some treats next time. Maybe a pan of brownies? Would that do it?”

  “Emily?” There was a disbelieving note in her aunt’s voice as she appeared in the doorway.

  “Oh, hi.” Emily patted Sapphire’s neck and scrambled to her feet. “I was just cleaning him up. He was all sweaty. Hope that’s okay?”

  Aunt Debby’s face looked annoyed. “Actually, it’s not. I’m trying hard to improve his behavior around the barn, and he needs to be on cross ties at all times when you’re working with him. Encouraging him to knock you down isn’t going to help my training.”

  Emily felt her cheeks heat up. “I’m sorry. I was just trying to be helpful, and it wasn’t like he hurt me or anything.”

  Emily’s dad appeared in the doorway. To Emily’s surprise, he’d changed out of his brown slacks and polished loafers and was now wearing faded blue jeans and a pair of work boots. She didn’t even know he owned faded jeans. He looked like a rugged farmer guy now, instead of the businessman she was used to seeing. Not her dad at all.

  “Oh, give her a break, Deb,” he said. “How was she to know? I think it’s nice that she was cleaning him up without anyone asking.”

  Aunt Debby frowned, but she nodded. “You’re right. Emily, thanks for cleaning him up, but in the future, make sure you use the cross ties, okay? And don’t let him knock you down. We’re really trying to break him of that habit.”

  Sapphire set his chin on Emily’s shoulder and snorted. Emily reached up to pat his cheek, marveling at how soft his coat was. “No problem. I’ll do the cross ties. Can I finish cleaning him up now?” She looked at her dad. “Unpack later?”

  He shook his head. “I need to head into town to make some calls because my cell phone doesn’t work out here, and I was thinking we could stop at the grocery store and get some things you might like to snack on.”

  She sighed, totally reading her dad: He wasn’t about to leave her behind while he went into town. Probably afraid she’d get into more trouble. “Fine. Can I come back later to finish him?”

  “I’ll take care of him,” Aunt Debby said. “You get settled.”

  Emily bit her lip as Aunt Debby walked into the stall and hooked Sapphire up to the cross ties, wanting so much to stay with him. “Can I maybe ride Sapphire sometime?”

  Her aunt gave her an appraising look as she started to rub down Sapphire, much harder than Emily had been doing, really getting the dirt out in a way Emily hadn’t. “Tell you what. I’ll give you a lesson in the morning, and we’ll see where you are and then make a decision. Sound good?”

  “Really? That would be awesome.” Emily grinned with excitement. Finally! She was going to get to ride! “What time?”

  “Eight.”

  “Eight?” Emily blinked. Getting up for an eight o’clock lesson while she was on vacation?

  “The funeral’s at noon.”

  Oh, right. The funeral. She suddenly felt bad for making a big deal of the time. “Eight’s fine.”

  Aunt Debby nodded. “There’s a whiteboard inside the tack room. Check it when you get to the barn. I’ll have written down the name of the horse you’ll be riding, and you can grab its tack and get ready. Okay?”

  “Could I put in a request for Sapphire?”

  Aunt Debby smiled. “You can, but it won’t make a difference. You’re not riding him until I know you’ve got the skills.”

  “But—”

  Emily’s dad took her arm. “Come on, Em. You can prove yourself in the morning. The only decent grocery store’s about a half hour away, so we need to get going.”

  Emily twisted free and ran over to Sapphire, wrapped her arms around his neck, and buried her face in his silky coat. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Sapphire.” She kissed his nose then spun and ran after her dad, who had already started walking.

  Her dad chuckled and clapped his hand on her shoulder as they headed down the aisle. “Looks like Rhapsody may be history, huh? No longer the favorite?”

  “What?” Emily cast one last glance over her shoulder at Sapphire, grinning when he tried to push Aunt Debby over. “I have to be able to ride Sapphire before we leave, Dad.”

  Her dad ruffled her hair. “Aunt Debby’s a stickler when it comes to her horses. You’re going to have to prove yourself to her.”

  “I will.” She clenched her fists, knowing that it all depended on her lesson tomorrow.

  She had to impress Aunt Debby. She had to.

>   5

  Emily was giddy with excitement by the time she got to the tack room the next morning for her lesson. She’d gotten up early to polish her paddock boots, even though she never ever polished them, because they were only for hanging out at the barn. And she’d even taken the time to put up her hair under her helmet the way she did for a show, making sure no stray strands were poking out. Aunt Debby would see her and realize that Emily was serious when it came to riding, and she’d have no choice but to let her ride Sapphire.

  She practically skipped into the tack room to look at the whiteboard, and saw she was listed to ride a horse named Moondance, with a little note about which stall she was in. The moment Emily saw her name up there, butterflies swarmed her belly. This was it: her moment to prove herself.

  Emily found the bridle with Moondance’s name, then frowned when she realized her hand was shaking when she went to pick it up. What was wrong with her? She was a good rider and she knew it.

  She hooked the bridle over her shoulder and scanned the racks for Moondance’s saddle, biting her lower lip at the thought of what would happen if she did a terrible job in the lesson. Aunt Debby, Alison, and everyone else here would never accept her. She already felt like a stranger, even though they were family, and riding was the only way she knew how to fit in. If she failed at that…

  No. This was ridiculous. Of course she’d be good enough. Everything would be fine.

  She tucked Moondance’s saddle against her hip, grabbed a fully stocked brush box, and headed out. After detouring by Sapphire’s stall to give him a few treats and some love, she traipsed down to Moondance’s stall and hoisted her saddle onto its wooden bar.

  Emily opened the door and saw a plain gray mare snoozing in the corner. “Good morning. I’m Emily.”

  Moondance lifted her head to inspect Emily, and then dropped her head back down and went back to sleep. Emily grinned, suddenly feeling at ease again as she stepped into Moondance’s stall. This was Emily’s world, and she was in control. “Yeah, I have mornings like that, too, when I just want to stay in bed. But we’ll have fun, trust me.”

  Moondance didn’t look impressed as Emily dropped the brush box in the corner then pulled out a currycomb and started to rub the mare down. Emily frowned at the manure stains on Moondance’s hips from sleeping in her stall. After currying the same spot for about ten minutes, Emily finally gave up. “You, my beautiful, need a bath. Gray horses are impossible to keep clean.” She affectionately tweaked Moondance’s ear. “Especially when they roll in manure during the night.”

  Moondance lifted her upper lip at Emily, making Emily laugh. “Yeah, I can see you feel really bad about it, too.”

  Emily recalled when Jenny Smith at her barn had pitched a fit when she’d arrived in the morning of a show last summer and the horse she’d been riding had laid down during the night. Jenny had been so mad at her mount sporting yellow stains, and she’d had to give her a bath again at four in the morning after she was already dressed in her polished boots and sparkling clean, beige jodhpurs.

  That was the first time Jenny had started eyeing Rhapsody, because he’d come out of his stall just as clean and shiny as he’d been when Emily had put him in the night before, with his beautiful black coat. And then when Emily had beaten Jenny that day…the war had begun.

  She frowned as she grabbed a hoof pick and slid her hand down Moondance’s leg, giving a small tug when she reached her fetlock and leaning into the horse with her shoulder. Moondance obediently shifted her weight and let Emily pick up her foot.

  As she used the metal pick to flick mud and rocks out of Moondance’s hoof, being careful not to hit the tender frog in the middle of the foot, she thought about the Norfolk Open coming up. Would Jenny get to ride Rhapsody? Maybe Emily should call one of her friends and find out….

  As she picked out the rest of Moondance’s feet, she tried to decide whether she’d want to know about Jenny or not, her belly tightening the more she thought about it. Moondance snorted and gave her a nudge, and Emily grinned. “You think I should stop obsessing, huh?”

  The horse had a point. She was about to get her first jumping lesson ever. That was too cool for words. Jenny wasn’t getting a jumping lesson today, was she?

  Emily hummed to herself, grabbed the bridle, and put it on.

  Well, tried.

  The moment she got the bit near Moondance’s teeth, the mare lifted her head and pointed her nose to the ceiling, completely out of Emily’s reach. When Emily dropped the bridle, Moondance lowered her head back down as if nothing was wrong.

  “Okay, so you like to be difficult, is that it?” Emily took the bridle and wrapped her arm around Moondance’s nose to hold her down. Then she used her left hand to guide the bit into Moondance’s mouth…then Moondance yanked her head right out of Emily’s grasp and pointed her nose to the ceiling again.

  Emily growled with frustration and let her hands drop as she eyed the underside of Moondance’s throat, which was all she could see of the horse’s head from this angle. “Okay, so you want war, is that it?” She set her hands on her hips and chewed her lower lip as she realized what was going on. “This was a test from Aunt Debby, wasn’t it?”

  Moondance shook her head and wandered to the back of the stall to take a nap.

  “You think I’m giving up? No way.”

  Emily peeked out into the aisle, found a big plastic tub for soaking hay in water for horses with asthma who couldn’t handle the hay dust. It was empty, at least two feet high, and perfect. She grinned, dragged it into Moondance’s stall, and turned it upside down in front of her. The mare dropped her head to sniff it while Emily gathered the bridle for the third time and then climbed on top of the tub so she towered above Moondance’s back.

  “Now, let’s try this again, shall we?”

  She put her right arm under and then around Moondance’s nose to hold the bridle in place, and set the bit in front of her teeth. As before, Moondance lifted her head straight toward the ceiling, but this time Emily followed her with her arms, stuck her finger in the corner of Moondance’s mouth to get her to open her teeth, then slipped the bit right inside. She grinned as she pulled the bridle over each ear. “See? That wasn’t so bad.”

  Once the bridle was secure over her ears, Moondance sighed and dropped her head back down in defeat. Emily patted her neck and hopped off the tub to buckle the throatlatch and the noseband. “Why do I bet you’d do this every single time I tried to ride you?”

  Moondance snorted and stomped her back foot, and Emily grinned. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

  She tossed the tub back in the aisle, put the saddle on, and tightened the girth, then headed out to the ring, her heart beating with excitement. She couldn’t wait for Aunt Debby to admit she was a great rider, good enough to ride Sapphire.

  This was going to be excellent.

  It took five minutes of riding before Emily started getting used to the hunt saddle. It felt really bulky in comparison to the dressage saddle, and she kept wanting to take the knee pads out…except there weren’t any that she could see. It just felt like they were there. She checked three times, so she knew.

  Moondance was bigger than Rhapsody, so it felt weird to be on a horse with such a long stride. Plus, she liked to walk with her head way up high, unlike Rhapsody, who was so good about dropping his head and getting on the bit, which basically meant that his nose was in a straight line toward the ground and his butt was tucked under him in proper dressage form.

  Moondance kept lifting her head high, above Emily’s hands, so it was difficult to feel like Emily had good contact with her mouth, and the mare didn’t like to bend her body with the turns the way Rhapsody did.

  Emily clenched her jaw as she went through all the reminders Les gave her when she was riding Rhapsody, trying to get Moondance to walk properly, but she couldn’t get the mare to drop her head. Emily felt like pulling her hair out. Why was it this hard to do what she did all the time?

  S
he finally closed her eyes and focused on riding by feel, altering pressure with her calves to keep Moondance moving forward briskly while ever so gently playing with the reins to get Moondance to listen to them. She sank her fanny deep into the saddle so she could feel every step, every muscle in Moondance shift as she walked. Finally, she felt Moondance begin to relax and her head dropped down so she was on the bit. Not as nicely as Rhapsody did it, but pretty darn good.

  She opened her eyes and grinned, completely impressed with herself. Aunt Debby would have to know how hard it was to get Moondance in a frame, and she’d go crazy over what Emily had done.

  Emily was walking Moondance around the ring in a collected, balanced, and really excellent walk when Aunt Debby showed up. Emily checked her position, made sure her heels were down, and waited for Aunt Debby to compliment her.

  “Your stirrups are too long. You need them shorter for jumping.”

  Emily blinked. “What?” Hadn’t she noticed the walk?

  “Jumping. That’s what we do.” Aunt Debby ducked under the rail and stepped in front of Moondance.

  Emily hastily reined Moondance to a stop, and the mare’s head popped out of frame, losing everything Emily had spent the last twenty minutes working on!

  Aunt Debby didn’t even seem to notice as she quickly shortened Emily’s stirrups until Emily felt like a jockey, then gave Emily’s knee a pat and told her to move on. “Are you warmed up?”

  Emily shifted in the saddle, trying to get used to the short stirrups. How could she possibly sit deep enough when her feet were jacked up so short? She felt like her knees were in her chest. Of course, they weren’t, but her knees were bent a lot more than when she was in her dressage saddle. She stood in her stirrups, pressing her heels down to try to get more length. “I’ve been walking for about twenty minutes—”

  “You’ve been walking all this time?” Aunt Debby sounded a little surprised, and Emily suddenly felt like she’d done something wrong.