“I was sort of hoping I could just wear pants,” I said.
Missy looked horrified. “What kind of a person wears pants to a ball?”
“A cool one,” I mumbled, thinking of Faith.
She wouldn’t let someone make a fool out of her like Missy was bound to do to me.
“Maybe I should just think about getting through the show first,” I said.
“What’s to get through?” she asked. “You go in, go round in a few circles and then leave.”
“I wish it was that easy.” I sighed.
The next evening I was in my room trying to do my school work when I saw Mickey’s mom pull in. I watched her get out of the car, clutching her clean saddle pads and her bag of wraps and then go into the barn. I tried to concentrate on my work but I just couldn’t. After a while she came out with Hampton and went off to the dressage ring to work on her test. I had to talk to her. I had to make things right between us. I’d refuse to ride in the dressage show if that was what would make her happy.
I slipped out of the house, knowing that if Missy saw me she’d hound me about not finishing the work I was supposed to do but that was the beauty of virtual school. I could stay up all night and do it if I had to but right now I had to talk to Mickey.
I ran into the barn and grabbed Bluebird’s bridle and my helmet, then ran back to his paddock and slipped the bridle on. I half climbed on the fence and then wiggled over onto his warm back. His ears were pricked as I walked him out.
“Don’t do anything silly now,” I told him.
He shook his head and snorted so I didn’t hold out much hope but he was also my pony and I knew him like the back of my hand. He could be silly but he would never be naughty and I trusted him. I didn’t trust Arion or Socks enough to ride them around the farm bareback.
I rode over to the ring where Mickey was finishing up her ride. She hadn’t had a lesson but she had been working on her test. I saw the look of concentration on her face as she halted at X and then looked down to see if Hampton’s feet were square. They were. She patted him on the neck and let her reins fall loose.
“Hey!” I trotted Bluebird over to her. “You looked great out there.”
“Thanks,” she said.
“Oh good, so you are talking to me again. Listen, I’m going to tell my dad that I refuse to ride in the dressage show. What’s he going to do, tell Miss. Fontain to drag me into the ring and force me to perform? I’m not a trained monkey and they can’t do that to me.”
Mickey was silent for a moment as we walked around the dressage arena. I thought maybe she’d stopped talking to me again but then she shook her head.
“No,” she said. “You can’t do that. I was dumb to think that you shouldn’t ride. Lots of people will be riding in the show, even other girls from this barn. I can’t expect everyone not to ride just so that I do well and what’s the point in winning if there is no one else to compete against?”
“I could have told you that silly.” I leaned over and nudged her arm. “But I’m still not riding.”
“Of course you are. We can be showing buddies. It will be like the old days again.”
“But you were so mad at me,” I said.
“It’s this stupid ball,” she said. “And boys. I hate boys.”
“No you don’t.” I laughed. “You love them.”
“That’s the problem. I love them and I hate them.” She paused and then said, “Maybe, do you think we could go to the ball together? That way we won’t feel bad that we don’t have dates. I know you don’t want to go,” she added. “But please? Do it for me?”
“You really want to go even though Ethan is going to be there with someone else?” I said.
“I especially want to go because Ethan will be there with someone else,” she said, a sly grin on her face. “I want him to see how fantastic I am and what he is missing out on and maybe Fern will trip on the hem of her dress and fall flat on her face or spill punch down herself.”
“You’re not going to go all Carrie on me, are you?” I asked dubiously.
“Of course not.” Mickey laughed. “But if Fern just happened to walk under a bucket of red paint or something and it just magically happened to fall on her head, I want to be there to see it.”
“You are awful,” I said. “Now I’m going to have to go just so that I can keep an eye on you.”
“Cool,” she said. “We’ll go to the show together and we’ll go to the ball together and we’ll have each other’s backs, no matter what.”
“I always have your back,” I said. “You know that.”
“I know,” she said.
We rode out of the ring and around the perimeter of the farm and it felt as though we’d never fought at all but that was what true friendship was. You could be mad at one another over something big or something small and then when you finally made up it was like it had never happened and I knew that I was lucky to have a best friend like Mickey because I would be lost without her.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Mickey said she was okay with me riding in the dressage show but I still felt uneasy about the whole thing. It didn’t feel right, even though I knew that it was all part of the business of riding. By the time I took Arion out to the ring for his last dressage lesson before the show, I was feeling extra guilty. Especially since he was going really well. He’d taken to the whole dressage thing faster than I ever thought he would and he no longer pranced across the arena doing his own thing. Although all bets were going to be off by the time we got to the show, especially since the forecast was saying that it was going to be a cool and breezy day and the wind under Arion’s tail wasn’t exactly a recipe for a perfect riding experience.
“Free walk,” Miss. Fontain called out. “Then medium walk.”
I did what she asked but felt like a fraud when she smiled and said that I’d done a good job. I couldn’t tell the difference between free walk and medium walk and as far as Arion was concerned, free walk was an excuse to amble along like a lazy bum and then surge forward like an idiot when I applied my leg. I had a sneaking suspicion that my father had just told her to tell me I was doing great so that I wouldn’t back out of going to the show and if that was the case then I was in big trouble. Not that there would be anyone there to laugh at me. Everyone I knew lived in hunter jumper land and wouldn’t even dream of going to a dressage show, let alone competing in one. But that didn’t matter because people from Fox Run were going to be there. Mickey and Fern and all the eventing students, including Ethan.
I suddenly realized that Mickey didn’t know. Well, she probably didn’t know. How was she going to feel about trying to compete while Fern and Ethan were all over each other, kissing before they went into the ring to do their tests and holding hands? She would flip out. I decided not to tell her. And being lost in the crazy world that was my mind, I wasn’t listening to a word Miss. Fontain was saying and the next minute, instead of cantering a half circle, we were jumping over the cones with the dressage letters on them and galloping away across the field.
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
I’d be lying if I didn’t say I thought it was funny. Arion was bored of going round in circles and so was I. Plus we’d had to switch him out to a loose ring snaffle since he couldn’t compete in the dressage show with his elevator bit so I didn’t have as much control as I usually did. But I didn’t bother and rein him in or tell him off. I let him canter across the grass, wishing that the stupid dressage show was over so that I could start jumping him and going to the sorts of shows that I wanted to go to, not the ones that my father thought would be good for me. In the end of course I had to take him back. Miss. Fontain was standing there with her hands on her hips, not looking amused.
“I thought I was going to have to send out a search party for you,” she said.
“Sorry,” I replied, looking at Arion’s mane and not at her annoyed face. “He’s kind of bored.”
“And so are you, is that right?”
I no
dded. I didn’t want to make her mad before the show but there wasn’t much point in lying. I was bored. Dressage was about the most boring thing on the planet and even though I was grateful that it had given Arion some focus, I didn’t want to spend any more time than I had to going round and round in circles.
“Very well.” She waved me away with a flick of her hand. “I think I’ve done all I can with you. I’ll see you bright and early Saturday morning and you’d better have perfected your test or else I won’t be amused.”
“Yes Miss. Fontain, thank you,” I said.
It was like being released from school. I gathered up the reins and cantered Arion back across the field and out towards the trail. He’d been so good lately and I wanted to reward him. I just forgot for a moment that it wasn’t Bluebird that I was on. Once we got further away from the barn, his excitement turned to over excitement and I had to circle him to get him to calm down to a ragged trot and then a jigging walk.
“It’s okay Ari,” I said, patting his sweaty neck. “I thought you wanted to be out of that horrible old dressage ring?”
Arion shook his head and snorted at a tree stump. He did want to get out of the ring, he just wasn’t so sure that he wanted to be out in the whole big wide world. At least not yet anyway. I let him walk on a loose rein to calm down and was just about to turn back when I heard someone clear their throat.
“Don’t jump,” they said.
Arion did anyway, leaping sideways but I was ready for him, my legs clenched firmly around his belly. I looked around and saw Ethan standing there next to one of the jumps.
“Painting again?” I said, looking down at him. “Or is it just an excuse to hide out in the woods and kiss some more girls?”
“There is no need to be so mean,” he said. “And I didn’t mean to kiss Fern. It just sort of happened.”
“What, you tripped and fell on her lips?” I said. “Because that is not what it looked like to me.”
“What do you care?” he said, throwing down his paint brush. “You didn’t want to go with me anyway.”
He had a point. I looked at him standing there in his old ripped jeans with paint splattered on them and a smudge of blue on his face and I didn’t feel anything for him at all, except that which an annoyed sister might feel towards her brother.
“I know,” I said. “I didn’t want to go with you. I’m sorry. I should have told you. I like you but not like that. Can we just go back to being friends?”
“I thought we were friends already,” he said. “Just because you don’t want to go to the ball with me, that doesn't change that.”
“Cool,” I said, feeling relieved. “In that case, I need to tell you something.”
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
I wasn’t sure if telling Ethan that Mickey liked him was the right thing to do or not. After all, I was pretty clueless when it came to boys but she was never going to tell him, I knew that now. She’d just be all mad at him and he’d be left wondering why and if he ever liked her at all, he’d start to hate her by the time she was done with him. I knew what Mickey was like.
He didn’t say anything, just looked thoughtful or maybe confused. It was hard to tell which. I left him there with his paint and the jumps. I’d done my part. It was up to him now. And I had to focus on the dressage show because I wanted Arion to make a good impression on his first proper outing.
I spent the day before the show bathing him. It was hard getting a gray horse ready for a show. I had to give him two baths because the first one didn’t get all the manure stains out of his coat, even though I used the special whitening shampoo which left my hands and fingers a lovely Smurf shade of blue.
I pulled his mane and trimmed his tail and them got to work practicing my braids. Mickey had said that dressage braids were nothing like hunter braids and since I started riding in the jumpers I hadn’t really been braiding at all. There you won on talent, your horse against the jumps and the clock. It didn’t matter how pretty your horse looked as long as you were clean and presentable. I wasn’t sure how much braids mattered in dressage but those people were pretty uptight and I wasn’t about to have Arion look stupid and be the only horse without a braided mane so I got out a step stool and started practicing. I had my phone balanced on his back with a photo of what the braids were supposed to look like and rubber bands and thread strewn all around when Mickey came by.
“What on earth are those?” She looked at my lumpy braids, laughing as she did.
“What do they look like?” I said.
“Well they don’t look like that picture if that was what you were going for,” she said, pointing to the picture on my phone.
“Why do they have to be so hard?” I groaned.
“They are not hard,” Mickey said. “They are easy.”
“They don’t seem easy,” I said.
“Well they are. Look, you don’t even have to do as many of them. They are big and fat, not tiny little things that you need to do a million of. Here, let me show you.”
She pushed me off the stool and got to work and by the time she was done, Arion had big fat button braids running down his neck.
“Cool,” I said.
“I know.” She grinned. “How quick was that?”
“Super quick,” I said. “Can you show me how to do them?”
“Of course.”
And as we worked on the braids together, leaning over my horse’s neck and laughing, I was glad that things were back to normal between us. Though I was worried that maybe I shouldn’t have told Ethan than Mickey liked him and if it backfired, she’d probably go back to not speaking to me again.
CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
The day of the dressage show dawned with the coldest weather of the season. There were freeze warnings and watches and everyone in Florida was bracing for the frosty air the best way they knew how, which was basically staying inside because no one had clothes warm enough to brave going out. Except for us. I was up before dawn, braiding Arion and making sure he had stayed clean. The fact that the weather was so cold that he’d worn a sheet and a blanket had helped to keep the manure stains off him but there were still a couple on his legs that basically ruined his otherwise perfect appearance. I was mumbling to myself and trying not to freak out when Henry came by with a bottle.
“Here,” he said. “Try this.”
I looked up from my spot on the floor, sponge in one hand and bucket of soapy water in the other.
“What is it?” I asked.
“My own secret recipe. I used to use it when I worked at the track.”
“Really?” I stood up. “I didn’t know you worked with racehorses. No wonder Arion liked you so much when he first came here.”
“I’ve worked with all kinds of horses,” he said, reaching out to stroke my horse’s face.
He was bundled in a thick winter coat and had a black woolly hat pulled down over his forehead. At least he was prepared. I’d stolen my hat from Dad’s closet and my coat was letting the wind blow through it like it had giant holes in it. Every now and then I shivered involuntarily but at least at the show I’d be warm because I’d be riding.
“Thank you Henry,” I said.
He winked at me and walked off. When the show and the ball were over, I was going to have to talk to Dad about doing something nice for the grooms. They were the true unsung heroes of the barn and nothing would run smoothly without Henry at the reins and the others following suit. We needed to make sure they knew they were appreciated.
I didn’t know what concoction was inside the spray bottle that Henry had given me but whatever it was, it worked miracles. I applied it liberally and then wiped it off with a damp towel and the brown just faded away until you couldn't even tell there had been a manure stain at all. It smelled good too, like eucalyptus and herbs. It reminded me of Esther’s special salves that she used to make and made me miss her.
She’d sent a card, telling us that she had arrived in Sweden to mountains of snow. I knew a day l
ike today wouldn’t have fazed her at all. She loved the cold. She was all about skiing and sledding and ice skating. Florida wasn’t really the place for her and I think she’d known that all along. She said that her father was doing a little better, even though there was no hope for a long term recovery and I was glad that she had made the decision to leave us to be with him. After all, it had worked out best for everyone in a funny sort of way. I still missed her though, on mornings like this and sometimes longed for the days when everything was simpler and we just went to little farm shows were it didn’t matter who won or lost and there were no points and qualifying scores and awards to strive for.
“You’ll be okay today, won’t you?” I asked Arion but he was too interested in his hay to bother with an answer.
I fetched his shipping boots and put them on along with his bell boots. It hadn’t taken long to realize that he was a master at pulling his shoes off. The poor farrier had already been out twice to nail one back on and I just hoped that he could manage to keep them on his feet during his warm up and dressage test.
Hampton already had his boots on. I could see the white fluff sticking out from the top of the bell boots that Mickey had got for Christmas. The ones that Miss. Fontain told her she’d need. We didn’t have fluffy boots and we were managing okay but I guess she wanted Mickey to look the part. After all, she had the black coat and the white breeches and the stock pin. Hampton had the dressage saddle and the fancy square pad and his white wraps and boots so that he could prance around the warm up ring and intimidate all the other riders.
Arion and I didn’t have much. I’d scrounged up a square pad and I was using an old dressage saddle that I’d found in the back of the tack room even though I wasn’t sure it fit Arion that well. I had the white breeches from the tack store and a plain black bridle that Miss. Fontain had lent us. It was nothing like the one Mickey had with her fancy browband and everything but it would have to do. After all, this wasn’t a career change, just a slight detour and besides, tack and clothes didn’t win ribbons anyway. As long as we looked clean and professional, that was good enough for me. And today wasn’t about winning anyway. It was about getting Arion the exposure he needed to see if he had the solid nerves it was going to take to be a show horse and it was mostly about being there for Mickey.
Half Halt (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 15) Page 8