I checked Hampton over one more time, making sure the grooms had done everything they were supposed to.
“You’d better be good today,” I whispered in his ear. “Your mom is counting on you.”
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR
I’d never been to a dressage show before but I had an image in my mind of what it was going to be like. Giant Warmbloods with huge, floating strides dancing across the rings as they performed their tests and riders with German accents and pointy elbows who looked down on everyone else as inferior because they probably were. But it wasn’t like that at all. Granted it was nothing like the usual mess that was hunter jumper land where horses spent their warm ups careening wildly over the warm up fence before going into the ring where instructors battled each other for the best spot on the ringside so that they could call out pointers to their students.
Here everything was quiet and calm, like visiting a seaside home for old folks. Music was being piped through the speakers, which would have been nice if it wasn’t more like elevator music but I held on to the hope that it would calm Arion. There were no crazy people galloping about, just a few people doing their own thing outside their stalls and a completely calm and quiet warm up ring where a couple of horses were trotting around.
“Where are all the crazy people?” I asked Miss. Fontain.
“Crazy people at a dressage show?” she scoffed. “Please.”
So I went to sign in at the show office in a sort of dream where horses floated past and riders weren’t screaming at one another or laughing loudly. Sure, there were groups here and there but no one was pointing at anyone else or making fun of them, at least not out loud. Maybe dressage riders did their back stabbing privately.
“I could definitely get used to this,” I said when I got back to the trailer.
“Maybe we’ll make a convert out of you yet then.” Miss. Fontain winked.
“I don’t know about that,” I said. “But it might be fun to come out every now and then. See how the civilized people ride.”
“I’m glad you approve,” Mickey said.
I spun around. “I didn’t know you were here!” I cried.
“Where else would I be?” she said.
She looked around and sighed. “Isn’t it lovely here?”
“Yes,” I said. “It is.”
And this time I wasn’t lying.
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE
With Hampton and Arion settled into their stalls, we were free to explore the show. Riders and grooms were quietly braiding their horses or running a last minute brush over shiny dappled coats. There were mirrors hung so that people could adjust their stock pin or tidy their hair before they went into the ring. One girl was doing another’s nails.
“Oh you’re going to fit right in here,” I said to Mickey.
“I know,” she said dreamily. “It’s like I’ve finally found my happy place.”
I looped my arm through hers. “I’m glad.”
We sat by the warm up ring and watched riders who were far better than we were make their horses do things we could only dream of. One girl had her big chestnut doing one-tempis across the arena, skipping across the diagonal as he changed leads with each stride. Another was doing a piaffe, her horse dancing in place.
“That will be me one day,” Mickey said.
“I know it will.” I squeezed her arm tightly.
We watched for a while until the wind picked up. It was freezing cold and the sun hadn’t warmed things up at all. Horses had fancy monogrammed quarter sheets over their rumps and several people were sitting with horse blankets wrapped around them, shivering as they clutched steaming cups of something hot.
“Let’s go and get some hot chocolate,” I said.
“Definitely.” Mickey’s teeth chattered as she replied.
The line for the concession stand was twenty people long. We stood there shivering, waiting our turn to get hot steaming sugary goodness. We were almost at the front when Ethan appeared.
“Mind if I cut in?” he said.
“Yes, we do,” Mickey replied.
“No, of course we don’t,” I said, giving her a shove in the ribs. “You can stand here with us.”
“Thanks.” He winked while Mickey gave me a death stare.
“What are you doing here anyway?” she snapped.
“Riding, just like you,” he said. “Mr. Rivers is making us. Eventers have to do dressage tests too you know.”
“Well why don’t you go and do them at a one of your stupid three day eventing shows then and leave my dressage show alone?” Mickey said coldly.
“We would.” Ethan shrugged. “But there aren’t any around here this month and Mr. Rivers said we suck so bad that we really need the practice.”
“Fine, whatever,” she said. “Just stay out of my way.”
“I wouldn’t dream of getting in your way,” he said. “Unless you want me to?”
“Emily, you can get my hot chocolate, can’t you?” Mickey said, ignoring him.
“Okay,” I said. “If you’re sure you don’t want to stay?”
“I’m sure,” she snapped.
She pressed a couple of dollars into my hand and stormed off back to our stalls.
“It won’t work,” I told Ethan. “She’s still mad at you and aren’t you sort of with Fern now anyway?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I think she thinks so but that wasn’t really what I had in mind.”
“Well maybe next time you’ll think twice before kissing someone,” I said.
“Maybe.” He shrugged.
But I doubted he would. Boys were stupid like that but I knew Mickey wasn’t much better. I was just glad I didn’t have a dog in that fight and doubly glad that by a lucky twist of fate, Ethan and Fern happened to be stalled on the other side of the barn. Their horses were behind ours and we didn’t have to see them or sit with them or watch them kiss or whatever else it was that Fern had in mind because I suspected she knew what she was doing more than she let on.
CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
Since we were both riding training level, Mickey and I got our horses ready together. We talked about how it would be cool if we got first and second and whether or not we would remember our test. It was fun to just think about going in the ring and riding a series of movements instead of galloping and jumping for a change. Not that I wouldn’t have gladly jumped Bluebird over anything if I had the chance but this was something I could enjoy with Mickey and I wanted to enjoy it. I didn’t feel the pressure I usually did to do better than Jess or to show the other girls who rode in my division that I was a force to be reckoned with. No one knew me or my horse here. It didn’t matter. All that mattered to me was that Arion didn’t lose his mind.
We took our horses to the warm up ring. Arion was prancing about on his tip toes, snorting at other horses and puffing out his chest.
“Is he a stallion?” one woman asked as she rode her timid looking mare by.
“No,” I said. “He just thinks he is.”
And for a moment I was embarrassed but then Arion spooked at a tiny pony that a little girl was riding past, leaping into the air and then landing with his legs splayed out like a foal and I just had to laugh. He was experiencing new things for the first time and of course he wasn’t going to be perfect or even good. That was what teaching a green horse was all about. Exposing them to things that they had never seen or done before and letting them know that it was okay. That they would get through it just fine because although Arion had been a racehorse and knew all about track life, he had probably never seen a prancing pony decked out in full dressage gear with a tiny girl dressed in a shadbelly on his back and to be honest, neither had I.
CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN
Arion wasn’t any better once we were actually inside the warm up ring. In fact, it just made him worse. We pranced and danced and not in the super cool way that the real dressage horses were doing it either. It was in the crazy off the track Thoroughbred sort of way. My
face was getting redder and redder as I tried to settle him down but he wouldn’t have any of it. Walk was out of the question. Trot was at super-fast Paso Fino speed and I didn’t even attempt a canter because I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold him and he’d just bolt straight out of the ring and probably run all the way home. Eventually Miss. Fontain beckoned me out of the ring.
“So,” I said brightly. “Should we scratch and call it a day?”
I wouldn’t have been disappointed if I had to. I couldn’t have cared less about riding around a dressage ring and if I didn’t have to do my test then I’d be able to help Mickey more. Not that she looked like she needed it. Hampton was at that very moment, executing a perfect trot to canter transition and Mickey and her horse looked perfectly in place with all the other dressage horses.
“No one scratches on my watch,” Miss. Fontain said. “Go and take him over there on that patch of grass and ride him until he starts to tire out.”
I guess Miss. Fontain came from the same school as my father where it didn’t matter if it was raining or snowing or you were in the middle of a heat wave. You could be sick, your horse could be acting up and your arm might be falling off but if you were entered, you still rode. Those were the rules. There was no scratching, unless of course your horse galloped madly off the showground like Sabrina had at the last show with Jess. I thought for one tiny split second that maybe I could let Arion loose for one minute but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. He’d get hurt for sure and there was a pretty good chance that as pumped up as he was, I’d never catch him again.
“Come on you nut job,” I told him as he frolicked past the trailers. “Settle down.”
Only trying to settle a rambunctious ex racehorse was pretty much an impossible task. He had boundless energy and wasn’t about to tire out any time soon like Miss. Fontain had suggested. I worked him in large, sweeping circles, trotting and cantering him around and around. But his head was high and he kept screaming for Hampton and the other horses in the warm up ring, now suffering from sudden onset separation anxiety.
“I knew it was a bad idea to bring you here,” I said, pulling his head up as he tried to put it between his front legs and buck. “You’re not ready.”
But at least this wasn’t a jumper show because I knew now that if it had been, he would have gone into orbit and I would have never been able to get through to him at all. Horses jumping and galloping about? That would have blown his mind. At least here in dressage world horses were all calm and completely under control. They ignored my silly Thoroughbred for the most part and didn’t encourage him.
I must have ridden him for thirty minutes before I finally felt his energy start to wane. His head wasn’t as high, his trot not as fast. He gave a sigh and shook his head as I let him walk.
“There,” I said. “Feel better?”
But now that I’d ridden him ragged, I wasn’t sure that he’d have enough energy to go in there and perform his dressage test and he looked a mess. Sweat down his neck. Dirt splattered all over his belly.
“It’s a good job I brought Henry’s special spray with me,” I told my silly horse.
I walked him around until his sides stopped heaving in and out and then took him back to the stalls to clean him up where I found Mickey sitting outside Hampton’s stall crying.
CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT
“What is it? What’s wrong?” I said.
I imagined the worst. Hampton had blown up in the warm up ring after I left or maybe pulled a shoe and gone lame. Then of course it could have had nothing to do with the horses at all. Perhaps she’d seen Ethan kissing Fern and realized that she wasn’t mad at him after all. That she still had feelings for him and now was completely crushed.
“I can’t remember my test,” she wailed.
“That’s all?” I said, feeling relieved.
“All?” she looked up at me all mad and teary eyed. “That’s everything. If I can’t remember the test then I can’t do the test, can I? I’ll look like a fool out there when I trot instead of canter and circle in the wrong place.”
“Look, let’s go over it together,” I said calmly as my sweaty horse rubbed his face on my arm. “I’m sure once you look over it again it will all come back.”
“I have been looking over it,” she cried, flapping a piece of paper about. “I’ve been looking over it ever since I got out of the warm up ring but as soon as I put it down I forget again. It’s like the moves just evaporate from my brain into thin air.”
“Well then I’ll just have to stand by the ring and call out your test for you like we originally planned,” I said.
“But you have to be on Arion, getting ready for your own test,” she said. “I’ve seen the ride times. You go straight after me.”
“I don’t think anything will make Arion less ready than he already is.” I laughed. “Miss. Fontain can hold him and I’ll jump right on as soon as you are done.”
“Are you sure?” she said.
“Of course I’m sure. I told you. I’m here for you today, this thing with Ari is not important. He’s just here to get used to all this stuff, not win any ribbons. You’re the one who is into dressage now. This is important to you.”
“Thank you,” she said. “Really. I mean it.”
“I know,” I said. “Now stop crying and fix your face because you look like a raccoon. I told you that you shouldn’t have put on so much mascara.”
“Next time I’ll buy waterproof,” she said, wiping her face.
“Next time you shouldn’t wear any,” I said.
“What, with all the cute boys around?” She pointed to a good looking guy who was walking past in breeches, leading a tall, weedy looking black horse. “No way.”
“You really are hopeless.” I shook my head. “Now come on, get your act together and get ready to kick some butt.”
“And impress the cute guys?” she said hopefully.
“And impress the cute guys.” I sighed, shaking my head.
She really was a lost cause when it came to love and boy crushes but if I could get her through her dressage test in one piece then I’d worry about all that other stuff later.
CHAPTER THIRTY NINE
The dressage show ran like a well-oiled machine. It was the most organized thing I’d ever been to. You didn’t have to wait around ages while your class was delayed and guess at your ride time by doing weird and complex calculations in your head. Here your ride time was set in stone and you got yourself to the ring on the dot or you could just forget about riding.
“Now remember,” Miss. Fontain told a nervous looking Mickey. “Just go in there and have fun. You know what you are doing. Just don’t psych yourself out about it because Hampton will know if you're stressed and it will make him nervous too. We don’t want that now do we?”
“No.” Mickey shook her head and applied another layer of pink lip gloss to her already over saturated lips.
“That’s enough,” I told her, swiping the tube and sticking it in her grooming box. “You are good to go.”
“Are you sure?” she said, already biting the lip gloss off.
“Of course. You’ve got this.”
“Now don’t forget,” Miss. Fontain told her. “Trot into the arena and wait for the bell to ring. Use that time to settle Hampton and make sure he is focused and supple. After the bell rings you only have forty five seconds to get your horse into the dressage ring.”
“But what if I’m stuck at the other end of the arena?” Mickey looked panicked. “What if I can’t get there in time?”
“You will get there in time or you’ll be eliminated. Turn him around and canter if you have to but I’m not having you disqualified before you even get in there. Have you got that straight?”
“Yes.” Mickey nodded.
“Very good. Let’s go.”
We both nudged a green looking Mickey towards her horse.
“Do you need to puke before you mount up?” I whispered.
“I don�
�t think so.” She gulped. “I didn’t eat any breakfast. There is nothing in my stomach to puke up.”
So we shoved her up into the saddle and made sure she headed in the direction of the ring and not off somewhere to lose track of time and miss her test.
“Look,” I told her, pointing to where the rider before her was finishing up. “That’s the cute guy.”
The guy with the weedy black horse was circling at the canter. His horse was chomping at the bit and shaking his head.
“I’m better than that,” Mickey said.
“Of course you are,” I said.
We pulled off Hampton’s wraps and bell boots and I ran a rag over Mickey’s boots.
“You’ve been so nice to me,” Mickey said, looking all sappy again. “I was worried that you wouldn’t care but you do, you really do.”
“I told you,” I said. “This show is all about you. Now go in there and kill it.”
CHAPTER FORTY
I stood by the white boards that made up the dressage ring, calling out the movements to my best friend with a loud, clear voice but she didn’t need them. I could tell the moment she got into the ring she was fine. Her nerves had just melted away. She trotted Hampton down one side until the bell rang and circled him back before entering. There was a smile on her face as she trotted and cantered. Hampton did the best walk I’d ever seen and I finally figured out what a free walk should be and knew that my own horse had never actually done one.
Half Halt (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 15) Page 9