Winter Blues (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 3) Read online

  WINTER BLUES

  BY

  CLAIRE SVENDSEN

  Copyright © 2014 Claire Svendsen

  All rights reserved

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission of the Author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Your support of author’s rights is appreciated.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, places or events is purely coincidental.

  For Dee, who never takes a day off!

  CHAPTER ONE

  “Remind me why we are doing this again?” Mickey groaned.

  She was sitting on the back of Hampton at the in gate, a brisk breeze blowing in from the North. Bluebird was tied to the trailer because even though we’d rented him a stall at the show, he wouldn’t go in it. I could see him now, his butt to the wind and face stuffed in his hay net.

  “Because we are winners,” I said.

  “Are you sure about that?” Mickey asked and pointed to the ring where Ethan had just wiped out a triple combination.

  He came out of the ring, red faced and sullen but still managed to pat his stocky chestnut Wendell on the neck.

  “It was my fault boy,” he said.

  “Yes it was,” Esther snapped.

  She was wearing her best breeches and boots, even though she wasn’t riding. The influx of cash from the new students who enrolled in lessons after summer camp had allowed her to purchase polo shirts and sweaters with the Sand Hill logo on them. It was supposed to be two sand hill cranes majestically flying over a horse barn but we all thought it looked like a rainbow over a pile of manure.

  “Why do you kids always need perfect weather to do well? Back in Sweden we rode in the gales and the snow. Sometimes I could hardly see the jumps through the snow flurries but guess what, I jumped them anyway. That was dedication, something you are all sadly lacking.”

  Mickey leaned down as Esther walked away.

  “She’s such a liar. All the barns have indoor arenas over there. She had it better than we do.”

  “I think she’s just trying to inspire us,” I said.

  But since the summer, Esther hadn’t been herself. She’d snapped at us a lot more than usual and once I thought I heard her crying in the bathroom.

  “Don’t forget,” I said. “She runs the barn all by herself and we are basically the product of all her hard work. If we don’t do well, it reflects badly on her.”

  “Well I’m going to nail it,” Mickey said as they called her number. “Want to know why?”

  I nodded as I gave her boots a final wipe. “Yes, do impart your wisdom upon us oh mighty one,” I teased.

  “I’m going to leave Hampton the heck alone and let him do his job for once.”

  “Good luck,” I said.

  But leaving Hampton to his own devices on a blustery, cold day was obviously the wrong decision. He spooked at a sweater that was flapping on the rail and a fake bunch of roses that launched into the air like a missile as he was flying over the last vertical. The top pole came down with a resounding thud.

  “It’s not your fault,” I told Mickey as she came out of the ring looking crestfallen. “A horse would have to be half dead not to freak out at all the stuff blowing around out here today.”

  “Bluebird seems all right,” she said, pointing to the trailer.

  “Well I guess there is still hope then,” I said.

  The pony jumper class was the last one of the day. Bluebird was the only pony from our barn competing. If I didn’t place then I wouldn’t qualify for the Winter Blizzard Challenge, a series of three shows ending in the Snowball Cup. The prize was two thousand dollars and I really needed the money. My mom was spending all her savings planning the wedding of the century. It was something I preferred not to think about at all but either way Bluebird needed a new blanket for the winter and they didn’t come cheap. If I didn’t win the money he would be spending the whole winter outside in his paddock, freezing his little butt off.

  “He’s all hairy,” Mom had said when I had tried to talk to her about it. “I don’t see why he needs clothes.”

  “He needs a blanket because I have to clip him,” I said, pushing her wedding magazines out of the way. “If I don’t clip him then it will take too long to cool him off after I ride and he’ll catch a chill.”

  “It’s Florida Emily, don’t be so dramatic.”

  When it came to horses, my mother didn’t understand and now it was even worse. She had Derek, nodding in the background. He didn’t even like animals at all, the only thing he seemed to care about was his cars, all five of them, lined up on our driveway like some kind of fancy limo service.

  “What does he even need five cars for?” I asked.

  “He just likes them,” Mom said.

  But I could see the way she glared at them as she had to park in the street. Our place was barely big enough for me and Mom. With Derek moving in there just wasn’t any room at all. We were like sardines packed into a can and any day now we were going to blow the top right off. It wasn’t a question of if it happened but rather a question of when.

  “You want a blanket so that you stay all toasty and warm this winter, right?” I asked Bluebird as I brushed him.

  He didn’t answer.

  “Hope you brought your hockey mask,” Jess snapped as she walked by, dragging her new pony Stardust behind her. “One of these days that little monster is going to break your nose.”

  I didn’t answer. It was better just to ignore Jess, even though she was infuriating. It wasn’t enough that she and her sister had amazingly talented twin Hanoverian mares which they won consistently on but after giving up Bluebird because she was unable to ride him, Jess had talked her father into buying a new pony just so she could beat me in the pony jumper classes. Stardust was the tiny mare we’d found tied up in Jess’s barn over the summer but one call to animal control later and Jess had found a new way to torture her mount. Lunge her until she was practically half dead. As they walked off I could see the sweat dripping from the poor pony’s stomach. With any luck by the time they got to the ring, Stardust would just flat out refuse to jump and dump Jess on her butt.

  “Too bad we can’t rescue all the ponies,” Mickey said, leaning against the trailer with a steaming mug of hot coffee in her hand.

  “Yeah, I don’t think Jess will be sending that one to the kill auction any time soon.”

  It had only been by sheer luck that I’d managed to rescue Bluebird from the dog food men and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the help of Ethan and Sally, the girl who once owned him.

  “I wish she could have come to see us jump today,” I whispered into Bluebird’s mane.

  But Sally was back at Twin Spires, a boarding school for young riders. She’d sent me a text that morning wishing me good luck and telling me that I’d better not let that awful Jess beat me. When I told Mickey, she just grinned.

  “See, I told you there were perks to getting an evil stepfather,” she said. “You got a new phone, didn’t you?”

  “I’d rather just go without the phone,” I grumbled. I didn’t need another father. The one I had was good enough, even though I didn’t know where he was.

  “You ready to warm up?” Esther appeared, also holding a cup of hot coffee.

  “What’s with all the hot drinks?” I said. “Where is my coffee? I’m cold too you know.”

  “Win your class and you can have all the coffee you want,” Esther said.


  “Fine,” I grumbled. “Torture me why don’t you?”

  Only I was kind of glad I didn’t have the coffee churning around in my stomach because by the time I got to the warm up ring there was a bunch of ponies sailing over the warm up jump. It seemed like everyone in a hundred mile radius had brought their ponies to qualify for the Blizzard Challenge and no one was going to go down without a fight.

  “Watch it,” a girl on a pretty gray called out as she and another girl tried to take the jump at the same time.

  “I was here first,” the other girl snapped.

  “No you weren’t.”

  “Yes I was.”

  “Really?” Esther shouted at them. “Are we in preschool now? Can you just get on with it so my student can have her turn? And where are your trainers?”

  Both girls pointed to a lean man in breeches who was standing next to Jess and Stardust. Andre, the Fox Run Farm trainer. He was good and he produced winners. Once upon a time I’d dreamt of being noticed by him at one of the shows and having him take me under his wing. Now I wasn’t so sure. If we were an example of how Esther taught, then Jess was an example of how Andre taught and there was no way I was going to end up a spoiled brat who didn’t care one bit about her horse.

  “This is ridiculous,” Esther said as more riders tried to take the jump together. “Think you can get by without a warm up jump?”

  “Sure,” I said. “Bluebird knows what he’s doing.”

  “Good, then go down to the end of the ring where it’s quiet and work him on the flat for a bit. Not too much though. I don’t want him getting all worked up in this weather.”

  I took Bluebird down to the far end and pushed him into a working trot. He was eager and supple beneath me. I’d been riding him every day and we both had the muscles to prove it. I let him canter for a minute and then slowed him to a walk. Andre had taken over the warm up jump and was directing his students to take turns one at a time. I watched as Jess kicked her heels into her pony’s sides and Stardust dug her heels in right at the last minute. Jess sailed over the pony’s head and landed on the pole with a crack.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The last time Jess fell off at a show, she was in the ring. She wailed and cried and Andre was the one who had to come in and yell at her to get up because there was quite obviously nothing wrong with her. But this time he was the one telling her to lay still and not move and she was pushing him out of the way and trying to stand. I walked Bluebird over to Esther.

  “Should we do something?” I asked.

  “There is no way I’m touching that with a ten foot barge pole,” she said.

  I didn’t really know what she meant but I guessed it was something along the lines of no way and that was my sentiment exactly.

  “I’m fine,” I heard Jess shout as she got up, pushing a group of girls out of the way. “Leave me alone.”

  They trailed after her like some sad sort of posse. One was carrying her crop, another had her helmet. Andre stood there holding Stardust’s reins like he didn’t know what to do.

  “If you think that’s going to keep me out of the competition, you have another thing coming,” she spat as she limped by.

  Despite our rivalry, I suddenly had a little more respect for Jess. She was usually the one who bawled her eyes out if she chipped a nail. Somewhere along the way the girl had found some guts. Of course that didn’t mean I was going to take it easy on her.

  Bluebird stood at the in gate ready to go. I’d banished Ethan and Mickey to the rail as they were making me nervous. I already knew how important this class was, I didn’t need them reminding me every five seconds.

  “We have to do this boy,” I told Bluebird. “We really need to win.”

  The top five in the class would qualify for the Blizzard Challenge as would the top five riders from other shows in the region. But Bluebird and I didn’t have the money to travel to another show if we didn’t do well in this one. This was our only chance.

  We stepped into the ring, I circled Bluebird and then the bell rang. As I pointed him at the first jump and as he threw his little head in the air my fears vanished. We had this. There was no way Bluebird was going to lose. Over the vertical, the double oxer, the triple oxer. Every jump stayed up, even the one with the fake roses that were still blowing about in the breeze. Bluebird didn’t care. He lived outside in a paddock where stuff blew at him every day. As I pulled him to a walk after a clear round, I was suddenly glad that he refused to go into a stall.

  We stayed in the ring for our jump off round. The course was only five jumps but they had chosen ones that were spread out at opposite ends of the arena. Riders really had to gallop to try and get the fastest time but it was difficult to let it all out and then rein the horses back in so that they could round over the jumps and not knock them down. I’d only seen a couple of people finish their jump off round clear and they had been the ones who’d gone slow. We were going to have to do both.

  The bell rang and I closed my legs around my pony’s sides. He was an old pro at this. He knew what it meant. This was the time to let it all out. I clung to his back like an ant, the wind whipping my face as we took the yellow and white, the rose jump and the blue oxer. There were only two left. The triple oxer and the skinny red, the last jump just one pole lightly resting between two jump standards.

  We cleared the triple and galloped to the last jump. I had to check him at just the right minute. Not too soon and not too late or that pole would come down for sure. I held my breath and hoped I saw the same distance Bluebird did. Checked him just enough that he slowed a pace and rocked back on his tiny haunches to leap over the jump.

  Cheers erupted from the crowd, people suddenly excited to see someone go for it and put in a great ride.

  “Good job,” Esther patted Bluebird on the neck as we came out of the ring.

  “Do you think it was good enough?” I asked, slipping to the ground.

  “Honey, if that wasn’t good enough then I don’t know what is.”

  I walked Bluebird away from the crowds to cool him out and then tied him up back at the trailer with his hay net. He started eating again like he hadn’t just done something really important.

  “Thanks for being good,” I said, hugging him.

  Jess and Stardust were getting ready to go in the ring when I joined Ethan and Mickey.

  “You looked awesome out there,” Mickey said. “Bluebird is hilarious. He never looks like he’s going to make it and then just throws himself over the jump at the last minute.”

  “You should try riding him,” I said. “It feels even worse up in the saddle. But it also feels pretty amazing.”

  “Look, there is Jess,” Ethan pointed.

  Jess was sitting on the strawberry roan pony at the in gate. Even from here I could see that her face was pale. She crushed a jump pole with her body so despite swearing that she was fine I knew that she had to at least be sore.

  A few feet down the rail her posse broke into cheers as she came into the ring. Amber, her sister, was among them. She had ridden her black mare Belle in the hunter classes earlier in the day and had picked up some first and second place ribbons but obviously she hadn’t been fortunate enough to get her own pony to try and cream me with. She probably didn’t care. Where Jess was all tooth and nails, Amber was sweet and soft. If Jess wasn’t around, telling her to hate me, then I had a feeling that Amber and I would be friends but that was never going to happen.

  The bell rang and Jess picked up her reins. Stardust was already foaming at the mouth. After dumping Jess off in the warm up ring, I’d seen Andre riding her and it hadn’t been pretty. The poor pony looked traumatized. She showed the whites of her eyes as Jess rode towards the first jump.

  I found myself holding my breath. I didn’t want Jess to get hurt and I didn’t want poor Stardust to do badly and be punished for it later but I needed to place in the top five.

  “Come on Jess,” one of the girls in the posse shouted.
/>   The noise startled Stardust who spooked at the first jump and rapped the rail but it didn’t fall.

  “That girl won’t be in Jess’s crowd by tomorrow,” Mickey said under her breath.

  It wasn’t an easy round to watch. Jess overrode Stardust where she should have left her alone and did nothing where Stardust could have used a supporting leg.

  “That girl has no business riding that pony,” Esther shook her head.

  It was unlike her to criticize other trainer’s students but this time I didn’t blame her. Jess was an accident waiting to happen and her incident in the warm up ring would be nothing if she carried on the way she was.

  “Maybe we’ll be rescuing another pony from the kill auction after all,” Mickey said.

  But Jess somehow managed to pull off a clear round.

  “I don’t think I can watch the jump off,” I said. “It’s going to be too horrible.”

  I walked back to the trailer, listening as the crowd gasped. It sounded like there were close calls at every jump but as I reached Bluebird and lay my head across his warm back, I heard the crowd cheer. Jess had obviously gone clean and there was a good chance she’d place in the top five.

  “She’s going to chase us every step of the way,” I told Bluebird.

  “They went clean,” Mickey said breathlessly. She’d run all the way from the ring to tell me, her hands clamped to her sides. “And I have a stitch.”

  “You need to exercise more,” I laughed.

  “Why?” she leaned lazily against the trailer. “Hampton does all the work.”

  I just sighed. There were times when I just didn’t understand Mickey at all.

  There were a lot of entries in the pony jumper class. We hung around for ages, waiting to find out if I had placed and when the dust settled and three kids had fallen off their ponies, I found out that Bluebird and I had won the class.

  We stood in the ring proudly as they pinned the blue ribbon on his bridle. Four ponies down, Jess accepted her fifth place ribbon. She’d managed to squeak in by the skin of her teeth. As we took a victory canter around the ring, I heard her heels clap against Stardust’s sides and the next minute she came barreling past us.