Hunter Pace (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 7) Read online

  Lately I’d felt like a stranger in my own home and had started locking my bedroom door at night after Derek accused me of stealing some riding clothes and then practically broke down my door with his fists. Since then everything had been even worse than it already was. All I could do was hope that one day my mother would come to her senses and divorce him. So far that hadn’t happened.

  “And now,” I carried on. “She thinks that she’ll be able to ride Bluebird but I don’t want her to. You should have seen the way she yanked on his reins just because she was mad. His face got that hurt look on it. He hadn’t even done anything wrong. I won’t let her ruin him.”

  “You don’t have to let her ride him if you don’t want to,” Mom said. “She gave up her own horse. It’s not right of her to expect that you’ll replace him for her.”

  “But I have to figure out something else for her to ride or she will expect to keep riding Bluebird, especially now that I have Fury to ride too.”

  “There you go,” Mom said. “Why don’t you let Mickey ride the new pony?”

  “I can’t,” I sighed. “She doesn’t like it when other people ride her. That’s why Miguel sent her down here.”

  “I’m not sure I like the idea of you riding a pony that other people can’t,” Mom said, now looking worried. “Are you sure she is safe?”

  “Perfectly,” I lied.

  Mom didn’t know how Fury had jumped out of the arena or that we had been lost in the woods at Black Gate for hours. And she most definitely didn’t know that we had jumped over a tree that was on fire to save ourselves. If she knew any of that then I’d never be allowed near a horse ever again because when your sister dies in a riding accident and you’re lucky enough to have scraped your way back into the horse world, you have to omit certain details of your riding life if you want it to continue.

  “Well what about the lesson horses?” Mom was really trying to help me figure this thing out, which was sweet and kind of weird.

  “Maybe,” I said. “But that’s up to Esther. She never replaced Harlow and most of the ponies are too small though. All the other horses are already working really hard.”

  “Guess she’ll have to go without then,” Mom sighed.

  “I guess,” I said.

  “It’s not your responsibility so don’t worry about it.”

  But even though I knew Mom was right, it somehow did feel like my responsibility to find Mickey a horse to ride. I’d toyed with the idea of talking to Jess and getting her to give Hampton back but deep down I knew that would never happen. Jess actually liked Hampton. Mickey was going to be lucky to get him back at all. If she rode him as well at shows as she was at home then her father would write out a check that Mickey’s parents couldn’t refuse and it sounded like they needed the money, which was strange. Mickey always had everything she wanted. They practically lived right on the beach in a nice house, drove expensive cars and always had new clothes. I knew they weren’t millionaires or anything but Mickey never had to scrape for stuff like I had. But Mickey said the lease money had already gone on a new roof. That didn’t sound good.

  Mom and I dozed on the couch until it was late and then went to bed but I couldn’t sleep. I stared at the ceiling and tried to figure out how to make everything better again. Ethan had already threatened to leave Sand Hill and move to an eventing barn because he was getting bored with show jumping. Mickey was back but she didn’t have a horse. Esther was struggling to make ends meet again what with the loss of Hampton and a slow decline in lessons. We needed something to bring everyone back together. Something fun we could all help plan that would bring business to Sand Hill and make everyone remember what was really important, how much we all loved horses.

  “That’s it,” I suddenly cried, sitting bolt upright in bed. “A hunter pace. We need to put on a hunter pace.”

  It didn’t matter that I’d never ridden in one or that I didn’t have the faintest idea how to put one on. All I knew was that it involved galloping through the woods and jumping over logs. It sounded exactly like the sort of fun we all needed.

  “Esther will know what to do,” I told myself before drifting off into unconsciousness.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  It rained for the next few days. A solid, steady rain that wouldn’t let up. I couldn’t go to the barn so I spent my time researching hunter paces. Apparently you gathered together teams and rode a course that had already been set up through the woods and fields. There were logs and stuff that you could jump or not if you didn’t want to and whichever team finished nearest to the optimum time won, which was cool because it meant you couldn’t just gallop like crazy or you might finish too fast. Esther would like that. It made the whole thing sound safe. Only I was wrong.

  “They’re not safe,” were the first words out of her mouth when I told her.

  “Of course they are,” I said. “Lots of barns and riding clubs hold them. Look.”

  The few days spent on my laptop had wielded a ton of results. I printed out flyers from other hunter paces, including pictures and everything, all neatly put together in a proposition folder. She couldn’t say that I wasn’t dedicated and serious about the whole thing.

  “If we host it,” I said. “And Sand Hill is the starting point then it will bring in business.”

  “We’d need to lay out a course,” she said, looking at the maps I’d included. “And ask permission to ride on people’s land.”

  “I’ve got it all figured out,” I said, pointing to a red line I’d drawn on one of the maps. “Look. We can go through this way and there are only a few properties to cross until we get to that farm land where the cows are. We can ride through there for the most part and then circle back. It will be fun.”

  “It might be,” she said. “I’ll think about it.”

  “Alright,” I said, disappointed that she hadn’t jumped at the idea like I thought she would.

  “Now stop hounding me. You have two ponies to ride so you’d better get to it.”

  “Yes, I know,” I said.

  “Oh and Emily,” she called after me as I was walking away. “You could have warned me that Fury might try and rip my arm off when I went in to clean her stall.”

  Whoops.

  “Sorry,” I called back. “What with all the Mickey drama, I forgot.”

  Fury was standing in the back of her stall sleeping. She pricked her ears when she saw me. I took a piece of Pop Tart out of my pocket and fed it to her. She snuffled for more but I pushed her away.

  “You’re on rations now girl,” I told her. “My mom can’t afford to buy a million boxes of these and besides, they can’t really be very good for you. And you have to be nice to Esther. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. Okay?”

  I was in the tack room getting all my stuff together when Mickey appeared. I was hoping she wouldn’t show up so that I wouldn’t have to deal with her but there she was in her riding clothes so she obviously expected to ride.

  “Hey,” she said.

  “Hey,” I replied.

  “You riding?”

  “Yes,” I said, digging around in my trunk for some boots for Fury.

  “Fury?” she said.

  “And Bluebird after.”

  “Oh,” she said. “I was hoping I could maybe ride Bluebird again.”

  I stood up, boots in one hand and bridle in the other. I wanted to throw them at her. Now she wanted to ride? When her own horse had gone? Maybe that was what this was all about. Perhaps she was scared of Hampton since he was the one she fell off and now that he was out of the picture, she was happy to be back in the saddle again. But not at my expense and not at that of my pony either.

  “No, sorry,” I said. “It’s been raining and I haven’t ridden him all week. I’m really looking forward to jumping him today.”

  “But you can jump Fury,” she said, her voice small.

  “No, I can’t,” I said. “She’s getting over some issues with jumping. She’s grounded for now. Flatwork only
.”

  “Well maybe I could ride her then?” she said, her face looking all meek and hopeful.

  “That’s not a good idea,” I said, pushing past her and out into the barn aisle.

  “Why not?” she said.

  “Because you’d probably end up in another coma.”

  “That’s not funny,” she snapped, following after me.

  “I’m not being funny,” I replied, turning around to face her. “I’m being serious. Fury is here because for some reason I’m the only person she’ll let ride her. Even Miguel couldn’t do anything with her. That’s why you can’t ride her. And Bluebird is my pony and I want to ride him too. I’m sorry.”

  We stood there awkwardly for a moment, staring at each other.

  “Why don’t you ask Esther if you can exercise one of the lesson horses?” I said.

  “Never mind,” she looked down at her feet. “It doesn’t matter.”

  “Mickey,” I said softly. “It does matter. You want to ride, so go ask her.”

  But it seemed that Mickey didn’t want to ride just any horse, she wanted to ride my horses. She moped around while I got Fury ready and followed behind as I took her out to the ring. Fury was just as fresh today as she’d been that first day and when I got on her she started to jig just like she had at Black Gate. But I stayed quiet in the saddle, giving her reassuring pats and talking to her in a whispering voice and soon I was able to coax a quiet trot and canter out of her.

  “Keep up the good work and you’ll be jumping in no time,” I told her as I took her back to the barn.

  Ethan was inside tacking up Wendell.

  “Hey,” he said. “I was just going to come out and ride with you.”

  “Cool,” I said. “Wait for me to get Bluebird ready. We can go out in the field.”

  “Alright,” he grinned. “You have to tell me all about this hunter pace you’re planning.”

  “Esther hasn’t said yes yet,” I sighed.

  “But you know she will,” he said. “Come on, I have a bunch of ideas.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  It was nice to get out of the barn. Mickey was still there, moping around and looking all sad but there wasn’t anything I could do about it.

  “Why is she even here?” Ethan asked as we walked our horses out to the jump field. “I mean I’m glad that she is and everything but isn’t it a bit late?”

  “That’s what I told her,” I said. “She wants to ride Bluebird but I want to ride Bluebird,” I paused. “Is that mean?”

  “No,” Ethan shook his head. “She did this to herself. She should have saved Hampton when she had the chance. Who knows what Jess is doing to him over there?” He pointed to the back of the property.

  “Well if it’s anything like the other day, he is probably having a fun old time,” I said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “We saw them from the ridge. He was jumping over a course with Jess and doing really well.”

  “I bet Mickey didn’t like that very much,” Ethan said.

  “She didn’t,” I said. “And she took it out on Bluebird. That’s why I don’t want her riding him. It’s not his fault.”

  I patted Bluebird’s soft chestnut neck. It felt good to be on his back. Familiar. Comfortable. Like coming home.

  “Come on,” I said. “Talk later. Jumping first.”

  We warmed up on the grass, trotting and cantering until our horses were loose. Then we took on the fences. There were only a few set up. Some verticals, one oxer and a wall. Bluebird was so happy to be jumping again. His ears were pricked and he had an extra bounce in his stride. It felt like forever since I had jumped him and I’d missed the way he skipped over the fences with his head held high.

  When we finished I patted his neck. Ethan and Wendell had taken on the jumps with the same gusto and hadn’t touched any rails either. He was patting Wendell on the neck too as we slowed to a walk to cool our horses off.

  “Don’t look now,” he said. “But Mickey was watching us.”

  He pointed to the end of the barn were Mickey was sitting on the ground playing with the cat but we knew she’d really been staring at us the whole time.

  “This has to stop,” I said. “It’s crazy and kind of creepy. We have to find her another horse to ride.”

  “How?” Ethan said.

  “I don’t know,” I shook my head. “But I’ll think of something. So tell me what you think about the hunter pace?”

  “I think it’s an awesome idea,” he grinned.

  We walked our horses through grass that was starting to grow tall and talked about the hunter pace and the course. Ethan agreed that he would help me get permission from the local land owners so that we could ride across their property, which was comforting. I wasn’t exactly too keen on walking up to complete strangers and asking them if we could gallop across their fields. And if one of them said no, then we’d have to pick a different course altogether.

  “What about prizes?” Ethan said. “If we want people to enter then we should have a really good prize and a cup and everything.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that,” I said. “You really think we need a cup?”

  “A big one,” Ethan nodded.

  When we took the horses back to the barn, Mickey was still there just hanging around.

  “What are you guys talking about?” she asked.

  “Planning a hunter pace,” Ethan said. “Want to help?”

  “A hunter pace?” she said.

  “To drum up business for the barn,” I said.

  “And because it’s going to be fun,” Ethan grinned. “You know, galloping across fields and jumping over fallen logs, just like in the movies.”

  “But in a controlled way,” I added as I saw Esther approaching.

  “It had better be in a controlled way,” she said. “If we are doing this then we are going to do it right. No one else is going to end up in the hospital. Right Mickey?”

  “You don’t have to worry about me,” she said. “I don’t have a horse to ride, remember?”

  There was an awkward silence. I busied myself under Bluebird’s saddle flap, loosening his girth. I knew everyone was looking at me and thinking I was some kind of monster because I wasn’t sharing.

  “Well come into the office when you’ve put your horses away and let’s see if this is something we can really put on,” Esther said.

  “Yes,” Ethan cried, high fiving me.

  “This is going to be so great,” I told Bluebird as I put him away. “You’ll love galloping through the woods and jumping over things. I promise you.”

  I’d already decided that Fury would be sitting this one out. Getting lost in the woods once on her was enough and besides, I didn’t trust her enough to behave and she wouldn’t have been able to jump anything anyway. But first and foremost I wanted this to be something fun, for me and for everyone else.

  It took the rest of the afternoon to talk Esther into putting on the hunter pace. She said that she was more interested in going to shows than putting on shows but I explained to her that this would just be the starting point and she wouldn’t really have to do anything, although technically that wasn’t true. I just wanted to wait until she was completely on board before I told her that she’d need to head up a halfway check point and man it for us.

  And then there was Mickey. She’d agreed to help us plan everything. Without a horse, she could help Esther on the ground but I knew more than anything she wanted to ride too. I just didn’t know what to do about it.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  We made flyers and sent them to all the local barns, feed stores and tack shops. I found a cute picture of a horse galloping cross country and we used that at the top along with a photo of a gold cup. We didn’t actually have a cup yet but I hoped that we’d get one otherwise Esther said it would be false advertising. I said I’d handle it. I just wasn’t sure how. Like I wasn’t sure how I was going to get Mickey a horse to ride. So far she’d refused to ride any o
f the the lesson horses and I didn’t seem to be able to change her mind.

  “What about Saffron?” Ethan asked.

  We were sitting in the barn office, planning the hunter pace. We only had a few weeks to get ready. Soon it would be too hot and no one wanted to be galloping about getting heat stroke. First aid and paramedics weren’t in our budget. So far we had only managed to pool enough money together for the red and white flags that would mark out the course in the woods and numbers for the riders.

  “She’s out of shape and kind of crazy,” I said. “Besides, Esther would never go for it.”

  “You’re really sure that you can’t ride Fury so that she can ride Bluebird just one more time?”

  I shook my head. No one at home knew about how we’d been lost in the woods and then jumped over a tree that was on fire to save ourselves. I couldn’t risk word getting back to my mother. It was safer that the only people who knew about it were me and Miguel Rodriguez and since the chance of my mom ever meeting Miguel were slim to none, I felt pretty confident that she would never find out.

  “Well she’s just going to have to deal with it then,” Ethan shrugged.

  “Agreed,” I said. “Want to help me get permission to ride over the back fields?” I said. “Without that we may not even be able to hold the hunter pace in the first place.”

  “True,” he said. “I didn’t think of that.”

  We told Esther where we were going and saddled our horses, then rode off armed with flyers so that we could show people we were serious. It was too far to walk on foot and the horses were happy to be out on the trail. When we got to the top of the ridge, we looked across the fields. We had two choices. Ask Mr. Eastford if he’d mind a bunch of people riding over his pristine fields and lawn or try and see if the neighbors would be more obliging. We voted for the neighbors, especially since I’d already met them once when Bluebird escaped.