Two Strides (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 30) Read online

  “I mean it,” I said. “Dakota used to live in Texas and she probably went back there and that must be where Four is. I need my horse back. I can’t just let her get away with stealing him.”

  “Do you know how big Texas is?” Dad said.

  He’d finished cleaning stalls and was filling water buckets, dragging the hose from stall to stall and sloshing the water all over his feet.

  “It’s big, I know,” I said. “But we’ll narrow it down, somehow.”

  “How are you going to narrow it down?” Dad said. “Drive around aimlessly until you find him?”

  “No,” I replied stubbornly.

  “Well it doesn’t matter,” Dad said. “We don’t have the gas money to get to Texas and we don’t have the money to drive around Texas so I’m sorry but there is no way we could get there, even if you knew exactly where Four was.”

  “Well what am I supposed to do about it?” I said. “Forget about him?”

  “If it helps?” Dad said. “And keep better tabs on your horses next time.”

  “That’s not fair,” I told him. “I was trusting Missy to do that.”

  “Well now you know not to trust people so much,” Dad said. “Lesson learned.”

  I didn’t think that was exactly fair. How was I to know that Missy hated me so much that she would let someone steal my horse away. That was a low blow. As low as you could go. Only it wasn’t. I was out in the ring schooling Bluebird when a trailer came swaying down the lane. The Fox Run trailer.

  “Dad,” I called over to where he was helping Jordan fix a fence. “I think we’ve got trouble.”

  He looked up and over at the trailer, pulling off his work gloves. There was no reason for the trailer to be here. For one moment I thought that maybe Missy had tracked down Four and found him. Sent him over here to me. But then Henry jumped out of the truck and went around the back to put the ramp down and I could see that the trailer was empty. Henry wasn’t dropping off. He was picking up.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  “I’m real sorry to have to do this,” Henry said as we all stood there in a circle. “I’m just following orders.”

  “But she has no right,” I said.

  “Actually she does,” Dad said. “The horse still belongs to her.”

  “But she practically gave him to me,” I cried. “She couldn’t even ride him. Everyone knows that.”

  “But she never signed the papers over to you,” Dad said gently. “She never made it official.”

  “I hate her,” I yelled. “How could she do this to me. I won’t let you take him. I just won’t.”

  For a moment I imagined jumping on Socks bareback and galloping off down the lane. He was fast. No one would ever catch us. But then what? We had nowhere to go. No place to hide. Eventually Socks would need food and water and we would need shelter. A life on the run with a horse wasn’t exactly practical and what about the ones I’d leave behind that still needed me? Bluebird and Arion and Sunny, Bandit and Phoenix and Faith’s new pony Falcon. I couldn’t abandon them all.

  “Please don’t do this Henry,” I begged the old groom. “You know me, you know Socks. You know how we are a team.”

  Henry looked beaten down, like he was sick of being stuck in the middle.

  “I’m real sorry,” he said again. “I’m just doing my job.”

  “It’s okay Henry,” Dad said. “You can take the horse.”

  “No,” I screamed as Henry walked towards the paddock.

  Socks was standing at the gate with his ears pricked, probably thinking that he was going to a show or at the very least someone was going to give him a cookie. The old groom did in fact pull out a cookie and give it to my speed horse as he took the halter off the gate and slipped it onto Socks’ head.

  “Don’t do this,” I cried but Dad held me by the shoulders, stopping me from doing anything stupid.

  I wasn’t as brave as Faith but I would have laid down in front of that truck and trailer if it had meant keeping Socks at our farm. I would have snuck into the trailer and then unloaded him at a stop light and ridden home. Kept him hidden away some place where Missy would never find him. But Dad knew all this and he wouldn’t let me.

  Socks walked happily onto the trailer as I sobbed in my father’s arms. Henry put up the ramp and said he was sorry again before getting in the truck and driving away. That was when Dad finally let me go.

  “I hate you,” I screamed at him, hitting his chest with my fists. “How could you let this happen?”

  He didn’t answer, just let me vent my frustrations on him before I ran up to my room and threw myself down on my bed. I knew that Socks was never really mine but he’d always seemed like he had been. We had a bond just like I did with Arion and Bluebird. He was my partner and now he had gone. Missy had yanked him out of here just because she was mad at me. Because she wanted to teach me a lesson. Well I’d teach her a lesson. I’d beat her at every show she went to. With her old horses and her new horse and with Socks. She’d be so sorry that she ever crossed me and I’d make her pay. I’d make her pay for all of it.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  I stayed in my room for a while feeling guilty. Deep down I knew that it wasn’t really Dad’s fault. I mean part of it was but most of it wasn’t. He couldn’t control the way that Missy acted and the fact that she’d chosen now to take her horse back most likely had more to do with the way that I had treated her when we went to Fox Run than anything that my father had done.

  Outside Bluebird and Arion were standing by their field gate looking confused. They had just lost Hashtag and now Socks had been taken away. They were losing friends faster than I could replace them. I wondered whether it would be worth turning Phoenix out with them. At least I knew that they would put the silly stud colt in his place. And so what if I was down to two horses. Lots of people only had one horse and I had two amazing ones. How could I be grumpy about that? Yet somehow I was.

  I slipped through the house, not wanting to run into my father, who I knew would be expecting an apology, and went outside. I wanted to ride but that would mean bringing one of them in because I couldn’t leave the other one outside all alone freaking out. So I put Arion in Socks stall and told him that it could be his stall now if he liked. And then I tacked up Bluebird.

  My pony had to wonder why every now and then I would burst out sobbing and bury my face in his mane. I knew it was silly to cry over a horse. It wasn’t even like Four who was out there somewhere lost. Socks had gone to a really great barn where he would get the best of care, better than he’d had here but he still wouldn’t be with me.

  Riding while you were crying probably wasn’t the best idea but I knew my pony would make me feel better. He always did. I could count on him even when I couldn’t count on anything else in my life. We walked past the paddocks. Wizard was out grazing. So far Jordan hadn’t said anything about whether or not he wanted to sell his horse. I think he was just glad to have him back.

  After we’d passed the horses I asked Bluebird to trot and then canter. The hill was a good place to build up his muscles and his stamina and we were lucky to have one on our property since Florida was mostly flat. Of course Dad didn’t think we were so lucky when it rained and a deluge of water came flooding down the hill and into the barn. Still on a day like today when the sun was shining and there were white fluffy clouds in the sky with no rain in sight, it was good to let go.

  I gave Bluebird the reins, lifting myself out of the saddle and urging him on and soon we were galloping. We wound our way through the hollow where the trees were. Jordan and I had spent an afternoon clearing the brush and putting the log jumps back together and now I asked my pony to jump them and like he was a little eventer out on the course at Rolex, he pricked his ears and cleared the solid fences with room to spare. And while I was jumping him I didn’t think about anything except setting him up right and looking for our take off spot and all thoughts of Missy and Four and Socks were gone.

  We got to th
e top of the hill, both of us puffing a little. Conditioning had taken a backseat lately and I knew that my pony wasn’t as fit as he could be. We had a big team show coming up. The real thing. The semi-final. I was going to have to put in some real work if we were going to stand a chance.

  We stood looking down at Jess’s farm. Today she wasn’t out there riding. The ring was empty. The fields too. It was hot now and the flies had multiplied like some kind of plague. Fly spray only worked for about five minutes, no matter how much you paid for it and the fans in the barn at least kept the air circulating and the flies at a minimum so most of the horses were stabled during the day. I wondered if Harlow was in the barn, wrapped and medicated while they waited for him to be sound again. I wondered if he ever would be.

  I was just about to turn for home when I noticed that the wooden plank that kept our property separate from Sand Hill had fallen down. I dismounted and went to put it back up. The last time we’d ridden through there some mean guy had yelled at us and I wasn’t too keen to repeat that but as I picked up the wood, I thought I heard a woman’s voice. Maybe the guy had just been a caretaker. Perhaps the new owners were moving in. I needed more horse people in my life. Nice horse people. Not horse people who drugged horses or thought they were too good for everyone because they had the most money, or pretended to be part of your family and then ripped their horse away when he’d already stolen a piece of your heart. Good people. They had to exist, didn’t they? I was starting to believe that they were some sort of mythical creature like a unicorn.

  “What do you think?” I asked Bluebird. “Should we risk it one last time? After all, the worst that can happen is that they yell at us again.”

  Bluebird nudged me with his nose. Then we heard a horse whinny and Bluebird answered. The horse whinnied again. It was coming from Sand Hill. People were there. People with horses. And I couldn’t stand there any longer. I got back in the saddle and asked my horse to step over the fallen plank and onto the trail to Sand Hill Stables.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  The last time I rode over to Sand Hill, I got yelled at by a rather mean man and I wasn’t too keen to repeat the experience. He’d told me to get off the property and never come back but I had to see who was moving in. What if it was someone nice? I needed nice in my life right now. Everyone else was only out for themselves, Jess, my mother, even Missy. I couldn’t count on anyone except my father and maybe Jordan. I was still on the fence as to whether he was really here to stay or if he was just hiding out from his own mother.

  The trail through the trees had been cleared since the last time I rode through. The weeds had been wacked and the fallen tree limbs pulled to the side so that they were now an option to jump and not compulsory. The lower limbs that I’d had to duck to get under so that I didn’t smack my head had been cut down and the trail would have been a great place to canter and jump only I didn’t want to draw any extra attention to myself or my pony. Galloping out of the woods wasn’t exactly the first impression I wanted to make and if that mean man was still there then I wanted to be able to turn heel and slink away before he even noticed me.

  “You have to be quiet, okay?” I whispered to Bluebird.

  His chestnut ears flicked back and forth and I just hoped that he wouldn’t let out a loud whinny at the wrong moment and spoil everything.

  We reached the edge of the tree line and I kept Bluebird tucked out of sight as I watched. There were two trailers parked up by the barn and I could hear horses inside. Everything had got a fresh coat of paint and the fences had been redone so that they were now even better than ours. A young girl was carrying buckets into the barn and there was a tall guy over by the shavings pit, loading up a wheelbarrow. I couldn’t see the man who had yelled at me and yet I couldn’t quite bring myself to step out of the shadows and introduce myself. What if they were horrible people? The odds weren’t exactly in my favor but Duncan said I had to have faith in myself and in others and besides, if they turned out to be mean, I could just leave.

  That was when I saw her, a woman coming out of the barn, her long blonde hair in two pigtails and a big floppy hat on her head. She was leading a gray horse, patting him on the neck as he pranced and danced his way out to the paddock. It was the way that she walked, that swagger. That sass. It just had to be her, didn’t it? But how could it be?

  She put the horse in the paddock and slipped the halter off but he didn’t move. He stood there watching us and then he let out a loud whinny and Bluebird replied. The woman turned to look over in our direction. She’d seen us and I wasn’t sure she was who I thought she was. At least not entirely. She couldn’t be.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  There was a moment when I thought about turning and running, even if it was who I thought it was, I’d changed and she had probably changed too. I couldn’t handle having another person come into my life only to leave again. My heart couldn’t take any more loss. But just as I was turning Bluebird away, she called out to me.

  “Emily?” she said.

  And then she was walking towards me. It would be rude to turn tail and run now so I stayed.

  “It is you,” I said.

  “It’s me in the flesh.” Esther grinned.

  She twirled around, looking fantastic. Tanned and fit and healthy. Meanwhile I’d eaten too much junk food over the winter, had been sick, stung by wasps and lost my nerve. I probably looked horrible.

  “What are you doing here?” I said.

  “I came back and bought the place,” she replied. “Didn’t you know?”

  “No,” I said. “I didn’t. The last time I was here, some mean guy yelled at me.”

  “I sent you a letter,” she said.

  “I didn’t get it,” I replied. “I’ve moved a couple of times. Now I live over the hill with my dad.”

  “I see,” she said. “And your mother?”

  “I don’t want to talk about her.”

  I played with Bluebird’s mane and hoped she wouldn’t press the matter but she seemed to take the hint.

  “Do you want to come and look inside?” she said.

  “I’d better be getting back,” I said, backing my pony up.

  “Alright,” she replied. “Well come back tomorrow then.”

  “Okay, maybe,” I said as I turned Bluebird away.

  “And Emily,” she called after me. “Your pony looks fantastic.”

  “Thanks,” I called back.

  Esther had returned and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. On the one hand I was so happy that I felt like my heart would burst with joy but on the other I was afraid of having that very same heart all broken again. I couldn’t take it if someone else I cared about left me so maybe it was better not to care about them in the first place. To put up walls and not let anyone in. I thought that I’d be the happiest girl in the world to find out that Esther was back but instead I was just scared.

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  I got back home and put Bluebird away almost in a sort of daze. It was like seeing Esther had been a dream and I had to pinch myself a couple of times just to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. Then I called Mickey.

  “You’ll never guess who I just saw,” I told her.

  “Who?” she said.

  “Esther,” I replied.

  “No way,” she cried. “She’s back? Really? Where?”

  Mickey sounded more excited than I had been and I was the one who had actually seen her.

  “So what did she say?” Mickey carried on. “Where has she been? Is she back for real? Tell me everything.”

  “I don’t know everything,” I said. “We didn’t really talk.”

  “What did you do then?” Mickey said. “Just say hello and then ride away?”

  “Pretty much,” I said.

  I realized that I’d been kind of rude to Esther and now I felt bad about it. I should have jumped out of the saddle and hugged her tight. Told her that I was so happy that she was back. But instead I’d been so taken by surprise that
I’d acted cold and distant. I knew that I would have to go over there tomorrow and apologize.

  “She’s back at Sand Hill.” I said. “That means she’s my neighbor. I’ll be able to go over there and see her anytime I want.”

  “Well aren’t you the lucky one,” Mickey said. “Any news on Four?”

  “No,” I said. “How is Hashtag settling in?”

  “He’s being spoiled rotten and Shonda already has him doing flawless flying changes. She is so going to kick my butt at the next show.”

  I smiled but didn’t tell her that she needed the competition. We all needed someone who pushed us. Jess pushed me, no matter how much I hated her and Shonda would push Mickey to become a better rider as well.

  “Are you really okay?” Mickey finally asked me. “You know, without your Mom.”

  “I’m fine,” I said, my voice suddenly cold. “I don’t need her. I don’t need anybody.”

  “That’s what you think,” Mickey said. “But you’re wrong.”

  I thought about the little schooling show where Duncan, Rose and Andy had shown up out of the blue to help me. If they hadn’t been there. If they hadn’t shown up. I don’t think I would have been able to manage. I wouldn’t have got my nerve back and I certainly wouldn’t have had as much fun as I did. Mickey was right. I did need people in my life. But the right kind. My mother was the wrong kind. I knew that now. And Esther? She’d left me but I knew that she had a good reason. Her father had been sick. Terminal. She’d gone home to spend the final few months with him but then she never came back. Now she had but I didn’t know why and I wasn’t sure if I was ready to let her in or not either.

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  I spent the next day working my horses, which included Bluebird, Arion and Sunny. The new mare was my responsibility now and any dreams I’d had about Cat becoming a show jumper alongside me, a sister team like me and Summer used to be was long gone. Smashed to smithereens when Cat abandoned me. So I got to know the mare like I’d wanted to do all along. I’d ridden her at the show and I knew that she had talent. I also knew that she was rusty and out of shape and she needed more work than any of my other horses.