Gift Horse (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 14) Read online

  I pulled a couple of books off the shelves and flipped through them. There had to be a name in one of them for my horse. I skimmed the pages, rejecting Romeo and Gatsby right off the bat. It had to suit him but he was a funny horse with a quirky character. Wild and free and yet at the same time, needy and desperate. He was filled with a kind of rage only equaled by the hurricane I’d found him in but at the same time he was vulnerable. Mickey called me while I was sitting in the middle of the pile of books.

  “What are you doing?” she said.

  “I’m looking through my father’s books and I’m not going to stop looking until I find a name for the hurricane horse.”

  “Just pick one already,” she said, sounding exasperated.

  “Have you ever had to name anything before?”

  “Sure, I help name my mom’s fish all the time.”

  “That’s different,” I said. “It’s not hard to name something that is going to eventually get flushed down the toilet.”

  “Hey!” she cried.

  “I’m sorry but that is the truth. And if he’s going to be a show horse then everyone will know his name and I want it to be a good one.”

  “If he makes it that far,” Mickey said.

  “Of course he will,” I said.

  “I don’t mean to rain on your parade but do you know how long it takes to retrain a racehorse? Let alone teach them to jump? And you don’t know if he will even like it let alone be talented enough to do the jumpers.”

  “I know,” I said. “But I can’t do anything about that. All I can do is work with him and hope that he turns into something amazing and if he doesn’t then I’ll still ride him.”

  “Unless your dad makes you get rid of him,” she said.

  “Don’t even say that, he’s probably already mad at me because Jess tricked me out of riding Socks in the group.”

  “She tricked you? How did that even happen?”

  I told Mickey what Jess had said. Well, I told her everything except for the part about the drugging. I wanted to investigate that on my own before I said anything. I wasn’t even going to mention it to my father without proof because Jess had already tricked me once. I wasn’t about to be so gullible a second time.

  Mickey said that she’d see me the next day and hung up so I went back to looking through the books for a name. I guess I fell asleep because the next thing I knew, Dad was shaking me awake.

  “What is it?” I mumbled. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing,” Dad said gently. “You fell asleep on the floor.”

  “I did?” I looked around at the open books. “Oh yeah.”

  “What are you doing?” he said. “Virtual school doesn’t start for another couple of weeks.”

  “I’m trying to name my horse,” I said.

  “I didn’t think that would be so hard.”

  He sat down on the floor next to me.

  “It’s harder than you think,” I said.

  “Why?”

  “Because I want him to be great.”

  Dad shook his head. “You can’t make him great. If he’s great then it is already inside him. You can’t change that any more than you can change his name.”

  “But he doesn’t have a name,” I said.

  “He has a racing name, doesn’t he?”

  “Yes and I’ll never ever call him that,” I said.

  “Why, what is it?”

  “Please,” I begged. “Just help me.”

  He rifled through the books and handed me one. “In here. That’s where you’ll find your name.”

  “Thanks Dad.” I got up and shook my foot, which had fallen asleep.

  “And Emily,” he called after me as I went to my room. “Don’t ever skip my group again.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  I went to bed with a book of Greek mythology and I came out of my room in the morning with a name. It was perfect. I ran down to the barn, calling out to Bluebird that I would be back in a minute. He stood by his bucket in his paddock, waiting impatiently. I waved to the grooms who were dumping grain for hungry horses and then there I was, standing outside the stall of my new horse.

  “Good morning Arion,” I said.

  He already had his grain and his head was stuffed greedily into his bucket. All I could see was the top of his head and his gray ears but at the sound of my voice, he lifted his head.

  “Do you like your new name?” I asked him.

  He didn’t seem to care and went back to eating his breakfast but I thought it was perfect. I didn’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before. Mickey arrived an hour later and I already had Bluebird in the cross ties, tacking him up.

  “I did it.” I grinned. “I found him a name.”

  “Cool. What is it?” she asked, throwing her stuff on the floor.

  “Arion,” I said proudly.

  “Like the constellation?”

  “No, that’s Orion.”

  “Oh,” she said. “Well it’s still a cool name.”

  “I know,” I said. “My dad gave me this book about Greek mythology and Arion was sired by Poseidon. He was the God of the sea and storms and horses. It’s perfect.”

  “Well why didn’t you just call him Poseidon then?” she said.

  “Because he doesn’t look like a Poseidon, does he?”

  Now Mickey had me second guessing my name choice. She saw the look on my face and grinned.

  “I’m only kidding. I love his name.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Of course.”

  “Because I can still change it but once I start calling him that I can't really change it again. It will be too confusing for him.”

  “I don’t think he cares,” Mickey said.

  “He does,” I said.

  “If you say so.”

  “I do.”

  Mickey shook her head. “And to think, you had the opportunity to call him Bae or Yolo or something like that.”

  “You mean like poor Hashtag?” I said. “I’d rather his name mean something.”

  “So you quit school and then you go all studenty on me?" Mickey said. “Sometimes I think you really are crazy.”

  “I know,” I said. “Now come on, hurry up and get Hampton tacked so we can ride for a bit together before your lesson.”

  “Okay.” She shook her head. “If you have this much trouble naming a horse, I pity your kids.”

  “Thanks a lot,” I said but since I knew I was never having kids, it didn't really matter.

  We rode around in the early morning fog, our feet out of the stirrups and our horses lazy beneath us. Mickey told me about how her mom had taken her back to school shopping and she had new clothes and a backpack. I felt a little jealous until I realized that my dad had promised to take me to the tack store to get new stuff for Arion so that was kind of like back to school shopping, only for a different kind of school.

  “You’re really not going to miss it?” Mickey said. “School I mean?”

  “Are you kidding?” I said. “No way. Virtual school sounds awesome. I can work at my own pace and I don’t have to deal with people throwing things at my head.”

  “Well, maybe you still do,” Mickey said, pointing to Jess.

  She was getting out of her driver’s car, arms full of bags.

  “What do you think all that is?” Mickey said.

  “I don’t know and I don’t care,” I replied. “Jess can try and intimidate me all she wants but it won’t work.”

  “I’m glad to hear it,” Mickey said. “If you don’t stand up to her, she’s going to make your life a living hell and besides, you’re the trainer’s kid now. You have the upper hand.”

  “I guess,” I said.

  Only being the trainers kid hadn’t really seemed like an advantage at all, until Mickey left for her lesson and I eventually went back to the barn where Dad was in the office with a white board and a marker.

  “What are you doing?” I said.

  “Making you a schedule,” he
replied.

  “Are you kidding?” I sat down in one of the leather chairs. “I thought virtual school didn’t start for another two weeks.”

  “It doesn’t,” he said. "This is your barn schedule.”

  “My what?”

  I wasn’t really into schedules and time tables and all that stuff, which was why I was so excited about virtual school where I could figure things out on my own. Now Dad was going to mess up my free barn time? That wasn’t fair. I opened my mouth to protest but he held up a hand.

  “Don’t even bother,” he said. “This isn’t about mucking stalls.”

  “It’s not?”

  “Of course not,” he said. “You pitched in over the holidays and that was great but the grooms are back now and you are here to ride and compete. Aren’t you?”

  I nodded, suddenly feeling excited.

  “Good because you are going to start riding five horses a day,” he said.

  “I am?” I said. “But whose horses am I going to be riding.”

  “You’ll ride lesson horses and boarders that need schooling and horses that I bring in on consignment,” he said. “I’m sure you’ve noticed that Jess is improving because her father keeps buying her all these new horses.”

  I nodded.

  “Well I can’t afford to do that but I’m the trainer so you’ll still have that opportunity, if you want it.”

  “Of course I do.” I jumped up and hugged him tight.

  Suddenly quitting school to ride full time seemed like the best decision I’d ever made in my whole entire life.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  The next time the adult amateurs rode, I made sure I had Socks tacked up and ready to go. I wasn't going to let Jess bully me out of my spot this time and Dad said that if he'd known that was what she'd done, he never would have let her ride. I could see her down in the cross ties getting Hashtag ready and watched as my father approached her. He said something that I couldn't hear and her face got all red. She threw her brush on the floor, which scared Hashtag. The horse startled, his hooves clattering beneath him but Jess did nothing to comfort him. Instead she stormed off into the tack room and left him standing there.

  "I told you she wouldn't take it well," I said as Dad came over to me.

  "Too bad," he said. “I’m sick of her silly games."

  "Don't let her father hear you say that," I said. "I thought he was supposed to be the only thing keeping the cash flowing here."

  "Not the only thing," Dad said. "Now hurry up and get out there."

  The adult group welcomed me with smiles. They had nice horses and were pleasant and polite. Dad had us working on a gymnastic exercise and Socks was excited as usual. He didn't think that jumps should be taken slow and steady and he didn't care about things like adding or taking out a stride. He only cared about going fast and usually I agreed but I also knew that it was good practice for him to tone down his over exuberance.

  As we cantered down the grid of verticals I caught Jess out of the corner of my eye. She was talking to Tulip. They were whispering and then Tulip looked over at me and laughed. I wanted to go over there and find out what they were saying, even though I knew they would never tell me. But I knew they were talking about me and laughing behind my back. Was it about Arion like Mickey had said? I vowed to do better, work with him more so they couldn't make fun of me and I was so distracted that I didn't notice Socks speeding up and suddenly the jumps were coming at us too fast. One minute we were cantering towards the final vertical and the next, I was flying through the air.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  It wasn't his fault. Poor Socks had just been his usual self. I was the one at fault. And I did something even more stupid. I tried to land on my feet. You weren't supposed to do things like that. It was asking for trouble to stick out your arms or your legs or anything else. Tuck and roll. That was what you were taught from the moment you first learned how to ride. Don't try and be a hero. Get clear of your horse and make sure you land on something that can take a hit, like your shoulder or your hip. But no. As I flew through the air, all I could think about was that Jess was probably watching my demise and laughing and when the ground came up to meet my feet, for a moment I thought it was cool. I'd land there like a hero and take a bow before jumping back into the saddle and riding the line perfectly.

  But this wasn't a perfect world and that wasn't what happened. Instead I landed on my feet, felt a searing pain in my right ankle and crumpled to the ground where a completely freaked out Socks almost ran over me. I lay there for a moment, trying to figure out where I went wrong and then suddenly Dad was standing over me and he looked furious.

  "What were you thinking?" he snapped, then added, "Are you okay?"

  "I'm sorry," I said, sitting up. "And yes, I'm fine."

  But I wasn't fine. As Dad helped me to my feet I felt a horrible pain shoot through my ankle and up my leg. I tried to hide it as Dad retrieved Socks from one of the other ladies who had caught him but it was hard not to limp.

  "What is it?" Dad said.

  "Nothing." I winced.

  "Don't be a hero." He frowned at me.

  "I’m not," I said. "I just tweaked my ankle, that's all. I'm fine."

  Trying to spring back into the saddle proved to be an impossible task and not just because Socks was really tall and also pumped up from his riderless jaunt around the ring. It was because my ankle hurt every time I tried. Dad eventually took pity on my hopping about and came over to give me a leg up but it didn't matter. I knew as soon as I put my foot in the stirrup that I couldn't ride like this. I tried my best but the pain was so bad that I actually thought I was going to cry.

  I trotted Socks and then cantered him a little but I just knew I couldn't jump him. It wasn't fair on him or on me. If I did it would be asking for another accident. I pulled up in front of my father.

  "Take the line of jumps," he said.

  "I can't."

  "Don't tell me one little fall has shaken your nerves?" he said.

  "No, I think I messed up my ankle."

  I couldn’t look him in the eye.

  "You're joking?" He sighed.

  "No." I blinked back the tears.

  "I don't need this now Emily." He shook his head.

  "I know. I'm sorry."

  "Fine. Take the horse back to the barn and put some ice on your ankle. Let's hope it's just a sprain."

  And as I hobbled back to the barn, wincing in pain, I really hoped so too.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  I’d fallen off before. This wasn’t the first time and usually it was just my ego that was bruised. Everyone fell off sometimes. That was just the way riding worked. After all, there wasn’t a seat belt to strap you in, only your feet resting on stirrups that moved with the horse and the saddle. You were sitting there on the back of a thousand pound animal that could choose to toss you off at any moment and mostly they didn’t because they were well behaved and you had a sort of understanding. A partnership. But bad things happened. Horses were animals with minds of their own and sometimes they made stupid mistakes or we as riders made mistakes and sometimes you just fell off because you were distracted and you weren’t paying attention, like I had.

  “Poor baby,” Jess called out as I hobbled by. “Need an ice pack?”

  She laughed and Tulip joined in. They pointed at my butt where I had a nasty orange stain from the footing and then laughed harder. I ignored them. I didn’t care what they thought. Jess fell off all the time. In fact she’d fallen off a million times. I hardly ever fell off but I still felt like an idiot.

  “Wait,” Dad called after me.

  I stopped and he came running out of the ring. I thought maybe he was going to say that he should take a look at my ankle and ask if I needed to go to the hospital to get it checked out or something but instead he took Socks’ reins.

  “I’d better ride him down that line,” he said. “Don’t want him thinking that he can get away with that sort of thing.”

&nb
sp; “It wasn’t his fault,” I said, my face flushing red. “It was mine. I was distracted. I should have checked him.”

  “Fine,” Dad said. “But I still don’t want him finishing on a bad note.”

  “Okay.”

  I stood there and watched my father take the horse I had been riding back to the ring. Socks pranced and danced as Dad picked up his helmet from the fence post and shoved it on his head. He sprang easily into the saddle and I watched him work Socks for a few minutes and then ride him down the line of jumps.

  I hadn’t seen my father ride a lot since I’d come to Fox Run. He hardly seemed to have the time but he was good. Really good. He had strong legs, a secure seat and soft hands. He expertly guided Socks down the gymnastic line of jumps, slowing him where I should have when he started to get excited. He cleared the fences and the ladies in the group all clapped and smiled. Maybe Jess was right. After all, my father did look pretty good on the back of a horse.

  “Okay,” he called out to the group. “Back to work ladies. Who wants to go first?”

  They all raised their hands eagerly.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  I hobbled back to the house where Missy was sitting on the couch with baby Owen. He was making little gurgling noises and generally being cute. I shut the door behind me and stood there using it to hold me up. It had taken all my strength and effort to get back to the house and now I just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. My ankle really hurt but I didn’t want to tell anyone just how bad because all I could imagine was the days and weeks that a doctor would tell me I couldn’t ride for.

  “Are you okay?” Missy said.

  “Fine.”

  “You don’t look fine,” she said. “You look like you’re about to pass out.”