Jump Off (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 22) Read online

“Great,” I said. “They are not all like Jess, are they?”

  “What do you mean?” he said. “Jess is the nicest, sweetest girl in the whole wide world.”

  He put his hand up to his forehead and acted like he was going to faint.

  “I am so glad you are here,” I said. “You have no idea.”

  “I think I do,” he replied with a wink.

  There were five of us. Apart from me, Andy and Jess there was Bridget, with her gray mare Panda and Valerie with her gelding Adagio. I’d seen both girls at shows and they were pretty good obviously otherwise they wouldn’t have been here. I was just glad that Becka and Tara hadn’t made it or got mysterious letters in the mail like I did.

  We were all sleeping in a large office that was in the middle of our small barn. There were sleeping bags set up on the floor.

  “No way,” I said. “Jess in a sleeping bag?”

  “No, you’re right,” Andy replied with a laugh. “She took one look at the set up and loudly proclaimed that she would be staying at the nearest hotel.”

  “Figures,” I said.

  “I don’t think they’ll let her though. We are not supposed to leave the property.”

  “She’ll find a way,” I said. “And to be honest the less she is around, the better. You know what I think she did to Bluebird so watch your horse.”

  “What are you talking about?” Andy said.

  We made coffee in the machine that was sitting on a table along with some semi-stale doughnuts and a few crumbling cookies.

  “Not exactly fancy in here is it?” I said. “I bet they don’t get stale cookies up at the main barn.”

  “What do you mean about Jess?” Andy said, trying a cookie and scrunching up his face as he chewed. “Yup, definitely stale.”

  He put the half eaten cookie back on the plate and I told him my theory. How Jess had slipped Bluebird something the night he stayed at the show grounds and how I couldn’t prove any of it but that I hoped to somehow get her to confess.

  “You’ll never get that girl to confess to anything,” Andy said. “She is a pathological liar. She’s been doing it her whole life.”

  “I have to,” I said.

  “But why?” Andy replied. “Bluebird is getting better. It doesn’t matter now, does it?”

  “Doesn’t matter?” I spluttered. “What if he’d died? What if she does it again and this time he isn’t so lucky or what if she did it to Mousse? Would you say that it didn’t matter then?”

  “I guess not,” Andy said. “But you’ll never get her to say that she did it.”

  “Maybe not,” I said. “But I have to try.”

  CHAPTER FORTY TWO

  The clinic didn’t start with a bang or formal introductions. Instead we were all hustled into tacking up our horses by the groom who was overseeing our barn.

  “Out in the ring in ten minutes,” he said. “Or you may as well just pack up and go home.”

  “You don’t think he’s serious, do you?” I asked Andy as I hustled off to get my tack.

  “Could be,” Andy said.

  “I can’t be ready in ten minutes,” Valerie wailed.

  “That’s one down then,” Andy said with a wink.

  Lucky for me, I’d made sure that Socks looked his best before we’d even loaded up. He’d had his bath the night before just as though we were going to a show and this morning I’d run the soft brush over his gleaming coat. His short summer hairs were starting to shed out and underneath was a thick rich bay coat of hair that was shiny and soft. Soon I’d have to break out the clippers and that would be the end of that but for now he was in that in-between time when he looked fabulous and healthy and I was proud of him as I put on my saddle and tightened my girth.

  We were the first out to the ring, up and walking around when Andy came out.

  “They are not going to make it, are they?” I said, staring back at the barn.

  “Well Jess is just behind me,” he said. “But Valerie and Bridget are fighting over a hair net.”

  “Seriously?” I said. “These can’t be the most talented people out there. How is it that every time we end up with lemons or prima donnas?”

  “Speak for yourself,” Jess said as Valor swaggered into the ring like he owned the place.

  He definitely looked like he belonged there in that fancy barn with all the fancy people but then again so did Socks. Bluebird wouldn’t have. Instead he would have looked like the mount of someone’s little kid sister. At least today Jess couldn’t say anything about that.

  Bridget and Valerie rushed their horses into the ring closely followed by a man in breeches and boots. He didn’t introduce himself or ask who we were. He just ran his eyes over us like he was feeling the legs of a horse for heat and swelling and when he didn’t find anything to complain about he stood there and put his hands on his hips.

  “Spread out on the rail. Everyone working walk.”

  I fell in behind Andy and Mousse. The gray’s round rump was relaxing and Socks seemed to think that maybe Mousse was Arion in disguise and he loved Arion. In fact he was so interested in getting close enough to sniff and find out that his walk was more extended than working but at least he was moving right along, unlike some of the other horses.

  “Are you all asleep?” our trainer barked at us. “Should I let you and your horses go back to bed?”

  No one replied. I wasn’t sure if he was expecting us to or not.

  “My name is Trevor Dinkwater,” he said. “And today you will learn how to listen.”

  It sounded simple enough. After all, I had ears. I listened all the time to people who yelled instructions at me, various trainers over the years, my father, Esther, Missy. But I guess it turned out that most of us were actually selective listeners, as in we only heard what we chose to hear. When Trevor told us to trot we all did except for Bridget who was too busy batting a wasp away from her face.

  “I said trot,” Trevor yelled at her. “This is not Dancing With The Stars on horseback. You are not supposed to be performing hand movements.”

  “There was a wasp,” she cried. “I’m allergic.”

  “Well you will be happy to hear that we have an epipen in our medicine cabinet so you have no need to fear the wasp of death. Now trot or you’ll have my wrath to deal with and no shot of adrenaline will save you from that.”

  Bridget kicked Panda into a ragged trot, looking all flustered and I couldn’t help wondering why trainers always had to be so mean. Why did they never talk to us like we were people instead of kids to be screamed at? I didn’t do my best work when someone was belittling me. I worked better when my trainer treated me as an equal or at least as a human being. But somewhere along the way they seemed to forget that we were people too and once they’d been like us, trying to learn everything they could from trainers who both awed and scared them all at the same time.

  Socks was pretty pumped up. He seemed to think that maybe this was a show after all and I had to circle him a couple of times to keep him from running into Mousse. He didn’t like that very much and started to get mouthy and fast. Luckily Trevor was more interested in telling Valerie that she didn’t know how to ride and praising Jess for pretty much everything.

  Inwardly I rolled my eyes. I now knew why Jess had the biggest stall and I bet it had something to do with her father making some kind of giant donation to the facilities or the trainer or both. She wasn’t there to learn, she was just there to be told that of course she was the best. But Missy’s words rang out in my head. You couldn’t buy talent. Sure Jess had a great horse and of course she’d picked up some good training in Europe but that didn’t mean that she was better than me and that was what I was there to prove.

  “Come on Socks,” I whispered, stroking his neck. “Save your energy for the jumps because that’s where we’ll show them that we are the best.”

  Okay,” Trevor called out. “Take a break and then we’ll tackle some gymnastics.”

  CHAPTER FORTY THREE
r />   The gymnastic exercise was a line of jumps in the middle of the ring set up end on end. I’d ridden an exercise like that once before when we’d done serpentines back and forth over the jumps but this was different. This time we weren’t expected to jump the fences head on. We were supposed to jump them at an angle, sliding along them like a pole bender only jumping as we went. I knew that the exercise was right up our alley. Some of the other riders let out a groan. Their horses weren’t as nimble as mine was. I was suddenly extra glad that I had the speedy Socks beneath me and not another, slower horse.

  “Volunteers?” Trevor asked.

  Everyone looked at their hands and fiddled with their reins.

  “I’ll go first,” I chirped up.

  I knew that Socks was ready to jump and super excited too and I knew that my only problem would be having him blow past the next jump because he was going too fast. I’d have to carefully guide him without letting him run away with me but I knew we could do it.

  We cantered easily down the line, bending this way and that and jumping the small fences on an angle, then we circled back and did the alternate jumps we’d missed the first time.

  “Very nice.” Trevor clapped his hands together.

  “Show off,” Bridget mumbled under her breath.

  “Think you can do better?” I asked her with a grin.

  I was sick of being the rich girls’ punching bag and I wasn’t about to be one here. I’d earned my spot just like they had and I was here to learn just like they were. There was nothing more to it than that.

  Andy and Mousse went next. His gray horse was bigger and stockier than Socks and found it harder to slide over the jumps. He had to make bigger turns and it wasn’t as fluid but he got the job done. So did Jess, Valor thundering over the fences like a tank but Jess had a death grip on his face and I could tell that she was trying too hard. I didn’t know if it was nerves or just that the pressure of the clinic was erasing some of the lessons she’d learned in Europe but I didn’t think she was riding her best and neither did Trevor. They had the final pole down and she came back to the line looking crestfallen.

  “That rail was your fault not your horse’s,” Trevor told her. “You dropped him before he was even over it. Give him a pat and tell him that you are sorry.”

  Jess patted her horse on the neck but looked like she resented being told to do so. Bridget and Valerie both made it through unscathed but their rides weren’t pretty either and Trevor was losing patience with everyone. It obviously paid to go first. I patted Socks as we stood there, the breeze lifting his mane. The air was starting to dry out. It wasn’t as humid. It was almost the perfect riding weather and in that one moment I realized that I was going to enjoy this clinic. I wasn’t going to rush through it trying to be the best and spoiling everything because of it. Too many times the days had flashed by and all I was left with was regret that I hadn’t taken the time to enjoy them. I’d punished my horse and myself for not doing better, doing more, being the best. I hadn’t taken the time to think that maybe in that moment I was the best I could be.

  I looked at the other girls and Andy, all faces set in frowns as they tried to push their nerves away and focus on pleasing Trevor but I knew that I was there to please myself. I knew I could ride. I didn’t need Trevor or anyone else to tell me so and I was going to enjoy myself and have a good time with my horse if it was the last thing I did.

  “Are you okay?” Andy whispered as he walked Mousse by me. “You have a psychotic look on your face.”

  “I’ve never been better,” I replied with a smile.

  CHAPTER FORTY FOUR

  Once I’d decided that I was going to enjoy the clinic no matter what happened it was like I became a different person and Socks became a different horse. He lost that mouthy, slightly agitated feeling that had been building beneath me and relaxed just like I did. Trevor raised the jumps and we spend the rest of the morning doing various combinations of them. We all had a rail here or there. The gymnastics were hard and meant to be so. If they hadn’t been then what would have been the point? We were there to be challenged and so were our horses. But even when Socks had a rail I still didn’t get mad or upset. In fact by the time we wrapped up I felt like I’d just had the best lesson of my life and I let the reins drop and rewarded Socks with big pats on the neck.

  “What are you so happy about?” Bridget sneered. “You had that last rail.”

  “We tried,” I said. “And we learned something. What did you learn?”

  “That you are too happy,” she replied.

  Everyone slunk back to the barn with their tails between their legs. Everyone except me. I just had this happy feeling that wouldn’t go away and I didn’t care what anyone else said or did. It was like being there at the clinic was this big gift and I wasn’t about to waste one second of it.

  We took care of our horses and then found sandwiches had been laid out in our makeshift living quarters. I grabbed one of the rolls and started eating it, not realizing how starving I was while the other girls squabbled over whether the bread was gluten free or if the meat was processed.

  “Well that was fun,” Andy said as he came and sat next to me.

  “Actually it was,” I said. “Did you see when Socks jumped that oxer on the angle and it suddenly clicked in his head that he didn’t have to rush?”

  “No,” Andy said, laughing. “But I’m glad you had a revelation.”

  “I think I’ve had a revelation about a lot of things,” I replied. “I know this girl whose horse died at the vet clinic when I was there with Bluebird and this other girl at my barn just had to send her lease horse back and here I am riding in a clinic with some of the best trainers with a chance to get on the Junior Olympic team. How can I be mad about that?”

  “So you’re not nervous at all then?” Andy asked.

  “Not even one bit.”

  “I don’t know what is in that sandwich but I want some of it,” he said.

  “It’s not in the sandwich,” I replied with a grin. “It’s in here.” I patted my chest. “It’s like this great weight has been lifted. I can’t explain it but I just don’t want to waste my time being nervous anymore. I mean look at them. Don’t you think they are ridiculous?”

  The other girls had all settled down and were picking apart their food like it might have contained some sort of flesh eating bacteria. Jess was trying to rub a scuff mark off her super expensive boots and the other girls looked pale and downtrodden. I wanted to go over and tell them that they didn’t have to worry. That they should just enjoy the day like I was and be grateful for the chance to even ride at all but I knew they would have just laughed at me. And I wanted to accuse Jess of poisoning my pony but everyone had been right all along. What good would it do me? If anything it would ruin my weekend. I decided there and then that I wouldn’t think about it until the clinic was over. Then I’d walk right up to Jess and ask her if she had poisoned my pony. Even if she lied, I’d know by the look on her face if she was telling the truth or not. I’d known her long enough to see through her lies. But after. For now I just wanted to have fun.

  CHAPTER FORTY FIVE

  After lunch Andy and I wandered through the barn to look at all the expensive horses.

  “You had a good ride this morning,” Jess had called out after me as I got up to leave.

  “Thanks,” I’d called back.

  But finally, after all this time, I could see nice Jess was starting to crack. She was surrounded by two girls who would have been friends with the old Jess and the fact that I hadn’t verbally attacked her yet seemed to be bothering her. Maybe she had expected me to walk right up to her the moment I saw her and start yelling. Perhaps her plan had been to get me kicked out of the clinic all along. Maybe it was even her father’s idea to invite me here so that I could embarrass myself and ruin any and all hope of being invited to join the team.

  “Is it weird that I suddenly feel like this super mature person?” I asked Andy as we walke
d down the barn aisle that was lined with cobblestones laid out in an intricate pattern.

  “Well you don’t sound mature when you say super.” He laughed. “You should say I’m feeling rather wise today instead.”

  “I said mature not an old person,” I replied with a laugh, nudging him in the ribs.

  Andy was easy to be around. He had freckles and was geeky, like the nerd of horse riding. His glasses were crooked and I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if one day he showed up with tape on them. But he was easy to talk to and be around. Like a brother, even though I didn’t know what having a brother was like. Maybe when Owen got older, he’d be like Andy was. Or maybe he’d turn out to be one of those big, tough brothers who would beat up anyone who was mean to me. That would be cool too.

  After we’d looked at all the horses and peeked into the fancy tack room and the viewing area that had these big comfy chairs that faced a window where you could watch people ride in the ring, we wandered back to our own small barn.

  I pulled out my laptop and did some schoolwork because there wasn’t much else to do and then I sat in Socks stall for a while and closed my eyes because I was pretty tired. Socks was a good companion and I was glad to have him with me, even though he wasn’t Bluebird. And the clinic was turning out to be kind of boring, even though it was supposed to be an audition for some big team. I wasn’t even sure that I wanted to be on a team with Jess, Bridget and Valerie but I did know that I wanted the trainers here to notice me and to think that I was good.

  I was almost asleep, the familiar sounds of the horses munching hay lulling me into that world where you are half between being asleep and awake when our intrepid groom called out.

  “Grass field, ten minutes.”

  “Why don’t they ever give us enough time?” Valerie wailed.

  “Because they want you to always be ready to go,” I replied, grabbing my saddle off the front of the stall where I’d left it.