Astra (16 page)

Lily watched her walk off toward the vet checkpoint. She talked with Dr. Dale and Mr. Henley for a bit, then returned a few minutes later with a big smile on her face.

“I'm going to be your new sponsor, Lily. I'll be at my trailer. Come get me when you're ready to go out again.”

Lily almost dropped her tuna-fish sandwich. “But you're way ahead of me in time!” she protested. “You're supposed to go out now, and I've still got another fifteen minutes left to wait. That'll destroy your chance of placing high.”

Sharon chuckled. “I placed well in the last race. My horse doesn't need this race to qualify for anything. It's just a tune-up for the hundred-mile race next month. But this race is important to you, Lily. It's your very first one.”

“Oh, thank you, Sharon!” Lily spun around to face her friends. “Did you hear that? I get to finish the ride!”

Meloney and Jill hugged her and Devin slapped her a high five. Charlie just grinned and said, “Good, now I get another shot to beat you to the finish line.”

“You wish,” Jill taunted her brother. “Derringer had a hard time passing his vet check and you're ten minutes behind Lily in leave time. Astra has a full head of steam and Derringer is tired. Dad is going to be really mad at you if you push him.”

Charlie shrugged. “You never know. Derringer is resting now. He might make a great comeback.”

Lily quickly finished her lunch while Thomas bathed and resaddled Astra for her. The rest of her group was scheduled to go out seven minutes before her, but Jill decided to wait and ride with her brother. Mr. Henley would be stuck at the ride camp for the next couple of hours, waiting for them to return.

Devin and Meloney finished their lunch and went to bridle their horses. Meloney's aunt was already waiting for her. “See you on the trail,” she told Lily.

Lily made a check of her equipment and restocked her saddlebag with carrots and water. Then she mounted up and went to meet Sharon. By the time they reached the checkpoint, it was time for them to start.

Riding with Sharon was quite different than riding with Mr. Henley. She kept up a steady stream of conversation and loved talking race strategy. Lily imagined this was probably the same way her mom had spent the time on rides. Whenever they'd gone out on short jaunts, her mother had talked a lot. The steady hum of Sharon's voice was comforting to her. Lily learned all kinds of cool things from Sharon, like stowing a small cup in your saddlebag so you could scoop water onto your hot, sweaty horse—or yourself—at the watering holes.

“Your horse doesn't like being hot and icky any more than you do,” Sharon said. “If you can keep their temperature down on these hot days, you'll get a better performance out of them.”

They did a little cantering over a tree-lined trail where they could stick to the cool shadows. Before long, they closed in on Meloney and her aunt.

“Wow, Lily, you caught up to us so quickly! Devin's probably a couple minutes ahead of us.” Sharon began to talk to Meloney's aunt, while Meloney rode her horse next to Lily. The two girls posted in unison. “Astra looks great, but you look like you're getting tired,” Meloney said. “Are you okay?”

“I've got to be okay,” Lily said. “I can't be tired. Sharon gave up a chance at running a good time so she could sponsor me. And Astra is still going really strong. I owe it to everyone to keep on going. I can crash and sleep for twenty-four hours when this is over.”

They stopped at a watering hole and Lily used Sharon's cup to cool Astra off, then doused herself.

“Some riders think it's bad to put cool water on hot muscles,” Sharon said. “But my horse seems to enjoy it. I find that he travels a lot faster after that, too.”

Lily had to agree that it definitely made her feel refreshed. They let their horses eat a few mouthfuls of hay, gave them some carrots, then mounted up. Lily turned to see if Meloney was ready to go.

Meloney motioned for them to go on. “Jasper's starting to tire and I don't want to push him too hard.” When Lily and her sponsor asked the horses for an extended trot, Lily stood in the stirrups instead of posting up and down to the rhythm of the gait. Astra's stride was long. Lily couldn't post properly when the mare hit that big Arabian glide. Lily was just plain getting tired.

It wasn't long before they came abreast of Devin and his sponsor. Sharon knew the sponsor, too. They rode together for a while before Sharon pulled ahead.

“Go get 'em, Lily,” Devin said. “You've got a lot of horse left under you.”

Lily wiped the sweat off her forehead and reached into her shirt pocket for some lip balm. She could already feel her lips cracking from the hot sun. Devin was right. Astra had a lot a horsepower left. But Lily knew she was just about out of people power. She wondered how anyone was able to make it a hundred miles. How would she ever be able to compete in the Tevis, which covered one hundred miles of the toughest terrain in endurance racing?

Lily concentrated on keeping herself still and balanced in the saddle so she wouldn't be a hindrance to Astra. Her own energy was gone. She just had to hang on and leave it up to the horse to see her through the last ten miles of this race.

They passed several more groups of people and Lily marveled that Astra seemed to be getting better as she went. Of course, they weren't cantering most of the way, breaking speed records like the top finishers would do. But their steady pace kept them moving forward as others tired and dropped back.

About three miles from the finish line, Lily had to get off and run beside Astra. She was tired, but her knees were aching so badly from being bent that she couldn't have ridden another inch.

“Do you want to stop?” Sharon asked. “We can stop and rest if you'd like.”

Lily shook her head. “No way!” she said, panting. “I'm going to finish this race.” She took off her long-sleeved shirt and tied it around her waist. She couldn't wear that hot thing for one more moment. She didn't care if her arms got burned to a crisp. Reaching out, Lily grabbed a stirrup to pull herself along and asked Astra for a slow trot.

They traveled no more than a half mile before Lily reached the end of her energy. Astra finally began to lag, too. “I don't know if I can make it any further,” Lily said. “I'm so tired!”

“Why don't you climb back on your horse and we'll walk for a bit?” Sharon suggested. “Then we can pick up a light trot to finish the race.”

That plan sounded good to Lily. She
had
to finish this race. Her dad and grandmother would be waiting for her at the finish line. She couldn't make it forty-eight miles and drop out for the last two.

A group of three riders went cantering past them and Astra came alive, straining at her reins as she tried to go with them. Lily held tight and glanced over her shoulder. Several more people were gaining on them. Her own fighting spirit came alive and she decided to ease up on Astra's reins, encouraging the mare to surge ahead.

“You want to go for it?” Sharon said, her brow raised in challenge.

Lily nodded. “Not so fast that I hurt my horse. But she really wants to go, so maybe we could try a slow canter?”

They rode the last mile at that pace. Lily kept glancing over her shoulder to make sure they maintained their lead over the next set of riders. As they approached the finish line, she could see riders who had already completed the race lining up to encourage those who were coming in.

Lily searched the crowd until she found her dad and grandmother. They were standing next to Mr. Henley, waving and cheering her on. She sat up straighter in the saddle, thinking of her mother as they crossed the finish line.
We did it!
Lily thought, grinning.

She and Sharon pulled their horses to a walk and dismounted to cool them out before going on to the vet check. Lily's dad came running and wrapped her in a big hug. “You did really great today, Flower. Your mother would have been very proud.” He turned to Sharon and extended his hand. “I want to thank you for taking such good care of Lily. I hear that without you, she wouldn't have been able to finish the race.”

Grams stood in the background, beaming. “I knew you could do it, Lily.”

Mr. Henley stepped forward and patted Lily on the back. “You and that mare make quite a team, young lady. I haven't seen very many youth riders come in. You might have placed in this race.”

Lily was too tired to do anything more than grin. She wanted to lie down and go to sleep right there. But for the race to be official, Astra needed to pass her last vet check. After a few more minutes of cooling the horses out, Mr. Henley urged them to go through the checkpoint. This time she was in Dr. Dale's line.

“Well, well, what do we have here?” he said when Lily stepped up with her horse. “Looks like we've got ourselves a strong competitor.” He lifted Astra's lips and pressed his thumb gently into her gums to see how long it took for the color to come back. He scribbled a few words on her card, then got out his stethoscope to listen to Astra's gut sounds. When he finished, he asked Lily to trot the mare back and forth to check her soundness.

Lily did what the vet asked, then waited anxiously for another minute while he finished filling out her card. If a horse's heart rate didn't come down within a certain amount of time after a race, the horse was disqualified. She couldn't imagine going through everything she'd just done and then having Astra disqualified.

Dr. Dale handed Lily back her card with a wink. It contained all A's and one B. She'd passed with flying colors! She couldn't wait until the rest of her friends got in so she could tell them.

“Oh, and Lily,” Dr. Dale said. “You were our third youth rider to finish. You made the top three on your very first outing. It looks like all that hard work paid off. I think your future as an endurance rider looks pretty good.”

Lily handed Astra's reins to her dad and ran forward to hug the vet. “I couldn't have done it without you, Dr. Dale. You saved Astra when nobody else thought she had a chance.” She turned to Mr. Henley, who had come up behind them. “I've learned so much from you, Mr. Henley. No wonder my mom was such a good rider. Thank you for everything.”

Lily and Mr. Henley made their way back to the camp to wait for the rest of their group. After about twenty minutes, Meloney wandered back with her aunt. “Lily!” she shouted. “You were awesome! And Devin placed, too! He's cooling his horse out, but he'll be back in a minute.”

Five minutes later, Devin arrived and tied Jericho to the trailer. The horse immediately dug into his hay net. Lily thought Devin looked just as tired as she felt, but he gave her a big grin and a thumbs-up.

“Congrats, Lily!” he said. He walked over and picked her up, swinging her in a circle. ”You did it!”

Lily felt her cheeks color. She quickly congratulated Devin on his own success and handed him a carrot. “We
all
did it,” she corrected, with a big grin. “I think I'm going to go home and sleep for a week, but I can't wait to do it again.”

“Spoken like a true endurance rider,” Devin said.

The two of them laughed and talked while they fed treats to their tired mounts and relived the best and worst parts of their rides. Lily felt happier than she had in a long, long time.

Mr. O'Neil pointed to the vet check station. “Here come Charlie and Jill.”

Lily, Devin, and Meloney went out to greet the approaching riders. When everyone was together again, Mr. Henley pulled out his camera. “Gather your horses and line up in front of that tree over there,” he ordered.

Lily wasn't sure if she could even walk two more steps, but Mr. Henley wanted a picture. She owed him that much for getting her this far.

As they lined up their horses, Lily looked at each one of her friends. She knew she couldn't have made it this far without all of their help—even Charlie's, in spite of all his teasing. Together they made a great team of endurance riders—and friends. She looked forward to racing with them in the future, especially Devin.

Smiling broadly for the camera, Lily threw her arms around Astra's neck and hugged the mare tight. Maybe someday soon, they'd all be posing together as Top Ten winners of the Tevis Cup!

author's note

The Arabian horse is known for its beauty, athleticism, and high spirit. Thousands of years old, the breed is known and owned worldwide. Arabians are smaller horses that average between 14.3 and 15.1 hands high and come in most colors. The Arabian Horse Association, which registers modern-day horses, was founded in 1908. To date, the organization has registered over a million horses and is one of the largest registries in the United States.

The Arabian breed is known as “foundation stock.” Many of today's modern breeds, like the Thoroughbred, the quarter horse, and the Percheron draft horse, can trace their ancestries back to the Arabian breed. In ancient times Arabians were used as war horses and mounts for royalty. Today they are most commonly used as endurance horses that run 50- and 100-mile races. They can also be found in the show ring under both English and Western saddle. Occasionally Arabian horses are raced at the same tracks as Thoroughbreds over the distance of three-quarters of a mile or less. Some people have branched out even further, using Arabians for dressage, western reining events, carriage, and jumping.