Bridle Path (9 page)

“I’ve always thought it was just that they liked all the attention they get with a careful grooming,” Carole said.

“Definitely part of it,” Nigel agreed. “Whatever it is, it works.”

“Well, whatever Mark does, it works,” Stevie said, still impressed with the results of the groom’s ministrations. “I think we could get some pointers here.”

“You probably could, but I’m going to shoo you back to your seats. The show is starting in a few minutes, and though I’d be glad to have you stay around,
the show management discourages visitors during the performance. My event is the last of the evening, so I won’t be seeing you again tonight, but I gather you’ll be at the stable when Doro and I get there tomorrow.”

Doro?
Stevie thought. Then she realized that, of course, he was talking about Dorothy. She liked the nickname. She smiled.

“Yes, tomorrow. We’ll be there. Promise,” she said.

They all shook his hand and listened carefully while he gave them directions to get back to their seats. They made only three or four wrong turns (depending on whether it was Stevie’s count or Lisa’s), but they made it, and by the time the horn sounded to announce the beginning of the first event, they were back in their seats next to Max and Mrs. Reg.

“Did you meet Nigel?” Max asked Lisa, who sat next to him.

Lisa nodded. “He’s wonderful,” she said. “Just right for Dorothy.”

“I think so, too,” Max said.

The show began.

A
LTHOUGH THERE WASN
’
T
anything about horses that the girls didn’t like, there were things they liked better than others, and there was one thing they were definitely looking forward to. The classes before the Gambler’s Choice couldn’t hold a candle to it in excitement. Besides that, they didn’t know any of the riders in the other classes, and they knew one in the Gambler’s Choice—three if they counted the two team members that Nigel had introduced them to.

When it was almost time for Nigel’s class, the ring was cleared and swept, and then the roustabouts took a long time setting up the jumps.

“They have to be just so,” Carole explained to her
friends, though they already knew something about setting up jumps for a competition. “The woman there with the clipboard is probably the course designer. It’s a very specialized career.…”

Stevie loved Carole a lot, but she did sometimes wish that her friend wouldn’t go on and on. When the subject was horses, there was almost no way to stop her once she began. Stevie tried, though.

“Is that one of the careers you’ve considered?” Stevie asked.

Carole paused and looked at Stevie. The twinkle in her eye told Carole she was teasing.

“I was doing it again, huh?”

“Yes, you were. Fortunately, I was here to stop you, and now the event is going to begin, which will stop me from gloating!”

It was times like that that made both Carole and Stevie glad they were best friends. They shook hands. Lisa joined in.

The first part of the event was allowing all the riders to walk the course. All the competitors, about twenty-five of them, came out at once. Unlike most jump courses, this one didn’t have a specified order that the riders had to follow. Instead, each jump had a point value, and they could choose whatever jumps they wanted. They could go over any jumps, up to two
times, during the first fifty seconds of the competition. Then, when the final buzzer rang, they had fifteen seconds in which to decide whether or not they would jump The Joker. That was the highest, toughest jump of all. If they missed, they lost. If they made it, they got seventy points. If they didn’t attempt it, they weren’t penalized, but they also wouldn’t be likely to win.

“Look, there’s Nigel!” Lisa said, pointing him out to her friends. It wasn’t really necessary, though, because he’d already spotted them and was walking over to measure the part of the course that ran right by them.

“I’m riding seventeenth,” he told them.

“Oh, that’s great!” said Max. It was considered an advantage to be riding late because then the rider would know what score he or she had to beat.

Just as the ring was being cleared, Dorothy joined them in their seats. Max told her that Nigel was riding seventeenth, but she already knew that.

“And he’s the first member of his team, too. They all drew high numbers.”

Although Nigel and his teammates were at the show as a team, this was an individual event, not a team event, and each rider was entered on his or her
own behalf. However, teammates were always happy when a friend did well.

The event began.

It took a few of the riders going through the course for the Saddle Club girls to get used to the way it was done. They’d seen plenty of jumping before, but never this daring and never this fast.

“And never this good,” Stevie added to Carole’s thoughts.

The riders were pressed for time, trying to make as many high-valued jumps as possible in the first fifty seconds. Max had spent a lot of time teaching his riders how important form was in jumping, but in this event, form went out the window. The only thing that counted was getting over the jump, high and fast.

In the jumping that Max taught them, it was important to keep the horse at a steady gait. Steadiness was much more important than speed. That was not the case here. Also, in the jumping they usually did, if the horse knocked the top of the fence, there would be penalty deductions. In this event, the only consequence of a “tick” was that the audience would
oooooh
and
aaaaaah
until they knew whether the bar would fall down or not. The audience seemed to like the suspense and clapped every time the bar was hit.

The horses had a lot of trouble with the forty-point
jump, and it wasn’t surprising, since it was the most valuable jump next to The Joker, and everybody wanted to try it. There was no penalty for a knockdown; it was just that no points accumulated and precious time was lost.

Most of the riders concentrated on the twenty-five- and thirty-point jumps. Anything less than that wasn’t worth trying, except that there was a ten-pointer on the way to the thirty-point jump, and almost everybody went over it.

Each time the buzzer announced the end of the first fifty seconds, there was a breathless silence in the arena. Would the rider try The Joker? It loomed far higher than any of the other jumps. It was over six feet tall. Because the riders didn’t stand a chance if they didn’t try it, most did. There were a few exceptions. One rider who was having trouble controlling his horse decided to pass on it. Since he’d accumulated only forty-five points in the first fifty seconds, there was no way he was in contention to win anyway.

Another rider decided to play it very safe. Her horse had done extremely well on the regular jumps, and she’d accumulated enough points there that perhaps she thought she had a shot at a prize without gambling, so she passed on it.

Among those who did try it, not many made it. By Carole’s count, it was just a little over half. But it was clear from just watching that those who did were the best of the best. Any rider who competed in this show was good. The ones who did well were excellent. It was a real treat for the girls, and they enjoyed every second of it.

They particularly enjoyed the seventy-five seconds in which Nigel was riding the course.

Dorothy sat forward in her seat, and Lisa could have sworn she didn’t breathe the entire time Nigel was riding. He chose a daring course for himself, attempting the hardest jumps and ignoring the easy ten-point fences.

Nigel’s horse was as wonderful in motion as he had been standing still. But Stevie admired his grooming even more when the horse was cantering and jumping. The horse seemed to fly over the jumps, rising effortlessly in the air, almost hovering at the apex of the jump and then landing smoothly.

“Oh,” Lisa said. It was so beautiful, it took her breath away.

Then the buzzer sounded, and Nigel had to make up his mind about The Joker. He didn’t really have to make up his mind, Carole realized. His mind had been made up a long time ago. He was going to go for it.

He circled his horse around, curving smoothly past the edge of the jump, too close, really, for the horse to get a good look and become frightened. And then, at the last minute, Nigel had the horse turn, and before the horse knew what was happening, they were headed straight for it.

Nigel rose in his saddle, putting all his weight on his stirrups, yet keeping his legs perfectly still. He leaned forward, moved his hands forward, and signaled his horse that it was time.

The horse didn’t have to be told twice. He rose as smoothly to jump this huge fence as he had to go over the little ones. His feet pawed ever so slightly at the air above the fence and then stretched forward, reaching for the ground, where he landed with a soft
pfffft.

Dorothy stood up and applauded for Nigel. So did Max and Mrs. Reg. Stevie and her friends joined them. Stevie even let out a polite “Yaaaaay.”

Nigel had scored well. It was too early to see how the other riders would do, but he was certainly in contention for a ribbon and a cash prize. Dorothy thought that was great.

There were two more riders, then, neither of whom did very well. One missed The Joker. The next didn’t even attempt it since her horse hadn’t been able to
succeed even on the forty-point fence. Then came Camilla Wentworth on Elementary.

The girls looked at the horse carefully and still could see no sign of anything wrong with him. His ears flicked alertly, and his eyes shot around the arena curiously. He pranced, rather than walked, into the arena while the public-address system introduced him and his rider.

Camilla seemed a little perturbed. Elementary wasn’t being any more difficult than many of the other horses had been, but Carole and her friends knew from experience that a horse who wasn’t behaving the way that horse usually behaved could be trouble. Carole hoped that wasn’t the case here.

Elementary took off like a shot when Camilla was ready to go over the first jump. He flew over that jump and the one that followed. But there was something wrong. Even if most of the audience didn’t know it, anyone who could see Camilla’s face knew it. Elementary was giving her trouble, a lot of it.

Camilla wanted him to go over the forty-point jump, but he seemed bound and determined to go over the thirty. She had to flick him with her riding crop to get him to go where she wanted him to go. This was definitely bad news. It wasn’t that the riding crop hurt him. It was merely an aid to getting him to
do what he was supposed to do. The problem was that he shouldn’t have needed it. In a competition situation, a seasoned horse should respond better.

Figuring that going over the thirty-point jump was better than refusal from Elementary, Camilla allowed him to go over it and then tried to take him back over the forty-pointer. He was having none of it. She rode directly at the jump, rose in the saddle, and signaled him to jump. Instead, he stopped dead in his tracks.

Oooooooh
, the audience said.

Camilla turned the horse around and retreated about fifteen feet, enough space to allow him to get to his takeoff speed, and tried again. This time, instead of just stopping, Elementary bucked and then reared. He yanked his head to one side.

Camilla did everything she could to stay on the horse, and in the end she managed to do that, but the violent yanking of the horse’s head pulled very hard at her left arm. Her right hand kept holding the reins firmly, but the left one released them completely. To the dismay of the audience, Camilla’s left arm simply dropped limply to her side.

Everyone in the arena stood up to see what was happening and to lend support to a rider in trouble. Unfortunately, it wasn’t going to change the fact that Camilla was hurt and couldn’t complete the course.

While the audience applauded politely, Camilla rode Elementary out of the ring.

“She was having a problem before with her horse,” Carole said to Dorothy. “She even asked Nigel to look at it. They couldn’t find anything wrong with him.”

“Maybe he’s just in a bad mood,” Dorothy said. “That happens. Every horse has good days and bad days. This is clearly a bad one for Elementary.”

“Is she going to be okay?” Stevie asked.

“Oh, sure,” Dorothy said. “Looks like she dislocated her arm. She’ll be better soon. It hurts like crazy, especially when they get a couple of strong guys to hold you and put the joint back where it belongs, but she’ll be as good as new and back in the saddle in a couple of weeks or a …”

Dorothy’s voice trailed off.

“Oh, no! I’ve got to see Nigel!” she said. Without another word, she stood up and left the seats.

The Pine Hollow riders looked at one another.

“I guess that’s what it’s like when you’re engaged,” Stevie said philosophically. “When you’ve got to see the man you love, there’s just no stopping you.”

The girls smiled. It did seem so romantic—if a little bit odd.

A few minutes later, the public-address system announced that Camilla Wentworth had, in fact, dislocated
her shoulder and been taken to the hospital, where she was expected to recover completely. That sounded like good news.