Take the Reins (13 page)

CALLIE WAS GROOMING JACK IN THE CROSSTIES.
Today was
the
day. Testing day for the advanced team.

“Have you ever tested before?” I asked her.

“I tested when I rode for the New England Saddle Club,” Callie said. “But I came here before testing for their advanced team. Was there testing at your stable?”

I circled the rubber currycomb over Charm's already clean coat. He snorted a warning when I curried the same spot for too long. I switched to a soft brush and swept any invisible specks of dust off his back. “No, my stable didn't have testing. We rode in levels but nothing like this.” Charm snorted. The days of dozing in the pasture were long gone. “You've been great, boy,” I said, rubbing his back.

Callie brought me back to reality. “I've got to go warm up, but you're going to do great. I know you'll make it.”

“Thanks,” I said. I could tell she'd meant it.

I smoothed the saddle pad onto Charm's back and tried not to plop the heavy English saddle on top of it. “Ready for this, boy?” I asked. Charm nodded and tugged on the crossties. “This is it. We have to do this right.”

Saddling Charm never got any easier, no matter how many two-pound weights I lifted. When I tightened the girth, I could have sworn there was a girth cinched around my own stomach.

“You okay?” I asked Charm. He bobbed his head and nudged me forward.

Inside the arena, Mr. Conner and Heather talked in low tones while Aristocrat tugged on the reins. I mounted Charm and started to warm up while Heather finished. She led Aristocrat in front of us before she left.

“Good luck, Silver,” she said. “I'd say ‘you'll need it,' but not even luck will help you now. You don't have a chance.”

“Then you should have nothing to worry about,” I said, squeezing my heels against Charm's side. I sat deep in the saddle, passing Heather and Aristocrat.

It was time to focus.

Charm trotted over to the banquet table where Mr. Conner was still writing on Heather's chart. He had stacked all of the decorations under the table and had slid the rest of the boxes along the wall.

I waited for him to finish. Charm shifted his weight and stretched his neck. Mr. Conner finally stopped scribbling and looked up at me. He gave me a smile. “Ready, Sasha?”

“I'm ready.”

He pulled out my chart and poised his pen. “It's going to be simple. You'll follow all of my commands until I tell you to stop. When I give you a new direction, begin that task immediately. Understand?”

“Got it.” I grasped the reins and straightened. Charm was in spectacular condition—bathed, braided, and brushed. If I rode him correctly, we'd do just fine. Charm calmed down as I rubbed my hands along his neck.

“Let's start with something easy,” Mr. Conner called. “Do a posting trot.”

I squeezed Charm's sides until he trotted. We made sweeping circles around the arena—posting was second nature by now. I stared between the tips of Charm's ears. I rose and fell with his inside shoulder. His hooves thudded evenly across the arena dirt. He trotted easily—I knew
we'd nailed the first task. “Great job, boy,” I whispered.

“Slow canter,” Mr. Conner called.

I tapped my boots against Charm's sides and he eased into a rocking canter. I sat motionless, keeping my butt glued to the seat. We swept around the arena.

“Flying lead change across the diagonal,” Mr. Conner announced.

My stomach dropped.

I had only been doing flying changes since the summer. The move was one of the trickiest tasks on horseback. They had to be done just right. I had only performed a few and most of them had been on Kim's much more experienced Danish Warmblood. While cantering, I had to signal Charm to switch lead hooves. All four of his legs were supposed to leave the ground for a split second as we hit the center point of the arena. Most riders couldn't correctly command the horse to do flying changes—the horse would canter though the diagonal and end up on the wrong lead.

I wondered if Heather had been able to do the flying change.

“Okay, boy. We can do this,” I said. We headed for the far end of the arena. Charm cantered toward the center. When we reached the middle, I shifted my weight and pulled slightly back on the reins. I moved my outside leg
behind the girth and put my other leg just at the girth. I tried to reposition Charm with the reins, but he pulled against my fingers and awkwardly cantered on the wrong lead until I slowed him to a trot. I tried not to look over at Mr. Conner. “Please, Charm,” I whispered to him. “Work with me here!” One of his ears swiveled back to my voice.

Charm quickened his pace. We headed to an imaginary X in the arena's center and we crossed over the middle. I asked him again for the flying lead change. Without hesitation, he switched leads and for a nanosecond, he suspended in the air. “Yes!” I whispered. “Yay, boy!”

Mr. Conner didn't tell us to stop, so I turned Charm around and pointed him to the middle of the area. We cantered to the center and he did another flying change without a hitch.

“Take a break while I set up a few jumps,” Mr. Conner called from the sidelines.

I pulled Charm into a walk and he mouthed the bit. Foam specks flew from his mouth and landed on his chest and legs. “You're doing great,” I said to Charm. “Maybe Paige and I will bake you an apple pie when we're done.” Charm walked in slow circles. I let the knotted reins rest against his neck while I reached my hands to the sky in a stretch.

Mr. Conner set up four jumps consisting of red and
white plastic rails, each increasing in height up to about three feet high. He waved me over, clipboard still in hand. “You're going to jump the course twice: once clockwise and once counterclockwise. If you hit a rail, keep going. I'm going to take notes on your form and approach, as well as Charm's behavior. After this, you can cool him down and you're free to go.”

Charm tugged the reins and scratched his knee with his teeth. Walking in circles bored him when he saw jumps up ahead.

Eight rails. That's all that stood between the advanced team and me.

“Ready?” I asked Charm.

He bobbed his head.

“Let's go.”

Charm thudded over the last jump in the clockwise round. I turned him sharply to take the jumps counterclockwise. We didn't even come close to touching a rail in the first round. My legs had begun to shake from fatigue and white froth formed at the front corners of Charm's wool saddle pad. Charm was getting tired, but he managed to pop over each jump with the same power.

I pointed him toward the first jump and he took it like a pro. One down, three to go. The second jump didn't
faze Charm either. He tucked his legs neatly as he sailed over the third rail. Charm took an extra circle before we headed for the final jump. I was barely even aware that Mr. Conner was in the ring. We were strides away from finishing when a light flashed. The door swung open and slammed against the arena wall.

“Mr. Conner!” a shrill voice called. Heather strode into the arena and headed right for Mr. Conner.

Charm shied violently and almost tripped as he crab-stepped the last jump. My foot popped out of the right stirrup as I started to fall off Charm's left side. I was not going to fall off in front of Heather and Mr. Conner!

“Easy, easy!” I said. My thighs hugged the saddle and I pulled myself upright. I grabbed his short mane and settled myself back in the saddle. Charm was anxious. He started to gallop to the final rail, his ears swept back in fear. His gait increased with every step and he acted like he didn't see the jump in front of us. I couldn't let him crash into the rail!
Charm, slow down!
I stood in the stirrups and used a pulley rein to circle him just before the jump.

I glanced over and saw Heather hurrying over to Mr. Conner.

“I am
so
sorry—the door got away from me! I was just coming to tell you that the grain delivery is here.”

Mr. Conner glared at Heather and called out to me, “Sasha! Are you okay?”

“Fine,” I called back, my hands shaking so hard they could barely grip the reins. Charm could have tripped or hit the jump. I bent over Charm's left shoulder and noticed his leg wrap was starting to come undone. “Heather?” I called. “Would you fix Charm's wrap for me?”

“Of course, Sasha.” Heather walked over to Charm and slid her hand down his leg to tighten his leg wrap. Charm tried to walk off when he saw Heather coming, but I held him still.

“I know you did that on purpose,” I whispered, keeping an eye on Mr. Conner.

Heather continued to tuck the stretchy fabric into the wrap as she spoke. “Oh, please, it was an accident.”

“Stay away from me and Charm,” I said.

Heather gave Charm's shoulder a firm pat and clasped my boot-clad ankle. “That's the smartest thing you've said all day.”

Mr. Conner finished scribbling on my chart and, when he looked up at us, Heather's face morphed into an angelic smile.

“Be more careful next time, Heather,” Mr. Conner said. “Sasha, thank you. You can go walk Charm until he's cool.”

I dismounted and tugged on Charm's reins to get him away from Heather. Mr. Conner didn't even let me do the course again.

We'd failed.

THE NEXT DAY, PAIGE SAT ON THE EDGE OF
my bed and pulled down my comforter.

“Sasha?” she said. I burrowed deeper into my flannel sheets. “You have to get up sometime.”

“I didn't make the team,” I grumbled, trying to cover my head with my bedspread. “I'm not getting out of bed.”

“You don't know that,” Paige said. “Besides, Mr. Conner knows what happened.”

“I should have said something,” I said.

“You were the better person by not ratting her out.”

I didn't say anything. Paige deserved one of those cheesy “world's best roomie” mugs.

“Sash, it's Sunday afternoon. You haven't seen Charm since yesterday. Get up, get dressed and go see him.”

“Fine,” I said.

“You better not be here when I get back,” Paige said, grabbing her messenger bag and heading out the door.

How could I face Charm? If I had been paying more attention to the arena instead of focusing so much on the jump, maybe he wouldn't have bolted. He had been counting on me to guide him and I'd failed.

My phone rang and I answered it.

“How'd you do?” Kim asked excitedly.

I told her the whole story.

“Sasha,” Kim said. “Mr. Conner knows what competition is like! He knew exactly what Heather was doing. If, and it's an unlikely if, you don't make the team, it's because you and Charm aren't ready. Not because of Heather. You gave your best ride and that's all you could do.”

“Charm did great,” I said, thinking back to how he had roared over the jumps. “He listened to all of my commands. He was really centered.”

“Then think about that and be happy with your ride! Charm did everything you asked,” she said. “That's the best kind of ride!”

My eyes filled with tears—not because I worried about not making it, but because while I sulked in bed, Charm was all alone in the stable. “I've gotta go.”

I tossed on a pair of yesterday's jeans and left for the stables. There was no excuse for leaving Charm alone for an entire day.

The stable was quiet when I arrived. “Hey,” I said, peering inside. Charm had his head down by his water bucket. He turned his head toward my voice. “You okay?” Both ears pricked forward. His big brown eyes locked on mine. “I'm coming in.” Charm stepped back and made a tiny space for me to squeeze between him and the door.

Once inside, I put my arms around his neck and hugged him. I stroked his mohawk mane. “I never should have run out on you after testing. You did great yesterday. I should have at least brushed you and made sure you were okay.”

Charm stamped his hoof.

“I'm going to groom you, like I should have done yesterday, and then we'll go for a walk.” Charm bobbed his head. Smart horse.

I took the side of Charm's halter and led him to the crossties. He stood still in the aisle while I clipped the ropes to his halter rings. I grabbed his tack box and started on his forelock. His mane was too short to be combed, so I tackled a couple of tangles in his long tail. Using one of his no-tears wipes, I wiped off his muzzle and eye area. The stiff dandy brush took the tough bits
of dirt out of his coat and I finished by running a soft brush over his barrel, legs and neck. Next, I pried dirt out of his hooves.

In the time since I had started grooming Charm, my anger and sadness had begun to slip away. He had that effect on me.

I unclipped him from the crossties. We headed down the aisle.

Nicole had her gelding, Wish, on a lead line. Wish stretched his muzzle out to Charm.

“We're going for a walk,” I said to Nicole. “Want to come?”

“We'd love to,” she said.

Our horses' hooves clip-clopped down the aisle as we led them outside for a well-deserved walk.

PAIGE MADE ME HELP HER WITH THE FOOD
for the party to keep my mind off testing. I wouldn't care if I didn't see another cupcake for the rest of my life! It was only Tuesday, but Paige was in full-out baking mode.

And this afternoon, I was going to the stables to decorate for Saturday's party.

Before I left my dorm, I logged in to IM and sighed with relief when I saw
GamerGuy
's icon was dark. If Jacob had been online, I might have been too nervous to ask what I wanted to ask.

I logged out before he could get online and ran on nervous energy all the way to the stable.

Nicole and Callie had asked if they could help decorate, so I'd organized a decorating party at four.

“Hey, where's the party?” Callie asked.

“We
have
to outdo Heather,” Nicole said, pulling off her purple scarf.

I laughed, whipping out my heavily scribbled-on to-do list.

I began divvying up the duties. “Nicole, could you hang lights? You're the tallest. Callie, can you do the streamers? I'll start setting up the banquet tables.”

While Callie and Nicole went off to tackle their respective tasks, I grabbed a box of snowflake window clings and started sticking the blue and white snowflakes to the windows.

Three hours later, it was almost seven and everyone was still going strong.

“Do you like the tree?” Nicole asked, nodding to the artificial tree she had set up.

“Perfect,” I said. Callie unfolded a stepladder and held it so that Nicole could climb up and hang popcorn, beads, and sparkly glass balls on the tree.

Nicole and I had decorated the outside of the arena
with clear twinkly lights. They looked amazing.

I started spraying faux snow around the arena windows since the forecast was still officially undecided for Saturday. When I was done, I covered the banquet tables with crystal-like confetti and white-frosted candles. The table glittered and the confetti sparkled in the light.

“It's was just a dusty arena a few hours ago,” Callie said. “Now it's a party palace!”

“Are we outdoing Heather yet?” Nicole asked.

“By far,” Callie said, grinning.

But, looking around at my friends and the beautiful Winter Wonderland we'd created together, I realized I wasn't even thinking about Heather. It was a good feeling.