Cause For Elimination by Marla A. White

Author:Marla A. White [White, Marla A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Action; Addiction; Romance; Angst; Animals; Annoying Ex; Athlete; Badass Heroine; Brooding Hero; cat; Contemporary; Cops; crime; damaged heroine; Dang
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Published: 2022-06-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

Hunching her shoulders under her polar fleece jacket, Emily led Reese up the hill to the show barns. She had gotten up early and braved the damp Temecula morning to let the big horse play and kick up his heels on the lunge line to burn off his excitement before the field got too crowded.

Dearg McGregor’s clinic was part of the annual Kinsale Downs fundraiser, which meant several trainers would be using the course at the same time. More riders on the field made it more fun than a show. It also meant at least once every hour a horse would dump its rider, then head, hell-bent for leather, back to the barn, upsetting other horses along the way.

Determined not to be the rider left on the ground helplessly watching her horse gallop rider-less across Kinsale Downs’s two hundred plus acres, she’d tried everything she could think of to get out all of Reese’s silliness. But as a wispy cloud of steam hung over his body, she worried she hadn’t done enough.

Lottie entered the barn carrying two venti-sized coffee creations. “Here, I’ll trade you.”

Emily took the one without the lipstick on the lid, marveling at how her friend could be awake enough in the morning to put on make-up. She switched out the lunge line for a lead rope and handed over the big horse. “Walk him around for—”

Waving off the instructions, Lottie took the line and the horse in hand. “Ten minutes, I know, I know. Chill out, eat a banana.”

Alone, Emily pulled Reese’s heavy blanket off the saddle rack where she’d draped it and wrapped the earthy-smelling, thick-quilted nylon around her shoulders. The damp chill seeped into her bones in the dark, sunless barn. She leaned back and closed her eyes, trying to relax.

God, what a week it had been, she thought as she sipped the caramel and chocolate coffee drink, appreciating the warmth more than the flavor. First, Reese threw a shoe and Lottie had to employ several unique and colorful threats to get the farrier to come out before they left for Kinsale Downs.

Then, she went to hitch Pam’s two-horse trailer up to her truck and discovered one of the two stabilizer bars was missing. Only Pam would own such an expensive piece of equipment and not take proper care of it. After a mad scramble, they were able to borrow a trailer. God, she loved the generosity of the eventing community.

To top it all off, right after they arrived at Kinsale Downs, they discovered the schedule had changed, and she was riding two hours earlier than planned—which meant staying late in order to clean the tack. Adding up all the minor glitches, it felt as if Fate conspired against her attending this particular clinic.

In theory, this was the easiest one of the two days. They’d work on stadium jumping today before moving to cross-country on day two. Stadium jumps weren’t easier to ride, but the knowledge that the jumps would fall down rather than the horse if she made an error made it endurable.

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