Riding to Win by Bonnie Bryant

Author:Bonnie Bryant
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781497654075
Publisher: Open Road Media Teen & Tween

Ten

Carole glanced out the office window over Max’s shoulder. A light but steady drizzle had been falling all afternoon, and the heavy cloud cover made it look a lot later than it actually was. That wasn’t helping anyone’s mood at Pine Hollow—the show was the next day, and there was still so much to do that it was making everyone a little frantic.

And as if I don’t have enough to worry about already, just getting myself and Samson ready, Carole thought, twisting her hands together nervously in her lap, I just can’t stop thinking about that vet check last night.

She forced herself to tune back into Max’s speech. She didn’t want to miss anything important because she was obsessing over Tanya’s visit. “… and I just want you all to remember,” Max was saying somberly, tapping a pen slowly against his desk for emphasis. “Competing at a show of this importance, against riders of this caliber, is going to be a great challenge. But you shouldn’t think of it as a contest against others. I really want you to focus on bettering yourselves, concentrating on improving your own …”

Carole’s mind drifted again. She had heard Max give the same speech, or some version of it, more times than she could remember. She couldn’t seem to concentrate on his words this time, not when her mind wouldn’t stop worrying over the fact that Starlight would soon belong to someone else.

The vet check had gone perfectly smoothly, just as Carole had anticipated. Once the doctor had pronounced the gelding sound and healthy, Tanya had practically gone ballistic with excitement. She’d been ready to pack Starlight into her mother’s car right then and there—or at least return to pick him up as soon as possible. Part of Carole wanted to go along with that plan, thinking it might be easier to do it fast, like ripping off a bandage all at once. But she couldn’t quite bear the thought of losing Starlight amidst all the preshow commotion. So she had insisted that Tanya wait to pick him up until Saturday evening, after the show was over and Carole could give her horse a proper farewell. She hoped that would also give her enough time to break the news to her father and Max. Somehow, she couldn’t quite picture how Max would react if a van arrived to pick up one of his boarders without his knowledge.

Tanya had clearly been unhappy with the delay. But she had reluctantly agreed on the condition that she could bring her father by Pine Hollow on Friday afternoon to show him the horse he was buying her. Carole hadn’t been able to argue against that, so she had set up the visit for a little later that afternoon.

Heaving herself up a little straighter in her chair, Carole glanced around the room at the others. Stevie was sitting in the chair beside her, fidgeting and looking slightly impatient. George was standing quietly against the wall of bookshelves, both hands in his pockets and a serene expression on his round face.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.