Sale Horse (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 5) by Svendsen Claire

Author:Svendsen, Claire [Svendsen, Claire]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2014-03-29T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

As usual the younger kid’s classes were first and Faith had her game face on. It was clear that this time she was not going to mess things up like she did at her first show. As soon as she was up in the saddle, the giggles and smiles disappeared. She was ready to trample over everyone to get that blue ribbon.

“I gave Princess one carrot,” she told me seriously. “And I told her that there are plenty more where that came from if she wins.”

“And if she doesn’t?” I asked, wiping the dust off her boots.

“Then she knows where they’ll go,” she said solemnly before riding off.

“How did she get to be so serious?” I asked Ethan as we both lent on the rail of the warm up ring.

“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “The kid has drive.”

I always thought that Ethan had been the one with all the drive but since leaving Fox Run Farm and coming to ride with Esther, I’d seen his focus starting to slip. I wondered if it was because Esther was being too soft on him. Not pushing him hard enough. Or maybe it was Wendell? He was a great horse but he didn’t really seem to fit into the hunters or the jumpers. He was lost somewhere in no man’s land, just like Ethan was.

Esther navigated Faith through a basic warm up and had her trot a couple of cross rails.

“You know,” I said as Faith gave Princess a curt, businesslike pat on the neck. “She really has improved a lot.”

And this time Faith didn’t let us down. In fact she won the short stirrup division against a bunch of kids who were a lot older and had been riding a lot longer than she had. She came back to our stalls with a handful of small blue ribbons and one large one that was bigger than the pony’s head. Princess looked smug and so did Faith.

“I told you I’d win,” she said.

“Yes you did,” I smiled. “And you rode very well. We are proud of you.”

“Do you think one day I’ll be able to ride in the jumpers like you?” she asked, dutifully feeding the aforementioned carrots to Princess.

“I don’t see why not,” I said. “If you want to.”

“I do,” she said.

And just like I’d told Ethan that Faith would beat him, I had a suspicion that eventually she would probably beat me at my own game as well.

“Ready to get your butt kicked?”

Ethan looked into Hampton’s stall where I was redoing one of his braids. Since I was riding Hampton in the hunter classes, today we were going to be competing against each other.

“I’ve forgotten how to ride slow and steady,” I said. “All I see is the inside line.”

“Yes but you have Hampton,” he grinned. “You could ride that horse with your eyes closed and he’d still get the job done.”

“Maybe I should do just that,” I said. “If his rounds get mucked up it will be my fault, not his.

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