Star Pupil (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 4) by Svendsen Claire

Author:Svendsen, Claire [Svendsen, Claire]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2014-02-22T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Bluebird looked at me like I was crazy when I brought the saddle back into his stall. He’d eaten his grain and all his hay and was taking a nap in the corner with his back leg cocked and eyes closed.

“Sorry boy,” I told him. “You’re going to have to work really hard over the next few days but I’ll give you a whole week off when we get home, I promise.”

“Don’t you pin your ears at me mister,” I heard Becka scold Topaz in the next stall.

“He doesn’t want to go back to work either huh?” I called out to her.

“This is not going to be fun,” she replied.

It took ages for everyone to get their horses ready because no one was willing to fail inspection a second time but when we all finally got out to the ring, Miguel just took one look at us, nodded curtly and then led the way out to a set of colorful jumps in one of the grass fields.

“All that grooming for nothing?” Becka moaned. “I should have known.”

Better to be safe than sorry,” I said.

“It’s all right for you,” Peter said. “He likes you.”

I wasn’t sure that was exactly true. So far I’d just been lucky. Eventually I was going to screw up. It was just a matter of time.

“Now, riding on grass is a lot different than in the ring,” Miguel said. “Can anyone tell me why?”

“Because the horses are distracted by all the grass?” Hadley said, pulling Splash’s face out of a particularly juicy patch. It made me miss Mickey and Hampton. He would have been doing the very same thing.

“Yes,” Miguel said. “Although your horse should be well trained enough to know not to snatch at the grass anytime she pleases. What else?”

“The footing is different.”

“There are lots of distractions.”

“It’s a bigger, open space.”

Everyone called out answers, keen to be praised by Miguel.

“Yes. Yes. Yes,” he cried.

“But can anyone tell me why jumping on grass is much more fun?”

“Because it feels like you’re free,” I said.

“Exactly,” Miguel grinned.

“If I wanted to jump on the grass, I’d be riding cross country,” Jess groaned.

“Many of the big show jumping competitions are on grass,” Miguel continued. “And if you want to win big money, you need to know how to ride on it. So let’s get on, shall we?”

We warmed up on the flat in a big circle. Everyone’s horses were too tired to misbehave. Even Blue Midnight was obediently following Jess’s commands. Then we rode over the jumps, first separate lines and then, when Miguel was finally happy, we jumped the whole course. Bluebird was happy too. He always seemed to do better in the wide open spaces and we only had one rail down, a black and white vertical that was so flimsy it looked as though a small wind gust would knock it over. No one went clean. Everyone had rails or refusals and one girl fell off. Jess laughed at her which was ridiculous since she’d been the one who fell off that morning but Blue Midnight seemed extra tired.

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.