Nine Lives: (Pony Jumpers #9) by Kate Lattey

Author:Kate Lattey [Lattey, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Published: 2017-08-29T04:00:00+00:00

I rode Tori every day after that. She wasn’t perfect, not by a long shot. After that first brilliant canter, she’d jogged all the way home, spooking at everything and trying to tear the reins out of my hands. But despite her difficulties, despite the meltdowns and spasmodic fits of bucking and the way she still seemed to view all my instructions as optional, I enjoyed riding her. Not just in those sublime moments when everything came together and she was grace and power personified, but for the small changes, for the moments when she tossed her head happily, for the way she strode out down the raceway every day, eager for more adventure, and for the fact that she no longer flinched away when I reached forward to pat her. Nothing worth having ever comes easily – Squib had taught me that, and Tori was teaching it to me tenfold.

“She’s only being good for you because you’re not asking her to do anything,” Katy pointed out one day when I came back from a ride with an ear-to-ear grin. “If you took her into the arena and tried to school her, she’d try to kill you too.”

I wanted so badly to prove her wrong, but I also didn’t want to give Tori the opportunity to prove her right. But the next day, I couldn’t help testing the theory. I’d ridden Tori down to the river flat, but instead of letting her trot along as usual, I asked her to circle. Tori started out well, flexing at the poll and accepting the bit, but when I asked her for more inside bend and to collect her stride a little, she started to become agitated.

I should have left well enough alone, but I’ve always been a slow learner. I persisted for several more circles until Tori took matters into her own hooves, plunging out of the circle and putting in her first genuine attempt at bucking me off. I didn’t see it coming and was flung forward onto her neck, grazing my cheekbone against her hard neck. I braced myself for a second buck, knowing that I had no hope of staying on if she wanted me off. I caught a glimpse of the stony ground and hoped that it wouldn’t hurt too much when I landed on it. But again, Tori surprised me. Instead of dumping me, she slammed to a halt, then stood still as I pushed myself back into the saddle. I wiped my watering eyes on my shirt, then reached forward and gently stroked her neck. She might not like what I was asking her to do, but she wasn’t trying to hurt me, and I was grateful to her for that.

I rode home to find a note asking me to feed out, because Katy and her mum had been running late for a fundraising dinner. I was in the midst of unsaddling Tori, daydreaming about my parents winning Lotto and buying her for me, so that

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