The Perfect Distance by Kim Ablon Whitney

Author:Kim Ablon Whitney [Whitney, Kim Ablon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B00IAW39O4
Publisher: Stafford Books
Published: 2014-02-11T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

* * *

“Okay, Tara first, then Francie, then Katie, then Gwenn, trot the low side of the bank,” Susie called to us. She was teaching our lesson because Rob was taking his mother to look at a nursing home. After a week of intense lessons with Rob it was nice to have a break.

I fell into line behind Tara, leaving enough room between us. We were riding on the grand prix field because next was the Talent Search, which was held outside on grass with natural obstacles like the ones we were practicing.

I stayed back with my upper body and let Tobey jump to me going up onto the bank. Then I made sure not to grab the reins as he popped back down to the ground off the raised platform.

“Good,” Susie said. “Just remember, stay back a little more coming down.”

It was beautiful out in the field. The leaves on the trees were at their brightest colors, just before they tinged brown and fluttered to the ground. It was crisp out, but not yet cold. Even at four o’clock the sun still hovered high in the sky. In a few more weeks, after the clocks had been turned back from daylight savings, it’d be too dark to jump outside at this time. Usually I wouldn’t have noticed how beautiful it was out on the field or whether it was getting dark, but with Susie teaching, things were much more relaxed and it was possible to stop and smell the roses, so to speak.

We trotted the bank again widthwise, cantered it lengthwise. Next it was time to jump the open water. The rail above the water was only a foot off the ground: what made the water difficult was its width. At ten feet wide, you had to gallop to clear it. And even some of the best eq horses wouldn’t jump the water.

This time Katie went first, and Stretch sailed over like the rockstar he was. Tobey and I were next. Since he could be a little spooky, I kept my leg on him.

Tobey pricked his ears and surged forward. He judged it perfectly and soared over. I patted his neck. After Tara and Gwenn jumped the water fine and we practiced the grob, a sunken road with two ditches a few strides apart, Susie had us put them together in a course with the regular jumps. We all rode pretty well and she said, “Good enough. Let’s quit with that.”

Tara and Gwenn headed back to the barn right away, but Katie and I lingered. We walked Tobey and Stretch around the field and talked to Susie, who had sat down on the edge of the bank.

“So how’s school?” she asked us.

“Fine,” Katie said. “Especially since I’m never there.”

“Francie?”

I shrugged. “You know. The usual.” Of course, ever since the test, school had been anything other than the usual.

“Your father said you’re deciding which colleges to apply to?”

I reached down and patted Tobey. “That’s what he thinks, yeah.”

Susie knew I wanted to ride professionally.

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