Dream On (Dare to Dream Book 2), page 29
Maggie sighted the jump, pricked her ears and raised her head, and raced towards it. Marley didn’t fight her or try to interfere, simply sitting still and holding the pony as collected as she could on the way to the jump. She closed her legs firmly at the base of the fence, and Maggie sprang upwards. Even as they cleared the fence, Marley knew that they’d given it at least a foot of air. Somebody whistled, sounding impressed, but Marley was focused on the landing side, hoping that she could keep Maggie balanced and steady. The pony pulled the reins through Marley’s hands, plunging her head between her knees and threatening to buck.
Kris cringed as she watched Marley struggle to regain control of the wayward pony. Van walked up next to her and watched Marley with a frown.
“Someone’s up to her old tricks again,” Van commented as Marley managed to spin Maggie in a tight circle that halted her forward momentum.
“She really needs to use a proper bridle. This bitless nonsense is going to get her hurt,” a voice said to their left, and Kris turned to see Stacey’s father standing there, his arms crossed over his broad chest. “Rod says he would never have let Lottie get on her without a proper bridle and effective brakes.”
“His idea of what constitutes effective brakes is what got the pony into this mess in the first place,” Van snapped.
Kris shot her a warning look, and Van turned her attention back to Marley, who had been called to the exit gate of the warm-up arena. Van went to meet her, and walked alongside as Maggie danced and fretted her way down the chute to the main arena. The steward waved Marley in at the arena gate, but she drew Maggie to a halt and looked down at her sister.
“I don’t know if I can do this, Van. I don’t know how much of this she’ll be able to cope with.”
Van set a hand on Marley’s knee. “She’ll be okay. This is your chance to prove your point to those people. Show them that you can ride her without a bit, and that she is happier. They don’t think you can achieve success without using force. This is your chance to prove them wrong. Don’t do it for her – do it for all the horses they’ve got at home that are being treated the same way Maggie was.”
Marley nodded, softened her fingers on the reins and urged Maggie forward. The pony leapt into a trot, baulked at the gate, spooked at something behind her and shot forward, and before she knew it they were in the ring. Marley immediately urged her into a canter and heard the buzzer that signified the start of her round, so headed the pony towards the first fence, unwilling to waste any time.
“Here we go,” she told Maggie under her breath. “I need you to give me everything you’ve got. Some grit and some try, okay?”
Her hands were steady on the reins and her legs closed around the pony’s sides. Maggie’s blood was up and she rushed at the first fence, taking a huge leap over it from a long distance. Marley folded her upper body forward over the pony’s neck, resting one hand on her mane to maintain her balance, then sat up quickly on landing. She murmured quiet reassurances to Maggie as she guided her carefully toward the next fence, and the next, but although the mare cleared them easily, she was still cantering as though she had hot coals under her feet.
Marley narrowed her focus tightly onto the course in front of them, never thinking more than one jump ahead. Steady for the double. Land over the vertical, ride forward to the planks. Sit up, circle back towards the oxer. Maggie’s bounding strides, her spooky leaps, her snorting, plunging and pulling between the fences was just something that Marley had to sit tight and deal with. Nothing mattered except getting to the next fence and setting the pony up as well as possible to be able to clear it.
They were through the treble now, and only two fences from home. Maggie cleared the skinny vertical with ease, and Marley’s focus slipped as she realised that, somehow, she was only one fence away from notching up a clear round. That would mean going back in for a jump-off, and she wondered whether she’d be able to go as fast or turn as tight as Maggie’s old owners would be expecting her to. As badly as she wanted to prove herself to them, she still didn’t know how hard she could push the pony, and one wrong move could swiftly undo all of her hard work. Maggie’s stride flattened out as they approached the final fence, and Marley snapped back to the present, but there was no time left to remedy the situation. The pony gave it a good effort, but one hind hoof was a little slow to lift, and tapped the top rail. It wobbled in the cups, then fell to the ground with a thud as Marley cantered Maggie through the finish flags.
“Bad luck,” Stacey called as Marley rode the jibbing, plunging pony out of the ring and down the chute. Once she was out of the way of the remaining riders, she slid off the mare’s back and loosened her girth, struggling to catch her breath. Van caught her up first, patting her on the shoulder.
“Better than I thought it was going to be.”
“Me too, but I let her down at the last,” Marley grumbled. “That was entirely my fault.”
“You lost concentration,” Kris commented as she walked up to them.
“I know, I know.” Marley rubbed Maggie’s forehead, and the mare scratched her head on Marley’s shoulder, relieved that her ordeal was over. “You’re a good girl, aren’t you? I’m proud of you, kiddo.”
“She jumped beautifully out there,” Stacey gushed. Her entourage surrounded them, and Maggie flattened her ears and sidled anxiously as they crowded her.
“I have to say, I didn’t think you’d be able to get her around the course without a whip and spurs, but you managed, so my hat is off to you, young lady.”
Marley had achieved what she’d wanted to, but Rod’s words didn’t make her feel better. It had taken every bit of focus and skill that she possessed to get the pony around that course, and although Stacey wasn’t a bad rider, Marley knew that she wouldn’t have made it over the first fence. Maggie simply wouldn’t have done it for her. She’d only jumped because Marley had asked her to, and she knew that giving the pony back to her owner was going to be one of the hardest things she’d ever have to do.
Lottie reached forward and stroked Maggie’s shoulder. The pony flinched under her touch, and she retracted her hand quickly.
“She loves the big time,” Lottie said. “You did well with her, she’s not an easy ride.”
Marley didn’t want to talk about any of it. She had flinched alongside Maggie when Lottie had reached out to touch the mare, seeing not the neatly manicured hand that was reaching forward, but the clenched fist that had held the reins of the savage double bridle she had once used. She could walk in and fire off compliments as much as she liked, but none of it was going to absolve her of the responsibility she bore for Maggie’s current emotional state.
You did this, Marley wanted to tell her. You broke her, so don’t tell me I’ve done well for fixing her. If it wasn’t for you ruining her in the first place, I wouldn’t have needed to. But she contained herself. An outburst wouldn’t help anyone right now. She took Maggie’s reins over her head and pushed through the people surrounding them.
“I need to cool her out.”
“No time,” Van said, rejoining them. “There was only one clear round, and you were the fastest four-faulter.”
Marley just stared at her sister blankly.
“You came second.”
“Oh.”
The excitement of the people around her failed to flow on to Marley. She felt nothing except numb as she tightened Maggie’s girth and lifted the reins back over her ears. The mare pawed the ground nervously as Van legged Marley into the saddle, and walked with her back down the chute as they were called in for the presentation. The steward approached Marley with a wide blue sash, but Maggie responded so savagely to the prospect of a stranger coming near her that Kris had to fasten it around Maggie’s neck, and even she had difficulty doing so without having her arm taken off.
The presentation and victory lap was an experience that Marley afterward swore never to repeat. Maggie was beside herself, alternating between pawing the ground frantically, sidling into the other ponies, and trying to kick them. It turned out that Susannah was the only one who had jumped clear, and her father glared furiously at Marley every time Maggie danced within several feet of Buckingham, who was standing placidly as Susannah accepted her trophy. The crowd’s applause was restrained as she was declared the winner and remounted, and when Marley’s name was read out in second place, a storm of applause followed. She was popular here after her dramatic win in Pony of the Year last season, and amongst the people who had watched and been impressed by her progress with Maggie. The deafening noise, at least twice as loud as it had been for Susannah, sent Maggie into a frenzy, and she reared high, striking out with her forelegs. The sponsors and presenters ducked for cover and Bubbles, standing in third place, quickly moved Cruise out of the way of Maggie’s flailing hooves. Marley managed to keep Maggie walking in small circles as she waited for the presentation to end, and finally the music started to play and she was able to release the frantic pony into forward momentum. Maggie reared again, leapt forward and plunged her head between her legs, firing off two large bucks before Marley managed to circle her and get her head up. Bubbles waited politely for Marley to regain control as Susannah set off on her victory lap, but Marley waved Bubs on, turning Maggie through the centre of the arena and letting her jog uneasily between the jumps on her way back to the exit gate.
Marley hosed the last of the sweat from Maggie’s dark coat, letting the cool water stream over the mare’s back, then turned off the hose. Maggie shook violently, her shod hooves skittering on the concrete pad, and Marley squeaked inadvertently as droplets of water splattered her face. She turned to lead the pony away from the hosing bay and came face to face with Susannah, who was waiting patiently with Buck.
The girls looked at one another for a moment, then Marley spoke. “Well done today.”
Susannah nodded. “Thanks. Same to you.”
Marley couldn’t tell if she was sincere, but Susannah had never been very subtle before, so she decided the other girl probably meant it.
Susannah tied Buck to the railing and reached for the hose. “That mare of yours can really jump.”
She’s not mine. “Yeah, she sure can,” Marley agreed. “I just wish she wanted to.”
Susannah looked at Maggie for a long moment. “I don’t suppose she has a choice.”
She turned her back to Marley, running the cold hose over Buck’s legs, and Marley clicked her tongue to Maggie and led her away.
Stacey was predictably thrilled with Maggie’s result, because it gave her the wildcard entry into Pony of the Year that they’d been aiming for. Marley had tried to convince her that Maggie wouldn’t cope well with the pressure and stress, but with the backing of Lottie and her family, who insisted that Maggie had always behaved this way at shows and there was no changing her now, Marley was overruled. And when she tried to put her foot down and refuse, Stacey had sighed and said in that case she’d have to let Hayley take the ride in Marley’s place. The thought of hot-seated Hayley riding Maggie sent a cold shiver down Marley’s spine, and she’d backed down under pressure, pleasing Stacey but infuriating Hayley.
“I couldn’t let her do it,” Marley told her sisters that evening. It was quiet outside, with the Friday night extravaganza in the main arena keeping most of the people on the grounds entertained. Van lay on the bunk with an icepack on her big toe, which was black and swollen from Covergirl stamping on it that morning. It was so swollen that she had barely been able to get her boot off, and wasn’t sure how she was going to get it back on in the morning, but that was tomorrow’s problem, and there was no way Van was going to let it stop her from competing in the Young Rider of the Year title class.
“Couldn’t let who do what?” Van turned her head to the side to look at her sister, who was dealing herself yet another hand of Patience while Kris washed up after dinner.
“Hayley ride Maggie. It’d kill her.”
“Yes it would, feral creature that it is,” Van said agreeably.
“Not what I meant,” Marley snapped, flipping over the first card on her deck. “Having Hayley on her back would drive Maggie over the edge.”
“Possibly,” Kris said. “But just last night you were saying there was no way in hell you would take her back into that arena.”
“I don’t want to,” Marley said. “But I don’t have a choice. If it’s Hayley or me, then it has to be me.”
“Why?” Kris set down her tea towel and looked at her sister seriously. “Why do you have to be the one to risk your neck, when someone else is perfectly willing to do it?” Her back ached and her head was throbbing. She just wanted to go to bed, but there wasn’t much point - she wouldn’t sleep anyway.
“Marley the martyr,” Van said, staring up at the ceiling. “Always willing to sacrifice herself to save other people’s hides.”
Marley frowned. “I didn’t do it for Hayley’s sake,” she contradicted them both. “I did it for Maggie. She needs me if she’s going to have to go back out there. She trusts me. Only me.”
Kris sat down and rubbed her aching temples. “You’re going to have to give her back to Stacey,” she reminded Marley.
“Oh really? I had no idea until you mentioned it,” Marley snapped back sarcastically. She threw the cards in her hand down onto the table and stood up. “I’m going to check on the ponies.”
The evening air was warm, the grass still dry beneath her bare feet as Marley walked the short distance to the yards. Gothic was pulling at his haynet, and Gigi was snoozing in the corner, but Seattle came up eagerly to search her for carrots. Marley scratched his forehead while she looked at Maggie, who was standing in the middle of her yard with her head up, watching something in the distance. Seattle got annoyed at her lack of treats and nipped her arm, dodged her half-hearted smack, and turned his backside to her in indignation. Marley left him and went to stand at Maggie’s yard, gazing at the beautiful mare.
“Do you ever relax?” she asked the pony. “You should give it a try sometime.”
Maggie glanced at her, snorted, then looked away again. Marley’s phone was in her pocket, and it buzzed suddenly. She fished it out, wondering who it was. Hoping it was Jake, the one person she really wanted to talk to right now. But it was only Lucy, wondering where she was, and Marley shoved the phone back into her pocket without responding.
“Marley.”
She turned to see Bubbles walking towards her in the dim evening light.
“Hi.”
“How are you?”
“Fine. Cruise jumped well today.”
Bubbles smiled. “He sure did. So did she,” she added, motioning towards Maggie, who was glaring at her suspiciously. “You must be really happy with her. She’s come a long way with you.”
“Yeah.” Marley really didn’t want to talk about it. “So what’s up?”
Bubbles leaned on the rail and looked at Maggie, then down at her own hands. “I have to tell you something.” She took a breath, and turned to face Marley. “The thing is, well…we’re moving back to America.”
“Oh.” Marley’s voice was even, but her heart was pounding at this unexpected news. If Bubbles was leaving, that meant Cruise was going back on the market. Marley knew that she would never be able to afford to buy him back. Unless Bubbles would let her pay him off, or sold him back to her at a reduced rate, because they were friends…
“And I’m taking Cruise with me.”
The words hit Marley like a sickening punch to the stomach, and for a long moment, she felt as though she couldn’t breathe. The faint glimmer of hope that she might someday get him back vanished completely. Bubbles was taking him away, far away. Forever. She was still talking, saying that Cruise would be able to prove his worth against the top ponies in the USA, that she’d be able to compete him in adult classes once she aged out of the pony jumpers, that she’d keep him forever and take the very best care of him, but Marley barely heard her.
And when Bubbles’s voice finally trailed off and she left, Marley sank down to the ground and buried her face in her knees, her body racked with sobs. Not even Maggie’s soft breath against the back of her neck comforted her, and she was still crying when Kris found her, huddled in a ball with tears streaming down her face.
* * *
“Do we have any duct tape?”
Kris turned her head to look at Van as she limped down the ramp of the horse truck the next morning. She was dressed to ride, with the exception of her right boot, which she was carrying in one hand. Her right foot was swollen to twice its usual size, despite the strapping she’d put on it last night.
“You’re not riding.”
“The hell I’m not.”
“Your toe is broken.”
“Nah. Just bruised, probably.” Van sat down on the ramp and pulled a knife from her pocket, flipping the sharp blade open as Marley walked up to them.
“Forced to amputate?”
“I wish.” Van set her riding boot on her lap and plunged the knife into it.
“What are you doing?” Kris cried as the blade pierced the shining leather.
“I can get the boot on, but the pressure on my toe hurts too much,” Van explained calmly as she worked the knife through the leather. “So I’m cutting a hole in the toe.”
Kris stared at her, then glanced at Marley, who was giving Van a considering look.
“But you’re wearing pink socks. Someone is probably going to notice,” Marley pointed out.
“That’s why I was looking for duct tape. Black, preferably.”
“Oh.” Marley nodded, as though that made perfect sense. “It’s in the first aid box, under the sink. I’ll get it.” She scrambled barefoot up the ramp as Van continued to carve the toe out of her boot.
“You do know that you don’t have another pair, right?”
Van looked up at her sister with a wicked grin. “That’s what I’m going to spend the prize money on, when I win this afternoon.”
