Back in the Saddle (12 page)

“Monday,” Haley said.

“All right. Then we'd like for you to have it finished by Friday,” Aunt Veronica said. “
Before
you go to that event.”

“But—” Haley began, her mind already racing with everything she had to do to get ready—not to mention her regular homework and chores.

“But nothing.” Uncle Mike's voice was firm. “You heard your aunt. Do you really want to argue?”

“No, sorry,” Haley said meekly. “Um, thanks. I'd better go get started on it now.”

When her aunt and uncle dismissed her, Haley dashed upstairs. Flopping onto her bed, she grabbed her laptop and logged on to the Pony Post, practically shaking with relief. She'd filled the other girls in on the test situation right after school, and Brooke and Nina had already left notes of concern, though Haley barely skimmed them now before opening a new text box.

[HALEY]
Guess what? The event is still on! All I have to do is, you know, not sleep between now and then so I can get everything done . . . but hey, been there done that, lol!

Haley glanced up from her English book as Wings snorted and hung his head out over his stall door, a wispy bit of hay hanging from his lips. She was sitting in the middle of the barn aisle on an upturned bucket with her homework spread out around her.

“Don't be impatient. You can go out as soon as you're dry,” Haley told him.

It was Wednesday afternoon, and they'd just finished their dressage schooling session. It had been a short one, partly because Wings had done really well, rounding up almost immediately and dancing effortlessly through the movements, and partly because Haley had too much to do to spend more time in the saddle.

At the sound of her voice, Bandit jumped to his feet. He'd been snoozing on her math book, but now he barked, wagged his tail, and did a
Let's play
bow.

“Sorry, no time to play right now.” Suddenly remembering that she hadn't worked on the dog's training since getting interrupted the previous Saturday, Haley cleared her throat. “Sit, Bandit! Sit!”

She pointed at the dog. He stared at her and barked again, then sat for about a tenth of a second before leaping up again and racing around in a circle, scattering papers everywhere.

“Bandit, no!” Haley cried, grabbing for her schoolbook before it landed in a stray pile of manure she hadn't picked up yet. “Bad dog!”

He ignored her, sniffing noses with Wings, who was stretching his head out to see what was going on. Haley strode over and grabbed Bandit by the collar.

“I said sit,” she said firmly, pushing his haunches to the ground. “Sit!”

Bandit obeyed this time, gazing up at her with his soft brown eyes. Haley smiled.

“Good dog. Now stay.” She let go of his collar and stepped back. He popped to his feet and took a step toward her. “No!” she scolded. “Sit, stay!”

She put him back in the sit. It took a few tries and an increasingly stern tone, but finally she convinced him to stay for a few seconds.

“Okay, that's better. Good boy.” She looked around for a ball or stick to toss for the dog, figuring he deserved a reward. But by the time she had found a ragged tennis ball in the tack room, Bandit had disappeared.

Haley shrugged. Oh well. It was for the best. She really didn't have time to play with him anyway. Not if she wanted to get everything done so she could go win that event.

Picking up her English book, she settled onto the bucket and got back to work.

Haley couldn't stop yawning as she crawled into bed that night. Still, she couldn't resist checking in with the Pony Post before she went to sleep. She'd filled them in earlier not only on what her aunt and uncle had said, but also on the changes she was making to her training plans so she could still fit everything in and be prepared enough to win.

She smiled when she saw that all three of her friends had left messages in response to hers.

[NINA]
Glad u can still do the event, H. But I hope u can relax a little after u finish the extra credit stuff. Don't forget how crazy u got b4 that clinic, right?

[BROOKE]
Ya, Nina has a point, Haley. It's just 1 event. U will have another one soon, so don't make yourself sick over it or anything.

[MADDIE]
Don't wanna pile on, but the girls are right. Chill, Hales! U and the Wingster are super-fit and ready; u don't need to worry about it! Get ur school stuff done and then you can forget about it and have fun on Sat!!

Haley frowned as she read over the posts again, which definitely weren't the type of thing she'd been expecting to find when she'd logged on. What were her friends so worked up about? This wasn't like back in the fall, when she'd been so desperate to earn enough money for that clinic that she really had pushed herself a little too hard. This wasn't the same thing at all.

I thought at least Maddie would understand,
Haley thought.
She's an athlete too—she's played soccer for as long as I've been riding, and she almost joined that traveling team, even.

She blinked, one word echoing in her head—“almost.”

Maybe Maddie couldn't understand either. When she'd been offered the chance to try out for a prestigious
traveling soccer team, she'd ended up turning it down, not wanting to take time away from other activities including riding. Haley could appreciate that, but still, she wondered if it meant Maddie didn't have the same kind of killer edge Haley did, the determination and focus it took to win.

“Whatever,” she muttered, closing the computer without bothering to respond to the posts.

Crawling into bed, she pushed her friends' comments out of her mind. Instead she reviewed her dressage test in her head until she fell asleep.

CHAPTER

I DID IT,
Haley thought as she began her cross-country course walk on Saturday. She glanced past Jan, Andrew, and Kyle, who were discussing the first jump, to take in the people dotting the course and the horse trailers, barns, and fluttering flags beyond.
Somehow I did it. I can hardly believe I'm really here!

The previous three days had been busy, busy, busy. Haley had spent every waking moment either in the saddle or at her desk—well, except when she'd been doing chores or in school or cleaning her tack or the zillion other things she'd managed to squeeze in.

But it had all been worth it. Because here she was, about to show the world—or at least this little corner of Wisconsin—what she and her pony could really do.

That weekend's event was at a farm where Haley and Wings had competed before, though it had been a couple of years. It wasn't as fancy as the site of the previous event, but the footing was usually decent, and the owners always brought in good judges, so the events were very popular.

“Check it out,” Haley told Jan as they hiked up a slight hill after the first jump. “Looks like they redid the water complex.”

Jan squinted off to the left at the small, square man-made pond, which had sandy footing leading down into one long side and several jumps arrayed around the other edges. “Yeah,” she said. “I've heard that the footing is much more consistent now and it rides pretty well.”

“Good.” Kyle zipped his Windbreaker up a little higher. “Because it's a little chilly today for a swim.”

Haley laughed, pushing back a strand of hair that the wind had just whipped across her forehead. It was one of
those early spring days when the sun shone so fiercely that it could make you think it was actually warm out, and yet a trace of winter's chill enveloped you every time you got caught in the gusty breeze. That kind of weather tended to get Wings—and a lot of other horses—a little riled up and snorty. She would have to be extra careful to keep him calm and focused in dressage and stadium, but the extra energy would only help them out here on cross-country.

“Look,” Andrew murmured, breaking into her thoughts. “There's Riley.”

Haley followed his gaze. The older girl was just ahead of them, frowning with concentration as she paced off the approach to a small log a few strides after the water.

“Hey,” Haley said when she noticed the color of the flag on the log jump. “I wonder if Riley knows she's looking at the BN log there. I thought she was doing novice this time.”

Andrew shook his head. “I talked to her when I first got here,” he said. “She decided to stay at BN one more time after all. She wants to move up at a recognized
event—says it'll mean more that way, or something.”

“Oh.” Haley bit her lip, a little dismayed. She hadn't taken Riley into account when she'd been prepping for today. Athena had looked awfully good in dressage last time; if Riley fixed her steering issues, they'd be hard to beat.

But then Haley shrugged. Hard, yes. Impossible? No way. She and Wings could do anything. And beating Riley and her fancy horse would make today's victory even sweeter.

After the course walk Haley and the others hurried back to check on the horses. Jan's trailer was parked at the edge of a flat field adjoining the cow pasture next door. Most of the horses, including Wings, were tied to the trailer where they'd left them. But Jan's assistant was there hand-grazing Cancun, who kept lifting his head every few seconds to stare around with wide, nervous eyes.

“How's he doing?” Jan asked, taking the big dapple-gray horse's lead from the younger woman.

The assistant shrugged. “Still kinda amped. But hey, that'll make your dressage even more interesting, right?”

Jan chuckled, giving Cancun a pat. “For sure.”

Just then a cow in the neighboring pasture mooed, and the big gray leaped in place, spinning around and snorting. For a second Haley thought he might rip the lead out of Jan's hand and take off.

“Easy, boy,” the trainer said, giving a sharp tug on the line to get the horse's attention back on her. “Don't go all mental on me, okay? Those aren't horse-eating cows, I promise. Look at Wings. He's not paying any attention to them at all, and he's, like, half your size!”