Maybe Baby Lite (35 page)

Mark felt that Derringer
would be ready to test at Intermediare I by in a few weeks. I
wasn’t sure that I'd be ready. Mark made it look so easy. I was
struggling with timing, particularly in the half halt.

“
How’s the dressage
training coming along?” Trey asked, as if on cue.

“
Mark says that Derringer
is nearly ready to test to Level One; he wondered how much training
he had previously.”

“
I bought the horse in
England as a yearling,” Trey answered. “Then, my former fiancée
trained him for a little more than a year.”

“
I didn’t realize you'd
been engaged, Trey,” I lied, hoping for more
information.

“
Maybe I'll stop by the
arena later and watch you ride. I want to make sure this trainer's
worth his fee.”

Trey had successfully
changed the subject. “How late will you be working with Derringer?”
he asked.

“
We usually train for two
hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon.”

“
You didn’t answer my
question, Tylar. What time are you finished for the day? I want to
go to dinner tonight.” He sure sounded like it was
serious.

“
I’m usually back at my
cottage by 4 p.m.”

He rolled his eyes when I
mentioned my cottage. He seemed to be in a mood today. “Good, we’ll
leave here around 6 p.m. Can you meet me up here then?”

“
Of course,” I said, and
then went down to the stables, thankful to be about my business
today. Something was going on with Trey. He seemed
agitated.

One of the downsides with
the dressage training was that the arena was located over at the
Belle, making it hard to avoid Jenna. She did her share of running
into Mark it seemed. It was fairly obvious she had her hooks out
for him. Mark didn’t seem to notice.

Mark had a slender but
muscular build, average height, not nearly as tall as Trey. He had
sandy-brown hair and green eyes. I estimated that Mark was close to
the same age as Trey, though he had a more casual demeanor. Yet
when he trained horses, he was extremely intense and accurate. I
knew that Derringer was more advanced than I from the way he
responded to Mark’s cues versus mine. I certainly didn’t want
Derringer to regress in his training when I rode him. Mark said my
job was to bring the horse around, not the horse’s job to bring me
around.

When Derringer and I
arrived at the arena, Jenna was perched on the gate talking to
Mark. She was laughing and flipping her hair. Shouldn’t she have
had her hair in a bun by now? The daily tours of the mansion
started at 10 a.m. and the workers were supposed to be in full
period costume by 9:30 a.m.

As I approached, Jenna’s
smile faded. “Well, I see your star pupil's back, Mark. Good luck
with that.” She gave me a smirk as she walked away.

“
Hi Mark,” I said,
grinning. “I’m so glad that I give Jenna something to be catty
about. What would she do without me?”

Mark grinned, shaking his
head. “Women are brutal.”

I wasn’t sure if Jenna was
continuing with her “Twinkie” campaign. Nothing had been mentioned
to me lately, but most everyone else here had far too much class to
repeat the venomous things she spread around.

Derringer and I had a
constructive morning session. Mark practiced traditional dressage,
and he placed significant importance on the communication and
rapport that must be established between the horse and the rider
prior to training. Every day, Mark and I reviewed videos taken at
the morning session. It was a good tool for me to observe
weaknesses in our routine. Mark would point out areas that needed
more work, and take me through what movements and aids I should
have given to keep Derringer’s gait consistent like a
metronome.

Later in the afternoon I
brought Derringer back out into the arena. We'd nearly conquered
the rhythm, gait, and tempo. Mark wanted to work on the regularity
of the gaits; the evenness and levelness of the stride. He wanted
me to start practicing the half halt to improve the horse’s
cadence. Derringer was sensitive to both the leg and rein aids, he
was reaching for the bit. His stride was collected. We both could
tell he was more than ready.

I mounted Derringer and
put him through the beginning paces. We worked into a trot,
circling the outer perimeter of the arena several times. At the
third round, second turn, I could feel Derringer sidestep because
I'd given too much inside leg in my execution. I over-corrected,
trying to align his hind legs to follow the path of his front legs.
Mark asked me to halt and walked over to us.

“
I’ve got an idea,” he
said, “Dismount for a moment.” I did as instructed, and stood
beside Mark. He mounted the horse and then reached his hand down,
pulling me up behind him in the saddle.

“
It might be easier if I
show you how the half halt is properly executed, Tylar. To the
naked eye, it looks as if the rider applies all three aids at the
same time. However, if we could freeze-frame it you'd actually see
that the aids are applied separately in sequence. We’ll go through
this a few times so you can feel what your body is supposed to do
in conjunction with what the horse is doing, okay?”

“
Sure,” I
agreed.

“
Okay, I want you to rest
each of your hands on the outside of each of my thighs, as close to
the back of my knees as possible.”

I did as
instructed.

“
Okay, now remember what
we talked about earlier, there is no ‘halt’ in the half halt.
That's a misnomer. Every half halt should contain what?” he quizzed
me.

“
The surge,” I
answered.

“
Correct,” he said. “It
will contain the surge, the drive, and the energy from Derringer’s
hind legs, just as if you were asking for a medium gait or a
lengthening, right?”

“
Right,” I responded, “but
we don’t want him breaking into the medium gait, until after the
surge, correct?”

“
Yes,” Mark agreed,
“because we know that we always ride the horse from back to front,
which is what the surge guarantees.” Mark started Derringer into
the routine, my hands placed on the outside of each of his muscular
thighs.

“
If we’re lucky, you'll be
able to feel my calves close first. It will be a steady squeeze for
three seconds, just before the surge. Here we go.”

We went through the
motions three times and, like clockwork, Mark would close his
calves with a steady squeeze; I counted to three in my head and the
pressure released. Mark then had me put my hand on his hand holding
the outside rein and my other hand on his hand holding the inside
rein. Through this exercise, I was able to understand that each of
these aids occurred separately, though very close in time. It was a
steady squeeze of the calves for three seconds, then outside hand
on the reins to direct the horse’s power back to the hind legs,
then inside rein held with medium contact to keep the horse flexed
and straight.

“
Okay,” Mark said,
dismounting, handing me the reins.

“
Scoot up; my turn.” He
remounted Derringer, this time behind me, putting his hands on the
outside of each of my thighs and we went through the routine
several times. We continued with the reining as well until I was
executing the half halt nearly as well as Mark. I was proud of
myself. When we brought Derringer back to the gate, I noticed that
Trey was sitting in the grandstand. I couldn’t tell how long he’d
been watching, but he appeared upset.

Holy Moses, now what's
wrong?

Mark set the video camera
up and had me take Derringer back out so that he could video tape
how a proper half halt should look to an observer. Once finished we
called it a day. Mark told me to take the video camera with me to
review everything that we'd gone over today.

I dismounted, leading
Derringer to where Trey was sitting.

“
Well?” I asked. “What did
you think?” I was smiling, hoping to be praised for the progress
we’d made.

“
I think I’m confused as
to why Mr. Montgomery needs to have his hands all over you while
training you in dressage? I’ve never seen that style of
training.”

“
Trey, I was having some
problems getting the feel of the surge. Mark thought this would
help and it did.”

“
I felt the surge,” Trey
replied, “the surge of my blood pressure.”

“
You're being ridiculous,
Trey.”

“
Oh am I? You seemed to be
enjoying yourself trotting around that track with him all over your
backside. I was worried Mr. Montgomery might need a hosing off had
the training not ended when it did.”

“
Stop it,” I couldn’t help
from laughing. “You’re being silly and you know it.”

“
I’m serious when it comes
to you, Tylar.”

When he looked at me with
those piercing blue eyes, so serious, so sexy, I wanted to mount
him right then and there. I could see that beneath the sarcastic
humor, Trey was bothered by Mark’s touching me. I didn’t want him
getting in a worse mood. I led Derringer over to him, stood on my
tiptoes, and kissed him sweetly and longingly. He wrapped his arm
around me, tightly, brushing my hair from my face.

“
You've nothing to worry
about, Trey,” I told him, snuggling into his chest.

“
Just see that I don’t,
Tylar. I don’t share. I'll see you at the main house at
six.”

I remounted Derringer,
riding him back to the stables. I told him what a good job he did
today. I got him situated in his stall, removing all of the
dressage tack. I brushed him down thoroughly, cleaned his hooves,
and brought him his treat for a fine day’s work. I put my face next
to his as he chewed the last carrot and I kissed his nose.
Derringer was born to compete.

Having concluded my duties
in the stables, I started up the path leading to my cottage. Ray’s
was the first cottage from the stables. I saw Denise on his porch,
shaking throw rugs outside.

“
Denise!” I yelled,
running over toward his porch. I hadn’t seen her since the hospital
and I was ashamed for not calling her before now.

“
Hey girl,” she hollered
back, waving, “how is you?”

“
I’m great,” I said, “I’ve
been meaning to call you, I really have…”

“
Hey, I know how it is;
I’ve been swamped down at the salon. There are all kinds of
weddings this summer. I was thinking maybe we would be adding yours
to it?”

“
What?”

“
Ray says you and Trey are
really close. He says he’s never seen Trey like this with any other
girl, the way he is with you.”

“
Did Ray know his former
fiancée, Tess?”

“
Well I’m not sure about
that. I don’t know how often Trey got home when he was engaged to
her. You want me to ask him?”

“
No, no,” I replied
quickly, “so what are you doing?” I asked. “Cleaning Ray’s cottage
for him? Now that's definitely a woman in love.”

“
I’m just finishing
getting him packed up.”

“
Why, where is Ray
going?”

“
Sweetie, he’s finally
moving in with me. Hell, he’s there practically every night anyway.
He was worried Trey might object and want him to be near the stable
if needed, but Trey was fine with it. Trey is a good man, Ty. You
make sure you treat him right, you hear?”

“
You do the same with your
man, Denise,” I waved and continued on to my cottage. I wasn't as
afraid to be there as I was before. I showered and changed into a
tight little white jean skirt and dark purple tank top. I blew my
hair dry, wearing it down perfectly straight. Being in the sun had
really intensified the blond highlights.

An hour later, Trey and I
were cruising down the highway in his Lamborghini. He looked
magnificent in his emerald colored polo shirt and taupe Dockers.
Trey was extremely attentive in the car, which was a complete 180
to his temperament earlier. He rested his hand on my knee
possessively, occasionally letting it travel up to my thigh while
he drove. Perhaps I had Mark to thank for that, I thought. He
turned the car into Morelli’s parking lot and I was glad. Somehow,
Morelli’s had a good vibe for me. As soon as we stepped inside the
door, Carmelita greeted us.

“
Saluto il Signor Trey.
Vedo che hai il tuo amore con voi questa sera.”

Hello Mr. Trey. I see you
have your love with you this evening.

“
Bueno sera Carmelita. Si
puo abbiamo un tavolo privato? Ho molto da discutore con
lei.”

Good evening Carmelita.
Yes may we have a private table? I have much to discuss with
her.

“
Naturalmente la mia
dolcezza. Mi sugua, per piacere.”

Of course my sweetheart.
Please follow me.

“
Voi e il vostro armore,
vi rendera splendid bambini!”

You and your love, you'll
make beautiful children!

“
Lo spero, Carmelita, un
giormno.”

I hope so Carmelita, one
day.

Trey and I were seated at
the same table as our first date. It was romantic and secluded.
Carmelita held my chair out for me. I smiled at her. She winked at
me. Trey sat down and immediately ordered a bottle of
Chianti.