Show Jumper (14 page)

T
HE NEXT MORNING
in the motel room, Lisa woke up suddenly before Mrs. Reg’s knock on the door. She had been dreaming again—another nightmare. Once again, she was jumping the Macrae course. The obstacles looked the same, but this time the fences were about fifteen feet high. Although Samson was still clearing the fences with ease, Lisa was clinging desperately to his back, barely hanging on with her hands. In the background she could hear mocking laughter from the crowd. She looked for the source of the sound and saw Margie, pointing at her and laughing. When Lisa looked down at herself, she was wearing a clown suit, complete with floppy shoes.

When the dream finally ended and Lisa woke up, she was bathed in a cold sweat. Feeling tired and sick to her
stomach, she quickly showered and then waited for Carole and Stevie to get ready. On the way over to the Macrae, the group again stopped for breakfast. Lisa refused to eat, saying, “My stomach just can’t take it right now.”

“Just a few bites of toast,” Mrs. Reg insisted kindly. “It won’t upset your stomach, and I really think you need the energy.” Max, Carole, and Stevie all looked at Lisa, concerned. She was white and had dark circles under her eyes. But she told them she was fine. She didn’t want them to worry about her performance today.

At the stabling area, things went from bad to worse. Samson ignored Lisa when she opened his stall, and he kept pacing restlessly. He shied away when she tried to cross-tie him and start his grooming, and he blew out his breath when she attempted to tighten his girth. “What’s wrong with him?” she asked nervously. “Why won’t he stand still? Maybe he can’t compete today.”

“He’s fine,” Carole said soothingly. “He just spent his second night in a strange stall, and we’re the only things that are familiar to him here. He’ll calm down.” After yesterday’s round, autograph hunting, a good pizza dinner, and a sound night’s sleep, Carole looked refreshed and ready to go. But after last night’s conversation before they all went to bed, she knew that Lisa was still feeling the effects of her awful dinner. She and
Stevie took Lisa aside after she’d finished tacking up Samson, and the group went into one of their huddles.

“Look, Lisa,” began Stevie. “We can tell that you’re still dwelling on last night’s dinner, and we’re here to tell you that you just can’t do that. Remember how well you did yesterday. What a few jerks think is no concern of yours. Focus, focus, focus.”

“You were one of the few riders who had a clean round yesterday,” added Carole. “You’ll do fine today, just as long as you don’t let stupid things get to you. And besides, Stevie and I have a new Saddle Club project.”

Lisa felt a spark of interest. “What’s that?” she asked.

“If we even see Margie, Belinda, or Melinda come within ten feet of you,” said Carole with a grin, “we’ll bark at them until they run away. You won’t be bothered by them again.”

In spite of her friends’ reassurances, Lisa worried that something was wrong with Samson. Had he eaten something he shouldn’t have last night? No, that was impossible. Carole and Stevie had fed him, and they wouldn’t have made a mistake. But maybe he hadn’t gotten any rest. She examined him once again, looking over his flanks and feeling his legs carefully.

“Time to warm up,” announced Max, poking his head over the stall door. Lisa’s heart sank.

N
OTHING WENT RIGHT
for Lisa in the warm-up. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Carole on Starlight, trotting across the ring. Then she started looking around to see if people were staring at her the way they had yesterday. She now knew that people had been looking at her pink coat, not at Samson. Even though she was wearing Stevie’s navy coat today, she still felt self-conscious. Everyone must be looking at her and pointing and saying, “That’s the girl who wore the pink coat yesterday!”

Lisa tried to concentrate on the warm-up. But it was as if she had forgotten how to ride. When she gave Samson the signal to canter, she started him too suddenly and he began on the wrong lead. Finally they started jumping over some low cavalletti laid out for the warm-up. Lisa rode Samson at the first one too quickly, causing him to take a huge leap over the two-foot fence.

Lisa almost lost her seat on the landing. Then she saw Max at the side of the ring, beckoning to her. When she and Samson pulled up, Max motioned for her to dismount and hand the reins to Stevie. He took her aside.

“Lisa, are you okay?” he asked in a low, serious voice. “You’re not the same girl you were yesterday—did something happen between yesterday’s round and today?”

“Oh, Max,” said Lisa. “No one told me about the pink coat I was stupid enough to wear, and everything else has been going wrong since then. I just feel terrible.”

“Is that what this is about?” Max teased. “A little fashion mistake? I thought we were going to focus on horses, not clothes.” Then he looked at Lisa’s stricken expression, and his tone got serious again. “Lisa,” he said gently, “what color is Samson?”

“What?” Lisa said, confused.

“What color is Samson?” Max repeated patiently.

“He’s black, of course,” said Lisa.

“And what color is Starlight?” Max then asked.

Lisa was totally bewildered by now. “He’s bay—you know that.”

“Right,” said Max. “And how did you finish the round yesterday? If I’m not mistaken, with a clean round. And how did Carole finish the round?”

“With a clean round,” said Lisa. She was beginning to see where Max was going with this.

“Right.” Max nodded. “So wouldn’t you say that the color of the horse doesn’t matter in the final result? I’m not saying that you were perfect yesterday, mind you. You have a lot to learn about competition—including how to handle your nerves before competing. Everyone’s got them, but it’s a matter of what you let the judges see and how it affects your handling of the horse. But I think you
can
learn how to be a better
competitor, and I don’t think it has anything to do with the color of your jacket.”

“You’re right,” Lisa acknowledged reluctantly. But she couldn’t make herself let go of Veronica’s comment—that she was only there because of the horse she was riding. She looked Max squarely in the eye. “Do
you
think I can do it, Max?” she asked. “Do you think I’m ready to compete today?” Max’s opinion of her riding ability mattered more to Lisa than anyone else’s did. She really needed to hear his answer.

Max paused for a second. “Yes, I do,” he said slowly. “I do think you can do it, Lisa, otherwise I never would have allowed you to enter a show like the Macrae. And your performance yesterday confirmed my belief. But at a time like this, it doesn’t matter so much whether
I
believe you can do it. What matters is whether
you
believe you can do it. You’re the one who has to go out there with Samson and jump that course, not me. I can’t give you faith in yourself. Only you can do that.”

Lisa absorbed Max’s words of advice. Then she took a deep breath. “We can do it, Max,” she said.

“I’m not going to let you go in there until I’m sure you’re ready,” Max said sternly.

“We can do it,” Lisa repeated. She went back to Samson and mounted him while Stevie held him steady. Breathing deeply to calm herself down, Lisa summoned all her determination and tried to banish
the destructive self-doubt from her mind. She rode Samson over a few more schooling fences and gave the thumbs-up sign to Max. He answered with a nod and a wave.

“W
OW
,”
SAID
C
AROLE
, “this really is the Macrae Valley Open. Just look at that course.”

The three girls were walking the new course with Max. It was formidably big and technical—eight obstacles in all, bigger than anything the girls had ever seen before. Just as Kathy Colefield had predicted, the combo of the oxer, the sharp turn, and then the vertical was there. The in-and-out was bigger than yesterday’s version, and not a single fence looked like a giveaway. This was really a course to separate winners from losers.

The Saddle Club waited for Max to find out about the draw for the order of riders. When he finally got the list and informed them of the order, they were all astonished. Just as she had yesterday, Carole had to go first. Lisa, much to her dismay, was the last rider on the list. She didn’t think she could stand waiting until her turn.

“I’m sorry, Carole,” said Max. “It’s tough, having to break in a new course again. The other riders will really benefit from your performance, but that doesn’t help you much.”

Carole shrugged and smiled. “Hey, that’s horse
shows for you,” she said cheerfully. Max patted her on the shoulder with approval.

A few minutes later, Carole heard her name, number, and Starlight’s name being called. “Wish me luck,” she said to the group, and rode off.

“What a pro!” Stevie said admiringly, watching Carole begin the course.

Lisa couldn’t say anything. Her heart was in her throat as she watched Carole clear the first, then the second fence. Carole looked as calm as she had yesterday, and Starlight was responding beautifully.

But the course was much tougher than yesterday’s, and although Carole anticipated the sharp 180-degree turn after the oxer, Starlight still hesitated as she rode him toward the vertical, and he jumped it awkwardly. One rail teetered and fell to the ground. As Carole finished the course, the crowd loudly applauded her performance.

As Carole rode Starlight back to where the group was waiting, she had a rueful grin on her face. “Not bad, but I didn’t turn fast enough for the oxer-vertical combination,” she commented as she dismounted. “I should have been preparing Starlight for the turn in the air!”

“No, you did fine,” said Max. “Starlight was just spooked by how quickly the vertical came up after the turn, and you couldn’t overcome it for him. A good job—I couldn’t have asked for better.”

Then Carole and Max began discussing the course with Lisa and Veronica, who had joined them after again being late for the warm-up. Veronica, however, refused to pay attention, and in the middle of Carole’s discussion about the fourth fence, she abruptly excused herself. “I have to go and talk to Margie,” she said. “Really, this is child’s play for a horse like Danny, and I can get some advice from Margie’s coach.”

Max shook his head in disgust, and he and Carole kept on talking. Lisa was so nervous that she could barely concentrate on what they were saying, but she tried to look as if she were listening to their comments.

Then they heard Veronica’s turn being announced. After a pause, they heard the announcer repeat Veronica’s name and number in a questioning tone. “What the …,” said Max, going to look for Veronica. Obviously, she had gotten caught up in conversation with Margie and had almost missed her turn.

Hastily Veronica rode out to begin the course. She smiled prettily at the judges as if that excused her lateness, then made an elaborate show of affection for Danny. She started Danny over the fences, but she was so busy flipping her braid over her shoulder and smiling at the judges that she didn’t pay enough attention to the course.

“Uh-oh,” said Carole, watching. “I don’t know if Veronica knows this, but she’s completely left out one fence.”

“No way!” Stevie said, gasping in amusement.

“Way,” said Carole. “But I don’t think she’s realized it yet.”

Still smiling and waving at her mythical adoring public, Veronica rode out of the ring. “How about that for a perfect round?” she asked, boasting to the Pine Hollow group.

“Uh, Veronica—” began Max, but he was interrupted by the announcer.

“Due to the failure to complete one of the jumps, Ms. Veronica diAngelo, riding Go for Blue, is hereby eliminated from the competition,” intoned the speaker.

“What!” said Veronica. “They can’t do that! I had no idea that I left out one of their silly fences. I’ll have my father do something about this! Margie,” she said to the redheaded girl, who had just pulled up next to them, “can you believe this?”

“Veronica, not now,” Margie said impatiently. “I’m up next.”

Just as she had yesterday, Margie went in and yanked her black horse over the fences. Despite her obvious lack of control, the horse jumped a clean round. Grinning triumphantly, Margie rode off the course.

As several other riders competed, Lisa got more and more nervous. The first round had eliminated so many riders that the competitors today seemed incredibly good. Everyone looked more experienced than she was. All the riders even seemed to be better dressed. Every
perfect jump eroded Lisa’s confidence another notch. The fact that all the other riders except for Margie had knocked down at least one fence didn’t help Lisa one bit: She was convinced she would knock them all down.

After what seemed like forever, her turn came up. She dimly heard Max giving her some last-minute words of reassurance, but at that point, nothing could make her feel better. She didn’t want him to worry, however, so she gave him a breezy smile and entered the ring.

All Carole’s and Max’s words of advice about the course completely vanished from Lisa’s mind, leaving it blank. Suddenly everything around her vanished, too. She could no longer see or hear the crowd or her friends. All she could see was the first fence, and all she could hear was the wind rushing through her ears. She touched Samson with her heels, and he sped up eagerly. She felt as if their minds were joined at this moment, and that they each had the same goal: flight.