We came back around. Sky was still flying. Hit a combination like a champ. Forget about a ribbon. No reason not to finish strong. Maybe prove to me we did belong.
Then it happened, three jumps from the end. Nothing tricky, nothing complicated. Nothing fancy. Seven strides from the last jump to this one. Wide-open spaces.
But I misjudged the distance. Not by a lot. Just enough. Sky landed her last stride fine. But we were too far away from the jump. Not impossible to still make the jump. Just more difficult than it should have been.
“Come on!”
She tried again. She did. Tried to take one last small stride to get herself close enough. A horse with less heart would simply have refused. Either stopped or circled.
Sky tried her ass off.
Chipped up again.
Too late.
We were just too close, way too close, when she finally did elevate.
Then she didn’t just take down one rail.
She crashed through the jump and took down all of them.
SIXTY-FIVE
DANIEL AND EMILIO got me off her as quickly as they could once we got to the schooling ring, Daniel crouching down immediately to inspect Sky’s front legs.
I stood a few feet away, watching. Not angry at myself. Not embarrassed the way Mom had been.
Just scared for my horse.
After what felt like an hour, Daniel stood and said, “She seems to be fine. But I know Doc Howser is on the grounds somewhere. I am going to text him and have him meet us back at the barn so he can take a look.” He paused. “Just to make sure.”
He pulled out his phone, jabbing at it with his index finger.
“Okay,” I said.
“She’s not limping,” Daniel said. “That’s the good news.”
“Okay,” I said.
I heard the buzz from Daniel’s phone. He looked down at his hand. “Doc is actually back near our barn. He can meet us there.”
He spoke quickly to Emilio in Spanish.
In English he said, “I’ll catch up.”
Daniel turned to me and said, “Do you want to come with me?”
“I’ll be as worried there as I am here,” I said. “Let me know when he says she’s okay.”
He nodded.
“I need a few minutes alone,” I said.
Emilio and Sky were already fifty yards in the distance. Daniel jogged after them. I climbed over the fence and crossed the narrow sidewalk to the ring across the way, sat down under the canopy on the small bleachers in there. I reached into a side pocket of my backpack, took out some warm Gatorade and drank it down.
I needed to think.
No, that wasn’t quite right.
I’d been thinking since the moment we were out of the International and had pretty much made up my mind. I just needed some space now, some distance between what had happened, some time to start breathing normally again.
Twenty minutes later I felt my phone buzzing.
Text from Daniel.
our girl is fine.
takes more than a rail.
I responded:
or 9…
Then he texted me again. He’d come meet me. When he made it to where I was sitting, he put a hand on my shoulder before sitting down next to me.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“About what?” I said.
“The way things turned out.”
I stood up, took off my helmet, shook my hair loose.
“Yeah,” I said. “I sucked big-time.”
“So that’s it? We’re done with the Grand Prix?”
“Are you drunk?” I said to Daniel. “You think we’re done after I realized tonight my horse was even more awesome than I knew?”
“I am confused,” he said.
“Lose the touchy-feely crap, Daniel,” I said. “We are so doing this.”
SIXTY-SIX
MOM DIDN’T RIDE AGAIN until Tuesday. I snuck over to Gus’s, with his permission, to watch her, parking a half mile up the road, walking the rest of the way, hiding in the barn once Mom and Gus were in the ring with Coronado, not just watching Mom back up on her horse, but watching Gus zip around the ring in his Zinger like he was gunning a motorcycle.
When I’d talked to Gus on the phone he’d said, “She’s talking about quitting.”
“She can’t,” I’d said.
“No shit, kid,” he’d said. “Not after practically stealing her horse back from her own goddamn daughter. She’d better make sure it was worth it.”
“How’s the vibe today?” I said now to Seamus, Gus’s top groom.
“A little narky, as we say back home,” he said.
“Which home?”