The Horsewoman(40)

THE TWO RIDERS ahead of her both got rails. First Jennifer Gates’s horse. Then Georgina Bloomberg’s. Becky couldn’t believe that’s the way the order fell. Both had tried to go inside on the killer rollback, both had gotten too close to the jump.

But they’d gone for it.

One a Gates, the other a Bloomberg.

Nothing for them to lose, as much as they wanted to win.

“Hey, maybe I won’t need to go inside,” I said to Daniel as we watched from the in-gate.

Daniel didn’t even look up at me. Just slowly shook his head.

“Killeen and Cullen go after us,” he said. “We go inside.”

I kidded myself into thinking I could do some breathing exercises before I rode Coronado into the ring. Thinking maybe that would stop my heart from racing. Dad had talked about there being a big horse race here tonight. I felt like I had one running inside me. Tried to settle myself down by closing my eyes, imagining Daniel taking me through the jump-off course on his phone even though the course was in front of me, my ride a few seconds away.

Breathe, idiot.

Then we were out there.

No need to warm him up. Looked down and saw my hands shaking on the reins. Three horses left, I told myself. And I had the best one. I would happily have signed up for this three weeks ago when I was on my ass in this ring, even if I was going up against a course this hard, and against Matthew Killeen and Tyler Cullen.

Gave Coronado a little kick-start with my boots.

Seven jumps.

Eight if you counted the second jump in a wicked combination.

Now it felt like a horse race.

First jump clear.

And second.

One more before the rollback. Thought I was too close to it.

“Whoa!”

I’d laugh sometimes watching the video after, the weird noises I’d make out there, the things I’d say to my horse.

Not now.

Concentrate.

We weren’t too close to the jump. Coronado almost seemed to buy himself some room on his own, veering slightly to the left.

Made the jump.

I was thinking about the rollback before I even landed the jump. Damn, he is going fast. He’d been fast before. Been fast at the end in the qualifier. A lot faster now. I never hesitated on the inside turn. Felt the horse leaning into it even without me asking him, leaning hard to his left, making me feel, just for a moment, like he was about to fall right over. Like a skier on a slalom run.

“Whoa!” I said again.

Squared him up.

Made the jump.

Hell, yeah.

All that was left was the combination, one more jump after that.

Get over clean, post a time, see what happened with Matthew and Tyler.

Crushed the combination.

Last jump.

Every rider’s nightmare, no matter how good, no matter how many shows won. Knocking down the last rail after a kick-ass ride.

And this has been one banging, kick-ass ride.

Four.

Five.

Six.

Cleaned it, cleared it, nailed it, made sure to keep him going past the timer, the way I’d been taught, not wasting the couple of tenths of a second that could pass if you didn’t ride like hell past that timer.

Didn’t have to wait to hear my time, because there it was right in front of me on the screen.

38.4.

Even though Jennifer and Georgina had gotten rails, they’d been getting after it, too. Neither one had been under 40 seconds.

When I got back to Daniel, just as Matthew was entering the ring, he still hadn’t changed expression. No shocker. Daniel being Daniel, even now.

“We watch from here,” he said.

Somehow I was more crazytown with nerves now than I’d been all night. I’d been in control of Coronado out there, as much as an animal that big, going that fast, can be controlled. Now everything was totally out of my control. My gaze jumped up to the tent, into the stands. All I could do was watch.

Matthew was next into the ring. Tyler Cullen, going last, was in the in-gate. As I passed him, he said, “Don’t spike the ball too soon.”

I grinned.

“You talkin’ to me?” I said.

Matthew went clean. But his horse, My Pirate, got away from him going into the rollback, and he had no choice but to go outside, and the lost time cost him. He came in at 39.9.

We were down to Tyler Cullen now.

“I can’t lose to that bastard,” I said to Daniel.

“You won’t,” he said.

It was as if time had stopped, even as I could see the clock going at the other end. Tyler had a lot of horse himself with Galahad, just one without quite as much size to him or speed as Coronado had. Or bloodlines nearly as good. And whatever I thought of Tyler Cullen, the guy could ride his ass off. Daniel knew in his head what my time had been after landing every jump. He said the splits out loud, and jump after jump, my time was better than his.

But not by much.

I stopped listening and focused on Tyler as he approached the rollback.

He went inside, looked as if he was about to cut it as well as I had.

But as he did, Galahad skidded slightly. I thought he might go right around the fence, but somehow Tyler got him under control, got him over the jump.

“He’s a half second behind,” Daniel said.

“Hush,” I said.

I watched Tyler, then the clock, then Tyler.