Chapter 1: We're Going 'Where'?!

We're Going Where?!
AS I RODE BEAU INTO the arena for practice, I couldn't wait for Rebecca, my riding instructor, to get here. She had two big announcements to make, and guesses were already running wild as to what those could be.

With the way things were, I needed something to look forward to. It had been a couple of weeks since I'd confessed the Selly secret to everyone in Rebecca's office. That secret? Oof. Last year, I'd accidentally written the wrong start time for a show class on a whiteboard, not catching my mistake. And as a result, Selly had missed her class and Rebecca had taken her out of the running for team captain because of it. Because of me.

Once she'd found out what I'd done, Selly had grabbed me in the stable and promised to ruin my life. If that hadn't been enough, I'd barely seen my best friends because they were always busy. But all I could do was keep going and hope that things would settle down soon... if Selly didn't take me out first.

The rest of my Interscholastic Pony League teammates--Keir, Selly, Nina, Emery, and Thea--trickled in on their horses. We all competed in Area 1 for Foxbury, and Rebecca had grouped us by skill level.

Once my stepsister, Emery, had joined us this year, we'd been split into two smaller competition teams. Keir captained the first team, which was made up of Selly, Emery, and Keir. The second team was Thea, Nina, and me, with Thea as our team captain.

As we finished warming up, Rebecca walked into the arena and motioned for us to ride over to her. My teammates and I lined up our horses in front of her, the anticipation making me shift around in the saddle.

"Before we start the lesson, I have two announcements," Rebecca said. "First, our next show date is finalized, and we have a lovely host stable."

Everyone glanced at each other before looking at Rebecca. This was the news we'd been waiting for!

"We'll be having a Haunted Halloween Classic," Rebecca said. "Complete with a costume contest, decor, and scary-themed jumps. Of course, it'll count for points, but it's also about having fun and showing off your creativity."

"Where?" Keir asked. "Here?"

"I heard someone say Millford Stables," Nina said, excitement rising in her voice.

Rebecca shook her head. "Nope, not here, and not at Millford." She grinned. "We'll be going to Connecticut, to a little place called Canterwood Crest Academy."

"WHAT?!" I shrieked.

Everyone broke out in excited cheers, and Thea reached over and squeezed my forearm so hard, I was sure she'd leave fingerprint-shaped bruises.

"We're going to Canterwood? For real? This isn't a trick?" Selly asked.

"It's too early in October for tricks," Rebecca said. "We'll be spending a few nights near their campus. They're hosting a rider get-together the night before the comp starts."

"When?" I asked, barely breathing.

"The weekend before Halloween," Rebecca said. "So, start planning your costumes!"

I grinned at Thea. This was the best treat ever!

"And my other announcement is about Sasha Silver and Heather Fox's winter clinic," Rebecca said. "I know many of you plan to apply, right?"

Everyone nodded.

"Great! The application requires a video showcasing your riding talent, so we'll film those this week."

This was almost too much to process! How were we supposed to focus on riding after those announcements?

"All right. Let's quickly run down today's plan!" Rebecca snapped back into business mode. "We're going to work on dressage, starting with looseness. I want to see softening throughout your horses' bodies, because I've noticed some horses are looking a little stiff. We're going to do some transitions from a working walk to a slow trot, and then we'll transition back to a walk. And once you start a new transition, I want you to make a figure eight. Clear?"

"Clear!" we confirmed.

"In a moment, you'll walk your horses for ten strides, then transition to a slow trot," Rebecca said. "You'll trot for four or five strides, then drop back to a walk and make a figure eight. Then repeat. We'll do this for two rounds in this direction before switching to counterclockwise."

I nodded. Beau and I could do this.

"This exercise should help your horses by making their transitions much more seamless," Rebecca added. "Everyone spread out at a walk."

I let Beau fall into line behind Chaos and Thea, and we went to the arena rail. Beau, nicely warmed up, moved smoothly and quietly while awaiting my next command.

"Starting now, count ten strides, then trot," Rebecca called to us, "and the exercise will begin."

In my head, I counted Beau's strides as we walked down the rail. When I hit ten, I squeezed my legs against his sides and asked for a trot to start a figure eight. It took him a bit too long to respond, and it wasn't as immediate as I would have liked, so I added more leg. This exercise is perfect for us, I thought.

After five strides at a trot, I asked him to walk. He playfully tossed his head, tugging on the reins and trying to keep trotting. But I sat deeper in the saddle and let him know I meant what I'd asked for: it was time to walk.

Beau slowed, finally, and then we repeated the transitions exercise. This go-round, his responses were much faster, and I scratched his withers to let him know he'd done great.

Dressage was my weakest area. We competed in three-day eventing, so we did dressage, show jumping, and cross-country. I was a huge fan of jumping, and soaring into the air never became less of a thrill. Everything about jumping was exciting and pulse-pounding to me, and while I'd thought about only concentrating on those areas, I knew myself and my riding. Beau and I needed the dressage work to help keep our working partnership at its strongest.

Three-day eventing pushed both of us to be our very best, from the delicate dance of dressage to the speed of show jumping to the boldness of cross-country. And those three phases blended to create one giant challenge. It was the best, most exciting thing I'd ever done.

My attention wandered, though, as I thought about the Canterwood show. The place where Sasha Silver and Lauren Towers took off.

"Abby!" Rebecca yelled. "How long have you been trotting?"

I snapped out of my daydream. Whoops. I was halfway down the arena and hadn't been counting any strides. Cringing, I hurried to slow Beau to a walk as I burned from embarrassment at being called out.

"Pay attention, people," Rebecca said. "I need you all to be focused on counting strides and making the transitions. Or we're going to be here all day."

Behind me, Selly snickered, but I kept my attention on Beau. We worked our way from a walk to a trot and back again.

We did the exercise going counterclockwise a few times before Rebecca called us over to line up in front of her.

"Let's get right into pairs work," Rebecca said. "Abby and Emery, we'll put you together." Rebecca smiled at Emery and me. "Then Nina and Keir, and Selly and Thea. You're partners for the rest of the lesson."

My stomach sank.

After everything that had gone down, I didn't want to work with Emery. After all, she'd hid Nina's identity as the Truth X. Poser from me. Nina had done so much damage. Clenching my teeth, I fought to keep an annoyed expression off my face. It was enough that we had lessons together, but being Emery's actual partner? Ugh.

I knew without looking at my teammates that Thea and Selly couldn't be happy about their pairing either. But Rebecca had warned Thea that one more mistake would cost her the spot as our team's captain, so I was certain my best friend wasn't going to complain about being partnered with Selly even if she wanted to.

"With your partner, spread out in the arena and find a spot for the two of you," Rebecca said. "You're going to coach each other through a couple of leg yields. Do this first at a walk, then a trot. I'll be watching and offering support if you need it, but I want to see you and your partner give each other instruction. You need to talk about why you're doing leg yields and what we can use them for. Got it?"

"Got it," I mumbled.

Everyone else nodded.

Leg yields meant moving your horse forward and sideways and asking the horse to cross their inside legs in front of their outside legs. While doing this, the horse kept their body straight except for flexing at the poll, and the horse's jaw pointed in the opposite direction.

"Grab your partner and get started," Rebecca said.

I started Beau past Selly and her mare, Ember, and Selly caught my eye. "You look like you're going to cry, Abby," she whispered.

"I'm not."

Selly smirked. "We'll see." She turned to Emery and gave her a little wave. "Have fun, Em!"

I clenched my teeth. I hated every second of this, but I was not going to give them the satisfaction. And I wasn't giving Rebecca even the tiniest reason to call me out.

"Let's go," I said to Emery.

Her hazel eyes were wide as she looked from Selly to me before finally nodding. "Want to go over there?" She pointed to a spot on the rail a few yards down in the arena.

"Yep." My tone was brisk and cool. We were going to smash these leg yields and get this over with as quickly as possible.

"Abby, please," Emery said. "I know you don't want to talk to me, and I get it, but we have to make this work in the arena. I don't want to get in trouble."

I glared at her. "Neither do I. And I'm talking to you, aren't I?"

"Fine," Emery said. "Let's get through this."

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Excerpted from Falling Hard by Jessica Burkhart
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