Crown Prince Challenged (3 page)

“If you were hoping to have the gate opened for you, your timing is perfect,” Kathleen said, with a smile. She wore riding breeches, tall stockings pulled up over her calves, and turquoise Crocs. With no helmet hiding her shoulder-length auburn hair, it was obvious she wasn't planning on getting on a horse right away.

Sarah grinned as she nodded. “Saves me getting off and mounting him again!” She looked down at Grace and her pony as they walked by. Crown Prince towered above them. “Want to swap?” she asked.

Grace giggled. “He's too big for me!”

“Yes, and Pretty Penny is
just right
for you.”

Sarah walked her horse through the gate that Kathleen held open and headed to the indoor. Prince's head was high, his ears alertly flicking back and forth as they approached the main entrance to the indoor arena. The four riders in the class were lined up in the center while Jack spoke to them. Sarah took a deep breath and attempted to control her nervousness. So far Prince had always been well-behaved under saddle, and there was no reason to suspect he'd be any different on a hack. But how would he react to being on the woods trail, climbing the ridge, and going through the old orchard on the height of land? Before Prince came to Brookmeade, all he'd ever known was the racetrack and the breeding farm in Florida where he was raised.

Sarah brought Prince to a halt where she could watch through the doorway. After standing for a few minutes, her horse became anxious and wanted to move on. He pulled against the bit and tossed his head impatiently. Sarah reached down to run her hand along his arched neck as she spoke softly to him. “Good boy, Prince. Just a few more minutes.” She circled him a few times until the onlookers who had been watching the lesson from the bleachers finally began to file out of the arena by way of the main entrance.

Four horses and their riders followed the spectators out of the arena. As the horses stepped into the sunlit afternoon, still bright and warm, their heads and necks were stretched low. They had worked hard in the lesson, and their bodies glistened with perspiration. Sarah called to the riders. “Hey, guys. Jack said you might be up for going to the old orchard to cool down your horses. Would you mind some company?”

“Quarry won't care as long as he can be up front,” Paige said. “I guess that's his racehorse instinct.” Her almond shaped eyes crinkled as she smiled. “He thinks even a trail ride is the Belmont Stakes.”

Tim turned to Sarah. “Prince has never been out on the trails? This might be interesting.”

“How about you, Kayla,” Sarah asked. “Can you come?”

Kayla looked to where her mother was cleaning out their horse trailer in the parking area, readying it for their trip home. “I wish I could, but Mom will want to get going. One of these days I'll see if she or my dad will drop Fanny off here on the weekend, so we can go for a long ride together. Maybe we can ride the trails that start on the other side of Ridge Road.”

“That would be awesome!” Sarah said, already excited at the prospect of a ride with her friends on a cool autumn weekend.

“Are you coming with us?” Paige asked Rita.

“Sure,” Rita answered, with a shrug. “Chance was a star today, so I guess he deserves to go for a hack.”

As the horses started to move off, Paige twisted in the saddle toward Rita. “Do you want us to wait while you let Judson know?”

“Naw,” Rita said. “He'll figure it out.”

Sarah guided Crown Prince behind the other three horses as they made their way across the parking area toward the trail leading to the old orchard. Before they reached the opening in the trees, Sarah saw Mrs. DeWitt walking down the driveway from their nearby farmhouse on the hill. Her two Jack Russell terriers—the older dog Spin and the puppy Cameo—led the way. The older woman with plump cheeks, cheery blue eyes, and silver hair twisted into a bun had on navy jodhpurs and paddock boots, so she was probably on her way to the barn to ride her gray Arab mare, Medina. The riders waved to Mrs. DeWitt.

“Have a good ride!” she called out in reply.

The woods were thick where the narrow trail went off from the parking area, a mix of hardwood and evergreen trees. Prince snorted and hesitated a moment at the entrance, but when Sarah reassured him with her legs and voice, he moved forward. He didn't want to be left behind, and once in a while he jigged a step or two.
It's not surprising he's a little nervous,
she reminded herself.
But he'll come to love hacking on the trails. He's just never done it before.

Quarry led the ride, with Rhodes following closely behind and Chancellor next in line. Crown Prince brought up the rear. He chomped on the bit, constantly flicking his ears back and forth, listening to her and the sounds of the forest around them. The trail surface was smooth, for the most part covered with a bed of pine needles, although the horses had to step over some large tree roots and occasional rocks. As they moved farther away from the farm, the woods fell into a deep silence, with only the sounds of the horses' footsteps on the path breaking the stillness. On this warm afternoon, the pine trees gave the forest a fragrance of old world spice.

After they had ridden a few minutes, Tim turned in the saddle to call back to Sarah. “There's a tree down across the trail before we start climbing the ridge. It's a pretty good size, but we've been jumping it. Do you want to try it? You can go around. Our horses have jumped it so many times they don't think twice about it.”

Sarah gulped. With the other horses in front of them, Prince would probably be motivated to jump the log so he could keep up with them. Besides, he'd been doing quite a bit of jumping over low obstacles in the lessons with Jack. But when Tim said “pretty good size,” just what did he mean? The tree must have come down since she had ridden here the last time.

“Even Quarry doesn't get excited by this jump, Sarah,” Paige called back. “It's decently inviting.” A few minutes later, she said, “We're almost there. I'm going to pick up trot and pop over the log.”

“Me too,” Tim said.

Before Sarah could get a good look at the downed tree, Quarry was trotting away from them. He put in one canter stride before jumping the log easily. Tim and Rhodes immediately followed, and in classic form, Rhodes made jumping it a piece of cake. Now Sarah had a better look at the log, and she began to worry. It had been a pretty big tree, and resting on the ground it was probably large enough to challenge a green horse like Crown Prince.

“Here we come,” Rita called out, as Chancellor broke into trot, heading for the log.

Seeing Chancellor trot away from him, Prince began to prance, pulling hard on the reins. He neighed shrilly. After Rita was over the log and moving down the trail, Sarah eased her hold on the reins and pressed Prince forward with her legs. But instead of obediently picking up trot, Prince suddenly bolted forward, racing toward the log. He soared over it and continued galloping toward Chancellor, just as the Dutch Warmblood was coming back to walk.

“Whoa!” Sarah shouted. She pulled hard on the reins and braced with her seat, but Prince was on top of Chancellor before she could stop him. Unable to avoid contact on the narrow trail, Prince banged heavily into the black gelding's hindquarters. Chancellor was knocked sideways, and he reacted to the assault by kicking out with both hind legs, narrowly missing Prince and throwing Rita forward in the saddle. She pulled herself up, shaking and furious.

“Get that lunatic away from us!” she shouted angrily at Sarah. “Don't you know how to ride?”

Sarah was mortified by what had happened. “I'm so sorry, Rita. He just took off. He didn't want you guys to get away from him.”

Rita was not appeased. “He could have hurt Chancellor! If you're going to ride with me, you'd better do a better job controlling your horse.”

Tim, farther down the trail with Rhodes, had turned back and was approaching them. He heard the loud words and saw the angry look on Rita's face. “You guys okay?”

“This off-the-wall horse crashed into Chancellor!” Rita cried out, motioning accusingly at Sarah and her horse.

Paige had also returned, and she interrupted Rita's rant. “We'd better get going. We have a climb ahead to get to the orchard.”

Rita glared at Sarah. “You go ahead of me. I don't want your horse barreling into us again.” She turned Chancellor off the trail, giving Sarah room to pass.

As the riders proceeded without further conversation, Sarah felt jittery after the incident with Rita.
I've got to be careful I don't telegraph my nervousness to Prince,
she told herself. She could feel tension remaining in his body, and she frequently reached down to stroke him. A little farther along the trail, their path wound around a grove of pine trees with green limbs that reached across in front of them in places. On a horse as tall as Crown Prince, Sarah had to duck a few times, but the branches didn't seem to bother her horse. He moved along at a fast clip, intent on keeping up with Rhodes.

Gradually the forest thinned out as the trail turned steeper, with patches of tall orchard grass growing beside the trail. The horses had to push hard with their hindquarters to make the ascent. As Jack had suggested, Sarah gave Prince more rein so he could stretch his head down while marching up the hill. A few times he tried to break into trot, but she brought him back to walk. Finally the trail reached a plateau with tall grass and an orchard filled with gnarled and weathered apple trees. It had been many years since the orchard had been pruned and sprayed, and while some of the trees had small apples ripening, most no longer bore fruit.

Sarah glanced back to see the Brookmeade barn below them, looking small and far away. From the top of the ridge, they could see the valley stretch all the way to the ocean in the distance, where the cottages at the beach looked like dollhouses.

A soft breeze felt cool and refreshing.
This is one of my favorite places,
Sarah thought.
Prince will come to love it too.
Without a trail to follow, the horses spread out as they moved through the lanes separating the rows of apple trees. Rhodes jerked the reins hard, trying to put his head down into the grass, but Tim kept him moving behind Quarry, who walked quickly, his dark gray ears pricked forward. Chancellor was calm and collected, happy to follow the other horses. Sarah wasn't sure what to expect from Prince, and she kept a short rein. He became more animated as he looked in all directions, his head high and his ears moving constantly.

“How's Prince doing?” Tim called back to Sarah. “He looks like he's done this a hundred times.”

“He's a little nervous, but except for his charge to catch up with Chancellor, he's been awesome,” she said. “Rhodes looked really good jumping that log. He tucks his knees up high no matter the size of the jump.”

They had gotten about halfway through the maze of ancient trees when Rita halted Chancellor. “I'm ready to go back now,” she announced. “Chancellor has had enough.” She turned her horse around. “You go ahead of me, Sarah. I don't want your horse to land on top of us when we're heading down the ridge.”

Sarah thought for a minute. No way did she have to obey Rita's orders, but this was probably long enough for Prince's first hack. “Okay, let's go” she said, turning Prince back in the direction of the trail.

Tim and Paige swapped glances. “We always go to the far end of the orchard,” Tim said. “We'll catch up with you.”

Prince watched Rhodes and Quarry walk away, but he seemed content to stay with Chancellor. Rita circled her horse to let Sarah take the lead back to the woods trail. As Prince passed him, the black horse pinned his heavy ears flat against his head, warning Prince to keep his distance.
You can't blame him,
Sarah thought.
Prince hit him pretty hard.

The walk down the steep ridge was far different from coming up, but challenging in another way. To stay in balance and keep from hurtling forward down the hill, the horses had to shift their weight back to their hindquarters, braking themselves with their hind legs. Changing his balance going down a steep hill was something Prince had never learned—he'd grown up on flat terrain and trained on the racetrack. At first he tried to turn sideways as he moved downhill, but Sarah insisted he remain straight as he adjusted to the steep terrain. She leaned slightly back in the saddle, steadied her horse with the reins, and with her legs asked him to reach under himself. She had ridden up to the orchard many times on her favorite school horse, Lady Tate, and that experience helped now.

Rita could see that Crown Prince was having a hard time going down the steep grade. “It looks like your horse can't figure out how to go downhill,” she said. “I guess he's not so great after all.” Glancing back, Sarah saw the smirk on Rita's face—the girl wasn't just joking.
The old jealousy is still there,
Sarah thought, surprised that Rita was still holding a grudge.

The two horses had gotten nearly to the bottom of the ridge before Sarah began to relax. Prince was doing better with the terrain, and she hoped he was learning a lot on this ride. Soon they'd be on the more level part of the trail, with the log jump just ahead. And this time Prince would jump it
first.

Then it happened.

Sarah felt her horse react before she actually heard the sound of large flapping wings and saw the flock of wild turkeys take flight from the side of the trail. Prince catapulted forward, racing down the trail. Sarah instinctively grabbed his mane and clung to it desperately while her horse galloped forward at a breakneck pace.
Oh, my God!
she thought, as she let go of his mane and frantically pulled on the reins.
Prince will hurt himself galloping on this trail! I've got to stop him!

The pulley rein! She had used it to stop Gray Fox when he ran away with her not many months before, and now, as they flew toward the grove of pines, she gathered her reins to try it again. Speeding around the ring of trees, Prince plunged under their outstretched limbs. Sarah had no time to drop her body low in the saddle before one of the boughs caught her across her chest. She felt herself being swept from her horse's back, crashing downward, and then she was lying on the trail with the wind knocked out of her. She struggled to catch her breath and call out to her horse as Prince continued running, streaking down the trail and out of sight. With a sickening feeling, Sarah heard the sound of his galloping hoofbeats grow fainter in the distance, and then only a deathly quiet.