The Black and Sugar

CH15: Meeting of the Bests

For the first time, we were greeted by an angry Henry before we had waken ourselves up. He was dressed fancier than his usual beige slacks, plaid shirts, and suspenders. Today was black slacks, and a white shirt, and of course his signature hat. "Get up, lazy kids. We have places to be, people to see, and you have horses to feed."

I stood up slowly, stretching largely. I stepped past stern Henry and into Sugar's stall. The bedding was clean enough to leave until after the meeting, so I went ahead and cleaned out the water buckets and refilled the hay bags with green alfalfa. I repeated the process in the Black's stall, the horse pushy over receiving his morning feed.

I noticed Hope had also finished cleaning her stalls, and was also ready to go to the meeting. She was wearing a white blouse, and dark skinny jeans. She had simple Convcerse on her feet, and her hair in that adorable braid I loved so. She looked happy. Nervous, but happy. We were all finally ready to go, and made our way to the conference hall.

By the time we got there, things were already bustling. I thought we were early, but obviously not. People all over the room were talking, it was very chaotic. We found our labelled seats and sat down, deciding it would be best to wait out the storm and just get down to business.

Nobody really bothered us, a couple people came over and said hello to Henry, but I hardly acknowledged anyone, I was so ready for this meeting to be over so I could go get on Sugar. I was starting to definitely fall in love with the stallion and his perfect demeanor. He was becoming less touchy on the reins, but you still had to be extremely quiet, because if not you would still find yourself on the ground, the grey standing perfectly calm behind you.

Finally the two officials of the race walked in, clad in suits and ties, looking fancy. They stood at the front of the room and called for everyone's attention. The room became quiet as they started talking about the many details about the race, finally it came up that they would announce the runners.

There were 12 runners, which was a lot for a race actually. In the first hole was a tough runner from England, in the second a veteran. Finally, the officials came to us. "In the seven hole is the Black, owned and trained by Henry Dailey, rode by Alec Ramsay."

I looked up, confused for a second. I thought Henry had entered Sugar, not the Black? I looked at him to find him as confused as I was. He stood to revert the entry.

"Our entry is not the Black, its Sui-hēr. Owned by Hope Bailey?" Henry said, holding his hat carefully in his hand. The officials looked at a paper and whispered for a minute before responding.

"Your invited entry was the Black, that was the horse we entered. But we do have a proposition. That grey has obviously brought crowds already, and the racing community. If the number of you want to run Sui-hēr as well, you can, but you also have to run the Black."

I looked at Hope and Henry, who returned my glance. Hope smiled, nodding lightly. Henry huffed and looked back at the officials. "Yes, I guess we'll do that. As long as I can have whoever I want up on the horse, even if that is the owner." Henry wanted Hope up on Sugar, and for obvious reasons. She knew the horse better than anyone else, and she was a hand.

The officials talked amongst themselves for a minute before looking at Henry across the room again. "That can be arranged. Since we already have the rest of the post positions drawn, we will put your second horse in the 13 hole on the outside. Good luck." They then went on with the draw, announcing the rest of the positions, finishing with us once again.

"Post position 13 is Sui-hēr, trained by Henry Dailey, owned and ridden by Hope Bailey."

The meeting was adjorned, and we meandered back to the stable. We sat around for a little bit before Henry finally told us to saddle the horses, but he seemed a bit distant. I didn't question it, I went ahead and pulled out the Black while Hope did the same with Sugar. We were done saddling, and I was about to swing onto the stallion when Henry stopped me. "Trade horses, the both of you. Hope, you're on the Black, I want to see if you can handle it. If you can ride him, you can race with Sugar."

She had a shocked expression on her face, but she didn't refuse. She handed Sugar's reins to Henry and walked around behind him to the anxious black stallion I was holding. I held the reins for her, and in one swift movement, she was on his back.

She gathered up the reins just in time for the stallion to rear up, and paw in the air with his striking hooves. She expertly rode him through it and brought him down, quietly whispering in his ear. I held the left rein still, worried about on the horse, but she looked down at me as he steadied. "It's okay Alec, I can handle it."

I nodded, releasing the rein and walking around, fluidly swinging onto Sugar's back. The Black pranced endlessly with the girl on his back, but she seemed relaxed, not a hint of nerves in the fire of her eyes. I turned Sugar, and together we walked to the track.

Walking across the barn area, we got stares, and saw people whisper to others undoubtedly about the horses we were on. Or the fact that we seemed to be on the wrong horses. Whatever it was, we were the center of attention the two of us, on the best horses in the country.