J.O.P. Stable: The Twin Saga (Book 1: The Summer Finale)

Chapter 24:

Jewel's POV:

' Ladies and gentlemen, 5 of our riders have tied for first, we will now move into a jump off round. the order had been determined at random. First up, Caitlyn Davis on Jumping Jackson for J.O.P. Stable! Followed by Harper Fallon on Manhattan Dream for Team British Columbia! '

I cheered as Caitlyn waited at the arena entrance to start her round. 7 fences was all she needed to clear, which was a cake walk after the 20 jump course we had just done. Shadow had been perfect and we were just barely a second behind the time. But now we needed to clear all these higher fences in a shorter amount of time without knocking a single one.

The bell sounded and Caitlyn cantered Jackson towards the first jump, a vertical. The jumps had been raised to a 1.60m.

Jackson took the tall vertical with ease and Caitlyn pushed him into a fast canter to clear the ascending oxer that came after. Next up was the triple combination, two oxers with a vertical in between. Jackson nicked the top rail of the first oxer in the combo, the Swedish oxer, it wobbled dangerously, but settled back in its cups. They jumped the striped vertical in the middle but Jackson took off a stride too early before the last descending oxer, but by some miracle it only wobbled, it didn't fall. They landed choppily and Caitlyn did a half halt. It would hurt their time, but it was better than Jackson taking the jump on a choppy stride and end up hurting himself. Once Jackson got himself collected again, Caitlyn pushed him back into a fast canter as they made a sweeping circle around a decorative plant and bench, approaching the second last jump, the triple bar. The height was about 6 foot and looked daunting, even from my spot in Shadows Tad Coffin TC2 Ready-to-Ride Saddle. Jackson sped up, a habit I had learned he did when he was nervous about a jump. Caitlyn sat deep in the saddle and gently half halted, but Jackson kept going.

" She's not going to make it...not without knocking the rail down " Harper whispered to me as she halted Manhattan on Shadows left, Blaire and Flicka on my right. I rolled my eyes and ignored her, keeping my eyes on Caitlyn and Jackson. Caitlyn had no choice but to go with Jackson instead of fighting him, the jump was coming too fast. They jumped, but nicked the top rail. It tumbled to the ground.

I glanced up in the stands and saw Caitlyn's three brothers and mother. They frowned as the rest of the crowd awed.

Jackson didn't seem rattled by the knocked pole, cantering towards the last jump with confidence. The last jump was the J.O.P.S signature plank fence and by far the easiest to knock down. I checked their time on my watch. 2 seconds over the time. It was almost as if Jackson knew he was going over the time because he kicked it into another gear and cleared the plank fence with what looked like feet to spare. A total of 5 seconds over the time and only 1 fault, that was really good for a jump off.

Beside me, Harper scoffed. " Please, she has zero chance "

" Just shut up and go already " I replied, glaring at her.

Harper circled Manhattan and stuck her nose in the air. " Watch a real rider and horse show you how its done " she practically hissed at Caitlyn as she waited by the entrance for the bell.

" Thanks for the offer, but I've seen my teammates ride enough, and their ten times more professional then you will ever be " Caitlyn replied.

I couldn't help but laugh at Harpers face and Blaire laughed as well.

Harpers face went back to ice cold in seconds. She squared her shoulders, dropped her heels and turned her gaze forward. Now I remembered the other reason I hated her so much. No matter the treatment of her horse afterwards, the girl was a really, really good rider...

But she was also a rough rider who took unnecessary risks and I hoped that for Manhattans sake, not hers, that moving to B.C and a new stable had changed that habit. The beautiful coal black horse didn't deserve that kind of treatment.