The Eventers Club

Chapter 22:

Ashleigh's Pov

I made a face at Evelyn when no one wasn't looking, this Ken guy was way over the top. All nice to Eve and her Mum but when it came to the grooms and I, he was brutal. A groom riding Flame had picked up a working trot a second to late and nearly had their head taken off by Ken. I scrunch my nose up as I continue cantering down the diagonal doing a flying lead change on Florence. When I heard Ken's name, I couldn't help but to think of plastic and Barbie. He gave in to every one of Mrs Holloway's whims, this thought has me almost laughing as I observe them.

"Miss Sutton, will you take Florence over some smaller jumps to warm her up?" Mrs Holloway said. It was funny, she insists I say her first name and yet she calls me by my surname. I give her a quick "okay" and take Florence from the group. She bounced on her feet in excitement and tried pulling on the reins, but when she saw I wasn't giving in that easily she relaxed more. During my ride I noticed that Eve only payed attention to the other horses for about 2 minutes before turning away. She seemed to be mesmerised by Navarre, I believe his name was.

You couldn't blame her though, he was stunning and sounded like a mystery. However my interest ended there, she already had Hugo so I'm sure she'll tell her Mum that afterwards. Since I was first to jump and everyone seemed to come to a halt, I felt a bit of pressure. I've never jumped Florence before and there's no doubt Ken would be starting me on something over a metre, all to impress Eve's Mum.

"Today everyone will individually warm up over the smaller oxers and verticals that are set around a 1.10m. Afterwards you will jump some of the higher fences set from a 1.20m to 1.60m" Ken announces to the group before turning to the Holloway's.

"Although we produce eventer's, we always pride ourselves in creating wonderful jumpers and dressage horses. So if one decides they don't like eventing anymore, they can still go into the Olympics in either dressage or show jumping" I hear Ken state to Eve and her Mum.

"As Miss Sutton is to surely demonstrate in a moments time, Florence has the ability to do anything you ask of her" Ken assures before giving me a strict look as if to say 'don't mess up'.

I turn and made a face at Evelyn who looked like she was going to laugh at any moment. Once Florence was entirely responsive to me, I turned her towards the vertical. No pressure Ash, just don't do the million things that could go wrong. No pressure at all. I noticed Florence raised her head to eye the jump she was approaching. Since I've never jumped her, I wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing so I urge her forward. More then happily, we bounce over it like nothing and I felt relief hit me instantaneously. Once more we pop over more jumps and Ken raises the heights. The rest of the group had gone back to riding their assigned horses at the end of the arena.

Even when I took a short glance over to gauge if Eve somewhat liked Florence, she was looking at Navarre who was still being held by Ken. The horse seemed to have calmed down by now and his head hung low almost seeming bored. Luckily for me, I've jumped 1.60m before when I was back home with Venus, the mare I leased. I smiled lightly, if Beauty and I keep going to way we are, I'll have more then enough money to lease Venus. Luckily for me I've known her owners for a long time and they're happy to lease her back to me in the fall. Shaking away the thoughts I pick up a canter again and continue working Florence.

"Thank you for the demonstration Miss Sutton, you can return to the rest of the group" Ken says before asking Jake to come over and repeat the process. As I walk Florence back, Eve quickly gives me the thumbs up and before turning to watch Jake.

The same thing happened even for Jake, only for a couple moments would she glance over at him before examining Navarre with fascination. I almost start to giggle when her mum moves away from Navarre who starts pawing the ground. It was almost as if he was saying he's bored and wanted to something else.

As the last rider finished up Mrs Holloway asked Eve which horse she wanted to ride. However she was adamant on riding Navarre and only Navarre. Much to Mrs Holloway's dismay, she begrudgingly told the rest of us to cool out the horses. Eve smiled victoriously once her her mum finally gave in.

I was unsure of how Navarre would be for Eve so I distract myself by repeating the process of cooling down Florence. Beauty's head poked over the stall door and he stared at me. As much as I would like to jump on and go riding, I had to go put some different clothes. Our lesson was soon so I would have to wait until afterwards.

"I'll be back buddy" I assure him before heading out of the stables and putting Florence in the paddock.

...

"Everyone, enough chit chat! Ash, your up" Darla yells from the other side of the arena. We were close to finishing then end of our lesson and Navarre was all Eve could talk about. Tina had brought up the topic of Surfer's improvement but straight after Eve completely changed the topic to Navarre. Tina and I giggled about it, Evelyn was obsessed with this horse.

But even though we dismissed her cut ins, the fact was that Eve was distracting us from the lesson. I'm always focussed and so was the rest of the us but today was completely out of character. Even Penny and the boys were all in on the convocation. Hence why Darla hasn't been happy with us this afternoon. Evelyn in particular who she's caught on a number of occasions talking. Obviously we're aloud to talk quietly to one another but once Darla started to speak we had to be quiet.

Although Eve was riding with half her mind distracted, Hugo was being a super star bounding over jumps with ease. Today we had been doing jumping grids, something I found Beauty quite good at. As expected, Hugo cleanly bounces over the grids again but Darla stays silent for a moment. It was like she knew that Eve wasn't giving Hugo any cues and he was doing the grid work all by himself.

"Everybody come over to me" she calls, I was confused since we still had 10 minutes to go.

"Your all dismissed for today, I can't be working with riders who aren't paying attention to anything they're doing. Next lesson I expect it to be your best lesson and no more of this constant talking. Otherwise talking will be banned and if I catch someone, they'll be excused. You can go now" Darla explains, her arms were crossed and an unhappy look was spread across her face.

"Evelyn, can you stay behind for a moment?" Darla asks however it came out more like a statement.

"Uh oh" I whisper to Tina who tries to suppress the smile on her face.

"Let's get ready to go for a trail ride, I'm going bareback" Tina announces dismounting Surfer.

"So am I" I said enthusiastically.

...

"So what was Navarre like? And give me an actual full answer" Tina states sprawling out on the grass.

We had just taken the horses for a swim and it was extremely fun. Hugo went to roll in the water resulting in Eve getting completely saturated. I don't think I ever laughed so much in my life. Mean while Beauty and Surfer were both splashing about having a great time playing in the water. We all went bareback deciding not to risk wrecking our equipment. And since getting our riding clothes wet wouldn't be the best, we all got changed into different clothes as well. We had to be careful however since we didn't have our boots on either. The lake was stunning, I had never seen something so beautiful in my life, Evelyn was so lucky to have this lake on the boarder of their property. Although it was a long ride to get here, it was well worth the wait.

"He was so unique, it was like we were floating and how he held his frame. Oh my goodness, he was perfect! I can't even use words to describe him" Eve gushed sighing.

I sat with my legs crossed and watched the horses eat grass nearby. They were loosely tied up so none of them would run off into the forest. We were under some trees a couple metres away from the beautiful crystal clear lake. Before heading back Tina decided we should have a gossip session while the horses dry off a bit. It was something I was rather new to this since none of my 'friends' actually consoled in me about anything.

"What about the upcoming show? Do you think you're parents will have you compete with both Navarre and Hugo?" I ask suddenly.

"Honestly I don't know, my parents are strange" Eve laughs.

"More like crazy" Tina adds, I couldn't resist laughing along with them, that statement was more then 110% true.