Excerpt: Horsing Around

“You know, he puts his breeches on one leg at a time, just like the rest of us…”

Sarah Johnson nodded, knowing that she shouldn’t be afraid of her first lesson with Ronald Kent, even if he was a three time Olympic Gold Medalist who was known for being a total jerk if he wasn’t happy with your riding. No, no reason to be afraid at all.

“Really,” the girl continued, “he isn’t as bad as people say. Sure, he yells and screams and scares people, but he honestly isn’t an awful person or anything like that. He just…he does a good impression of one.”

“Riiiight…” Sarah rolled her eyes. “It’s all just an act to make me think he’s some big scary whatever…”

The girl laughed. “Actually, it pretty much is. I mean, once you get to know him, he can really be a nice guy when he wants to be.”

Sarah smiled. She knew Taylor just wanted to make her feel welcome and less scared. Honestly, though, she knew enough about her new trainer to know that her fears were somewhat warranted.

“Oh, I’m Taylor, by the way. Taylor Davies.”

Sarah shook her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“Yeah, nice to meet you too,” Taylor said, looking out at the main arena. “Look, I know I said Ron isn’t really that bad, but you still shouldn’t be late. Ron’s big on first impressions, and I’d hate to be the reason you make a bad one.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Sarah said as she nudged her horse forward toward the arena where the infamous Ronald Kent was waiting. The arena itself was enough to make her nervous. With its perfectly painted outer fence, colorful jumps and flawless footing it was like something out of a magazine ad for a fancy barn. Sarah wanted to pinch herself to make sure that this wasn’t some kind of dream.

After all, she didn’t belong here. This barn was for people with tons of fancy horses that their parents purchased without even thinking about the price. It wasn’t for a girl like her, who had actually bought her one horse herself by reselling ponies that she had trained. This was a barn for the type of people she sold those ponies to, not for her.

But then, she was here. Ronald Kent was willing to train her, and he seemed to think that she had some potential. After all, why else would he allow a relatively poor girl like her to ride here?

“You must be Sarah…”

Sarah nearly jumped. Ronald Kent. Talking. To her. “Um…yeah?”

“You aren’t sure what your name is?” Ronald suggested. “Or are you just unsure of what you’re doing here?”

Sarah suddenly knew that this was going to be a long, hard lesson.