Page 4 of Reining Her In

C H A P T E R T W O

Constance

“Are you part of this team?” Travis snaps at me the moment I open my mouth to apologize for being late.

“Yes. I just had an accident. Sort of,” I mumble as my fingers move unconsciously to my nose.

My face is still flaming hot, and there is a vibration coursing through my body that is highly unfamiliar. My nose is throbbing a bit, but it’s drowned out by all the other unfamiliar feelings I’m processing. Before I even knew who it was that’d whacked me in the nose with his cane, I felt giddy looking at him from my place inside the practice ring.

He’d stood there watching me do my walk through, and from the second I looked over his eyes were on me. It was like being thumped in the heart with something hard and soft at the same time. A kind of jolt that nearly sent me out of my tack.

“You had an accident? Can you ride or not? Is your head in the game, Stanzie?”

My name is Constance, but ever since I was little most people call me Stanzie. It was okay when I was younger, but I don’t much like it now. But try telling that to Travis Houghton. He’s not so great at listening, but he’s good at developing champion riders, so I am lucky he took me on.

“My head is in the game.” I nod my eyes down as I kick at a tuft of grass.

Even as I say it, I can’t help but turn my head, and my eyes betray my words as they follow the figure of Reed Sawyer, working through the crowd toward his mounted student.

I recognize her, the woman on the stunning warmblood. Nancy Morgan won silver at the last Olympics and was a top professional Grand Prix rider. Not too long ago, she took a bad fall that sent her to the hospital and rehab for a month. Now she’s back, and after only six months in Reed Sawyer’s training program, she is the favorite to win the level nine at this international competition on her mount Grand Teton.

Travis puffs up his chest before he speaks. “Good, if you are part of this team, you win. You understand? We win.” Travis sweetens his voice and brushes a lock hair off my forehead. I wince at the contact. His touch feels like an invasion. I would never just touch someone whenever I liked, not unless it was a very different kind of relationship.

Travis looks like a Ken doll less the friendly smile. I know many of his students have blurred the lines between a professional and personal relationship with him, but I don’t see the appeal. I suppose if you were able to gauge simply his attractiveness based on his physical features alone, he’s technically attractive, but as a human, he’s not. But, like I said, I’m grateful to be part of his team. A good student must trust their trainer and do as they say.

Travis’s eyes are stuck on my chest. He often does that, and I clear my throat trying to break his locked gaze. I’m nervous about my practice ride on Ruby, and he is my trainer, so I pluck up my courage and tell him what I’m thinking.

“Ruby seemed a bit off in warm up.” The words come out less confident than I would like. I feel like my hat is always in my hand with him.

“Off? Off how?” He cocks his head sideways with a condescending reply and a forced sweetness. “Be specific. If there’s a problem, tell me now, and I’ll go pull you from the roster. My instincts told me you might find a reason to pull out from competition today. I’m not convinced you’re ready.” With a dismissive sigh, he turns to step away and my stomach sinks.

“No.” The pleading sound of my voice only makes me more upset. “I’m ready. I’m just saying, she seemed a bit jumpy. Spooky is all. Not like her usual self. She was shying at things and even bucked a little at the mounting block.”

“Well, if you want to be a pro, then learn to handle it. Horses get excited before a show; you should know that by now. This isn’t some B level show with your grandma in the crowd. You want to be here with the big dogs, then nut up. I’m telling you; there’s nothing wrong with that horse. I checked her over myself earlier, and she was fine. I breezed her around a few low jumps just to be sure this morning, so the problem is not the horse, sweetheart.” He pinches my chin, and I flinch, then jerk my head from his touch.

With that, he drops his fingers, and he’s shouting at another member of our team who is mounting up and on deck for her course. He steps away, then just as quickly spins his head back to look at me with something in his eyes that makes me cross my arms and pull one shoulder toward me ear.

“Your parents came to see me a few minutes ago. Your father is very excited to see you win today. His expectations for your performance are high. Don’t let us down.” Travis has sucked up to my parents since I started with him, especially my father.

The sucking up to my family is nothing new. I’m used to the way people change around me and especially around my father.

The fake smiles, the overly flattering words. Everyone wants to be my father’s friend, not for friendship sake, but because of the number of zeros in his net worth. Forbes published their list in last month’s issue, and my father was there for the seventh year running.

I reach around to try to find my backbone. Metaphorically of course, but that’s something my father likes to say to me.

I guess when you move up to this level of competition, the kiddy coddling is over. Travis has been tough on me since I started with him eight months ago, but I’m also a better rider for it. I think.

Yes, I am. How else would I be here at this kind of competition? I’m one of the youngest in my class.

My father, on the other hand, he’s been tough on me since the womb. He’s bigger than life, and I want so badly to make him proud. But I always seem to fall short.

My chest is constricted, and I know if I’m tense Ruby will feel it too. I guess it was probably just my own nerves making her jumpy earlier. I step over to the team tent and pick up my riding crop and stuff it under my arm.

When I do it, my mind immediately thinks of how Reed stood watching me with his cane under his arm. With a shake of my head, I’m back to reality, thinking of Ruby and what I can do to be sure she is in the best frame of mind for our ride.

My temples thump with a growing. I’m nervous, and I’m lucky that Travis is letting me ride Ruby in the first place. She’s a champion in my amateur riding career. She hasn’t shown what she can do here at this level, but I love her. We have a special bond and even when Travis encouraged me to try a new horse under his training program, I stood strong. I trust her, and she trusts me.

Ruby was plenty expensive when my parents bought her, but the horses Travis would like to see me on now? We are talking millions. Yep. For a horse. It’s crazy, and my parents would probably pay it, especially my father if he thought it would make me a ‘winner.’

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