The Perfect Distance

Chapter One-2

AN HOUR LATER, HARLEY’S tryout was complete. And Lucy’s was about to begin...

As soon as she found the bridle for the chestnut mare she had been assigned to ride!

Delaney, who Lucy had taken to calling Dee, was waiting patiently in her stall while Lucy furiously searched the tack room for the bridle she was looking for.

"Harley it's not here!" she exclaimed.

Not only was she nervous about her tryout, but now she would make a horrible first impression—by being late.

"Whoa, calm down there Feisty Pants," Harley laughed, using his elementary school nickname for her that had stuck, "I found it—it's in the wrong place."

Lucy breathed a sigh of relief, and headed over to where Harley was standing.

The bridle with the name tag of "Delaney" had somehow been placed on the hook labeled for "Legacy".

"Thanks Harley."

Lucy hurried downstairs, and quickly bridled the mare, who stood calmly, flicking her tail idly at the occasional fly.

"At least you're well behaved," Lucy told the placid horse.

Maria was sitting on the bleachers at the end of the indoor arena as Lucy walked in and joined about five other students. Sydney and Flynn were seated on either side of Maria. And the trainer who would be teaching their lessons, Coach Rattenber, (who everyone referred to as Coach R, or, more commonly 'the rat', although Lucy still wasn't exactly certain why) was sitting there as well.

The arena was huge. At the moment, one side of the arena had jumps set up, and the other half was sectioned off into a dressage arena. Lucy didn't know much about dressage, but she immediately recognized the little white fence that stood less than foot high, labeled with bold black letters at certain points where the rider would be asked to transition to a different movement or gait with the horse.

In addition to the vast expanse of space inside of the arena, there were two entrances, one from each side of the stables, and a large clock was present on one of the walls. The other long wall was covered in mirrors placed at a height where Lucy could see her reflection, so she would be able to see when she needed to adjust her position and posture.

"If each of you could make your way to the mounting block, then we can begin," Maria announced, "And please make sure you have your number; without it we can't identify you."

Lucy double checked that the white paper was tied around her show jacket. Thankfully, she had actually remembered it.

When it was her turn at the mounting block, Delaney stood still. But as soon as Lucy swung into the saddle and attempted to adjust her stirrups, the mare started walking forward.

"Dee," Lucy hissed, giving the mare a small tug on the reins, "Stay put."

When she released the reins, Dee was quiet just long enough for Lucy to shorten her left stirrups, as the current length was definitely too long for her. But then another horse, a gray gelding, was maneuvered too close for Dee's liking by another nervous rider, and the mare sidestepped and gave a small kick, which almost unseated Lucy who only had one foot in the stirrup.

"Easy," Lucy warned, slightly nervous now. Sure, Dee had been well-mannered on the ground. But it seemed as though Lucy had spoken too soon...

The other student, who offered Lucy a quick apology, moved her horse far away from Dee. Lucy made sure that the mare had plenty of room away from the other horses as the captains, who had been oblivious to Dee's outburst, instructed the riders to warm up.

Trying to keep her mind from focusing on how flighty and slightly aggressive Dee seemed to be behaving, she tried to remember the basics. Heels down, shoulders back, eyes up. She avoided the scrutinizing eyes of the captains, and focused instead on the horse in front of her.

"Okay everyone, posting trot, please," Maria called.

Don't forget your diagonal, Lucy’s trainer's words flooded through her mind. This was something that Lucy seldom remembered, although it was also a basic. She need to rise up and down with the movement of the trot. In order to be on the proper diagonal, Lucy needed to rise as Dee's outside leg (the one closest to the wall) moved forward.

At first when Lucy asked for the trot, Dee pinned her ears, but she listened with the slightest squeeze, eager to fly forward and chase down the horse in front of her.

"Whoa," Lucy whispered, trying to urge the mare to slow by slowing her posting instead of pulling on the reins. She was being judged on every single minute riding skill, after all.

Once she had Dee at a collected trot, she was finally able to keep the mare at a decently paced rhythm.

"Now, change directions across the diagonal," Maria’s voice broke the intense silence.

Lucy followed the lead of the rider in front of her, directing Dee with her leg as much as possible before using the reins, which she was finding to be slightly difficult. Dee was certainly headstrong, and Lucy could only hope that everything would go smoothly when they started jumping.

After they crossed the diagonal—literally riding a diagonal line from one end of the arena to the other—Lucy turned Dee to the left, simultaneously changing her posting diagonal. And surprisingly, Dee was moving well. She wasn't too fast, and she wasn't pulling at the bit.

"I want the following numbers to come to the center of the arena: 244, 231, and 305. The rest of you, please transition to the canter when you're ready. Then we'll have the groups switch and perform the same exercise," Maria said.

Lucy’s number was 305, but she found that she was okay with being in the second group. It would give her time to think things through—something else she also had trouble with, whether riding or not.

She played it all out in her mind; she knew exactly what to do. She'd ask for the canter, but would also make sure she gave Dee a half halt as well, in the hopes of getting the mare to understand that they needed to perform a sane and slow canter. Because somehow, she could see Dee attempting to take off with her at a gallop.

Content with her plan, Lucy was completely calm and confident watching the other riders. But then, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed something that she couldn't quite draw her gaze away from.

A white horse had suddenly appeared on the other side of the arena, led by a platinum blonde who looked to be only a little older than Lucy herself. The blonde had her hair in a single braid beneath an all-black helmet, and the contrast of the two colors made the striking platinum blonde color seem almost white. She wore tan breeches, and tucked into them with a belt was a light blue collared shirt that read "Akiyama Riding Academy". Matching the shirt, she wore blue riding gloves, and the tall boots that she wore were completely spotless.

The white horse was spotless as well—and Lucy knew how difficult it was to keep a white horse from turning random shades of brown. Or green. In fact, it was almost impossible.

But both horse and rider were as pristine as this entire barn seemed to be.

And it wasn't until she had mounted and walked the horse into the dressage arena, straight in Lucy’s direction, that she noticed Lucy staring.

When Lucy met the blonde's blue eyes, she knew she should have turned away, but she couldn't. There was something so captivating about the new presence in the arena—about this rider than Lucy had never seen before.

Suddenly, the blonde's eyebrows raised, and she lifted the riding crop that she was carrying ever so slightly, as if to tap her horse on the shoulder. But instead, she left it there, so that at about a thirty degree angle from the white horse's shoulder, the end of it could be followed all the way to the side of the arena—to the rail. Which was rather perplexing to Lucy because...

Oh, s**t.

The rail.

The tryouts!

Her group!

"Number 305, a left lead canter, please."

Lucy finally heard the voice that she was sure she had missed the first time. Lucy noticed the blonde's mouth contort into the slightest hint of a smirk, and her face burned as she thought, this is so not funny.

Heart pounding, Lucy walked Dee to the rail.

Now the last thing I need is for you to misbehave, so listen to me! Lucy thought desperately to the horse beneath her, as if Dee could read her mind.

Lucy tried to clear her mind. Really, she did.

Sit back, heels down.

But those blue eyes were watching her every move.

And Lucy couldn't focus. She really couldn't.

Instead of sitting back, she felt herself leaning forward, and so Dee, who was all too eager and knew exactly what she was 'supposed' to do, picked up the canter lead on her own.

And it was the fastest thing that Lucy had ever felt in her life.

If anything could snap her back to reality, it was Dee's hooves pounding the dirt like a storm beneath her.

"Whoa," Lucy said instinctively, giving the mare small half halts as she fought to keep her balance. But she gave Dee her head in between the half halts, knowing that holding her head back the entire time would only agitate the chestnut horse more.

After one wild trip around the arena with the insane mare keeping her head high instead of down, Dee finally slowed her canter, and eventually started trotting again.

"That's okay," Maria said, "Good job keeping her under control. Now, we'll have you all go one at a time over the three jumps that are set up. You'll do the diagonal jump first, and then circle around to the two outside jumps.

Lucy could barely keep her breathing under control as she joined the rest of the students where they had lined up on the rail, in number order, leaving Lucy last. But as she walked the mare past the middle of the arena, where the jumping portion merged into the dressage portion, she saw the blonde rider trying to hold back a laugh with one hand over her mouth.

And she wasn't doing a very good job of it.

Can this get any worse, Lucy sighed inwardly.

All she had to do was get this crazy mare over three jumps without landing in the dirt.

And it seemed simple enough when she thought about it—almost as simple as the blonde rider had made the transition from the walk to the trot look when Lucy's attention had once again strayed to the other side of the arena as she waited for her turn—but it was much harder to accomplish when said crazy mare insisted on racing full speed ahead towards the first jump.

The distance was completely off. If Dee kept barreling forward that fast they'd crash straight into it before they even got over it.

Lucy leaned back as far as she could, and finally got the mare to slow down, only giving Dee rein over the fence so that she could stretch her neck and complete the jump.

Once they landed, Lucy gave the mare a firm half halt, and circled her around to the outside line of jumps, which were two red-and-white jumps in a row. As they headed forward, Lucy could feel the difference; she had now gained Dee's attention as the mare's canter strides shortened at Lucy's request.

Dee was quiet over the jump, and didn't try to take off with Lucy upon seeing the second jump in front of her. She waited for Lucy's cues, and Lucy breathed a huge sigh of relief as they landed from the second jump. She brought Dee down to the trot, and then to the walk, and, although the mare had definitely been high strung and inane in the beginning, she gave the chestnut a pat on the neck for her efforts.

"Thank you all for taking the time to try out," Maria said once Lucy had halted, "Our decisions will be made by the next meeting, and we'll discuss divisions, shows, lessons, and dues. Let the horses walk out for a few minutes to cool down."

Lucy gave Dee slightly longer reins at the walk, but kept them short enough just in case the spirited mare decided to bolt. Or kick. Or rear. Or buck. Or do whatever it was that could pop into her mind at any given moment.

And for the first time since she had started her jumping round, Lucy allowed her attention to stray back to the blonde rider.

Her horse was nothing short of perfection. She was nothing short of perfection...

And now as Lucy approached the middle of the arena, she noticed the blonde rider walk her horse over to the edge of the dressage arena and halt.

Lucy was confused, but didn't think much of it, continuing to walk past. But before she was out of earshot she heard the blonde say something that made all of her embarrassment return; something that, had Lucy known about it before, may have avoided this whole situation with Dee entirely. And she said it such a way that it wasn't quite berating, yet still retained a hint of laugh:

"Delaney's supposed to wear a martingale."