Lucky Horseshoe Charm
"Oh my god" Beca Mitchell groaned as she picked up the magazine. She flipped through the bright pages irritably. Her best friend, Stacie Conrad glanced over.
"What?" She asked lazily, squinting up from her phone screen. The two were lying on the grass outside the barn in the hot summer sun, positively sweltering in their polo shirts and jods.
"Look" Beca chucked her the magazine, leaning back on her elbows and gazing out across the large fields and sand arenas dotted with the occasional horse and rider.
"Saffron Hill Riding Academy wins Local Riding School Cup?" Stacie read out, disgust lathering her voice. Beca nodded, furrowing her brow.
"That's like the fifth time in a row! And they're not even that good!" Stacie protested vainly. Beca rolled her eyes.
"No shit, Sherlock." she deadpanned, closing her eyes with a sigh.
"Barden could have won. They're just a bit….fancier" Stacie dropped the magazine on the grass, rolling on her side to face Beca. Barden Riding School was the stables Beca and Stacie had been riding at for as long as they could remember. It had few teachers, but large grounds and a great cross-country track. The only problem was their rivals, Saffron Hill. They were a prestigious riding school, insisting on the best tack, gleaming stables and top-of-the-range instructors. And compared, Barden seemed a little…simple.
"Yeah, a bit fancier" Beca said dryly, eyeing the fence that separated the stables. On the other side was an arena where a large white horse was jumping a complicated course effortlessly.
"You know what I mean" Stacie chucked the magazine at her, missing by a mile and hitting the fence of the field in front of them, and causing a unsuspecting pony to gallop away.
"We've never got past regionals." Beca reminded her, sitting up.
"Maybe this year will be different" Stacie tried in a vague attempt at optimism. The short brunette quirked an eyebrow at her disbelievingly, getting up from the grass. Stacie sighed, following her.
They headed inside the barn, away from the intense heat.
"Your bro and Aubrey coming back from Uni this afternoon?" Stacie asked breezily, tying her long brown hair back into a ponytail. Beca nodded, faking a grimace.
"Apparently some new girl is arriving as well" Stacie mused, stopping outside her horse, Hunter's stable. The large piebald gelding nickered as she slid open the stable door and went in. Beca leant over the stable door.
"Boarder?" She asked flicking a piece of idle straw at her friend.
"Yeah" Stacie wrinkled her nose. She patted Hunter's neck and her hand came away covered in dust.
"He's literally a dust magnet!" She exclaimed. Beca chucked her a body brush from the box outside the door.
"Your fault for not brushing him enough" she said.
"You hardly ever brush Duke!" Stacie protested, catching the brush. Beca shrugged.
"He's a bay. It doesn't show up" she pointed out. Their conversation was broken by the arrival of a short blonde woman, her features creased into a frown. Freya Davy had owned Barden Riding School for twenty years, raising it up from a shed and a barn to a tightly-run stable yard. Well, she liked to think it was tightly run. She had a steely, no-nonsense attitude that tended to scare her pupils into submission. Not counting her untimely habit of switching from army officer to aunty in a blink of an eye. Nevertheless, Beca and Stacie looked upon Freya as a weird sort of mother figure. Today, her icy temper was in full swing, despite the heat.
"Girls, do you think the stalls will muck out themselves? Jesse and Aubrey arrive in less than an hour." She snapped.
"Right on it, Cap'n" Beca did a mock salute, pushing herself upright. Freya raised an eyebrow at her, then turned her gaze expectantly on Stacie. The leggy brunette hastily exited the stable.
"On it" she echoed. Freya nodded, satisfied, turning on her heel and stalked towards her office. Stacie puffed out a sigh.
"She does not let it go" she remarked. Beca went over to the tool area and grabbed a pitchfork, putting it in a wheelbarrow.
"Mhmm" she answered, frowning as she tried to lift the wheelbarrow.
"Here, I'll do it dwarfy" Stacie took it from her, pushing it easily down the stable aisle. Beca huffed at her.
"Please lay off the short jokes"
The entrance to the barn looked very similar to a backyard. The wooden building was behind a dusty carpark, where a beaten down trailer and truck were parked. Several trees were beyond that, almost blocking it from the road. It concluded to a very quiet and calm area, albeit the occasional fancy sports car and huge trailer that zoomed past on their way to Saffron Hill. Beca and Stacie stood outside, squinting in the sun. Beca kicked the dried mud ground with her boot.
"Impatient, much?" Stacie teased. Beca shot her a glare.
"It's like over 100 degrees, and I'm bored" she groaned.
"You're fine" Stacie gestured as a small mint green car pulled into the drive, a shiny black trailer behind it.
"Woah. That's Jesse's trailer?" Beca's jaw fell open. Stacie laughed.
"Hang on there B, you're forgetting his million dollar girlfriend" she said. Beca rolled her eyes.
"Right, course" she muttered. The door of the car opened, and out stepped a tall young man with short brown hair and a goofy grin.
"Hiya Freya, Stacie, short person" he nodded to each of them jokingly.
"Very funny" Beca said dryly, but walked forward to wrap her older brother in a hug. She hadn't seen him for a while since he went off to college with his army captain of a girlfriend. Speaking of which, a pretty blonde woman made her way out of the car towards them, lips pulled into a tight smile.
"Hello Freya, Stacie and Beca" she said the little brunette's name with a hint of disgust. Beca grinned.
"Aubrey Posen! Always a delight to see you!" she spoke in a overly happy tone.?" The blonde girl rolled her eyes.
"Pleasure" she replied curtly.
"Right-ho! You'd better get your nags into the stalls" Freya broke the tension. Jesse nodded, ruffling his sister's hair before going to lower the ramp of the shiny trailer.
Two horses were promptly led out - one a bright palomino named Bee - Aubrey's horse, and Carson, Jesse's skittish dark bay. She passed the lead ropes to them.
"You know where they go by now – the girls prepared the stalls" she dusted her hands on her breeches as Jesse and Aubrey disappeared into the barn. Beca crossed her arms.
"When did you say that new girl was coming?" She checked. Freya had a grim look on her face as she stared straight ahead.
"Right now" she announced. Beca turned to see a huge horse transporter parade into the tiny car park, large, obnoxious words on the side reading: 'BEALE.'
"You've got to be kidding me."