Chapter 56 – Fun Riding

When Jack and Nathan got to the arena, they decided to leave the large arena set for jumping and use the smaller arena since there were no lessons. They took Bandit, Honey, Aphrodite and another jumping horse called Rascal. Rascal was a six year old bay gelding that they used for lessons. Jack hadn't ridden Rascal, but since they weren't going over high jumps, he thought it would be okay. He wanted an even number of horses. Jack also figured it would be good for Rascal since he had wanted to start moving him up in classes. They paired Honey with Aphrodite and Bandit with Rascal. Jack and Nathan would each ride each horse, just getting some time on each and going over two foot cavaletti poles. The horses were good and it was fun as Jack and Nathan made a game of going over the poles and racing at a trot and canter around the arena. Little did Jack and Nathan know that they were drawing a lot of attention from hands, grooms and trainers alike. Even James and Charlotte had stopped to watch the two of them at some point.

"Look at those two." James said.

"Reminds me of Jack and Laura." Charlotte said.

"Exactly." James said. "He pushes JP the same way that Laura used to push him. I think adding Doug to the mix will only heighten the competition. I would love to have JP here all summer to jump. It not only would be good for business, but I think it would be good for him. He actually looks happy to be riding again."

"I agree." Charlotte said. "But we agreed not to push. If he brings it up, that is completely different."

"I know." James said. "I am still looking for a jumper. I am hoping that maybe this weekend there will be some interest."

"I hate to admit it." Charlotte said. "But I think that Nathan and Elizabeth have a huge part of the reason that JP is having fun again. I will admit that Thomas chose right when he wanted to add Nathan to the security team. I really hope that we will be able to convince him to stay on. This is the first time that I can remember in a long time that JP hasn't tried to ditch the security assigned to him. I don't exactly like how close that they are getting, but at least he is good for JP. I am still not convinced that Elizabeth is good for JP in the long run. He doesn't know her and there is so much going on with her that I think that she will be a distraction for JP."

"As long as JP wants Nathan here." James said. "He is more than welcome here. Until you told me, I had no idea that he was security. I thought that your mother told you to keep an open mind about Elizabeth. She is a lovely girl and it seems everyone but you think that she is a great match for JP. You know trying to keep them apart will only push them closer together."

Charlotte cast an angry glance at her father.

"That was the point." Charlotte said. "Thomas thought that we needed to find a way to cut down on the potential gossip when JP went out. Having Nathan appear as just a part of the group of friends was the simplest way. Yes, Mom talked to me, but I still don't believe Elizabeth. I still think that she is just out for JP's money. Besides he is eighteen, he shouldn't be so serious about a girl. He needs to focus on school and getting good grades if he is going to do well in law school."

"Well it works." James said. "Honestly, I can see them being friends even if Nathan doesn't continue working for you guys. Trying to drive a wedge between JP and either of them is going to backfire on you. Also JP has told me that he is rethinking law school."

Charlotte didn't say anything, but just shook her head before going back to work. She knew that was the last thing that her husband wanted. If Charlotte was being honest with herself, she wanted to get JP as far away from Nathan and Elizabeth as possible. She was only being civil to them because they were guests in her parents home. If they were in the city, she would have had them kicked out a long time ago. She hated that JP wasn't more careful with the people he chose to spend time with. She knew exactly what girls like Elizabeth wanted, no matter how much she said that she wasn't interested in JP's money. Charlotte knew that she was lying, she knew that the only thing any woman saw when they looked at JP was dollar signs. From what little that Charlotte knew of Nathan's background, he was probably looking for a pay day as well.

As Charlotte went back to the office, she made the decision that if her son wasn't going to be smart about what his new 'friends' wanted then she was going to make sure that she did everything in her power to protect her family's money. She decided that there was no way that she was going to allow JP to get any closer to Elizabeth and she was going to let Thomas know that she felt that Nathan was getting too comfortable with JP and probably couldn't stay objective.

Jack and Nathan rode for over an hour before they cooled down the horses. They got Rascal settled back in his stall and then took the other three back to the other stable and got them settled. Jack also brought Athena in since she was spending most of the time under the shelter in the grazing pen. Nathan helped Jack brush her out and gave her a bunch of attention.

"You said she used to be a jumper." Nathan said.

"Yeah." Jack said. "She is a twelve year old. She was in the same crop of foals that Aphrodite came from. But no one had jumped her since Laura."

"You mean you haven't?" Nathan asked.

"Nope." Jack said. "Guess I didn't think of it. I always rode Bandit."

"Think I can try tomorrow?" Nathan asked. "We can start tomorrow afternoon with what we did today. If she is up for it, I wouldn't mind giving her a go."

"If you want and she is willing." Jack said. "I don't see why not. It might be really fun. Her and Laura were really good together. They only lost the championship before … they lost by two one hundredths of a second. They hadn't placed lower than third all season when they made the jump off and there were only about two or three times that didn't happen. That was on the A circuit so the fences were higher and the courses more difficult."

"About it, girl." Nathan said to Athena. "Want to go jumping tomorrow? I know I am not your regular person, but how about it? Want to run?"

Athena nickered in response and pushed at Nathan's shoulder.

"I take that as a yes." Nathan said, giving Jack a smirk.

"I won't stop you." Jack said. "But you have been warned she hasn't been ridden much."

Nathan looked at Jack with a lopsided grin.

"Consider me warned." Nathan said. "But we will be fine won't we girl."

Athena nickered again, stomping her hoof for emphasis. Jack shook his head.

"We should probably head back to the house." Jack said. "I know that Dad said that they would like to try to be airborne by four, which means he is really shooting for three."

"Okay." Nathan said. "We will just need to come back down here later and deal with Ghost."

"No problem." Jack said.

They put Athena back in the stall and made sure the other horses were fine before heading to the house. Halfway back, Jack's phone chimed.

"What?" Nathan asked.

"Doug." Jack said. "They are planning to take off within a half hour."

"It is two forty-five." Nathan said, looking at his watch.

"Told you." Jack said.

"We should probably let the others know." Nathan said.

"Gran will get a call when they enter Saratoga air space." Jack said.

"Okay." Nathan said.

Jack and Nathan got to the house. Jack did let Gran know that he had gotten a text from Doug and that they were planning to be taking off soon. Jack asked about Elizabeth and Gran said that she was still in the library, but she had only been home about twenty minutes. Jack looked at Nathan but Nathan didn't say anything, just gave him a look with a raised eyebrow.

"Was she still sleeping?" Jack asked.

"Yes." Gran said. "But you should wake her otherwise she might not be able to sleep tonight."

"Okay." Jack said.

"Do you need any help?" Nathan asked, looking between Jack and Gran.

"Wash up." Gran said. "I can always use help. I still haven't gotten everything put away that I picked up in town."

"Is there still stuff in the car?" Nathan asked.

"I think the Gatorade and a few things are still out there." Gran said.

"I will get those first." Nathan said.

Nathan headed out to get the stuff still in the car and Jack headed to the library. He didn't really want to wake Elizabeth, but he knew that Gran was right. When Jack walked into the library, Elizabeth was almost exactly like he had left her. The blanket had shifted, but otherwise she was still curled into the corner of the couch.

"Elizabeth." Jack said softly.

She barely stirred. Jack walked a little closer and called her name again. The last thing that he wanted to do was startle her. When she failed to wake, Jack walked to the back of the couch and lightly touched her shoulder and called her name again. Elizabeth's eyes fluttered a bit at that, so Jack tried again.

"Elizabeth." Jack said. "It is getting late, you need to get up."

Elizabeth opened her eyes. She looked around and it took her a moment to realize where she was. She looked at Jack and then down at the blanket that was covering her. Then she looked back up at Jack and gave him a half smile. Somehow she knew that Jack had been responsible for covering her with the blanket.

"How long was I sleeping?" Elizabeth asked.

"I am not sure." Jack said. "Nathan and I found you before we headed back to the arena. It is almost three now. Gran said to wake you. My father should be taking off soon and will be here by five."

"Oh." Elizabeth said. "Thank you for letting me sleep."

"Well." Jack said. "You obviously needed it. Have you not been sleeping at night?"

"I just think everything finally caught up with me." Elizabeth said. "When I was looking at the photo album of you with your cousins earlier, I realized how much I left at home. I don't have but a few photos of me. I ended up sending a text to Rosie and asked if she could get certain photo albums from home for me. I might have told her a small lie telling her I was planning a special project."

"It is okay." Jack said. "Did she respond back?"

"Not before I fell asleep." Elizabeth said. "But I am sure that she is busy with her summer drama stuff. I am sure if she gets the chance, she will get the albums and hold on to it for me."

"Okay." Jack said. "Nathan and I are going to help Gran in the kitchen."

"I will join you in a bit." Elizabeth said.

"Okay." Jack said.

Jack left Elizabeth in the library and headed back to the kitchen. He found Nathan putting stuff away so he helped him.

"So we are doing burgers on the grill." Jack said. "What else is there going to be?"

"I picked up sweet corn." Gran said. "Enough for tonight. I also got some salads from Healthy Living. I also picked up a fruit tray from there."

"Did you get the apricots?" Nathan asked.

"Yes." Gran said. "There should be two bags in there somewhere. I also stopped at Cheshire and they said that your breeches should be here tomorrow or the next day, they will have them delivered to the farm."

"Thank you." Nathan said. "I know we don't need them until Sugar Creek, but it will be nice to know that we have them."

"JP." Gran said. "I ran into Cass. She wanted to remind me that the rules for Saturday have changed a bit."

"What did she say?" Jack asked. "I didn't read a lot before I came up here. I mean I have jumped in the Charity Classic before."

"They changed the format." Gran said. "They want it to fall more in line with other events so it will have a jumpoff this year. She also let me know since they got approval to have it count toward a qualifier, that they opened the ages from fourteen to twenty. It still won't have any points, but as a qualifier they had to add the jumpoff."

"Qualifier?" Nathan asked.

"Some non point events can be used as a qualifier." Jack said. "It is a way to move up a level mid-season. Because the Charity Classic is open to a wide age range and the course is set at minimum intermediate requirements, those that want to move up, but might not have been able to qualify before the season will have the opportunity. They need to finish in a ribbon placing to move up. It is not easy to qualify mid-season, but it can be done if you have worked at it. It is just hard to qualify since there are not a lot of chances unless you know an official to oversee your jump. I never had to worry about that, because Marco and Andy always had me jumping higher in practice then the class I was jumping. It helped that I had Laura and I would do what she did. She was always at least a class ahead of me. Marco and Andy are also both qualified officials and can submit a video of me running a course that met the requirements."

"So someone who hadn't previously jumped an intermediate course." Nathan said. "Can now enter the Charity Classic and if they place in the ribbons then they can register for intermediate class at a point show later this summer. So how do I and/or Doug get to jump intermediate for Sugar Creek?"

Elizabeth walked in as Nathan was talking and looked at everyone.

"Yes." Gran said. "That is what it means. I mean not everyone will be entering the Classic because it is a charity event and therefore much more expensive to jump, but I am sure that there will be a few. And to answer your question, Nathan – it is your age. Anyone over eighteen can register for preliminary or above."

"Oh." Nathan said.

"Cass said that they expanded the list to thirty-five riders." Gran said. "She also said that the registration will close on Friday evening. A list of riders will be published Friday night. She was hoping to have it up by nine on Friday night."

"Good to know." Jack said. "Maybe we can talk to Grandpa and if Doug wants to jump, maybe we can enter him. Did she say how many were registered?"

"If Doug wants to jump." Gran said. "I am sure that James will have no problem registering him. No and I didn't ask. It usually fills up the week leading into the Classic. Most wait to see where their horses are or where they are going to be. There are a couple of point shows around the region this weekend as well. Most that jump in the Classic are local or summer up here. Those that jump at the Classic also tend to be more high class people. The qualifier might bring in a few people that might not normally jump at the Classic. I will call Cass and reserve a spot and if Doug changes his mind we can pull out on Friday to give someone else a chance."

"Okay." Jack said.

"So how much does it cost to jump at the Classic?" Nathan asked.

Jack and Gran just looked at each other.

"It is fine, you don't have to say." Nathan said. "I was just curious."

"It is okay." Jack said. "We don't usually talk about money, at least specific amounts. It usually makes people uncomfortable. But I will make an exception this time."