Chapter eight

The next day he indeed let me ride Kumara and timed. Then he let me ride Bokay, fast, slower, fast, faster every post, it went quite well. Then Ty and I did stables and he explained details of racing.
In the evening Alec gestured to follow him upstairs, there was family downstairs after I was introduced I followed Alec upstairs. He went sitting on the bed and took a phone, he pressed the numbers, while muttering “who can honestly be so stupid to invite family to day.” He held the phone at his ear and looked at me then he gestured to sit, so I went sitting next to him. 3hi Henry, Alec here” the penny dropped ad I felt stupid for not understanding at first. “yeah we’re good, how long for the race?”
…
“o ok, then I can tell you something first. Joan rode Kumara today, what time did she run last week?”
…
“Joan had her fast Henry, she could become very good!”
….
“yeah, that’s what I thought, but ok, make sure Luke wins out there ok? We’re going to watch here”
…
“yeah, ok bye Henry” he took the remote and switched the TV on. There was an introduction of the race already and the horses were on the track.
“…Then we’ve got Silverrein of the hambuck stables, jockey Nicolas tyrol. And Trybal of the black farm, jockey Lucas benican.”A bit later they all stood in their boxes. The doors flew open, Luke had a could start.
“ And there they go, all good start, Goldeye is taking a lead it’s really high speed here.”
“What are you doing Luke? It’s only half mile, let him go!” Alec complained. But Luke only let go half way. “damn you, Luke, a bit lesser horse and you were dead already!”
“It’s close, goldeye and Trybal are now in the lead, few more meter and they’re over. we’ll have to look at the photo finish for that…”Alec and I sat at the edge of the bed in all tension. “damn it, let him go from the start and he won with five lengths!” Alec still mumbled.
“It’s Trybal, with half a nose ahead!”
We both jumped up smiling, “lucky though” he continued and then we went back down. After while the family left and I realised when they were gone and wished me a happy birthday, that it was my birthday that Saturday…three more days, that’s it. The day after and there after I rode Bokay, I as well has began to measure speed better and I almost always had the times Alec asked. That evening Alec’s mom kept me downstairs, she wanted to talk about school, it was long away still, but she insisted.
“you know” she said when it became pretty late. “I feel sorry that Alec doesn’t want to go o school anymore, then again his future is quite certain, not a lot of guys has there own business when they’re twenty years old.”
“no, they don’t” I was feeling tired, but she didn’t let me go, half pas two, she finally did, exhausted I got into bed. The next morning I figured why she’d kept my up so long. Normally I was up in time, today the three of them woke me with breakfast. I was happy and laughed: “o you” She just laughed, we had an overwhelming breakfast and Alec father told us, we were going to drop by at the farm, but we weren’t going to stay. Were we were going I couldn’t know.
At the ranch Ty, Nick and even Kyle wished me a happy birthday. Ty would be head of the farm for a day and I was sure I heard Kyle mumbling “…after tha gall, now he…” But ignored it. We drove a long while and I was surprised when Henry and Luke welcomed us, “happy birthday, Joan!”
“what?”
“yeah, it’s our second race today and we decided you had to see your first race, how better then on your birthday?”
“ow guys!!” I said, thrilled.
“now you guys are here, may be you can ride Alec, no offence Luke, but you almost screwed up yesterday.”
“I know I did Henry, thanks”
“I’m sorry, but it’s true, it’s a damn good thing it’s a good horse”
“I’ve heard you alright?”
“So what do you think Alec?”
“Ever thought what the people’s reaction is going to be if we almost lose and then put me back on the horse?”
“better then losing a race!” Henry said, a bit disappointed Alec wasn’t more enthusiastic.
“Well..I’ve got a better idea, Henry”
“What?”
“It’s Joan’s birthday…”
“no, no way Alec!”
“she’s only seeing her first one!”
“no big deal! It’s a half a mile sprint! She can take the speed, Henry, what’s there to be afraid of?”
Henry sighed and looked at me, then back at Alec, “I don’t know Alec…it’s not like she can dance around a bit.”
“Look Henry, all she has got to do is start good and then keep sprinting until the finish, she’ll win with lengths ahead.”
“yeah how good is it if you have all these lengths? They know you’ve got a good horse then” Luke said, a bit in his own defence.
“They already know that, it’s a short distance, they don’t know how a horse is on long distance and hell I don’t have to sprint her, just keep in front is good too, right? It’s not like I never rode a horse before, Henry.” I said, they all looked up in amazement.
“you want to do this?”
“I’d love to, don’t need to, but you made it sound as if I wouldn’t be able to..”
“ok, good, you follow me” Henry just said. I raised me eyebrows and looked at Alec, who smiled. I followed Henry to the dress room “I hope this fits” he said and he hand over the riding clothes. “so do I” and I went in, the clothes seemed to fit perfectly fine, a bit big, but fine. Alec and Luke had gotten the horse ready and Henry guided me over to them. “Good thing you changed early, some of them jockeys are real pervs” Luke said, I just smiled. He knew enough and went to find Alec’s parents. “Now, Joan, you’ll just let him sprint and try take the lead from the second the gates go open, when you have the lead, try to keep a high speed, but not more then a length or two maybe ahead, ok?”
“ok”
“she can do it, Henry”
“yeah, yea, go warm him up, Joan, no fast running, you don’t want them to see how fast your horse is, ok? A damn it Alec, she doesn’t know the damn horse!”
“she knows him alright, but it’s a fact she hasn’t raced him..”
“the other aren’t even dressed yet, warm that horse, Joan, there’s a change you can just a sec get used to him.” So I warmed him up and easily rode in the pen, being only rider in there was quite creepy, but after twenty minutes, I went out. Henry and Alec walked along to a long grass field. “Ok, three passes of speed and slow down immediately, ok? We don’t want to loose you up there!” So I did, the horse behaved perfectly and Henry seemed quite pleased at what he’d seen. In the mean time Alec had saddled Napoleon. We, side by side walked in the pen we walked around a bit. “nervous?”
“hmm, a bit”
“hehe, I remember how nervous I was for my first race, damn” He smiled at his memory.
“yeah well..”
“you’ll have to ride a lot bigger races then this, Joan, more difficult ones…”
“thanks Alec” I smiled.

“LADIES and GENTLEMEN!! Welcome at the RAncountry race of today. There are seven horses in which, along with their riders can already see in the pen! They are all accompanied by there leading horses, quite a strange thing to see here is that Alec is a leader today, not a rider. Maybe the near to losing yesterday didn’t scare him, or just a little. The Black Farm has a total new jockey as rider, by the name off Joan Dhanes! Speaking of them, they were favourite, up till yesterday, figures want that Brownback, the horse now showing his gallop has become favourite!”
A dark bay horse galloped, giving his jockey and leader a hard time. They were walking again and the next horse in row showed its gallop. After that it was our turn. “Ready Joan? It’s just introduction, nice and steady, here we go.”
“come on Stafer” I whispered and the horse slowly galloped the whole end. Then we walked easily behind the others. “good job, Joan that was nice and steady.”

“That was Staferdam of the Black Farm ladies and gentlemen, really nice galloping, I’m wondering if this horse can get any speed at all!! He seems a little ranch pony!”

“Don’t mind, Joan, that’s exactly what we want, everyone now looks at the most unhandled horse, thinking he’s the fastest. You’re doing great.”

“All Horses in their box. All Leader out off Pen!”
Staferdam easily went into the box and Alec took Napoleon out of the pen. All the horses now were in the boxes, I went sitting in front and grabbed Staferdam’s manes. Then there was an awful silence. I knew Everyone at side was thinking the same I was, the horse shouldn’t surprise me! The gates flew open and Staferdam had an amazingly good start, but so did I, surprisingly. I from the start on sat good in the saddle and could let go the manes, I easily took the rains and not even at full speed we were getting a head. When we were I had the rains pretty steady, but Staferdam removed himself from the other horses. Brownback followed as only horse, I was holding the horse and Brownback didn’t get closer, I decided to keep it like this, although Staferdam was removing himself from Brownback to, one length ahead we crossed the finish line. “That was very good, Joan. You were clever, I’d love to have seen him winning less easy, but it would have been to obvious.”
“that’s what I thought”
“very good” He smiled. “Want to ride Trybal to?”
“what?”
“yeah, he’s racing this afternoon. Three races this week, ok, but in two days” he smiled when he saw my misunderstanding face.
“he has two races in two days?”
“yeah, the first one was suppose to be like a warm up… This one is a bit more difficult, but still way below his level. He can win, but you need to think more, it’s a whole mile, so he can’t sprint the whole way. Now he can…you want to or not?”
“I’d love to!”
“great! Luke! Get Staferdam dry and in his stable, Alec can you saddle Trybal?” The two boys left. “You could let him lead the whole race, he’s in a good position for that, but Trybal sometimes takes a bad start, when he does, thing will get a bit more difficult, then his position isn’t so positive anymore, he’ll have to go all round them, or find a whole...if he start worse, you’re best to get in second position, he’s fast enough to get past him in the last quart mile, ok?”
“yea, get it.”
“good, now go and get on that horse.” So I did. After the whole procedure I got Trybal in his box, he went in pretty easy. The horse next to him reared up and Trybal startled he began to get a bit nervous, the gate watcher didn’t notice Trybal wasn’t standing still, because he let the gates open, Trybal jumped out, rearing. I grabbed the manes and Trybal ran between the other horses, by the time I said good in the saddle I was past the quarter mile. Trybal, happily couldn’t get away, so raced at the speed the others did, I took the rains and looked where I was, tribal had put us exactly in the position we needed to be: second place. The first jockey was killing his horse and the riders next to me also began to slow down. We past the half a mile post and I could get out off the position where I was stuck. I now was running next to the leading horse, Trybal had to do more distance now, but I was sure he could, I kept him in position, until the last post, I speeded him up a bit and then fell in, now leading I held the rains up and until the finish line. We won and Henry was pleased with my work, but angry as hell at the gate watcher, nothing compared to Alec though, “I could see until up here that he wasn’t like he should be! Damn it he should be fired! You could have gotten hurt, this could be a burden on the rest of Trybal’s ‘career’ he’s a good horse, one downside: the starting and then this happens!”
“we won didn’t we, be happy” Luke said. So with twisted feeling we took the price and loaded the horses. In the car Alec calmed down a bit again, “I’m proud of you, Joan, I don’t know if you realise, but what happened out there today, what that gate watcher let happen…It happened before stuff like that, normally the jockey falls, it’s a fake start or whatever, there aren’t a lot of people that stay on and win to!”
“you know, Alec is right, I’ve put on the taper at home, we’ll watch it on the video, make it known, looks great on your résumé to” Alec’s father smiled.

A bit later we got the horses off the truck in the pasture. Closed down the whole stable, Alec still furiously, but also proud explained Ty how I rode two times and won. His parents invited him and Henry to watch the race over at there place.
We all set in front of the living room a bit later. “After his performance yesterday Trybal has lost a lot in the figures, Heltown is rearing in the box, horses all steady? Trybal seems a…o there off! Trybal is rearing and jumps after the others, that’s a bad start, Dhanes is still on the horse! Heltown is taking the lead…There comes Trybal, Dhanes is all steady again and now comes back!...Unbelievable, it didn’t seem credible after yesterday and the strange start, but Trybal wins, I’m curious for this new jockey, she looks promising. ”
“Amazing” Ty said, you see it really good on the tape! That gate watcher was really wrong!”
“yes and we’re not the only ones who noticed it!” Henry said, “I’m writing a letter tomorrow.”
“yeah, he noticed an other thing too”
“what? Who?” Ty was confused a bit.
“well” Alec explained, “Joan”
“oo..”
“hm yes..”
“uh?”
“he now noticed you, being a new good jockey, good thing it’s not a big race, when you join with Bokay, you’ll run them over again.” Alec assured me.
A bit later Ty and Henry left and I got in to bed, smiling.