June 17

Palgrave, Ontario

It's been pissing rain the entire day. I'm soaked to the bone, covered in mud, Kuna looks like a different horse, his previously glossy white grey coat coated in an inch of dirt, splattered across his entire body, but he's happy enough.

He keeps pawing at the ground, trying to kneel down to roll and I fight to keep him on all fours, tempting him with mints to distract him from the soupy arena dirt pool we're standing in.

Looking down at myself, I grimace. Geordie is never going to let me get into his car. He'll probably try to strap me to the roof first. I'll need to rinse off in the wash stall later, which I'm dreading since there's no steady hot water really and with all the horses here needing baths, I'm sure there won't be any left.

Kuna and I are up in twenty minutes, so I need to get on and warm him up again. This day has dragged on, delayed by rain besides the other delays that generally happen when coaches are running between rings, supporting their riders in different divisions with conflicting schedules.

I see my coach, Chelsea and I wave her down. She gives me one horrified look and grimaces, looking over at my mum who looks like the Michelin woman in rain gear, with all her layers, standing on the grass out of the soupy dirt.

"Kid, you look disgusting."

I raise an eyebrow, looking her up and down, she's in no better condition than I am. So, I shrug, "Not much I can do about it, Chels. Mum's got a clean blazer for me in the golf cart, but if I take these boots off now to change my breeches, I won't be able to get them back on." I can feel my legs and muscles pulsing inside the tight leather of my boots and I'm grateful the day is close to finished for me.

Chels yanks the rain sheet off Kuna and he shakes under the heavy onslaught of the rain. She gives me a leg up and sends me to walk around the ring a couple of times. I tighten my girth while walking and warm Kuna up.

We pop back and forth over a few jumps in the warm-up ring, dodging other riders through the heavy curtain of rain. Chels shouts my name, signaling it's enough and I walk to the chute of the in-gate to wait my turn. We go over the course, my path through the ring, the speed limit and areas I can cut time.

We'd walked the course together a few hours ago, but the path would be totally different now in the sloppy, muddy sand.

After slipping into my drier, cleaner blazer, I pin my number to my saddle pad, ready to head in for my final round.

If I go clear and under the time limit, I'll directly head into a jump-off, I've memorized that course too, and I repeat the sequence of numbers and descriptions I've memorized.

Today's course has thirteen jumps, with a seventy-four seconds time limit. The jump-off has eight jumps, with a fifty-two seconds time limit. Jumps one, two, five, six, eight A then B, skip C, then finishing with nine and ten. I repeat both courses over and over in my head, picturing where they all are in the ring.

"Safety first, kid. Stay smart, watch where you're heading, balance him in the turns. Just like we do at home. Go get 'em."

Even in the downpour, covered in mud and blinking rain out of my eyes, every other thought and worry slides from my mind and I focus only on these next seventy four seconds. The buzzer sounds and I nudge Kuna into a smooth canter, circling him once before heading to the first fence.

Kuna can be extremely lazy, but as soon as you point him in the direction of a jump, he flies like a bullet out of a gun. We cross the timer line and soar over the first jump. I bend him to the second fence, a large oxer which he sails over.

I turn sharply to the right and I feel his feet slide in the mud. I balance us, sitting up slightly, slowing down, just a little. In spite of the time limit on the class, for Kuna and I, it's safety first, then speed. We sail over the next jumps and I focus on making safe turns, slowly, then making up the speed on the straightaways.

As we fly over the last jump, I push him across the timer line to stop the clock. I've made it with seconds to spare and clear. I'll move straight to the jump-off—a small burst of pleasure courses through me.

I pat Kuna, letting him walk for a moment. When the buzzer sounds, I take a moment to look around the course, thinking about the turns, worrying a little but deciding I'll play it safe, it's only the start of the season after all. If needed I can make it up or do an extra show.

We fly around the shortened jump-off course with a good time, my coach is pleased with my performance, giving Kuna a pat, then slapping my thigh in congratulations as I walk out of the ring. I lean forward over Kuna's wet neck giving him a mint from my pocket.

"She did well, don't you think, Diana?" Chels keeps her voice light. My mum is very competitive, but I think she's pleased today, considering everything. I'm currently sitting in second place with twenty more horses to go.

"Yes, well done, Elle. You too, Kuna. You were a little cautious around the turns, especially in the jump-off, but considering the weather..." Mum trails off, leaving her comments for me to interpret as she fishes a wet mint out of her pocket and gives it to Kuna, handing me a rain jacket, then the rain sheet.

I drape the large rain sheet over Kuna's hindquarters, pulling the edges up over my thighs to try to protect myself from the rain. I zip my raincoat all the way to my chin and wander around miserably in the rain waiting for the results of the last horses and riders.

I hear them calling the results fifty minutes later and make my way back to the ring. A girl I've competed against for years, Kirsty, has won first place, I maintained my spot in second. We grin at one another and I reach my hand out to shake hers as we head towards the ring together.

Chels slides the rain sheet off Kuna's rump as we walk in to collect our ribbons from the stewards then gallop our victory lap. I continue straight up to the back barn, where I slide off Kuna's back, squishing in my boots.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Geordie's car pulled right up to the stable and I notice he's sitting on the phone in the driver's seat. The passenger door opens and Hudson steps out in a long waxed rain jacket and tall rain boots that come to his knees. His hood is pulled up over a ratty baseball cap.

"Jeeze, Elle. How are we going to get you in the car?" He sweeps his fingers over the brim of my velvet helmet, spraying water everywhere.

I put Kuna in his stall for a moment, pulling the saddle off directly and covering him with a terry cloth sheet. Now, time to get my boots and wool blazer off.

Sitting on my trunk, clasping my hands behind one thigh, I hold my foot out to Hudson. Rolling his eyes and grabbing a towel, he wipes the mud off my leather boots then tries to pull the first one off. My legs have swollen in the humidity and the leather has seized up a bit from the rain. After some pulling, twisting and bracing myself against the stall door, we get both boots off. We're laughing, and he's swearing by the end of it.

I am beyond happy to slide into dry socks and my own tall rain boots. Hudson helps me peel off my tight, soaked wool jacket, hanging it delicately.

We make quick work of packing up what can go home, and Mum finally makes it to the barn in the golf cart. I guess it was a hard drive in the mud. She wanders over to speak with Geordie who refuses to get out of the car, which has my mum laughing. He's such a city slicker.

Mum tackles packing the car with all the things we've set aside to go home, or to the dry cleaner. Since I'm already filthy, I hose Kuna down, washing him clean of all the mud, then drying his legs before wrapping them with some liniment oil and alcohol.

Hudson feeds him a huge bag of carrots once he sees my blue second place ribbon, giving me a big high five as I snag a few carrots to feed Kuna myself before Hudson gives them all away.

Mum heads out to pay the show bills and collect prize money to put towards the costs, saying her goodbyes since she'll head home from there. It amazes me that in the rain, under her heavy rain slicker and wide-brimmed hat, her low, tight blonde chignon is nearly perfect, and while she might be wet, there doesn't appear to be a fleck of mud on her.

When I finish packing everything down, I turn to Hudson. Time to deal with getting me cleaned up. I strip down to my breeches and sports bra, dropping everything else into a plastic bag. I step out into the rain and walk towards the wash stall. I slide out of my rainboots, covering them with another bag to keep them dry and begin hosing myself off. The water is freezing, so I work quickly.

Sliding my clean feet into my rainboots, I walk back to Hudson who's waiting with a bunch of towels. I step into Kuna's stall, using him like a curtain as I strip and dry myself off. Hudson hands in a small pile of dry clothes, then my old wide-brimmed waxed wrangler hat.

I collect all my wet, dirty clothes and toss them in a plastic bag, putting them in my trunk. I text my mum so she knows they're there, asking if she can take them to the cleaner on Saturday after her ride.

I pause to give Kuna his two remaining carrots and a kiss on the nose before grabbing my bag and making a mad dash to Geordie's car.

He rolls his window down a fraction of an inch. "Hello, my beautiful little mud rat. Congrats, Diana told me you did well." His big smile flashes across his handsome face and for a moment, I see so much of Hudson in that smile, it's eerie. It's like looking into the future and seeing Hudson thirty years from now.

I spread two dry towels across the back seat, sliding in and removing my rain jacket and hat, which I tuck down on the floor by my seat, away from my boots which I also slide off, pulling my legs up underneath me.

Hudson opts to sit in the back with me and does the same with his jacket. I try to tame my wild hair into a braid, but the combination of rain, humidity, and that I've had it coiled up into my helmet all day have left it a tangled mess. I do the best I can, sighing. It will probably take me ages to brush it out.

Maybe I should cut it. I spend hours brushing tangles out all summer long between boating, riding, and swimming. I immediately reject the idea, though. Mum would hate it if I did that, and it's not an argument worth having at this point, she thinks all young ladies should have long hair.

Geordie pulls out of the stable parking lot and we hit the road, stopping only for hot chocolate, coffee for Geordie, at Tim Horton's before hitting the highway.

Forty minutes later, my eyelids feel like they're made of lead and my head bounces a little as I drift to sleep only to jerk back awake a moment later as my head tips sideways or forwards.

Hudson takes the nearly empty cup of cocoa from me and unclips my belt, pulling me to lie across the seat with my head on his thigh. He clasps the middle seat belt around my hips, then leans back against his headrest, resting one warm hand on my shoulder. Curled into Hudson's warmth, I drift to sleep for the remainder of the long car ride.

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Hope you'll consider voting and chatting with me in the comments! What do you like so far? What don't you like?

I hope you enjoyed a first real look into my MC's passion - horseback riding. Do we have any other horseback riders out there?

Xx Toria