Even Demons Have Their Moments

Let the Show Begin

Yes, this is the first of the show chapters. But if you thought this was going to be a happy, triumphant trot around the arena with a blue ribbon, guess again. This is Demon.

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I rubbed my eyes and clung to my coffee-filled-thermos as if my life depended on it, and in my sleep deprived mind it actually did. What kind of time was 4:30AM? That was when we had got up. Four thirty in the morning.

And it was a good idea, too. Demon had managed to find the one spot of mud in the whole field and roll in it. He was brown instead of black. I swear he did it deliberately. He had that cheeky ‘look what I did to screw up your plans’ look in his eye when I caught him up (by flashlight) that morning. It had taken forever to get him presentable again.

Now it was around 6:30 and we were at the showground. There was barely anyone there at this point, which was good; I wanted to go through Demon’s ‘warm up’ in the indoor before too many people where here to get in the way. And I say ‘get in the way’ but I have a feeling that Demon would just go right through them.

“You sure you’re ready for this?” Dad asked for the umpteenth time as I lead Demon towards the indoor.

“No. But I want to do it.” I smiled at him, trying desperately to suppress my nerves which were threatening to take over.

There was a bit of trouble as I convinced the man to open the indoor for me, but then he noticed Demon.

“Isn’t that the horse that ran down the hunt?”

I sighed. Great, Demon really was famous, “Yes.”

He laughed, “Girl, you’ve got guts riding that thing. All right, I’ll open this for you, just don’t tell anyone else, okay? It’s not supposed to open for another half hour.”

“I won’t tell I promise.”

My face burning, I lead Demon into the indoor. He looked around, snorting, but after several circuits I was confident he wouldn’t do anything. Shaking off my nerves (or at least pretending to), I swung into the saddle.

The result wasn’t immediate, we had managed half a circuit before he let out a massive screech of a neigh, went up on his hind legs, and rocketed forward in a gallop. We cannoned around the ring a few times before he came down into a sedate trot.

“You done?” I asked him. He didn’t reply, but to test him I tried a leg yield which meant made him trot sideways, crossing his front legs over until he was in the middle of the ring.

I sighed, shaking my head, “You are so weird.”

There was a laughing from the side of the ring and I turned to see the man who had opened the ring for us standing beside Dad.

“Wouldn’t’ve believed it if I hadn’t seen it,” The man grinned.

“Yeah, he really is that crazy,” I replied.

“No, well, that. But I mean he really can run! I mean I heard he was fast but man!”

I stared at him, not understanding what he was talking about, until Dad laughed, “This horse’s speed is famous after that hunting incident, Heather.”

I stared at Dad for a while longer until it finally sank in, “You mean I have the county’s famous racehorse?”

He smiled, “Now let’s make him famous for dressage.”

The actual test wasn’t for a while, so now that Demon had seen the ring and run around a bit in it, we went back to the trailer and worked some more on getting the last remnants of the mud off.