The Prize Read Online Free PDF Page B

waved to the class and thrust out a tanned and sinewy arm to shake hands with Emily. “I’ve already got a New Zealander grooming for me so you’ll fit right in with my team,” she informed her. “Welcome aboard.”
    â€œAlice Dupree?” Tara called the next name on the list.
    Alice looked more excited than daunted as she took her turn to join the superstars in the arena.
    â€œAlice is from Maryland where her family breeds eventers and showjumpers,” Tara told the assembled riders. “Jumping is her strength, but her dressage needs work so that’s why I’m assigning her to you, Allegra.”
    The excited smile on Alice’s face slipped. She was being assigned to Allegra Hickman – a dressage rider!
    If Tara noticed the look of disappointment on Alice’s face she didn’t acknowledge it.
    â€œAllegra’s achievements include a gold medal at the games in Saumur for her musical dressage performance in the kur,” she read the notes in her folder to the class. “She currently has two Grand Prix mounts and four horses in her stables at Prix St Georges level and is a great supporter of the modern dressage method.”
    Allegra stepped forward and gave a stiff wave to the students, then shook Alice’s hand and stepped back into the ranks of the riders, taking Alice with her.
    â€œCameron Fraser?” Tara called out.
    Tara consulted her notes. “Cameron, I am pairing you up with Frank Carsey. Frank, where are you?”
    There was a general murmur as everyone looked around expectantly for Frank Carsey. Then a small hand appeared, poking up from behind the riders and waving to make its presence known.
    â€œMake way! Coming through.”
    Frank was lithe and wiry with pointy features and slicked-back brown hair. But the truly notable thing about his appearance was his height – or rather lack of it. Frank Carsey was a jockey and he was tiny. When Cam stepped forward to shake his hand he towered over him by a whole head.
    â€œLast year Frank Carsey won more division one races than any other jockey in the state of Kentucky,” Tara said. “He has a reputation for turning horses around and if you want to learn how to condition a horse and get it into peak galloping performance for eventing then Frank is your man.”
    â€œYou’re a bit taller than I’d hoped,” the diminutive jockey told his new apprentice, “but you’re light enough to ride trackwork. See you at the yards at four am on Monday.”
    â€œFour am?” Cam squeaked.
    Tara confirmed this. “Some of you will be working early mornings as well as afternoons to keep to the timetables of your employers.”
    â€œDaisy King?” Tara called out the next name on her list and Daisy rose from her seat. “Here!”
    Daisy and Georgie had known each other back in the UK, but they were never friends back then. Daisy had always been far too competitive to make friends. At Blainford, however, the girls had been thrust together in the same boarding house and Georgie had developed a grudging admiration for Daisy’s single-minded will to win. While that made it hard sometimes to be her friend, it also meant that Daisy was someone you wanted on your team.
    â€œDaisy King has been eventing since she was eleven,” Tara introduced her. “She won the national UK secondary schools ODE finals last year.”
    Tara paused. “Last term Daisy was on the girls’ polo team that won the low-goal award at the Bluegrass Cup. And I think her natural abilities as an all-round rider could further benefit from more polo training which is why I have assigned her to you, Sebastian.”
    A man stepped forward from the ranks of the elite trainers. He was devastatingly handsome, in a broad-shouldered and unshaven way. He had jet black hair and startling blue eyes and he wore the number three jersey for his polo team, along with the regulation