“No…” Sally stuttered. “Hilary, Please, I’m fine… I don’t need help. At least not from her!”
“What? No, this will be good for all of us. A new team member. Come on, be positive.”
Sally turned on her heel and walked rapidly away.
“Oh? Can I tell from Sally’s reaction that Olivia’s reputation goes before her?”
“Sally used to ride in events. Nothing too advanced, she’s an amazing groom but falls to pieces in the arena under pressure. Olivia used to ride against her, there was a bit of rivalry between them, but when I happened to mention I needed more staff to her mother she suggested Olivia could benefit from this.”
“Okay, and her mother is?”
“Grace Wright-Turner. She owns Turner Performance Horse Feeds.”
And there was the kicker. It was Grace’s picture and not Hilary’s who adorned the side of our horsebox, it was her company who effectively bankrolled Hilary’s operation not only providing horse feed but also most of the income to allow Hilary to take part in one of the most expensive sports there is. I could see there was some animosity between Sally and Olivia, however, I guessed for the good of our survival it would need to be rapidly put aside. For all of Hilary’s ability as an event rider, she was better with horses than with people.
* * *
“Are you okay?”
I sighed as Sally looked up with tears in her eyes. I realised that stepping into a room where a full-grown woman is bawling her eyes out, asking if she was okay ranks as one of the most stupid and ridiculous things you can say. However, I needed to start somewhere. I sat beside her, putting my arm around her shoulder.
“Not her… The bitch. You were bad enough… But her!” Sally moaned through sobs.
“Thanks, Sal…” She turned around apologising. “No… None taken, honestly!” She gave me a confused look through teary eyes. “You’ll get to boss her around; she’ll be your stable bitch…”
“You wouldn’t understand. She’s a real bitch… Spiteful and nasty, Hilary hardly knows her. I spent my life riding against her in Pony Club. My parents scrimped and saved to get me my pony, yet her mother could afford the best and my God, didn’t we know it. If one horse wasn’t good enough, get another. They were just like machines to her; she has no respect for animals or people.”
“Do you want me to speak with Hilary, see if I can get her to change her mind?”
* * *
Despite Sally telling me not to try, I did have a conversation with Hilary during my next riding session. She assured me Olivia was much more mature now. She was twenty-one and making a good impression on the event circuit. Sally was overreacting and didn’t want to share the limelight, and neither did I.
Hilary had turned on me, telling me I was a guest on her yard, I should remember my place. I’d pulled up the horse, turning to face her. “Hilary, I don’t have any issue here. I appreciate what you are doing. I welcome someone new. It’ll make everything better. I just think Sally is upset by your decision.”
“Sally has to remember her place. She is my groom. I make the decisions around here Adam, not her!”
“Hilary, she knows that. But I think she has some genuine concerns about Olivia. Please, spend a moment to put her mind at rest.”
“She’ll come round. It sounds like she’s had a tough few days. Give her some time and she will be back to her usual happy self.”
Her happy self was certainly not in evidence as I groomed and skipped out the horses. Sally was still moping and slinking off to the tack room where she would cry, compose herself and get back to work at a furious pace.
At the end of the day, I offered her dinner, she’d declined, saying she wanted to be alone, so I watched as she pushed open her cottage door. I returned alone to the caravan.
* * *
“So, who is this new person?” Kate was keen to hear more as I told her about the incidents of the day.
“Olivia Wright-Turner…”
“Oh…”
“Oh? So, I take it you know her?”
“Adam, I know of her, or at least her reputation. Honestly, do you not remember her? She was the one who was disqualified last year at Burghley.”
The penny finally dropped. I’d remembered the scandal from the year before. After a pretty average dressage score, she had been riding on the event course when her horse had refused quite a simple fence. She had fallen off, taken unawares, but instead of getting back on and going again she had taken her crop and beaten the horse around the head in front of the crowd and TV cameras. My laptop pinged as Kate sent me the YouTube link, not that I needed to watch it, I remember how it had shocked me at the time.
Naturally, there had been an outcry, she had been asked to leave the event immediately. In fact, she was almost lynched.
“She gave some excuse, didn’t she?”
“The nasty cow said she’d seen a horsefly on her horses head and she was trying to swat it away. I mean… She’s a nasty piece of work. And fucking stupid!”
I sighed, considering Kate’s assessment. She was cruel, nasty, stupid and worse still, coming to work here. Shit…
* * *
“Sally!”
“Oh hello…” Her shoulders were hunched, there were bags under her eyes.
“Oh goodness. Did you not sleep?”
“Not much…”
“Look, this girl. Kate reminded me of what she did last year at Burghley.”
“Yeah, and did she tell you how mummy tried to pay them off? She was, at the time, a key sponsor for the event and threatened to pull funding if they disqualified her daughter. They told her they didn’t need her money
