Fearless by Katy Grant Page A

killed everybody, you know. Not drowning, because they were all wearing life vests. Anyway, they kept that up all night long until they were rescued the next morning. So don’t tell me about impossible. Nothing’s impossible.”
    Molly was convinced that anytime anyone needed a pep talk, there was some
Titanic
story that would work. As crazy as it sounded, her story did make me feel like I was being a little dramatic.
    So I’d agreed to come back for today’s lesson, even though at first I’d been really stressed.
    â€œReady to try left turns now?” asked Wayward. “Okay, Whitney, let’s see what you got.”
    Amber, Molly, and I watched while Whitney made a left turn and walked toward Wayward before making another turn. The whole time she had this totally satisfied look on her face. She
was
the most advanced of all of us. She’d even done a few jumps over crossrails before.
    â€œMost excellent!” yelled Wayward, and Whitney couldn’t wipe the smug look off her face.
    Now it was my turn. I wished I could tell Odie,
Justdo exactly what Cleo did
. But I couldn’t. I’d have to get him to make the turns myself.
    I clucked at Odie, and we started forward. With my inside hand, I increased the tension on the rein while I squeezed Odie’s side with my outside leg. Odie started turning left. Like magic, Odie was moving in exactly the direction I wanted him to go. Maybe he really could read my mind. “Good boy,” I murmured to him softly.
    When we reached Wayward, we made another left turn, and she gave me two thumbs-up. “Perfect, Jordan! Great control!” From Odie’s back, I felt like I was on top of a high mountain, looking down on the beautiful world below. Definitely a movie moment.
    The whole lesson was a lot of fun, and after it was over, I felt like I had progressed a major amount. I was so glad Molly had talked me into coming back today.
    We all dismounted and went through the steps we needed to do for our horses. I ran up the stirrups, pulling the leather straps up so the irons wouldn’t flap against Odie’s sides. Then I loosened the girth and put the reins over his head so I could lead him out of the ring.
    â€œOkay, good work today, y’all,” said Wayward. “You want to keep developing your natural aids, which are . . .”
She waited for us to fill in the blanks.
    â€œHands, legs, seat, voice,” the four of us chantedtogether.
    â€œRight. Your horses will do what you tell them to do, but you have to speak their language.”
    â€œCan we come back this afternoon after lessons are over and help you turn the horses out?” asked Whitney.
    â€œSure, we can always use extra help,” Wayward said. “See ya.”
    As we were walking away from the stables, Molly groaned, “I’m so sore! My leg muscles are all tied up in knots.” She did a couple of squats to stretch out. “Ah! This is killing me!”
    â€œI know! I’m sore too,” I agreed. The muscles in my inner thighs always hurt the worst when I hadn’t been riding in a while.
    â€œLuckily, I do gymnastics all the time, so that helps me to stay limber,” said Whitney. She skipped ahead of us a few steps and did a cartwheel in the grass.
    Suddenly somebody grabbed me from behind. “Hey, Babykins. How’d you do today?”
    â€œMaddy! You scared me to death!” I yelled. She’d come up behind me, and now she had me in one of her boa constrictor hugs. And why’d she have to call me by that stupid nickname?
    â€œSo? How’d your lesson go?”
    â€œEverything went really well.
Today
,” I said. She wasleaning against my back like she was about to hop on for a piggyback ride. “You’re squishing me, by the way.”
    â€œHey, I saw you making those turns. Looking good, Jordan. Your problem on Monday was you were so nervous, you were freaking Odie out. Horses are