Free The a Circuit by Georgina Bloomberg Page A

She’d let go of Mackenzie’s pony, Dazzle, once they were all safely inside the ring. Now she lunged toward him, trying to grab his bridle before he spooked.
    Too late. Seeing the large man come hurtling over the fence had blown the sensitive pony’s mind. He yanked loose from Mackenzie and reared, snorting with panic. When he landed he spooked violently to one side, almost knocking Mackenzie down before crashing into Gigi’s pony.
    That pony, a cute little flaxen chestnut, was a pretty quiet type, but it had to lurch and fling its head up to keep from being knocked over, which startled the other two ponies. One of them, a fancy but rather ornery Welsh cross, let a kick fly at the chestnut, missing its hock by a hairsbreadth. The other pony, a stout pinto, threw its head in the air and started backing up.
    “Get out of there!” Tommi screamed at the man, who’d stopped to stare at the upset ponies.
    He shot her a look, then shrugged and sprinted across the ring, dodging around the pinto, which stopped backing up and started prancing in place instead. The little girl holding it shrieked with fear, dropped the reins, and ran away.
    “Hey!” the other man said loudly. “Aren’t you Rick Aaronson’s daughter?”
    If Tommi answered, Kate didn’t hear her. She had her hands full. Dazzle was rearing again, his hooves waving dangerously close to Mackenzie’s face.
    “Get back, sweetie,” Kate ordered tersely. “I’ll catch him.”
    Mackenzie backed away. Kate eased past her, waiting until the pony’s front end landed and then grabbing his dangling reins before he could go up again. “Easy, boy,” she said. “Chill out, little man.”
    Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Tommi hanging on to Legs with one hand as he spun around her in circles. With her other hand, Tommi was texting madly.
    Good. That meant help would be here soon. But would it be soon enough? The first photographer had disappeared into the quarantine barn after Zara, but the other guy was snapping pictures of Tommi as she attempted to hold on to her horse, who was becoming increasingly agitated.
    Keeping a tight hold on Dazzle, who was still threatening to rear, Kate glanced around the ring. The girl with the pinto was clinging to the rail, crying as she watched her pony trot around with its reins dangling. Gigi was still holding on to her pony, though his head was up and his ears on alert as he clearly weighed whether it was worth the effort to act up. The last little girl was trying to grab the Welsh cross as it lunged at the pinto with teeth bared.
    Worst-case scenarios flashed through Kate’s mind before she could stop them. Dazzle pulling away from her and bucking around the ring. The other ponies getting away from their owners, trampling them, and then running around wildly until they all ended up with suspensory injuries or worse. Tommi getting knocked over by Legs, who could easily clear the perimeter fence and end up on the highway …
    Stop it, Kate ordered herself. If you freak out, it’s only going to make matters worse.
    “Hey! What’s going on here?” a familiar voice broke through the hubbub.
    “Fitz!” Kate blurted out.
    Fitz had just ridden into view aboard his semiretired children’s hunter, a placid older Appendix quarter horse named Beacon. He liked to ride the chestnut gelding around the farm under Western tack for fun. Kate suspected most of that fun came from Fitz teasing Jamie by saying he was going to give up showing and become a cowboy.
    Taking in the scene, Fitz vaulted off his horse, leaving him ground-tied. Then he ducked into the ring.
    “Go help the littles,” he told Kate. “Let me deal with Dazzle.”
    “Thanks.” Kate had never been so grateful to someone in her life. Hurrying over to grab the Welsh cross before it could rile up the other two ponies any further, she quickly got the situation back under control.
    By the time she glanced back at Fitz, he’d taken Dazzle out of the ring. “Hey,