Barricades Won't Stop Us

Ch 1

I clucked my tongue against the roof of my mouth. My charcoal colored gelding understood my command as we approached the jump.

With a slight squeeze right at the base of the jump Mavro took a near perfect distance. I stood up off of Mavro's back as he flew over the jump with such grace that it looked like he was flying.

"Good boy," I stated as I pat his neck lovingly. He huffed a bit at the work out as I trotted him out. I let the reins slide down to the buckle to let him stretch his neck. Mavro dropped his sweaty head down low and slowed his pace down. After I long and lowed him we walked out.

Mavro suddenly shot his head up in the air. Ears perked up as he nervously fidgeted.

"Dale's loose!" my cousin, and trainer, Ansel yelled as I swiftly spun my head to see Dale's rider knocked out on the ring footing.

Stablehands ran out after the huge, gray gelding. He had jumped the four foot ring fence and was galloping straight toward the forest beside our farm house.

I grabbed my reins tightly and immediately hang-galloped Mavro. There were five strides until the fence, they were long strides, perfect. Mavro picked his footing as I instructed before flying over the fence like it was nothing. 

We galloped after Dale who had already jumped three fences and was just about to jump the last right into the forest of our property. 

Mavro's breathing escalated as I pushed him on after the gray. He soared over all the fences as we barreled forward.

There was a barricade in the forest. Uh oh...I forgot about the movie being shot here...

Dale had zipped around the five foot barricade. He went around the cement blocks the long way. Smart horse.

If I got Mavro over one of them I could cut Dale off. It was risky seeing that five feet was pretty damn high after an hour workout for Mavro. He was revved up though.

I chose to go over. As long as I stayed confident, so would Mavro. It was then that I realized there was a person  beside the wall. Damn it!

"Duck!" I yelled at the person. The guy flattened himself below the barricade with a look of horror. With him safe I could focus on Mavro.

I counted my strides at a gallop. Three. Mavro was over excited and I had to force him to slow down in order to make the jump. My heart was in my throat as I realized that the barricade was at least two and a half feet thick while IN THE AIR!

As soon I heard all four hooves hit the ground I exhaled a sharp breath I had been holding in. My heart thundered against my chest.

Dale's form came from the left side as I steered Mavro around to corner him. Dale finally ceased his flight as I began to Woah him.

"Easy, Dale. Easy," I cooed breathlessly as Mavro stood beneath me breathing obnoxiously from everything he had just done.

Dale fidgeted for a bit until finally calming down. I had singlehandedly managed to stop a showjumping horse from jumping into a movie set.

I slid off of Mavro to grab Dale's reins. Both needed to be walked.

Within seconds there were at least a dozen people from the set surrounding us.

I immediately looked around with my oh-crap-I-just-jumped-onto-a-movie-set-I'm-so-screwed face. 

"What happened?!" an older guy said as he jogged to the scene. Almost everyone there had their mouths open and staring wide eyed at me.

My wide eyes mirrored theirs as I opened my mouth to speak, "I, Uh...I'm sorry, one of our horses got loose..."

A blur of a guy jogged over with an expression mirroring everyone else's. He looked breathless, he looked to who I presumed was the director then at me.

"Did I interrupt filming?" I questioned awkwardly seeing that everyone was still staring.

The one to answer me was the director who I recognized as Gary Ross, "no, actually. How did you get here exactly?"

"She jumped," the guy said with a grin that said I'm-just-happy-I-lived.

With a slight heave from Mavro I was reminded of the fact that I had two panting horses on my arms.

Gary Ross looked at the guy curiously.

"She literally jumped the cement block over my head," the guy pressed with the same shocked grin planted on his face.

While they spoke I took off Mavro's and Dale's saddles and set them against the side of an actor's trailer.

I then cut into their conversation with urgency, "I'm so sorry about this. It won't happen again." I then faced Gary directly. "Would you mind talking and walking? If I don't walk these two they may need medical attention and Mavro is my Grande Prix jumper."

Gary was surprised at my directness but nodded as I began walking the two horses. Their respiration was still very high.

"Are you the daughter of the owner of the land we are filming on?" he questioned as I heard the actors and staff behind us begin to talk about what had transpired.

I shook my head, "I'm the niece, Finley Holt. Again, I am incredibly sorry for this intrusion, Mr.Ross."

He smiled with good humor, "no, it's alright, shocking, but completely alright. I mean as long as we don't have any injuries of course."

I nodded with relief, "thank you so much. I can't thank you enough for not chasing me out or anything."

He laughed as we walked back toward where I laid down the saddles. Now that my heart wasn't in my throat I actually looked at the people surrounding me. Many famous actors were there. Alexander Ludwig, Liam Hemsworth etc. I quickly realized that this was the cast of the Hunger Games. Although, the one star I knew personally was nowhere to be seen at this moment.

Thankfully, Ansel appeared with several other stablehands. My saving grace.

"Fin! Are you alright?!" Ansel asked urgently as he jogged up to me.

I laughed with relief, "yup, Mavro and Dale need to be walked. I'll get on Dale if you have one of the hands walk Mavro." I paused, "how's Caroline?"

"She's on her way to the ER right now. Ill have to get there in a bit." Ansel nodded with relief flooding through his face, "okay, John, take Mavro back to the barn and set him up on the walker after you hose him down. Thomas, walk Dale around here while Finley takes a breather."

The two stablehands jumped to do the jobs.

Ansel took Gary aside to talk about and apologize for everything while I took a few breaths.

"That was crazy," a voice rang from beside me. A fairly short, incredibly cute Josh Hutcherson stated with a shocked expression.

I looked around as if questioning if he was talking to me, "just did what I had to."

"It was incredible, considering the fact that I was under a horse that jumped five feet in the air," he said as he stood in front of me. "You said you were a showjumper right?"

I nodded as one of the staff tossed me a bottle of water which I thanked him for graciously, "yup, the black horse is my personal showjumper. Wait, you know what a showjumper is?"

"Yeah, actually," he laughed as realization flooded his expression. "oh god, I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself." He set his hand out in front of him, "my name's Josh Hutcherson."

I shook his hand with an acknowledging smile, "I'm Finley Holt, nice to meet you." He was a really nice guy to say the least. "Oh and I'm sorry about jumping you." 

He laughed loudly before being interrupted."Hey Josh, help me out?" someone called which made the cute actor smile cheerily at me again before apologizing. 

"I'll come around the barn sometime, we can talk," Josh grinned before running off to help his friend.

"Thomas, I'll take Dale," I stated to the young stablehand. "thanks again."

"Don't worry about it, Finley," he stated as I tightened Dale's girth. As soon as he made sure I was okay he went off with John.

I pat Dale's neck wondering what spooked him so bad. He was usually fine when I rode him, not spooky. He was a little calmer now though. Dale craned his neck to look at me as if asking if I would stay on his back. The thought made me chuckle to myself.

"Hi, do you need some help getting on?" a guy's voice asked behind me.

"Nah, I think I'll be fine..." I trailed off as I got a good look at the guy. 

Attractive was an understatement...for Alexander Ludwig.