Chapter One

Jennifer O’Neill had been born and raised in a rural town in the southeast of Ireland. The youngest of three girls, she had a generally fun and carefree childhood and did reasonably well at school. School however was not at the top of Jenn’s list of priorities while she was growing up. What did figure prominently were horses, lots and lots of horses! Her parents often wondered where she’d picked up her love for the animal as neither had any background in horses but they encouraged her to follow her dream as much as they could. Not being a particularly wealthy family, unfortunately a pony or a horse did not feature in the household budget so Jenn helped out at the local riding school, working in exchange for lessons. Totally committed to her passion, she more often than not landed herself in hot water in school, homework having been forgotten about or conveniently lost! Nevertheless, Jenn worked hard at everything and managed to work through school while spending all her free time either riding or reading about horses and generally all things equestrian.

Following her graduation from school, Jenn started working full time for a local dealers yard. Riding anything that came into the yard, good, bad, wild, she dealt with them all in her stride. Impressed with both her natural ability and her commitment to the job, the owner of the yard found Jenn a job in England with one of the world’s best lady riders. It was the start Jenn needed in the business, as not six months into the job her new employer suffered a bad fall and was grounded for nearly a year. Jenn jumped at the opportunity to step into her idol’s boots and was rewarded with a very successful year on the British Show Jumping circuit. People started to sit up and take notice when she rode into a ring, always the same look of quiet determination on her face, whether it be a novice class or a Grand Prix jump off. All too soon thought the inevitable happened when her boss was deemed fit to ride again and she was once more relegated to stable jockey. Show jumping is a fickle business, there are very few who make it to the top and stay there. The main reason for this being the lack of funds available. Sponsors are few and far between and those that support the sport like to see return for their investment. Horses, however, are unpredictable creatures and even on the best of days, things can go horribly wrong.

About a year or so later, Jenn was approached by a wealthy business man named Frank Leifer. Originally from Germany, he had married an English girl and settled in England with his family. The owner of many successful business enterprises, he was looking to own a team of horses and needed someone willing to start a yard from scratch and bring him international success - no small task. Jenn accepted without hesitation and delved head first into the job, sourcing horses from Germany, Belgium and Ireland. After a couple of years, things had progressed nicely and the horses were reaching the top level. Jenn worked tirelessly crisscrossing the country and indeed Europe attending all the major shows and doing quite well at many of them. Mr. Liefer was getting a nice return on his investment with all of the horses featuring his brand logo on their names and entries. He also gained immense enjoyment at attending all the international shows with his corporate pals and hosting huge parties whenever there was a win. However the parties didn’t interest Jenn. She was completely focused on her horses and her career. Her reputation was more important to her than any fame the wins brought to her.

There was however one subject that distracted her from her job. His name was Steve Gilder, an American show jumper who had chased her for a few shows and managed to work his charm on her. Jenn found herself falling in love for the first time and never imagined she could be so happy. For a while, life was wonderful for Jenn and her lover, who moved to the U.K semi-permanently when the season ended to be near her. Not everybody was happy for the young Irish girl though, some annoyed and jealous at her apparent good fortune in both her career and personal life. Jenn never took any notice of any apparent snide remarks and continued to focus on the horses and Steve. Steve however was not so relaxed about any negativity about the woman he had to come to care so deeply for and vowed to kill whoever tried to hurt Jenn, physically or mentally. His protective instincts for her were absolute and on their two year anniversary, he proposed to Jenn very simply just asking her to love him and marry him. Jenn joyfully accepted and thought her life was complete. Before they had even set a date however, tragedy struck.

At a party one night after a big show in Holland, Steve and his friends were relaxing in the bar. Jenn had gone back to the hotel, wanting a good nights sleep, as she was due to drive the horse lorry home to the U.K the next day. As the night progressed, a few revellers in the bar became a bit rowdy and insults started flying back and forth between the riders. Trivial ones at first, said in jest, but then one not so popular German rider took things too far. In front of the whole bar he sneered at Steve and asked him what was it like to be stable jockey for Jenn O’Neill, when she was obviously shagging Frank Liefer. How else could she have him so wrapped around her little finger? Now had Jenn been there, she would have shot back some smart comment, laughed it off and diffused the situation but Steve was not about to let some asshole insult his fiancé to his face! He launched himself off his stool at the laughing German, but having had one drink too many tried a drunken punch and landed on the floor beside him. As rage overtook him, he staggered to his feet and attempted to grab the edge of the bar but slipped on the wet ground and cracked his head off the foot rest bar just above the floor . Steve’s world went black and he died instantly from a massive haematoma at the base of his skull.

Jenn’s world collapsed around her from the moment Steve’s best friend who was due to be his best man, came hammering on the door of the lorry to tell her the dreadful news that her fiancé was dead. Her fiancé who she’d only kissed goodnight to a couple of hours ago, her fiancé who had promised to love her and protect her for the rest of her life. How was she to have known that the promise was only for the rest of his life.

The entire show jumping community went into shock and mourning. Steve was a well liked and respected guy, and as much as Jenn had a few enemies, her friends were far greater and rallied around her. His death was put down to misadventure and he was laid to rest in his family home in Florida. Jenn didn’t attend his American funeral, she was in pieces and sank into depression. For the first time in her life, horses were not a priority, they didn’t even feature on the list. Mr. Liefer was as supportive as he could be but there was only so long he could wait before he had to make a decision on the horses. When it became clear that Jenn was in no state to compete or indeed work, he made arrangements to have the horses transferred to different riders. While it broke his heart to see the young woman he’d come to regard as a daughter in such grief, he had to attend to business and dealt with matters in a way he thought to be appropriate. Jenn saw no need to return to work with no horses, although Frank repeatedly reassured her she’d have the rides back in a second, her heart was no longer in it. And so Jennifer O’Neill returned home to Ireland, to a life without horses and without Steve.

In the months following her return to Ireland, Jenn helped her friend Karen out in her café, unsure of what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. Karen recognised that her friend needed time to grieve and left her to make her own decisions but she could see that Jenn needed to go back to her life with the horses. Jenn herself at some point in the following year realised that she missed horses however she was unsure what aspect of it she wanted to base herself in. She had no desire to return to competing, Steve had been too big a part of that part of her life for it ever to be the same again. She had received numerous offers from various riders in the country looking for stable jockeys but she refused to go back to that either. Karen had suggested teaching which Jenn at first laughed off but after consideration the idea became more appealing. So, doing a couple of days a week, she began teaching part-time at a local riding club who were only too thrilled to have an ex-international show jumper as their trainer. A couple of years passed quickly and Jenn realised she had found her niche. She gained immense enjoyment from seeing her students progress through the ranks and she had gained a reputation as an excellent trainer. She thought she was content with her life until an e-mail from an old friend brought about an unexpected but welcome offer.