At present there was no time for discussion. A group of friends came hurrying toward them and soon Jeanette found herself separated from her father. Fifteen minutes later she and her stepmother were beside their horses talking to the men who had brought them over from the Rainbow Ranch.
Jeanette laid her hand for a moment against her horse's nose. He was quivering with an excitement keen as her own and as poorly concealed.
Her stepmother was to ride a horse which had been presented her by her husband before their marriage. Jeanette's was not her own, but one she had chosen from among the ponies on the Rainbow Ranch. On ordinary occasions she had never been permitted to use him, as he was a singularly spirited and beautiful animal. During the weeks of training for to-day's event she had ridden no other mount.
The next three-quarters of an hour Jeanette remained in her place watching other exhibitions of skill. Upon former occasions she had been entranced by the same kind of spectacle, but at present found it difficult to feel more than a passing interest.
Once she managed to reach a certain degree of enthusiasm, when Billy Preston, one of the assistant managers of their own Rainbow Ranch, received the first prize for the finest exhibition of skill in subduing one of the unbroken Western ponies.
Then Jeanette's interest lapsed until a few moments before her own contest.
No one who has not lived in the West may be able to understand Jeanette's point of view, nor that of her family and friends.
The capital of the state was the largest city she had ever seen in her life. Wyoming was an outdoor state. The people of the state took the deepest interest in outdoor sports which were an especial feature of the ranch life and training. There was nothing out of the way in the fact that Jeanette and Mrs. Colter and a dozen other women and girls were to take part in one of to-day's riding events.
Jeanette took a final long survey of the field.
They were not to ride around an ordinary track. Their race would be across the open field. In the vista she could observe small ditches that must be successfully jumped, an occasional fence of the height usual in the Western ranch to prevent the straying of the cattle. In so far as possible the course had been made to appear like a stretch of land across the prairie country with only such obstacles as might be encountered in a day's ride.