My Wealthy Boss Bet I Couldn’t Survive Three Minutes On His Worst Horse — What Followed Changed Everything

Part 2

Titan didn’t just rear; he dropped his head between his front knees and launched his massive body entirely off the ground.

The impact of his hooves hitting the frozen earth shattered the silence and shot straight up my spine.

My breath was violently punched out of my lungs.

Before I could inhale, he twisted in midair, throwing his hindquarters to the right while his massive shoulders slammed to the left.

I lost my right stirrup instantly.

Panic flooded my veins, cold and sharp, but I clamped my aching thighs against the stiff saddle flaps and buried my bleeding hands deep into his tangled mane.

I threw every ounce of elegant riding technique out the window just to survive the next few seconds.

Dan yelled that one minute had passed, his voice cracking with sheer panic over the thunder of hooves.

Titan hit the ground and charged blindly across the yard, his hooves slipping in the muck before he caught his balance to buck again.

My battered hat flew off, swallowed by the mud, as the freezing wind whipped my hair into my stinging eyes.

The world was a violent, blurring carousel of gray sky, brown earth, and the black iron of the paddock fence rushing toward me.

He was heading straight for the heavy timber, fully intending to scrape me off.

Charles shouted to pull the horse’s head up, his detached composure entirely shattered as he stepped forward and dropped his cigar.

I couldn’t pull his head up with eighty pounds of body weight against a ton of pure, unadulterated rage.

As the heavy oak fence rapidly closed in on my left side, I kicked my foot completely out of the stirrup.

I pulled my leg high onto the saddle pad and shoved my boot hard against the passing fence rail.

The violent friction tore the leather sole of my boot, but the force successfully shoved his massive shoulders away from the wood.

We careened off the fence, scraping the heavy brass stirrup against the timber with a horrific screeching tear.

Titan squealed a high, demonic sound of pure fury and started spinning in tight, dizzying circles.

Centrifugal force tore at me, my bleeding knuckles smearing slick red blood across his gray neck.

My thighs trembled violently under the strain, but the thought of fifty pounds kept my jaw firmly locked.

I dug my heel deep into his side and hauled back on the left rein with absolutely everything I had.

Deprived of his balance, Titan stumbled and broke out of the spin, his broad chest heaving like a bellows.

The violent, bone-breaking bucks turned into a stiff, jarring crow hop around the perimeter of the yard.

Every single impact was sheer agony on my bruised shoulder, but I was still in the saddle.

I outlasted him with pure, miserable endurance until he dragged his hooves to a shuddering halt in the dead center of the yard.

He stood completely spent, blowing thick ropes of spit from his trembling lips.

Charles snapped his gold watch shut, his voice hoarse as he announced the three minutes were up.

I unwrapped my bleeding fingers from the greasy mane, slid off the saddle, and collapsed onto my hands and knees in the freezing muck.

Charles walked slowly toward me, his immaculate boots now heavily splattered with mud.

He knelt down in the wet earth, instantly ruining his bespoke trousers, and pressed a heavy leather purse into my trembling hand.

He told me the breaker’s position was mine, his dark eyes revealing a distinct crack in his polished armor.

The fragile truce we struck that morning was only the beginning, and the real war with Titan was far from over.

Would I be able to push this unpredictable beast far enough to jump the towering boundary wall Charles himself had nearly died on?